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The barbados trip Doubleme returns
So I am officially back from Barbados and I was tempted to make a thread for every day but my girlfriend said that would be excessive so I will be posting a post for each day in this thread keeping it all to one thread. The trip had its high and lows. However was mostly a positive experience. Now I dont have permission to post pictures of other people so cant post I mean I havent asked and had them say no etc but I just didnt ask at all and nearly all pics was with me and other people but Winni does not mind so we have Winni pics yay.
Comments
this was when we flew out and the first evening in barbados I seemed to have an incident with a lady from our group who had rather unusual preferences. See every time I fly I worry about the plane crashing and us all dying or the plane been ripped apart in mid air. I think this is quite a usual thing, and one way I deal with this is as we are coming to landing I look out the window and try to gage could we survive a fall from that height? I mean I dont claim to be an expert and could be well wrong but then I have heard of people surviving falls from planes.
Anyway I was simply pointing out that if we took the blankets supplied from the plane and tried to tie them together into a make shift parachute whilst it may not work properly it may cushion the fall from a plane and we may survive with broken bones but alive. This lady totally did not appreciate my rational reassurances and rather strangely took issue with me bringing this up to reassure everyone and told me to shut up.
I also got told of by one of the bosses for this been told that some people are terrified of flights like this lady is and this is not cool. i do not get how reassuring someone who is afraid of flights regarding our chances of survival is so bad?
Anyway shortly after that bizzare incident we landed in barbados and was soon taken to the hotel where there were a lot of strange noises which I found out was tree frogs they are very hard to spot but spoiler (did spot one later on) and they make weird noises my girlfriend heard it over the phone and said sounded like birds but I thought sounds like squeeky swings. they are nocturnal so only come out at night to make their noises.
after that it was a barbercue on the beach under a night sky the barbecue was sensational I dont know how it is that some people and cultures can make chicken so tasty, but wow. and the steak was awesome too. and the strawberry cheese cake was like something else, sure I was with peeps at work and felt under the politically correct police but with a barbercue that good I just did not care.
anyway my plan was to post a days blog thingy regarding the trip each day so monday 2nd will be posted tomorrow and tues 3rd on monday etc.
Suggesting this as a survival strategy does not align with the principles of physics or engineering despite your upbeat good intentions.
Discussing such an impractical solution during an actual flight or emergency could increase anxiety rather than provide reassurance, as noted in the reaction described.
Looking forward to day 2 of the bush tucker trials.
Anyway I was simply pointing out that if we took the blankets supplied from the plane and tried to tie them together into a make shift parachute whilst it may not work properly it may cushion the fall from a plane and we may survive with broken bones but alive. This lady totally did not appreciate my rational reassurances and rather strangely took issue with me bringing this up to reassure everyone and told me to shut up.
Are you Mr Bean as I can imagine that scenario in an episode of that programme, have you ever thought of becoming a script writer.
I'm looking forward to day 2 of the holiday.
the day started off with a group of people heading out on some guided tour to the market, which I joined hoping to find Cigars I do like a good Cigar and the Caribbean is a good place to look
we stopped by a peir on the beach and a few people made comments about jumping off into the sea which I was up for, the danger was that neither us knew how deep the water was, and potential risk of injury.
So I decided to wait for others to jump in and see how safe it was after they jumped in I followed in when i saw it was safe/deep enough for a jump.
turned out though that the market was actually a supermarket when I had been hoping for lots of little market stalls with people trying to sell stuff. there were no cigars but I did find a small shop next door to buy my girlfriend a nice looking ash tray.
it was then back to the hotel where I discovered much to my delight that the room had a bottle of Mount Gay Rum, now incase you guys do not know Mount Gay Rum is the best Rum in the world and the pride of Barbados arguably the best alcohol you can find anywhere so I enjoyed a few drinks of that two shots worth at a time.
then it was the company dinner and I got a really bad bolloking for my behaviour there, I was told that my behaviour was making someone uncomfortable but they couldnt tell me who or what it was I supposodly said or did.
