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…

@Garlicked
”A yoga retreat would be my idea of a punishment, cooped up with a load of 'soulful' women aligning each other's chakras and cooing over vegetable soup. Sex-wise, I have no kinks, think kinks are weird symptoms of distorted sexual development, and many of them do indeed deserve shaming!”

That made me giggle (and I’m with you there).

I suppose any kind of endurance challenge - climbing Everest, swimming the channel, sailing across the Atlantic, running a marathon - oh God, I just can't be bothered!!

I feel that people who do these huge challenges are so driven. It's a desire I'll never understand
I admire it and it baffles me in equal measure if I'm honest.

Something I would never want to do is live in 'a big house in the country', or even a big house anywhere. Actually I wouldn't want to live in a little village or anywhere too country in a small house either.

Too much cleaning, gardening, maintenance, and then on top of that the country mindset or weird village cliques, and all miles from places you need to go. Not for me.

(I grew up in the country. Shudder.)

I always used to think when I watched Wanted Down Under, that a lot of the people had the idea of Oz being one big permanent holiday. Some of them seemed shocked to discover that they'd still have all of the mundane tasks and concerns that they have here.

Obviously, people DO choose to move to different continents, and it's entirely up to them; but there was a lot of uncomfortable watching when their wider families realised (but they often didn't) that they were likely swapping being able to see each other every week/month or so for maybe seeing each other properly a handful of times for the rest of their lives.

Again, none of my business, but I feel the same about Australians who move to Europe - have they properly thought the logistics through?

I may be mixing this up with a similar story but I’m sure I read that her son became a mountaineer and also died. I haven’t looked it up but I’m sure there was a programme about the son and his mother definitely died climbing.

Sometimes I don't understand why people aspire to have romantic relationships. I go back and forth on this. I think a woman can live a fascinating life without a boyfriend/husband although I do understand the drive to companionship/family.

I think I'd enjoy the level of fame/success where I don't have to work and am financially secure, but not the level of fame where people routinely bother me in the street.

It's a feat of incredible physical endurance and a massive challenge. And the view from the top looks awesome.

But it is an expensive, dangerous and not particularly environmentally friendly process, although I believe that increasingly expeditions are only being allowed if they make some contribution to cleaning up the mountain.

Competitive Eating : DH watches videoes of Beard Meets Food and The Shutts
They basically shovel down a mountain of food without it touching the sides . Enough food to feed 4 .
Someone has prepared it .
Animals have died for it .
It saddens my soul.

People who want to be manicured/pedicured/styled/tanned/botox'ed and filled, eyelash extensions , tattoed make-up, pouty lips , to the N th degree.

Pot-holing / confined spaces . Just no

Any kind of extreme sport/holiday that carries a significant risk of death.

Marathon running. No.

Cosmetic surgery/alternations- especially getting veneers! Leave your teeth alone.

The desire to own exotic animals. Alternatively, the desire to go on holiday to ride/swim with exotic animals. They could be being mistreated.

Hugely expensive weddings.

Going to Dubai. Going to Australia.

Over-optimising your life or diet and removing every single thing that is fun or slightly bad for you. I'm having to cut out food groups for medical reasons and it's miserable. I miss gluten. Equally, I will never understand people who get up at 5am of their own volition everyday to do Crossfit or whatever.

I agree. I am not vegetarian but I think the competitive eating where animals have died for a stupid game is obscene.

@PuttingDownRoots
The submersible disaster exactly 💯

Mad scientists on massive expensive ego trip

One of them thinks decides its a good idea to bring his 16 yr old son with them too on this under water adventure too

Any kind of endurance test - I just CBA with the training. Particularly anything in a confined space as I’m claustrophobic. Fame - nope - although the money would be nice, lol. Going to space - just bonkers, can we sort this planet out first please!

@anonymous98 Has anyone ever told you you're the voice of reason!

@ProfessorFJLewisThatsYouThatIs

I always used to think when I watched Wanted Down Under, that a lot of the people had the idea of Oz being one big permanent holiday. Some of them seemed shocked to discover that they'd still have all of the mundane tasks and concerns that they have here.

I agree. I find that programme really uncomfortable viewing tbh as feel I'm being given a peek into an abusive situation. If one half of the relationship is unsure of moving to the other side of the world, it's never really going to work. You both need to really be committed to it.

I genuinely gasped when I read this! (Didn’t snort my tea though..)
How did you not murder her? It would have been entirely justified 🤣

Alison Hargreaves. She was a professional mountaineer (it was her job) vs. a hobby climber. It later emerged that her husband was physically abusive and controlling (he was way older and had groomed her as a teenager when she worked in his shop) and "encouraged" her to do the big $$$ climbs. She was doing the K2 expedition to financially bail out the family as the sole breadwinner. And of course if she'd been a man no-one would have criticised her.

'Fundraiser ' cheeky fucker ! ( the post below)
:( I bet you were fuming.
I know a few people who have emigrated to Australia and discovered it's not the Utopia they thought it might be. I'm sure it has more to offer with some things, but you still have to work and pay the bills ( unless you're mega rich , but that's like it everywhere!)
I couldn't deal with the heat personally.

Having children
Any kind of extreme fitness challenge
Pushing your body to the extreme to say you've done "x" (like climbing Everest or running across the desert or whatever).
Caving or anything that involves squeezing your body into tiny spaces

Wanted Down Under is fascinating. How often is it someone’s dream to go there, but they’ve never been there before. Or their mother does the childcare. Or they have elderly parents who visit daily. Or they want a three bedroom detached house with walk-in wardrobes and a swimming pool etc, and of course, the outdoor life .

Maybe they secretly want their mother to stop doing the childcare but they're too scared to tell her so they decide to just move to Australia to avoid a row 😂

My observation is that a lot of people expect emigration to fix all their problems, but most people's problems are at least partially self-generated so it's not that surprising that emigrating doesn't fix it. Also people tend to focus on what is better about X country rather than thinking what may be worse (there are always pluses and minuses of everywhere) so once they get through the honeymoon period they gradually start to notice the bad/ annoying things.

Me either. The heat over here is bad enough at times. In Aussie I would literally melt

Getting married, just no.

@LaPalmaLlama
Actually if you read my post I said if you are a parent so not just talking about mothers. I feel exactly the same about men doing risky stuff and getting killed and leaving their partners and kids alone . It's selfish to pursue your own ambitions at the expense of the rest of the family imo.