What things people aspire to do baffles you?

[Soubriquet]

Currently watching Everest and I had to Google it because I heard it now costs a lot of money to do it. It does. It’s between $32,000 and $60,000 to climb the mountain in the hopes you make it to the summit and don’t die. To me that’s crazy. That’s a lot of money to risk your life and at the end of the day, all you can say is….i climbed Mount Everest…

I once had a colleague whose son wanted to do a solo sail of the world. So she kept hassling us - family- friends- randoms- for money to help fund it. I was new and felt pressured (she was my line manager) and finally donated the equivalent of a day's wage post tax. She actually groaned when she saw it and said; 'I thought you'd be good for a couple of thousand'. (Why? I have no idea- it was £136 pounds as it was- the amount is seared into my brain).

He never got the funding he wanted but she commented that at least he got enough eventually to 'pay off his overdraft'.

Fuckers.

Anything that could result in me suffocating, drowning, being crushed to death, frozen to death, being eaten by a crocodile or imploding. Yeah no thanks. I am probably boring though.

Marry someone famous. You’d just always be ignored as people trampled over you to get some of your partner’s stardust.

Skydiving/bungee jumping. I get an adrenaline rush from someone coming into the room unexpectedly so don’t need any more fear/excitement.

Be a world leader, especially US President. Constantly being scrutinised; having to decide whether to declare wars; being afraid of you or your family being targeted; having security detail trailing after you for the rest of your life. And you can’t really change much because vested interests block all the good things you try and do or your successor undoes it it. Just hideous.

My people!

I don’t understand this stuff either.

I am a runner, I have done triathlons and things, but I have never understood the urge for “extreme.” Especially if you have a family, I think it’s the height of irresponsibility (where you might die - it’s just not worth it).

Ditto all the bling like Dubai and flash cars. Would be great to drive a Porsche for a day maybe but waste all that money on owning one? No thanks.

I think a lot of it is egotism, followed by social media culture. It’s pretty weird when you think about it.

To add one - no desire whatsoever to alter my body - no facelifts, Botox, boobs or anything thanks. Knives and needles for a healthy body? Nope.

People who go climbing through caves. John Edward Jones comes to mind. Absolute madness

Pot holing

Going down in that submarine. Just no.

I think an awful lot of people work extremely hard, like two people working 45 hours per week so they can fund two cars. They never see their kids,their house is a mess, they live on junk food, but they can afford two cars.

I know it's not simple and it can take a while to construct a life that doesn't require that you pour all of your income into putting a car on the road but it's worth it when you can do that. Live near your work/live in a town/near station+buses et cetera.

Fancy cars outside shitty houses! Personally I'd rather have a nice clean well kept house with a shite car.

@crackfoxy oh God my parent’s street in my old town is like this. Very deprived area in the Welsh Valleys. High unemployment, ex Council houses, pebble dashes, ugly. But there’s a white Range Rover on the drive!

Moving to Dubai

I completely agree on the fancy new cars. It's good to have a reliable car that isn't too old or with sky-high miles, but I couldn't care less that somebody else owned it for its first 10 years.

I also concur on the fame thing. I think many of us nobodies don't appreciate just how much freedom we have. You can do stuff, go places, say things - and nobody/hardly anybody cares at all.

I don't get the dreams of being a billionaire, or even having many, many millions. Obviously, it would be nice to have enough money to be able to live a normal life without ever worrying - including plenty of treats whenever you fancy them - but I really don't get the attraction of stupid money.

It seems that most billionaires spend every waking moment worrying about how to keep it and/or make the next billion. If you're a billionaire who is constantly worrying about money, you're no better off in a sense than a single parent on UC - by your own choice!

Have plastic surgery - I've had a couple of operations and wouldn't put my body through any surgery it didn't need for health.

Expensive clothes, bags, jewellery, cars etc - total waste of money in my opinion and usually just done to show off

Swim with dolphins. Leave the dolphins alone !

100% on both of these. My parachute jump was one of the worst things I’ve ever done and I’d pay money not to go to Dubai.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon but I’m finding myself increasingly disillusioned with holidays - particularly sightseeing holidays. They’re always stressful, with crowds of people, often in very hot places and once you finally get to see the Eiffel Tower/Brandenburg gate/Leaning Tower of Pisa/Mona Lisa/whatever it’s just another tick in a box and usually fairly underwhelming. I’d rather just read a good book in a quiet cottage in the countryside or have a nice stroll in the Dales.

Flashy car, Tesla is ugly and screams chav
Enormous house, expensive to heat
Skiing, too much pricey paraphernalia
Anything adrenaline sports
Cruise or Club Med or anything on the Costas
Branded bag or shoes eg Louis Vuitton
Looking like a Kardashian
Dubai
Many more things that I don’t understand why people aspire to them

Agree with so many of these! I did parasailing once and hated it, and that’s way less intense than a skydive. I felt like I was about to fall to my death the entire time and the creaking of the clips holding the parachute to the harness made me terrified the whole thing was about to fall apart. Caving - absolutely fucking not. Also free climbing, I believe a few people have slipped and died.

Also agree with Dubai, Disneyland, the ubiquitous mumsnet 4-bed detached. Give me a compact cheap to run flat in a city any day! I really struggle to understand why anyone would spend the equivalent on a house deposit on a wedding, when most weddings are glorified school discos with some dinner thrown in, and they’re basically all the same. Oh and the PP who mentioned people’s obsession with being “normal” rather than just doing what they want.

Radio 4 had a series by the first British woman to summit Everest about it being turned into a tourist attraction. Not that long but interesting:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001y1y5?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Also free climbing, I believe a few people have slipped and died.

I think it's more than a few. See also base jumping! I was watching a documentary about Norway(?) that had an interview with a base jumper talking about his safety precautions but then saying basically "we all know people who've died doing this, even if you prepare perfectly there can be a freak accident, you just accept that risk as the price you pay". It was surreal.

I felt sick watching him jump off the mountain/cliff. Not for me.

I used to know quite a few skydivers and they all thought the base jumpers were reckless and crazy. At least when you jump out of a plane you're high enough up that you have time to deploy a reserve parachute if your main chute fails. If you're a base jumper you just go splat.

Going to space where you can't breathe and could just float off into oblivion. And even worse going to Mars or into a black hole. I enjoyed The Martian and Intetsteller but even Matt Damon and Matthew Mcconaughey couldn't persuade me to go to space.

Have similar feelings about deep sea diving and submarines. Will still to places where I can breath well....so by that measure I guess Everest (not that I'd be fit enough) would also be off the cards for me.

Being the boss is another one...seems highly overrated to me.

No they don’t. My DH has one and it was about £250.

I am baffled by one friend who pays thousands of pounds every year to go to very far flung places to eat food. I just can't get my head round going to say Japan purely to eat sushi. I'm not a foodie at all but that's literally all she wants from a holiday.

I came on to say exactly this!

Definitely the swimming with sharks.
I would 💩💩💩💩💩