Have you ever toyed with the idea of taking a flight in a balloon? Just perhaps to see what it is like to drift slowly, peacefully and mostly quietly in the air. I did and it turned out, so had a number of my friends, all like me members of a loose coterie we self described as the ‘white knuckle crowd’. Collectively and/or individually we engaged in a myriad of outdoor activities. Downhill and cross country skiing, english and western horseback riding, scuba diving, white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, four person bobsleigh,** hiking, climbing, sailing and salt water single seat…

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A lifelong hiker, climber and outdoorsman in general, thankfully the vigilance demanded traveling through rough and steep terrain coupled with that required to navigate other naturally occurring dangers, in particular the considerable risk of death or injury posed by lightning, was drummed into me in early childhood. There are about 2,000 deaths a year worldwide and about 25 on average in Canada. We are all of course periodically guilty of letting our guards down. Roadside tenting at the top of an isolated and barely drivable back roads mountain pass at about 3,000 metres above sea level in the Spanish Pyrenees…

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Coronation Street? I was present at the birth so to speak on December 9,1960. The first episode was broadcast live the transmission then of course in black and white. That was to be the first of more than 10,000 episodes to date. (who knew?). It was and is set in the fictional town of Weatherfield in Greater Manchester, the latter a large industrial working class city in the north of England county of Lancashire. As an eighteen year old pleb* set as it were and potentially stuck, in Barrow-in-Furness a much smaller Lancashire replicate of the Manchester scenario, I watched…

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Electing to surface to a submarine’s periscope depth in wartime, wondering what enemy threats or targets might or might not be present and hopefully visible during an immediate and rapid 360 degree scan is clearly both nerve wracking and exciting. Having once been afforded the opportunity to make a scan, in peacetime needless to say, I can report that it was pure excitement for me as, hands on the grips, I made a very slow complete rotation of a British WW11 era, diesel electric powered sub’s periscope. With diesel electric power becoming passé, the first British nuclear powered submarine HMS…

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On two occasions I have been in the vehicle when an individual has fallen out of a moving car. Obviously not something to be taken lightly. The first incident was when I was very young and was in fact the one making the unscheduled exit. I think I was perhaps eight or nine, therefore in about 1950/51 give or take. Playing with a wind-up toy, I had somehow wound up the toy and, no pun is intended, wound up (English can be trying at times) with a fairly significant piece of the toy’s powerful spring buried deep inside my hand…

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Fear and Trauma Climbing Fairfield Fell. *** Growing up barely ten miles from the mountainous and much beloved English Lake District National Park, I did a lot of hiking and scrambling (climbing involving also the use of one’s hands) year-round most often with a group of like minded thirteen to sixteen year old friends. One popular if steep and lengthy hike took us to the 873 metre summit of Fairfield which is categorized as a fell (from old Norse – see footnote) fells being one notch down so to speak, from mountains. Stormy winter weather was approaching however little did…

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Disclaimer: I have never been a member of the British Army’s Special Air Service — the SAS. SAS – Motto: Who Dares Wins! (I did adopt the motto.) The Special Air Service is a special forces unit of the British army. The unit undertakes a number of roles including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage rescue — Wikipedia Re hostage rescue: think the dissident Iranian Arabs’ May 1980 siege of Iran’s British embassy with SAS members abseiling down from the roof. (On live television!) SAS Wannabe Back when luxury trans-oceanic passenger liners were in fact ships and not the…

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On a sun dappled, peaceful and bucolic English river bank trail, a former towpath (horses towing barges) from another slower and arguably gentler age, I was once jolted out of what had been to that point an idilic warm and dreamlike summer afternoon stroll in the countryside with my girlfriend, into a full-on hackles raised, heart pounding defensive mode. An inner voice cried out to me speaking of immediate danger and the need for defensive action. Incredibly high pitched and loud beyond belief, without warning the lady had suddenly let forth with a piercing blood curdling scream that spoke of…

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Had someone suggested to me that the time would come when I would be involved in a drug deal, I would have advised them in no uncertain terms to seek professional help for their madness. Yet the time did come.  Moving from luxury condo life amid the then notable quietude and relatively low crime rate of West Vancouver, Canada to the full on, or so I thought at the time, boisterous and drug centric nature of Vancouver proper’s East End was for me a challenging cultural change and adjustment. Freshly ensconced in a detached house one block from Commercial Drive,…

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Regardless of your gender and voice type, should you be even remotely serious about joining a mixed voice (SATB) choir, be sure to ask up front how long the women of the choir have had their performance gowns. Unless the gowns are quite recent, ask when they are scheduled to be replaced. If the answer is ASAP, soon or relatively soon, for reasons which the following will make clear, I would seek out another choir in possession of more recently purchased gowns. By doing so you will avoid exposure to the risk of considerable turmoil, angst, in-fighting and trouble and…

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