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I know that I am a coward (increasingly so) when it comes to thrill seeking, but even I am amazed at how much of a coward I am. My daughter wanted me to come on one of the gentler slides at the pool today and I was genuinely scared. I had done it with her once before - it's just your basic straight slide down into a pool - maybe ten metres long. The first time I did it I screamed "No, no, Nooooo" all the way down. But I survived and assumed I'd done my bit. But today I had to go back on and I really didn't want to and all that made me do it was wanting to make my daughter happy. It was fine. We did it three times. I didn't even scream. Phoebe thought that one of the parallel identical slides was faster than the other - though can't see how that can be true- but I still was too scared to risk the one she considered quicker.
I don't know what's happened to me. I would always have been over cautious about everything potentially dangerous, but I did go through a period where I was happy to go on fairground rides and in Edinburgh in 1997, the flumes at the pool were my actual favourite show. I have (reluctantly) done a parachute jump, which I enjoyed once I was out of the plane and the parachute worked. And I would think it would have been a childhood dream to go on waterslides (which I don't think we ever did), even if I would have been scared to do it had I had the chance.
I don't enjoy mild peril and I've enjoyed it less as I've got older, where I suppose mild peril can lead to a broken hip. But why the nervousness about this least perilous of artificial peril situations?
There are more exciting slides to go on. The kids are a bit nervous of those though, so I probably won't have to do them this time. But I will have to go on them eventually to save face and not look like the coward that I am in front of my little girl. She has zero respect for me already and going on the slides will not add any respect, but I have to try and stave off negative respect for as long as possible.
We decorated cakes, we played a bit more tennis and we watched A Night at the Museum, all things that fall within my range of safe activities. A week at Center Parcs may just be slightly too much, but we'll be back in the pool tomorrow, so am steeling myself for more mild peril and looking forward to moving on to the next part of my holiday.
