"I do this with my own hand."

[grace_poppy]

He looked at it critically, and said, more or less to himself, "If it could undertake the one task, it must undertake the other: that is but justice."

I was talking to

Comments

Re: More gory talk if you're squeamish!

[soho_iced]

Ow ow! I've never been seriously hurt like that: I've only needed stitches once, when I cut my finger slicing some cheese (not a very *heroic* injury somehow). I think you're right: it's as if the 'pain' nerve signals are received by the brain but it then interprets them depending on what else is going on in the brain at that moment, so even badly injured people may not feel any pain at all for a while. I even think there is some scientific evidence: I read a popular-science type book. (Can't remember the author: it was just called 'Pain' and amazon.co.uk has 5,000 plus books with that word in the title, which is depressing in itself.)

And I LOVE House. I was doubtful at first about Hugh Laurie playing a non-comic character but was won over about 5 minutes into the first episode: he is just fantastic and as time goes on the other characters are getting more and more interesting as well. I've only watched up to the end of season 2, but I think there was an episode in the first season (the patient turned out to being poisoned by termites, I think) where House was again trying to come off the painkillers and smashed his hand with something to relieve the pain from the leg: the sharp immediate pain causing the chronic pain to be lessened. I've certainly heard the endorphin point before with reference to cutting. (As you may have guessed I have a fairly medical family: my mother is a doctor and my stepmother a nurse.)

Re: More gory talk if you're squeamish!

[grace_poppy]

So would you rather operate on yourself to remove a bullet, or climb the futtock shrouds? I think I'd choose the first, actually! Though that would involve getting SHOT too, so that makes it awkward. If it was JUST the operation, and no befores or afters, I think I'd rather do that than climb to the foretop with no safety harness.

Re: More gory talk if you're squeamish!

[soho_iced]

I've never actually SEEN futtock shrouds, though the description is fairly vivid. That's a tricky one: there's something about the idea of cutting into living flesh that's really off-putting, but if I'd had experience as a surgeon I wouldn't think twice about it I suppose. I still think I'd prefer to try and climb to the foretop, as long as the weather was calm and there were other people around to encourage me. I've never been athletic but I don't have a particular problem with heights, and I even went on a rock-climbing holiday once (looking after a group of kids, who were humiliatingly good at it).

[grace_poppy]

Haha, rock climbing holiday with kids who were good at it. Had they been before? Or did they just master the skills really quickly? It's weird, I've gotten to that age where kids are able to do some things better than me. I always thought that was so weird and unnatural as a child!

As for me, I get scared even of "scrambling." (Is that a British term? That's what my Yorkshire flatmate called it when we went climbing up a giant rocky waterfallish area. We weren't on a cliff, but just a very steep scree sort of area with giant boulders. But I was also afraid of dislocating my knee by twisting my leg weirdly in all the gaps between boulders.

I did stand on the Mistress Stone on St. Kilda. But it wasn't moving around like a ship, and I didn't have to use swingy ropes. *shudders* I'd like to BE in the foretop, but I'd feel much safer wearing a safety harness of some sort. I suppose I have the same fear of heights that Stephen does - not a freakish terror, but probably about average, with gumption that thinks, "If they can do it, then so can I, I'm sure of it!" *gulp*

[soho_iced]

It was on my gap year, in Poland: I got the impression that rock climbing, along with skiing, was something that most of the kids had done every summer since they started to walk. I'm sure the climbs we were doing were ultra safe: the worse that could happen was that you got stuck and had to climb down again. (Actually I'd be more worried by a surface where I wasn't sure of my footing, like mud or scree.) In case I'm giving the impression I'm some sort of outdoor enthusiast, I'm sure I'd actually be terrified without a safety harness. I once climbed out of a small window on the top floor up to the roof of our house, using a fixed ladder: it was perfectly safe and I'd just watched my dad do it, but it was still one of the hardest things I've ever done.

St. Kilda sounds amazing: I love the idea of living on a remote little island, although in practise I'm sure I'd find it very incovenient!