What's the scariest thng that's ever happened to you?

[SiHart]

It's halloween, the night for scary things...

So what is the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?

[Jonno]

The one that springs to mind is when I was about 9 or 10 and at a fairground with my uncle and his then girlfriend (he was about 20 then). He and I went on a ride where you stood in little cubicles grasping the poles either side and with just a loose chain in front of you. It whizzed round in a circular motion (like a wurlitzer) but as it got faster it then tilted back so we're all going round like a windmill!

Although fun at first, I genuinely felt like I was slipping out of my cubicle and couldn't hold on any longer. I must have screamed as such to my uncle in the section beside me and I remember him grabbing my arm/wrist to secure me. Time really seemed to slow down and it took forever for the ride to slow and stop!

I am aware that due to centrifugal force it must be impossible for someone to fall out but I genuinely think I would have fallen out if it weren't for my uncle! His gf, who was on the ground, said that I'd turned green - I remember she was eating candy floss and I refused to have any as I felt so sick!

[Andrew Curnow]

I know the ride you mean Jonno - I never went on it once, but I saw it once at a fair in Bitts Park at Carlisle. Even allowing for the fact that I was 7 and therefore it looked absolutely huge and way up in the sky, it was a pretty terrifying-looking thing.

On a similar note, probably the scariest thing that's happened 'to' me was when Claudia went on a ride called... oh bum, I can't remember what it's called, Dreamsomething I think. It's basically two lines of seats (you can probably picture it as rows of seats in a theatre, one behind the other) which move up into the air on two 'legs' in a clockwise, then anti-clockwise motion. So it goes way up, very fast, and similarly plummets down, very fast. She was absolutely fine on it, but I just could not watch, it's the only time I almost felt ill from watching something, my heart was racing and I could hardly breathe... Just as well I didn't go on it myself!!!

As for something scary happening to me personally, I did once step into a 'puddle' only to find it was a pool deeper than me - I was pulled out by Dad (I think) almost at once, but I can remember going in and looking up from underwater. (It was actually near the start of a Chapel picnic, so I have a feeling I must have spent much of the rest of the day largely soaking wet - I guess I must have had better recuperative powers in those days!!) That was pretty scary for a moment or two.

[SiHart]

The night the party at my house (while my parents were away- I was always the cliche) spiralled out of control, ending up with a hundred teenagers rampaging round a suburban semi, trashing the place- blowing up the stereo, throwing food everywhere, pouring beer on the carpets and smashing whatever they could find. I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life than I was on June 10th 1992- scared of what was going around me and being powerless to stop it happening and scared of the consequences I was going to have to face afterwards. It was a huge turning point in my life.

[Dino]

Seriously ill with viral meningitis, December 1987. Family in bits. Mum so heartbroken she insisted on having a bed in my isolation room at the hospital.
I can only call it scary from their perspective. I had this strange, beautiful calm...
Got a card from the teachers at my Primary School and sod all from the teachers and "friends" I had in Secondary school. That certainly was a deciding moment in my life!
You really find out who your friends are in moments like that.

[Jon Masters]

Two examples, both involving foreign travel.

The first, when about 10, went on our first holiday to France - Normandy. Was on a family walk on the coast somewhere - they had some old WW2 coastal defences etc. Started to walk down a tunnel when a dog suddenly raced out the darkness at me growling and snapping (shit ! rabies !! ). Never ran away so quickly in my life.

The other, 20 years old on Interail trip with best mate, camping on outskirts of Amsterdam. Go into the city to (ahem) see the sights and get bevvied, but manage to miss the last train back to campsite. We walk back from the last stop we can get to, and eventaully decide best thing to do would be to follow railway lines (fortunately no live rail). Fine until we reach a long bridge over a river, where we discover there is no bridge as such, just the sleepers with a 20' drop in between each one into the water. And we've got to get across in one go coz if a train appears coming along the line we have nowhere to jump to.
A terrifying 3 minute drunken game of hopscotch ensues ! (after that we played it safe, climbed down off the bridge and walked along a motorway instead !. Got back to campsite eventually at 3am !!)

[duncan]

Seriously ill with viral meningitis, December 1987. Family in bits. Mum so heartbroken she insisted on having a bed in my isolation room at the hospital.
I can only call it scary from their perspective. I had this strange, beautiful calm...
Got a card from the teachers at my Primary School and sod all from the teachers and "friends" I had in Secondary school. That certainly was a deciding moment in my life!
You really find out who your friends are in moments like that.

I had the same in November 1983. I went to bed with a headache and woke up in the small hours being violently sick and feeling like I had a hot nail sticking in my head. I ended up in an isolation room at the hospital in the dark as I had an aversion to bright lights. The pain in my head was immense for three weeks and I too was diagnosed with viral meningitis. I lost almost 2 stone and as I was only 17 at the time, it was weight I could not afford to lose. It was the scariest time of my life and there were times I thought I was going to die. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

The illness went away a few days after leaving hospital and remember that the only food I could keep down was apple slices sprinkled with sugar.

[stuartdg]

Having an epileptic fit is pretty scary,thankfully its something I've grown out of and NEVER want to experience again

[SiHart]

Oh yes- I'd agree with that Stu.

[Rob McCow]

I didn't like having a cockroach in my apartment this morning. Irrational fear was (and still is) a major factor.

[Dirk Gently]

According to Q.I the cockroach is repulsed by us just as much as we are from them.

[Rob McCow]

I'm not surprised. I've yet to see a cockroach bash a human's brains and guts out with a rolled up copy of The Economist.

[Stuart Wallis]

Ladies and gentlemen of PS, let me cure you of your irrational fears. I'll send The Lads round - then your fears will be very rational indeed...

Talking of epilepsy, I was on holiday when I was 8, and a boy had a fit, went for me, and held my head under the swimming pool. Not good for my fear of water, but the scary part was, I remember thinking "well this is it then", and not being at all concerned.

[Anthony Williams]

I'm not surprised. I've yet to see a cockroach bash a human's brains and guts out with a rolled up copy of The Economist.

A few weeks ago, I was woken up at 2am when a cockroach tried to climb IN MY EAR.

~shudder~

[Stuart Wallis]

It's bad enough having the wife try it...

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Off the top of my head:

• spinning round and round in my borthers car at 90mph on the A30, going across the entire width of the road and hitting a fence
• Enduring 2 bungled operations in 2007 (which turned out to be unnecessary)
• Helplessly waiting for news when my little girl under went heart surgery when she was only 3 weeks old
• Doing an unexpected presentation in Italy a few years back to a load of delgates from EU Member States!

To be fair I wasn't really scared by the first two until after the events!!!