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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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The
Write Way
17 August 2008 Living Life on the Edge ...
Greetings, Some people lead exciting lives, don't they? And none more so than our Kiwi cousins. We've had our hearts in our mouths and our stomachs in our shoes in the past when we've met up with this mad mob, but I do think this latest activity takes the prize as the most daft thing any sane person would want to do with hard-earned money. I mean to say, who in their right mind would want to tie a piece of string around their waist, loop it over a bar and then dangle themselves 192 metres above the ground as they tippy-toe around the building on a narrow platform? You would? Then you're as silly as they are ... The "attraction," and I use the term loosely, is located on Sky Tower, which the site explains "is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 metres or just over a thousand feet high." Yep ... That's one thousand feet ... and you want to take a little stroll out there? OK ... Here's your bit of string ... Off you go. This coyly named SkyWalk announces that: You'll traverse 360 degrees around the spectacular Sky Tower – the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere - - stopping at several points to:
Excuse me, but if that were me, "traversing 360 degrees around the spectacular Sky Tower," the only reason I'd be stopping is to have my white knuckles prised open from the edge of the platform or to unwrap myself from the nearest solid object. I don't know what it is about the air in NZ, but there must be something very different going on, because the site even offers disabled access! The only limitation seems to be if you have to be hooked up to an oxygen tank, and then you can't take your tank with you. They also tout this as "an awesome educational tour for special interest" school groups. Although children must be over 10 and have a note from their parents(!) Now if you're a tad concerned about all this, relax ... The site goes on to explain the safety arrangements: "Each SkyWalker has two safety tethers from their harness up to the overhead rail. One is a climbing rope designed as a failsafe. The other is a seatbelt-type retraction system that allows the tether to be adjusted to your individual height. This means that if you do step off the pergola you simply swing back like a pendulum!" See? Nothing to worry about, you can't fall off, you'll just swing aimlessly in the breeze. And if you freeze with fear while out there, why that's all right, too, because "you just ‘sit’ back into your harness and your guide will quickly wheel you back to safety." Or the nice men in their white coats will come and wheel you off to some place warm and padded where you can reminisce about your time spent imitating a clock part. I can see by your face you think I'm making all this up ... Go here, you doubters: (Source) We've chatted before about this affliction some of our species have with Dangling Themselves Over High Places and again and I'm pleased to say I'm still immune to its appeal. Give me good old feet-firmly-planted-on-Mother-Earth activities any day. The Love of My Life and I encountered nothing higher than one of those ubiquitous Eye-in-the-Sky, overgrown Ferris wheels during our recent biennial trip to see our daughter in Melbourne. We make the journey down twice a year and ... Yes, I was just testing to see if you were paying attention, because I know that you know that 'biennial' means every two years and 'biannual' means twice a year. Ahem ... But back to life on the edge ... If you lust after adventure but prefer it taken via the safety of a good thriller, you'll want to pop out and get a copy of a great read called The Fourth Watcher. It's written by Timothy Hallinan who's spent the past 25 years living in Southeast Asia, so it's no surprise that he sets his books in that region. His latest novel is set in Bangkok, and he takes special care with the background for his books -- anyone familiar with Bangkok would feel right at home and recognise the sensation of being soaked through from the monsoon rain, rain that thrills our hero, Poke Rafferty, "...a typical Thai raindrop, perhaps half a pint of warm water, that smacks the top of his forehead much as a Zen master might clobber a meditating student whose attention has wandered." The Fourth Watcher is the second novel in what looks like becoming an addictive series featuring a likeable travel writer who gets himself involved in some pretty hairy situations that involve the seamier side of the Thai capital. The first book is A Nail Through the Heart, and Tim is currently spending 6 months in Asia, working on the third. (It's tough at the top!) This week's Little Something Extra has some tips by Tim on how to discipline yourself to write that novel burbling away inside you. He makes it sound easy ... and fun.
