WTF things you used to do and wonder how you're still alive....

[Bedheadretention]

I've just been reading the thread about people not being able to do simple jobs around the home e.g, changing a bulb/plug, and it got me thinking about when I was around 7-8 years old, not only being fully competent and able to rewire an electrical plug, but also jamming into the electric sockets wires from the video player in my bedroom that didn't have a plug (blue wire into left bottom wall socket hole, brown wire into right bottom wall socket hole) and the tv plug kind of wedging them in over the top after seeing my DF doing the same thing with other small electricals.

WTF did I do this? I thought at the time it was probably ok as DF did the same when a plug was missing, but part of me knew deep down it was wrong! TBF DF did go full on gobshite tell me off when he noticed, and unplugged them, muttering he would 'get me a plug', but then forgot, so I never received said plug, so just jammed the wires in again. I would go barmy if my dc did this, and am cringing now at nearly frying myself and thinking I could have caused a house fire too, (to be fair, this was early 80s, so slack on health and safety).

Please tell me I'm not the only knob to have done something so stupid, I've only just thought of this for the first time in decades and feel so daft. How did I not see what I could have done?

Good thread for a Friday btw OP!

Yes emmy you have a point there. I was in very vulnerable situations with men who could have done anything to me but didn't- in fact at least one older man went out of his way to make sure I was safe and ok. That's reminded me of another couple of things actually:

When I was under ten I befriended an old man in my grandparents' street. He was lovely and used to let me look through his badge collection and take anything I wanted. He never behaved in any way inappropriately with me. Another middle aged man who lived on the corner asked me if I would like to go in his shed to see his chichillas. I went in his shed, without telling any adults where I was going, and he did indeed have chinchillas in there! He showed them to me proudly and then I went home. I was a lucky girl.

@tipsytopsy Albanian gangsters 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ ffs

lemonface that’s how I feel - when people I know now talk about drinking very little (or not at all) they might say “I mean, I’ve never drank so much I couldn’t remember everything I’d done, the next day ..” I just nod along.

I’ve done stacks of these. Been so lucky; slept on floors all over the place. LA whilst backpacking, missed a flight “you can come back with me if you like” random female stranger - neither of us slept a wink because we didn’t know the other one wasn’t a total psycho😁

Hitching round NZ once found myself in a car with a Very. Strange. Man. Considered myself lucky to get out of that ok. Never did it again after that.

Cocktail of chemicals & alcohol meaning my vision completely went - saw the world through strobe lighting that couldn’t be turned off. Was sooo ill after that one ..

When little, Using a 7’ shed as take off for games of ‘aeroplanes’ and inserting knees into front teeth ..

Doing your trick with the plug but using a matchstick to make sure the wires didn’t fall out.

I used to give my boss oral for a free lift home 👀

I used to hotbox my mini and drive - what a knob.

Hitchhiked twice. Used to skip school to draw under a bridge, sitting 2 meters from the train tracks. Once got very high and drunk with best friend and sat on the back of her moped as she drove us home.
There's more. I was a dumb/depressed kid.

Ah Christine that has warmed the cockles of me ’eart. Not being sarcastic, it is actually good to hear about older men being nice to children just for the sake of being kind.
Also agree with emmy I too have trusted complete strangers and they’ve honored that trust.
‘Sorry I’m not up for that’ and it’s been ok, after putting me up for the night, getting me home or whatever.
What’s also interesting is the people who have really burned themselves on to my memory have been the kind ones; not the arseholes.

Drunk swimming - and I was old enough to know better. Hooning - ie driving over sand dunes as fast as possible not knowing what was the other side with no seatbelt- again old enough to know better.

Drinking, alone, in my bedroom, I would have been 16. I remember one night getting a pint glass and filling it with half brandy and half some mixer, tonic I think.

Playing on building sites.

I travelled by car to Spain and back in the boot.

Climbed trees and went to play in the woods alone.

Riding in fast cars with boys who were crazy drivers.

Getting drunk and falling asleep in the snow (luckily got rescued).

Getting drunk & collapsing in a taxi (luckily a nice driver).

Getting lost abroad.

Etc

Take drugs and get myself into risky and potentially very dangerous situations with random people in random places. Makes me feel sick to think about it now and I'd never do it again.

