Why do blokes have to be brave ?

[Ricard with an H]

I just had the fright that gets you to having a heart-attack, i'm grubbing about in the bottom of my remaining bag of compost and got hold of a very fat, presumably pregnant frog or toad. It was a horrible wriggly handful that I wasn't expecting.

It took a full half hour for my heart-rate to drop back to normal.

[glallotments]

They don't - my father-in-law was terrified of frogs and toads. Came from childhood when the cellar of the house he lived it used to flood and lots of these creatures moved in.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Richard, i must admit i don't worry too much about being brave, but put me in a crisis and i just seem to step up a gear.

[Ricard with an H]

put me in a crisis and i just seem to step up a gear.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I know if i'm brave in that way. The last crisis I had to deal with was a really odd one, a complete surprise.

A few years back i'm riding my fitness circuit during summer and got stung/bitten by something. Within minutes i'm going into anaphylactic shock, i'm peddling around farming community and I know I need help but also know no-one will in. I'm only 15 minutes hard peddling from home but I also knew that would be the worst thing to do because the increase in blood flow pulls the toxin around the body.

I made a decision to go for it knowing my partner was at home and that I had anti-hystamine. I fell through the door asking for help and a tablet, I couldn't breath properly because of the swelling around my neck and mouth.

Ambulance came, treated me with oxygen and calming talk. When I got to A&E the nurse told me to calm down and that women don't react in the same way.

Man flu and man-anaphylaxia then ?

I do seem to have presence-of-mind in a crisis but finding a frog unexpectedly in a bag of compost is life-threatening.

PS. I Know ladies who are bigger-girls-blouses than me and I know ladies who wouldn't blink finding a frog in a bag of compost.

[peter]

I can't cope with injections, mentally I can steel myself for them, but then go white as a sheet. Had two for dental work once and dentist then refused to carry out the treatment. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Road accidents, floods, power cuts, riots, I just deal with.

Injury to self, sort of ok, but too good at imagining possible consequences, so tend to get shocked. Slipped down a dry riverbank, put hands behind me and a flint sliced from palm to forearm, got home, cleaned and dressed it, then spent some hours shaking nervously at how close it had been to the veins and arteries of my wrist.

[Ricard with an H]

I can't cope with injections, :

That is interesting.

I don't even need to steel myself for thing like injections yet as soon as I get through the doors of a hospital my BP goes high and i'm concerned.

I'm just a big-girls-blouse though I would love to know what that frog was thinking.

Didn't we used to do that at scout camp, stick a frog in the girls bedding. When I was a scout the girls had a pallyass. Must be a spelling error because my computer doesn't recognise the name for a bed of straw in a bag.

In fact i'm growing a plant called, 'Ladies bedstraw'. Blokes at the time didn't bother but ladies needed this herb to control the fleas.

[Geoff]

PS. I Know ladies who are bigger-girls-blouses than me and I know ladies who wouldn't blink finding a frog in a bag of compost.

They'd just kiss it and hope it turned into a handsome prince (never satisfied?).

[Westi]

Got a surprise at a toad in the greenhouse but as soon as id'd it was OK!
Now spiders - hubby does (when asked) take them outside if in the house but had to train up dog to get them out of greenhouse - he doesn't like walking into the webs apparently!

Westi

[Redfox]

When my children were growning up I had to deal with all sorts of crisis's
from dog bites to head injuries.
Thing is I tended to faint at the site of blood . The injured child would turn up, I would promptly sort out injury and then when they were fine, would crawl off some where to be ill in private .
As I have grown older I don't pass out any more.

[Ricard with an H]

I would promptly sort out injury and then when they were fine, would crawl off some where to be ill in private .

So funny, in hindsight I did similar.

Thank-you.

[Monika]

Condolences to you, Richard! It must have been a horrible feeling, even if you don't mind toads and frogs. It's just the shock of the unexpected, isn't it?

We used to have open compost bins and one evening, walking past in the dusk, I thought, "Funny, I didn't know I had put a large potato on top of that bin" and put my hand out to look at it, when the 'potato' jumped up and out of the bin - a large brown rat! Eeeek......

Since then we only use lidded bins with lots of very small (less than mouse-size) holes in the side.

[Motherwoman]

I surprised a frog in a bucket of water this morning when tidying around my shed so I got a forked stick and gently lifted it out before emptying the bucket. It hopped away under the shed and I filled a large saucer with water and placed a brick in the middle so it can come back out for a swim later and not get stuck! I'm fitting it a jacuzi next week...

Other half won't pick up a dead rat after poisoning. I'm the shovel woman. I used to have a brilliant rat killing spaniel, now gone to the sofa in the sky, she'd grab it on the back, flick it in the air and it would come down dead.

If you have a child with an injury always make sure you drop some blood on the floor of A&E as you get seen quicker!

MW

[peter]

Palliasse, a word I encountered in my fathers collection of what his contemporaries got up to between 1939-1945, usually as something given to those who were guests of Germany. As a voracious reader aged ten I had to resort to a dictionary frequently.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... /palliasse

[AdeTheSpade]

Not quite in the same vein, but the other morning I came downstairs stupidly early (couldn't get back to sleep), decided to plug in the charger for the battery hedge trimmer as I'd been using it the day before, went back upstairs to turn on computer, after only a couple of minutes could hear strange bleeping sound. Wandered downstairs wondering what it was, suddenly twigged it was a smoke alarm so started frantically checking each room, and found the carpet in the conservatory on fire under and round the charger (yes it was the charger that had shorted). Hubby and stepson both still fast asleep upstairs, so had to deal with it myself, pronto! Chucked a dry towel on it, switched it off at the socket, and then sat down shakily - took me ages to calm down! Not sure whether I was being brave or not - I don't think my brain actually clicked in, it was all purely instinctive. Phew!

[Ricard with an H]

Palliasse, a word I encountered in my fathers collection of what his contemporaries got up to between 1939-1945

Ahhhh, "Palliasse".

I'm fairly sure I encountered these on my first scout camp around 1955. Ladies bedstraw is still in flower on my Pembrokeshire banks, it smells lovely and I haven't seen it anywhere else. Only 100 years ago straw would have been the standard bedding material around here where most people were very poor.

If you turn a corner to find someone standing there unexpectedly, or a frog in a bag of compost or a rat jumps out of the wood pile it's quite normal to get an adrenalin surge. Adrenalin in the bloodstream can be quite uncomfortable if you don't need it and is quite different to being a coward.

The few times i've been ill or in need of care I tend to lock myself away because i'm so tired of having to be brave in the face of adversity. Last hip replacement I had the nurses were trying to get me out of bed but my post-op drugs hadn't been topped-up. I told the ladies that they couldn't move me as I was in far to much pain so they told me about that 90 years old frail lady who always crops up for the benefit of the situation and I passed out on the floor.

Not very brave compared to that 90 years old lady, Eh!

Oh-yes, and, whenever one of those horse fly's lands on me I go into a micro-panic because I may just need that Epi-pen.