Anything where I could be “trapped” without much chance of rescue I suppose & having to deal with the possibility of a long slow death through starvation or dehydration, and very little I could do about it.
I'm also a bit squeamish so I don't do blood & guts stuff. So places like abattoirs or operation theatres.
Abandoned areas and liminal spaces are also some of my less bad fears. The scary thing about liminal spaces is that weird feeling that you’ve been there before.
Speaking in front of the public, which is weird because I spent my whole career in museums working and speaking in front of visitors. I guess it all depends on context. When a TV reporter shoved a microphone in my face, I froze like a deer in headlights. Fortunately it wasn't live.
All forms of creepy crawlies especially crabs, scorpions, lobsters and monster fishes/sharks
The world going into another global war/catastrophe/epidemic lockdown.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Part of my course when I was at university was in entomology (the study of insects). The section on blood suckers completely freaked me out, specifically knats/midges/mosquitoes and a variety of other biting flies. With a wife from Holland (knat central - lots of still water), that has manifested into a real problem for me, especially during the summer when clouds of blood sucking insects can be seen over the drainage ditches and smaller dykes (especially near farms or woodland).
Three weeks in hospital (March 2023): Broken collar bone, sternum, scapula (that was a bad one, 5in), shoulder, 4 ribs, plus three breaks on my pelvis (also not so good). Even had the Air Ambulance out to scan me before they carted me off the hospital. Also, I apparently had a bleed on my heart, which wasn't disclosed until a week later. Pity I didn't land on my head - that might have knocked some sense into it.
I was cutting back branches on the neighbour's Oak tree at the back of our garden when the ladder slipped off the branch. I fell the full length of a three span extendable ladder, plus an additional three foot drop onto my neighbour's lawn (their property is three foot lower than ours). Problem is that I used to occasionally do this for a living (I work in Landscape & Estates Management), so should have known better.
Anyway, it gave me three whole weeks after I got out of hospital, whilst I was still somewhat immobile, to get most of my coins onto Numista - See, there is indeed a silver lining to everything that doesn't go quite to plan. 😁
When I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, a bunch of us went to “explore” a nearby construction site. They had started framing work for an industrial-style building, big steel beams and all, but no walls/floors/roof yet. So, us being kids, we climbed to the top, probably 15 feet high, where the top level of horizontal beams ended. It had rained shortly before that and everything was still wet. So, I slipped and fell down. Fortunately, landed on my back and the ground was still pretty soft and kinda muddy from the rain. Didn't even have time to get scared. My friends got scared more than me when they saw me fall like that. And I just got up and, other than a little dirt on my clothes, was just fine.
Three weeks in hospital (March 2023): Broken collar bone, sternum, scapula (that was a bad one, 5in), shoulder, 4 ribs, plus three breaks on my pelvis (also not so good). Even had the Air Ambulance out to scan me before they carted me off the hospital. Also, I apparently had a bleed on my heart, which wasn't disclosed until a week later. Pity I didn't land on my head - that might have knocked some sense into it.
I was cutting back branches on the neighbour's Oak tree at the back of our garden when the ladder slipped off the branch. I fell the full length of a three span extendable ladder, plus an additional three foot drop onto my neighbour's lawn (their property is three foot lower than ours). Problem is that I used to occasionally do this for a living (I work in Landscape & Estates Management), so should have known better.
Anyway, it gave me three whole weeks after I got out of hospital, whilst I was still somewhat immobile, to get most of my coins onto Numista - See, there is indeed a silver lining to everything that doesn't go quite to plan. 😁
Glad you lived to tell and that you are the kind of person who could see that silver lining!
Fear of heights. The thing is that the brain tells you that you'll have no control over the situation if you slip and start falling. I once worked with someone who loved heights and could stand at the top of a 16' ladder to change a neon tube. Pure folly.
A few years before that I lived on the 19th floor (which was the top floor) of an appartment building in Ottawa when on a warm summer Friday night I heard a weird “OOO00ooooo pffff” and wondered what that was. It so happens that the next day two guys were coming to our place to fix the sliding door. They told us that the night before, some drunk guy on the 12th had forgotten his keys, knocked on his neighbour's door and tried to jump from balcony to balcony… He didn't make it…
Those two guys were native and, for whatever biological reason, natives don't have any fear of heights.
I am OK on a 16 ft. ladder because I think we can train our minds to rely on “technology” to some extent, but I won't go close to the edge of any precipice (obviously I am not the type to take selfies 🙂).
I share ZacUK's dislike of watercraft, and I intensely dislike rough flights, no matter how hard I try to convince myself that turbulence almost never results in a crash.
I forgot to say that the “pfff” sound in my little story was the body hitting the ground.
Claustrophobia and arachnophobia are big ones for me.
As for rough flights, I'm not a fan either, but I always look at the attendants for any signs of concern. So far, this has never happened.
They say that flying is safer than driving. My problem with that is that over 95% of car accidents don't end up in any deaths. Meanwhile 95% of plane crashes end up in a 100% death rate.
As for watercrafts, I'm the opposite. Give me the opportunity to stand on deck and be drenched by the rough sea, what an amazing feeling.
My wife is a “46er”, meaning she has climbed all 46 of the Adirondack high peaks. I once foolishly agreed to accompany her climbing Vermont's Mt. Mansfield on the “easy” trail. There came a point when she was looking down at me, (impatient) and I was looking up at her, (terrified), I would have given almost anything to be safely back on level ground. I didn't die, but it was a near thing.