Hang about in abandoned buildings when I was younger. There was a small abandoned church nearby that we used to go in, it had almost a "circle" area reached by some dodgy narrow stairs with pews that were still in very good condition. We thought because it looked alright upstairs we'd be fine
About a week after we'd been messing about in there the whole roof and upper portion of the building completely collapsed

Played chicken on a very busy road. Some of my friends went one better and did it on a railways level crossing with trains... shockingly, we're all still here.

I got stupidly drunk once, passed out and vomited whilst I was unconscious. I was very lucky I didn't choke.

Riding my bike sitting back to front on the saddle.

Hitch hiked from Ayers Rock to Mount Isa in Oz on a road train, also hiked from Durban to Jo’Burg in S Africa in the 80s.

On a ferry from an Island on the Gt. Barrier Reef back to the mainland they did this thing of hanging a rope net off the side so we could get dragged through the water. There was also an individual rope with a loop to put your hand through. The person who did it after me had the rope snap on her. The ferry took about 20 mins to circle to go back for her. No life jackets were worn!

Accepted a lift from someone who worked at the greyhound bus depot who said that in exchange for putting a few $ gas in his car he’d take me to much better cheap motel he knew just off the strip rather than the dingy down hostel I was headed for.

I was lucky - if my DDs ever did the same I’d go ape shit!

Getting blind drunk when I was younger and having no recollection. Could have been so much worse. I now am not a fan of drinking. I once travelled to Australia and met 2 guys on the plane they invited me and my friends out to a pub. We went my friends left as I said I'd be fine! Wtf and they gave me a lift home luckily they weren't crazy! I was so stupid when I was younger 🤦🏻‍♀️

When we were 8 or 9, my friends and I would get an all day bus pass and go everywhere; to the big city 30 miles away, to the seaside for a swim. I don't remember lying to my parents about it so it must have been acceptable.

My childhood was spent wandering the hills, swimming in the river and climbing ridiculously high trees. I do remember some injuries too, my friend cut his arm open really badly on barbed wire and my best friend broke her leg.

And yes to the usual stuff in my teens and early 20s; drugs, booze, randomers. I remember just one dodgy incident with a guy I turned down. (And I only turned him down because I actually rather liked him and thought it was potentially a serious thing). He suddenly got really mean and was trying to incite his mate (who had a bad lad reputation) to help him do whatever to me. I remember being totally sick with fear. Then the mate basically told him not to be a dick and made him leave.

Are men really much more predatory nowadays? Is that because of porn maybe?

Mustard gassed myself by accidentally mixing white vinegar and bleach while cleaning. It was awful and I think it's damaged my lungs since then I've gotten chest infections quite often and asthma now.

Getting in super cars with drunk people and clocking up over 200kph

Taking drugs in a Muslim country

Drugs full stop.

The only thing that's come out of it is mine will never ever get away with it!

Walking from Hampstead to Charing Cross station alone in the early hours, in my early 20s, then sleeping on a bench outside while waiting for the station to open

Just thought of another one...

As an au pair in the South of France, myself and another English girl went to a nightclub in Cannes where were got chatting to a group of Arabs (royalty and bodyguards). My friend wanted to accept their invitation back to their suite at the Carlton (very posh 5* hotel). I said no, she was insistent, so rather than let her go alone we went, though I made it clear that nothing was going to happen. Once there they disappeared and came back in Arab robes. Bit scary but they were very courteous. God know what the lift operator thought

We could literally show our DCs this thread and say "See all these crazy antics? Basically always do the opposite!"

@DubiousGoals Have you ever seen the horror film Creep? That's set/filmed at Charring Cross station. I remember getting the tube from there after I'd watched it and I was terrified even though it was the middle of the day!

Getting drunk and jousting on a golf course. Two people on a moped, the one at the back would hold a golf flag like a jousting lance. Another moped would do the same and we’d drive at each other trying to knock the other people off their moped 😳.

Also aged 6/7 tying duvet covers together to make a rope and using it to abseil out of my sisters 4th floor attic bedroom. I have no idea how we didn’t die.

When I was 9 or 10, my mum went back to work and started leaving me and my younger sister with a childminder after school. The childminder had 2 kids of her own, and she let us do whatever the hell we wanted.

What we wanted, it turned out, was to build a treehouse. We raided the shed for power tools and started cutting up old furniture in the shed for "parts".

When I think about it, it was a miracle none of us had any limbs sawn off. I remember looking at my 8 year old sister halfway up a tree wielding an electric drill and a hacksaw and thinking "This is awesome!"

I once stepped on the cracks in the pavement.