So like your going to tell me there has been a complaint about my behaviour immediatly find me guilty without a proper trial,not tell me what it was i said or did or who had an issue with me. So I cant adjust or change anything as I dont know what, so like what am I supposed to do with that?
after the meal I decided to go to the beach to talk to my girlfriend over the phone at night when I was approached by a guy who tried to sell me weed/cannabis I explained I was on a company trip and could not buy illegal drugs as it would be risking my job. He then tried to offer me glue and cocaine (seriosuly) like if I rejected weed because i didnt want to risk been caught with illegal drugs why would I then buy much more illegal harder drugs that just makes no sense
note I cant exactly get a picture of someone trying to sell winni real drugs so had to create a picture of other things which hint at drugs for that pic.
Anyway I was alone on the beach at night just outside the hotel and felt uncomfortable after this like what if they tried to mug me or kidnap me? maybe that was me been over anxious or neurotic but decided to head in at that point and go to sleep.
A general rule of thumb is to keep it safe, clean and without provocation, until you know your colleagues very well. Talking about sports, TV and film, family life and good local restaurants and activities is always fine. Talking about work is also fine, obviously.
Talking about politics is not cool and talking on a long haul flight is also to be avoided after take off, especially if you're talking about the plane crashing. I sat next to a colleague on an 11-hour flight on Monday and we both knew the rules: polite chat until take off, then resume upon landing in the immigration queue. Nobody wants to be sat next to a colleague on a flight and nobody wants to be chatting to a stranger either. That sucks if you are friendly, but it's the way it is.
As for the rest well parachutes are aerodynamically engineered with risers which allow the pilot to control, under normal conditions, things such as direction, speed and angle of descent. Not sure that a BA blanket is designed with those attributes in mind.
Finally if you are outside the plane, falls from anything over 30m or 100 feet onto any hard surface, often including water, tend to be fatal. Remember that the velocity of an object in free fall is 20ft per second per second or 20ft squared resulting in a terminal velocity of over 120mph Sloping surfaces that are snow covered or sandy offer the best chances for survival.
You're actually better off strapped into your seat for a low altitude crash although much of that is dependant upon the fuel tanks not errupting. Although don't adopt that stupid brace position, it's designed to smash you into the seat in front resulting in catastrophic head injuries, instead lean forward, place your head onto your arms which should be placed on the seat in front.
Oh yeah I almost forgot, in a worse case scenario of a plane crashing from anything above 1,000 feet any body who doesnt survive will rarely be in one piece, it's a very violent act and aluminium and titanium tends to rip through flesh and bone. I suggest wrist and ankle bands similar to those used in hospitals, with your name on, to help identify your remains.
Remember you are far more likely to get killed on your way to the airport than you ever are during a flight. Especially if you fly from Southampton.
Have a really nice day buddy.
in regards to the falling from height comment yeah i am not a physist so dont know for sure but would think it could offer something also a load of pillows or clothing attached to the right spot may provide more cushion. I dont claim to know a lot on this I will research for the next flight so I can share more accurate information with people, I genihnely think this should be included in the safety education pre flight.
Tues Dec 3rd
the internet and wifi had gone down which was annoying
(south park reference kudos to those that can spot it and get"
so decided to head for an early breakfast specifically trying to go to the other breakfast bar to avoid anyone i worked with and been judged
(i asked ai to generate picture of winni going to a non judges breakfast bar so was a bit difficult for it to get right)
then there was the boat trip where I had a bit of a conversation with the staff of the boat trip (not staff I work with the barbados boat staff) I found myself having to defend our country. I know I have been critical of this country on a few occasions but I remain adament that some of the things we can be proud of is our fish and chips and our cheese. Can you beleif they dared to say French cheese was good I keep hearing france getting praise for their plastic crud whilst we never get recognised for our amazing Chedder Red leicester Wendslydale. They insulted our fish and chips and our cheese and I was not having that I was defending our nation there.
the conversation then went to weed they mentioned it been hard to get out there utter nonsense you can barely walk 20 feet down the road without been offered some, I wouldnt have been shocked if a baby in a push chair tried to sell me some. I strongly suspect it was a feeler to see if they could sell me.
then at a later point jet skis pulled up by the side of the boat and asked me if I wanted to ride the Jet Ski for $50 USD for 20 minutes. Now I just wasnt interested at that price I wasnt going to go down the nonsense haggling route of saying I didnt have $50 I am a westener on holiday of course I have $50 I just said I wasn't willing to pay $50 for 20 minutes because i didnt feel I would get $50 worth of pleasure in 20 minutes. The guy likened it to a strip club and paying for pleasure I just said look if I go into a strip club and spend $50 I am going to want more then just a dance just saying.