And for those of you who indulge in clinging perilously to mountains in the name of Fun ... Some Famous Last Mountaineering Words: I don't need a helmet ... Did
you hear something? I'm
sure it was this way No
reason for that, I know where every crevasse is Let's
use this rock to rap from, it won't move ... Lets
go for the top, we'll get back before it gets dark ... This week's quiz: If you don't know your piton from your crampon, this should be interesting (and remind me never to climb a mountain with you). Match up these mountaineering terms with their definitions: abseil, zipper, jumar, couloir, belay, chock, crampon, piton, rappel, snow fluke 1. angled aluminum plate attached to a metal cable; buried into snow, typically used as a deadman anchor 2. a descent down a nearly vertical surface by using a doubled rope that is coiled around the body and attached to some higher point 3. fall in which each piece of protection fails in turn 4. a clip or clamp used in rock climbing or ice climbing that runs freely up a slack rope but tightens around the rope in response to weight applied from below 5. something to which a mountain climber's rope can be secured 6. metal framework with spikes attached to boots to increase safety on snow and ice 7. mechanical device, or a wedge, used to attach anchors into cracks 8. process by which a climber may descend on a fixed rope 9. steep gully or gorge frequently filled with snow or ice 10. metal spike that may be hammered into ice or flaws in rock And a story that illustrates, yet again, that out of the mouths of babes ... Little Johnny's kindergarten
class was on a field trip to the local police station, where they saw pictures
of the 10 Most Wanted Men tacked to a bulletin board. Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com And I'm even prepared to offer a shameless bribe. An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. Last week's quiz: 1.
elevated or pompous in speech or style of expression, using big or unusual words
- MAGNILOQUENT (from magnus 'great' and loquor 'to speak') 2.
curse - MALEDICTION (from mal 'evil; wrong; bad' and dicere 'to
speak; deliver; pronounce') 3.
an authorized delay or cessation of an action - MORATORIUM (from moratorius
'delaying') 4.
act or state of doing evil - MALEFICENCE (from maleficentia 'evil doing') 5.
wrongdoing by a public official - MALFEASANCE (from mal 'evil; wrong;
bad' and facere 'perform; make; do') 6.
a flashy attractiveness, alluring by false charms - MERETRICIOUSNESS. It should
come as no surprise to learn the origin of this one. It comes from the Latin meretrix
'a prostitute' which is in turn derived from merere 'to earn; to gain' 7.
failure of teeth opposite each other to meet properly - MALOCCLUSION (from mal
'bad; wrong' and occludere 'to stop; to shut up') 8.
having a smooth rich flow - MELLIFLUOUS (from mel 'honey' and fluus
'flowing') 9.
to soften or temper (a person); pacify, appease - MOLLIFY (from mollis
'soft') 10.
untruthfulness; tendency to lie - MENDACITY (from mendacitas 'a habit of
lying') A Little Something Extra The
Writing Session by
Timothy Hallinan Getting there: Write
500 words a day, five days a week, and in ten weeks you’ll have 25,000 words.
That’s a quarter of a good-size novel. At that pace, even with the inevitable
wrong turns and backtracks, you’ll be able to turn out a revised draft of your
novel in a year. Tuning in: Writing regularly and at some length also keeps the world of your novel open to you. Annie Dillard once said that writing a book is like taming a lion: the longer ... Click to see how you can tame the lion. Word of the week: Ferris wheel - an amusement ride consisting of a large upright wheel rotating on a fixed stand and having seats around its rim suspended freely so that they remain right side up as they revolve. This was named after its American inventor ... an engineer called George Washington Gale Ferris, who designed it for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. (If you're interested, read more here. ) Oxymoron of the week: adventure holiday And a Latin phrase I hope you won't need if you do happen to go mountain climbing ... A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi [AH FROHN-tay preye-see-PEE-tee-oom AH TAYR-goh LOO-pee] (A precipice in front, wolves behind) Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? Kind regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Just $17 a year seems a small price to pay for all this wit and wisdom, don't you think? C'mon, that's just a tad more than 30 cents a week! 1.Toss a few pennies into my Running Away Fund at PayPal (Send to jennifer @ write101.com ... without the spaces, of course) OR 2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form. (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart) To unsubscribe from this list, send
a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips- Copyright Jennifer Stewart 2008 Individual articles copyrighted by their authors. |
