Gripping (The Rails) Stuff

What Happens In The Albert Stays In The Albert

Imagine this is a TV antenna mast.

I like Tom Scott's Youtube channel. He's a natural, finds interesting stuff to report on, and has also produced a few game and chat shows that are brilliant. A few days ago he posted this video and it ticked a lot of boxes for me. 

It was about old stuff, and I'm old... 

It was about stage and entertaining rigging - I've done that, roadie-ing and front-of-room sound for a band, and also built some of the gear they used. 

It was about heights, and that really struck a chord with me. I worked for a radio/TV shop on country farmhouse TV antennas, usually up 20 - 40m on those skinny triangular section masts, and my last time to go up was 30 years ago. 

On that climb I had to shift my safety belt up over the last guy wire at the top so I undid it, went to pass it over, and the unthinkable happened, a freak gust of wind, the tower gave a tiny shimmy - and I was hanging by nothing except my chin over the antenna beam and a toehold with one foot. 

My glasses fell down and shattered, I recovered, did the job, climbed down and went back to the van, said to my boss it was good that insurance would cover the breakage - and he told me he didn't have any insurance whatsoever. 

I quit at that shop that afternoon. I found out later that he'd gone bankrupt hence no insurance, and he also hadn't paid my income tax to the taxation department so I was liable for it. 

That was my last climb for anyone, couldn't do it any more, I never really recovered from either event. And the guy literally went mad, ended up in care, and passed away within two years of that day. 

What Tom did in this presentation was impressive. Pure visceral fear is a bitch. When I finished repairing that antenna and climbed back down, I realised I'd also peed myself a little bit, and when I thought about it and tried to climb back on that mast I never experienced such utter paralysis before and after that. Tom kept going, showing us all around the roof. Kudos. 

The End.

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This Is The End

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