The guy mentioned his cost of business such as insurance etc now this not exactly a selling point, if you think it through there been a high insurance cost would mean there would be a high chance of injury this is not a selling point to me. I maintened my postion saying I am not going to argue with them about their cost of business i am just saying what I think is worth it so I got into haggling with the guys but in the end just couldnt agree on a price.
so i created a picture of winni the pooh dressed like les gold from hardcore pawn haggling with the jet ski riders. then someone noticed me doing that on the phone and asked about the winni pic and i explained about the winni pics and going for a hardcore pawn theme. and got yelled at by a boss for talking about **** when I clearly explained he said I was doing it on purpose and I know no one is going to know about an obscure tv program like that. its hardly obscure its pretty well known and i had no malice so now cant even talk about tv programs.
when we got of the boat trip a cigar expert in our group agreed to go into the local shop nearby and help me work out if the cigars were good value, they were more expensive then they would be in the UK so it was a bad deal and sadly couldnt get them there.
after the boat trip i just had a nap when back then went for the company barbercue dinner on the beach which after everything did not feel comfortable.
im working in an office now no longer in kitchens its not the career i wanted still but it is office
That reminds me of a time when I started working in a metalwork factory in the late 80s.
They gave me a job with a blow torch ,I had to cut girders down to size.
I couldn't get the hang of it so they took me off that.
They tried me on the bandsaw.
After 20 minutes I broke 4 blades, they were patient but I could tell they were **** off.
They then gave me a job using an angle grinder, smoothing down the edges of the girders I messed up earlier.
There were sparks everywhere, even though I had goggles on, I kept closing my eyes cos I didn't want to get sparks in them, the grinder was sliding all over the place.
The foreman came over, he was livid "look If you dont pull your socks up you'll be in the Office young man"
I said "Office? **** that- I cant use a typewriter."
It sounds like your company is more relaxed than many if they are still fine taking people on a jolly to Barbados. A lot of companies killed those trips due to the HR risks that come with it. If not being able to talk 100% freely at work is a problem for you, office work might not be for you in today's market. I remember plenty of Gregg Wallace types of conversations going on 10-20 years ago, but not any more
Some of the comments seem to me to be a little unfair. It is very easy for people to judge people by their own standards.
Thankfully, we have got past the days when we got judgy about people with physical difficulties. Or, indeed, most of the more obvious mental disorders. But we still persist in unfairly labelling people with non-obvious problems.
Please don't misunderstand me. I do not know @Doubleme . Nor do I have medical qualifications, and am certainly not labelling anyone.
I am neurodiverse. It is most certainly not obvious-I am highly intelligent, and at what people might term the "better" end of the spectrum.
What that means is that I have spent many, many years trying to regulate my behaviour in social settings. What comes easy to others is very difficult for me. Me and millions of others. Reached the stage where I can resist telling people about dying in planes. Loved "Hardcore Pawn"-Les Gold and his family make for great TV in their Detroit 8-Mile Pawn Shop.
There has to be give and take in this World. People like me have to work very hard to try to fit within social norms. And people not like me have to understand that some people need help in achieving that. Not glib judgment.
Unless we want to live in a World where, for example, no disabled person could ever work in an Office. In case it upset the people who do not have that disability.
I am also enjoying @Doubleme 's ramblings.....but dont tell him.
Likewise, I respect pretty much all your views on this Forum. And agree with most-but not all. Which is exactly as it should be. Forums should be a place to exchange ideas. And learn from people who do not share your views.