Lucky Escapes!

[Xenophon]

I once had a really close shave. My skin felt smooth as a baby.
HTH

I had a shave by a proper old-fashioned barber once. He used a cut-throat blade. I said (predictably) 'you won't cut me with that, will you?'. He replied that he would not.

2 nasty knicks.

Winker.

[El_Diablo]

Could it be anything else?

Nope.

[up4it]

I once had a curry but I made it home in time!

[KathyWoolfe]

I was about 13 or 14 and regularly cycled the 4 miles to school and back.

My home was on a road running past the Rootes Group (now ex-Peugeot) factory and was regularly busy with cars and car transporters.The route I came home from school meant that I had to stop in the middle of the road to turn right to reach the alleyway next to my house.

It was a late november evening and darkness had fallen when I reached the point where I turned right and I positioned myself in the middle of the road to turn right to my house.

What I had forgotten was that though my bike had lights, my front light was one of those dynamo lights which was powered by a friction wheel turned by pressing against my rear wheel. So, when I stopped (in the middle of the road, remember), my front light obligingly went out, and at that very instant I saw this car transporter coming at speed up the road.

I didn't think that I was in much danger because I have very good night sight, though I was surprised to see my Mum and Dad frantically waving at me from the front garden and I didn't realise why.

The situation was somewhat complicated by the fact that at that point, my road takes a very slight turn to the left and it was rare that cars stayed exactly on their own side of the road.

The car transporter missed me by inches. Of course I didn't realise how difficult it must have been for the transporter driver to see me because I was wearing a dark duffle coat.

Needless to say I had to go to school on the bus until I got a battery-powered headlight for my bike.

[Board Game Geek]

Kathy wins....definitely !

My own tale...

Went to Chalkwell in Southend-On-Sea when I was 8.

It has these large concrete wave breakers that extend from the shore out in to the sea. At the end is a pole with a triangular sign.

So I legged it down the partially submerged breaker, expecting to grab the pole at the end.

Except that there is a 3-4 foot gap between the pole and the end of the breaker.

Splosh...down I went, drowning, the works.

Luckily there was a lad in his 20's next to the pole, who grabbed me and hauled me on to the breaker.

Closest I ever came to drowning.

Since there, just to be different, I've loved the water and learned scuba and snorkelling. I always feel in control in the water these days, and I have no fear of it.

The other was freewheeling down a hill on my Raleigh Chopper when I was 16. Carrier bag on the handlebars went <jam> in to the spokes of the front wheel. Up and over the handlebars, and skidded (sans bike) 5 metres along the tarmac, face first. Severely grazed face, broken teeth, sprained wrists. I turned up the next day for a school trip looking like the elephant man and scared everybody. (My mum didn't believe in missing school unless you were dead)

[PAH]

I was about 13 or 14

Sorry, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get past that.

[Platypus]

I had a shave by a proper old-fashioned barber once. He used a cut-throat blade. I said (predictably) 'Mr Todd, you won't cut me with that, will you?'. He cut my fkin head off. Bstard.

[Diver]

I was once (Feb 14 2008) feeding timber into a big power saw.............

Oh yeh!

[eliquant]

When I was 9 or 10 I fell in some sinking mud in a field that was wet with rain that they were digging up for the foundations, I was stuck there with my rubber wellington boots.

Some kids got their mother to me and she pulled me out of the mud but in doing so I got a twisted testical.

I had to be rushed to accident and emergency for an operation and now- to this day - one ball is lower than the other ..

(true story and I worry about how I actually managed to twist it.. I just cannot remember ... didn't know the human body was so vunerable.).

[EternalOptimist]

My home was on a road running past the Rootes Group (now ex-Peugeot) factory and was regularly busy with cars and car transporters.The route I came home from school meant that I had to stop in the middle of the road to turn right to reach the alleyway next to my house.

Next time you visit the parents Kathy, for everyones sake, I think its best if I take you up the back alley