(no subject)
I'm getting so bad at posting here. I'm on LJ every day, I just never feel like I have anything to post.
I was listening to the radio at work today, and they interviewed a woman who went tramping through the bush and climbing mountains in such appropriate outfits as wedding dresses and ball gowns for the sake of art, or something. And at first I was all "WTF???!!!" And then I got kind of mad.
The interview made it sound as though she was flouncing around in the bush, alone, in these dresses. I hope like hell she wasn't, because the New Zealand bush can actually be quite, you know, dangerous. People die in the bush every year.
There's no way wedding dresses or ball gowns are appropriate for the bush. Entirely aside from the fact that they're going to get caught on plants all the time, they'll be more than useless if the weather changes suddenly, as it does in the bush and mountains. And hypothermia's not much fun. I hope she had a change of clothes - raincoat, polyprop or something else thermal, and a hat at the very least.
There was no mention in the interview of anyone else being involved in these little excursions into the bush. I was taught that you always have a group of at least four if you're doing anything more than those little touristy signposted tramps. That way, if someone gets injured one person can stay with them while the other two walk out for help. If lightning strikes twice and one of those people is injured too, there's still someone who can go on.
So, yeah. This interview made it sound as though anyone who wants to can go parading around in the bush wearing wedding gowns. Screw that. If I saw someone in a wedding dress in the bush, I wouldn't be at all impressed. The bush isn't for making a spectacle of yourself, IMHO. It's for blending in and leaving everything undisturbed, so that people aren't focusing on you.
I don't know why this gets me so much. Maybe it's because the Outdoor Education class I took at high school had such a high emphasis on safety, and what clothes to wear and what equipment to carry. And maybe it's because the New Zealand bush may be beautiful - but it's also dangerous.
I was listening to the radio at work today, and they interviewed a woman who went tramping through the bush and climbing mountains in such appropriate outfits as wedding dresses and ball gowns for the sake of art, or something. And at first I was all "WTF???!!!" And then I got kind of mad.
The interview made it sound as though she was flouncing around in the bush, alone, in these dresses. I hope like hell she wasn't, because the New Zealand bush can actually be quite, you know, dangerous. People die in the bush every year.
There's no way wedding dresses or ball gowns are appropriate for the bush. Entirely aside from the fact that they're going to get caught on plants all the time, they'll be more than useless if the weather changes suddenly, as it does in the bush and mountains. And hypothermia's not much fun. I hope she had a change of clothes - raincoat, polyprop or something else thermal, and a hat at the very least.
There was no mention in the interview of anyone else being involved in these little excursions into the bush. I was taught that you always have a group of at least four if you're doing anything more than those little touristy signposted tramps. That way, if someone gets injured one person can stay with them while the other two walk out for help. If lightning strikes twice and one of those people is injured too, there's still someone who can go on.
So, yeah. This interview made it sound as though anyone who wants to can go parading around in the bush wearing wedding gowns. Screw that. If I saw someone in a wedding dress in the bush, I wouldn't be at all impressed. The bush isn't for making a spectacle of yourself, IMHO. It's for blending in and leaving everything undisturbed, so that people aren't focusing on you.
I don't know why this gets me so much. Maybe it's because the Outdoor Education class I took at high school had such a high emphasis on safety, and what clothes to wear and what equipment to carry. And maybe it's because the New Zealand bush may be beautiful - but it's also dangerous.