Sunday 6 April 2008

Top 3 Made Up Meme



I am finally trying to catch up on a few memes. This one is a great one that Muse from Xanadu created a while ago. There were a few questions and this is my "Response Part 1". The questions are quite thought provoking and I have delved deep into my past to come up with some of the answers. The whole experience has been quite fun! And I am sure that you are all going to learn even more about me when you read my answers (Oh crumbs!!!).

Here goes......

3 TV shows that you are embarrassed to admit at some point in your life, you watched and enjoyed.
i) BJ and the Bear (I can't believe that I have just admitted that..lol!)
ii) Dallas (come on, who didn't watch JR get shot?)
iii) Metal Mickey (a crazy English series that was great at the time but awful in reflection)




3 Worst medical moments / mishaps / illnesses

Where do I start? Due to various reasons I have had over 20 operations during my life so far….

i) In December 2006 I tumbled 50ft down a hill and then free fell 40ft over the edge of a quarry – resulting in being airlifted to hospital and having a titanium shoulder joint fitted.
Mountain Rescue signalling for the RAF Helicopter to come to my rescue
(a photograph taken by the mountain rescue team as we waited for the helicopter to find us)


ii) When I was about 9 yrs old, I caught my little finger in the hinge part of the front door. The door slammed shut, with my finger still inside. Unfortunately, as I tried to pull my finger out, my hand came away but part of the finger stayed there. My left hand little finger is now shorter than the right hand one.

iii) Again, when I was about 9 years old, I was having “play battles” with some of the boys at school. Unfortunately, accident prone as usual, I shattered the elbow on my right arm and had to have it wired and screwed back together.

3 memorable experiences you’ve had on a plane/train/boat or other mode of transportation (besides a car).

i) Being given a massage on my neck and shoulders by a rather attractive air hostess, whilst flying business class, flying from England to New York.

ii) Whilst travelling to a skiing resort in the French Alps, we caught a sleeper train. It was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had. Sleeping in a carriage, listening to the hypnotic chugging of the train running over the joins in the track. It felt like a scene from an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

iii) The day I had the stabilisers removed from my bicycle (shortly followed by wishing that the stabilisers were still on my bicycle….ouch!

3 Pieces of advice you would give to somebody based on your experiences.

i) Trust Newton’s theory…. What goes up does come down!!!
ii) Enjoy today.
iii) Like yourself, because if you don’t then why should anybody else? (I‘m still trying to learn this one myself).


3 things you would like to try once

i) Walking on the moon.

ii) Skydiving (This time I will try it WITH a parachute).
iii) Getting married.


3 dumbest things you ever did

i) Fell off the edge of a quarry (see “3 worst medical moments / mishaps / illnesses”)

ii) When I was little I went with my mother to get some groceries. Whilst she was in the store, I decided to play on the railings outside. With my wild imagination, I began to pretend that I was in prison/jail.

Robber


At some point in this one child game, I decided I would try to escape from my cell by climbing through the bars. The first step was to poke my head through – so after a bit of a squeeze I succeeded. The next step in my escape plot was to squeeze my chest through the bars. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my chest through. So, I soon decided that this game was not so interesting after all. I pulled back to release my head from between the railings, errrrrrrr…. Arrrgggghhhh, eeewwwwwwww, ooooooooooh, no matter how hard I pulled, my head wouldn’t budge. It was firmly stuck. There was I, stood outside a busy grocery store with my body one side of the railings and my head poking through the other side. Soon there was a crowd of people around me, trying to prise my head and ears through the gap. After some time, someone had the bright idea of rubbing butter over the back of my head… POP! Eventually it came through. Nothing damaged (apart from my dignity and pride…lol!). It may come as no surprise that I haven’t tried that again since.

iii) Before I could drive, I used to either walk into town or catch a bus. When I passed my driving test and bought my first car, I decided to drive to town instead. I happily wandered around town doing my shopping, and then returned home. A couple of hours later, my father asked where my car was… it then suddenly dawned on me that I had completely forgotten about my car and had caught the bus home… Doh!


