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In the style of similar threads, what are the things that keep you awake at night, even though you know really its going to be fine....
I'll start with my daughter (19) who is travelling in scandinavia for a few weeks and announced yesterday that she and her friend were going bear watching. It wasn't being mauled by cute fluffy brown bears that worried me (she can run faster than her friend) , it was that she had hooked up with some randoms driving there and the hides were near the arctic circle, absolutely in the middle of nowhere 500 metres from the Russian border....obvs no mobile signal so she went radio silent for about 12 hours whilst I had visions of them missing the hides and creating a diplomatic incident by stumbling into a Russian border patrol......
It was a long night till I got 'that was friggin brilliant' on the whats-app....
And it turned out there is a park ranger there and a guide so you don't do exactly what I feared (or get eaten) but they didn't know that when they left!
Tests or exams, the older I get the more I hate them, as a younger man they never bothered me in the slightest, now I'm a gibbering wreck for a week or so before hand.
Telephone calls! An odd and completely irrational and unfounded anxiety around speaking to people on the phone - would rather do all kinds of things than that. Makes no sense!
Yeah telephone calls, hate em even though they basically always go smoothly.
I mean I am a mental wreck anyway so that doesn't help
‘Tom, have you got a minute?’
That.
The sea, rivers, lakes, large bodies of water. I like being near them, but also feel slightly unnerved.
Also any email from work that's titled "Business Update".
Riding home from work. I've done it 6squillion times, but still feel a buzz of nervousness and have to empty my bladder before leaving.
- my lads first few months of driving, post driving test.
- one of my lads buying Australia's cheapest Subaru Forester and spending 3 months exploring on and off road.
- Caves. Ironic as I used to be a cave and mine instructor.
- Booking holidays. I have too many times got a date muddled or a booking wrong....
Starting a race. I'm never anywhere near the front and never go fast enough to hurt myself. WTF was I worried about? (haven't done one for AGES though)
‘Tom, have you got a minute?’
That.
That was highlighted as such an issue at my workplace that those sorts of phrases are, if not "banned", then generally regarded as very poor form. We had a load of management training around talking to new staff especially if there was a significant difference in hierarchy.
And yes, it's something that sends me into a gibbering wreck too.
In a similar vein to tomhoward, I get disproportionally nervous when my wife says "I've been thinking..."
Going to work. I always feel like they are going to sack me. It’s completely irrational but it doesn’t stop it happening
Group rides. No matter how many times I've done them I always get nervous.
Running events. No matter the distance - see above.
all forms of a.i and it's not an irrational fear.
Being under water. A kid a few years younger than me drowned in the village pond and I saw the police get him so have been shit scared ever since. I work offshore so my survival isnt fun but it's only every four years and I see it as 4 years more work. Every September I count down that the next one is getting closer
Flirting.....
This is a novelty for me. Been with the GF for 24 years now.
She's back in Germany right now with a client.
The other week I was in Les Orres with a mate. The girl at the lift complimented me on my socks. Was super friendly and chatty.
I returned a couple of days later and she starts beaming when she she's me again. Each time I get off the lift she's giving me first bumps, chatting away. The other guy I'm with notices and gives me a nudge with the elbow..... She wasn't chasing away to anyone else like she was with me.
See her again at the lift station and she's asking me what I'm doing, where I'm staying, what my plans are.
I was flattered.
Problem is, it's been so long since I've experienced it.... My voice went all high pitched in a kinda "hello Mrs Patterson" kinda way. I'm 43. 😂
Tempted to return there for a day with a little more resolve. Not looking for anything not ranting to take it anywhere, just want to see if I don't turn into another awkward teenager.
Heading off on an overnight expedition - camping or bothying or similar.The stupid thing is that I'm doing it entirely voluntarily, by choice even, yet for no good reason whatsoever I get the butterflies just before leaving the car. Once I'm en route, happy as Larry.
My menopausal wife makes me nervous.
When MrsVlad drags the toolbox out of the understairs cupboard....
Oh, and the thumbnails of the those YouTube videos of the nutters who free climb up massive radio masts and similar that seem to pop up in my video feed
Competition. I can do all the things that the competition involves before and not feel nervous, but as soon as I line up to shoot with 60, 70 other people, I get the shakes. Unreasonable.
Oh yeah, wingsuiting. 980 skydives and every time I put on the wingsuit I get the same feeling I had when I did AFF. I guess I just need to do it more and get that feeling trained out of me.
wingsuiting. 980 skydives and every time I put on the wingsuit I get the same feeling I had when I did AFF. I guess I just need to do it more
Disproportionately nervous? I thought that was why people did it. Would it be worth jumping off a mountain if it stopped being scary?
I get far too anxious about heading out for a ride or getting home around school runs and rush hours, all because the closest 2-3 miles to home can be very hostile. Not helped by my tolerance to 25C+ being far worse these days.
Think my anxiety has got worse in the last few years.
Which means I usually head out after dinner, but I'm often too stuffed to promptly set off, not leaving myself a comfortable amount of time to do a ~30 mile loop to Old Winchester ridge hills before it goes out h black around 2140 BST now on a cloudless evening... So I then get annoyed doing another very local meander on the same old flat roads.