3 scary moments involving a bug.

i) I was driving my car through the countryside a few years ago, with the window wide open. All of a sudden a wasp flew into the car and straight into the inside of my shirt. Flying into my shirt was bad enough, but flying in whilst I was driving was pretty freaky!!! Luckily, I managed to get it out before losing control of the car or getting stung…lol!

ii) The best way to spot caimen (crocs) in the Amazon is at night, with a torch. I made a mistake of wearing a head torch in my canoe whilst trying to spot them – I soon realised that this was not a great idea, as millions of bugs began flying into my face as they were attracted by the light. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but some of them were bigger than my hand.

iii) Waking up one morning and finding the biggest spider on the planet casually walking across my chest. (Well, when I say it was big – its leg span was probably about 3 inches wide, but that was plenty big enough for me!!!!)



If you would like to have a go at this meme, then visit Muse's "Top 3 Made Up" Meme to see the full list of the questions.

Cheerio for now,

Graham Ettridge

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Graham, only you could get your damn head stuck in the railings! That made me laugh out loud.

The photograph of the rescue team - did you take that yourself??

Graham Ettridge said...

Hiya :) You are so correct.... Only I could have done such a thing.... I was always accident prone when I was younger. Nothing has changed there then..lol!

The photograph was taken by one of the mountain rescue team. At that very moment, I was tied onto a stretcher with a neck brace and an oxygen mask on, as well as being dosed up with morphine.

Anonymous said...

"In December 2006 I tumbled 50ft down a hill and then freefell 40ft over the edge of a quarry – resulting in being airlifted to hospital and having a titanium shoulder joint fitted."

Oh God, that was really really close Graham! Thank God you survived! And I agree - what goes up, comes down!!!

Forgetting your car and taking the bus to go home was a real classic! Lol.

Have a great weekend ahead!

*hugs*

Anonymous said...

Lol, I was going to say, if you'd taken that photo, you were a living miracle lol.

Thank God you survived it though. It sounds one heck of a fall!

Having felt the effects of Morphine myself, I gotta tell ya, that is one of the best inventions ever!

Anonymous said...

damn dood!

20 operations?

Being Airlifted? (I thought I had some medical tales!)

Good thing you are still here!!!


Great job on the meme.

And I loved the TV show DALLAS (you are not alone!)

xxoo

Graham Ettridge said...

Hey Scarlett :) My head is like a sieve... I forgett everything...lol! I wish you a great week and weekend ahead too :)

LOL Dawn! The Morphine was fantastic! The wind pressure from the helicpoter against the side of the quarry sent my stretcher into a fast spin as I was being winched up. Ordinarilly I would have worried, but I was so drugged up that I didn't care.

Graham Ettridge said...

Meleah Rebeccah, I always dreamed of becoming the bionic man when I was younger... I guess I am slowly making my way there...lol!

The best thing about Dallas was that it was family viewing... So we all sat around our TV and watched it. Ahhh, the good ole' days eh? xxoo

Anonymous said...

Your last accident is by far the most spectacular. I think it was the first post I read on your blog... and I was like "how on earth did he manage to take picture of the accident scene???" :D Glad everything turned out okay.

Dallas? Lost all respect for you! :D

Anonymous said...

Great storys.

The bugs in the Amazone are realy large indeed. I remember a tarantula made a nest in the dining room of the lodge when i was there. The guides refused to remove the nest because we where in a wildlife refuge.

So we ate our dinner every night under a tarantula nest.

no more said...

i'm glad you did this! lol

You know - george carlin once called childhood 'survival of the fittest'. Seems funny that every kid has an urge to stick their head where it won't fit and do stuff like that.

I'm kind of worried american programming like "BJ and the bear" made it over there. I know Dallas was big all over - my mom remembers running into europeons that didn't speak english but when they found out we were from america they would say "Dallas!" They just adored it. Coincidence I live here now? lol

Kelly Ann said...

Oh my goodness! I would have hated to have been your mother, with you being so accident prone, I would have wrapped you in bubble wrap and lock you away somewhere! LOL :)

Graham Ettridge said...

Zhu... LOL! Your comment about me watching Dallas made me laugh out loud!!!

Matthijs, WOW! A tarantula... you were very brave to still eat in the room..lol! Thank you for stopping by :)

Muse, there was no way I was going to pass up on this one. It was a great meme. I'm just really sorry that it took me so long to post it. Anywayz, I am glad you liked my responses. LOL...BJ and the Bear was pretty cool at the time, but I don't think I'd watch it so much if it was on now..lol!!!!

Graham Ettridge said...

Chica, my mum and dad have always been the very best parents that I could ever have wished for. They gave up so much to look after me during my frequent stays in hospital and post-op recouperations. I must have driven them crazy with the accidents of top of everthing else.

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