Adrenaline Rush
It must be due to age. The more numbers you add to your age, the more careful you are in doing things. Getting wiser is a good explanation to it or rather can serve as the best excuse for the deterioration in your physiological capacity and physical ability – that unknowingly make you live in the state of denial.
If I was born into the Ringling Brothers family, the world’s renowned circus entity, chances are I would have been either a trapeze, flying like a Superman under a big tent or a tightrope walker, balancing on the high-wire, and less likely for me to head the Clown Department though. If I was born into a stunt family of the Leavitts, more likely I would be a stunt man for a movie in Hollywood, with me behind the wheel pressing the gas pedal down to the floor and more than delighted to flip the car, tossed into the air before it comes down crashing and burst into a ball of fire. And if I was born as a son of the late Alton Senna, the legendary F1 driver who had died in a crash, it requires no stretch of imagination to see me as Alton Senna Jr now.
But, on the other hand, I don’t know what I would be if I was in the family of the Snake King, Ali Khan Samsuddin who died of a cobra bite late last year – for I found it treacherous and bloodcurdling – spine-chilling to deal with a serpent. I might then be in contentment as a Carpenter-in-Chief, in command to make boxes for snakes, instead.
Granny knew it all too well when it comes to how bold, intrepid and daring I was when I was a little boy that always left her nerve-wrecked. I couldn’t comprehend why people were hysterical seeing me on the tree top for I was not scared of height. I would even be in airborne leaping from one branch to another like a monkey, at the dizzying height of 3, 4-storey building of a tree with nothing less than fun to me.
Alas, fun or not, that damn branch of the pokok bacang was not in my favor in that afternoon. It snapped when my hands were just inches away to grab hold on another branch that brought me down to the ground to some 20-something feet below. And thus, it was as good as all joints on the right hand side of my body except for the knee, were dislocated. The pain was so unbearable that put me drifted in and out of consciousness. The hardest hit was on the pelvic joint. I tell you, it’s not a good idea for you to dislocate this major ball-and-socket joint. It’s killing you. Don’t try this at home!
Did it stop me from coming back dissipating my energies on more perilous acts after the incident? Well, the word quit or repent was not in my dictionary. I was still full of zip as before, perhaps with better skills.
Telling a wounded but brave warrior to stop fighting a battle and turn effeminate is just like telling a succulent lady with passion for stitchworks to stop stitching after a needle pricks into her finger. They are not deterred.
Likewise for me, it lives on – the trait lingered. Perhaps the zest was only channeled into something else. In no doubt I would be foolish to still meddle around with trees when I got older.
“No hands…! No hands…!” as I tried to conjure up with hands off the handle of the bike. I fell off the crude wooden bridge without guard rail spanning across the swampy waterway. Not too bad to be drenched in the swamp below as the mud had cushioned up my fall but the bike fell off later right onto my head is a different story. Mind you, it was not BMX or Chopper, you know. It was Raleigh. Raleigh was like Harley Davidson for motorbikes, damn bloody big and heavy, strong enough to carry a pregnant cow. Anyway, this incident with some cuts and bruises can still be downplayed and not fit to be blown up in my resume since I have a few major motor vehicle accidents in my late teen and early 20’s.
You can imagine when I started to mess around with motor vehicles – motorbikes and cars after a measure off from bicycles. I had one ugly incident with motorbike as well. But I think this one deserves an entry of its own since I do have a long story to tell about the “tragedy”. In short, since the risk-taking attribute was still streaming in the bloodline, I did many “ridiculous” things in the name of fun – enjoying a kick from the rush of adrenaline.
This is the hardest. It was a head-on collision between my Ford Mustang and a Chevy. It brought me to the Intensive Care Unit which I was practically in the threshold of death. I had to go through surgery due to the massive internal injuries; fortunately my head remained intact. It could be fatal if the medical team did not act fast. Lucky I still live to blog this up. Lucky I did not make news in the media back then in the home country. Perhaps it would if my dead body were then flown back to Malaysia. The centipede-like of an 8-inch permanent scar on my belly serves as a very good reminder and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Well, due to age that along the way has taught me lessons together with the tapestry that decorated on my leaves of experiences, I am becoming more careful by the day in doing things with only well-calculated risk taking involved.
Whether of you are a risk taker or not, I think all of us can see within ourselves the changes that have taken places from one phase of our lives to another. We are somewhat more cautious today than 10 years ago in any actions we are taking; be it in conversations, in dealing with people, in making decisions regardless of personal, professional or family matters, perhaps in every area of life. It is essentially reflects the wisdom we are acquiring as we waved goodbye to the years passed.
As for me personally, risky moves, shoddy if you like, were long gone but not until I paid those with heavy prices. The basic trait of a risk-taker is somehow still in me but the question is how is it being channeled to suit the phase of life I am in. Doing what I am doing now, like it or not, risk taking requires a big chunk of it. To certain extent, it becomes pre-requisite to see through things effectively.
The rule of the thumb says, the higher the risk taken, the bigger the reward will be. And at the same time, the higher you go up, the higher the stakes will be and if you were to fall, the harder the impact will be.
In whatever things I am doing now, I pray to God that I don’t have to absorb the impact like the way I absorbed when I fell off from the tree in my childhood days. Or the kind of blow I received upon hitting on the oncoming car.
If I was born into the Ringling Brothers family, the world’s renowned circus entity, chances are I would have been either a trapeze, flying like a Superman under a big tent or a tightrope walker, balancing on the high-wire, and less likely for me to head the Clown Department though. If I was born into a stunt family of the Leavitts, more likely I would be a stunt man for a movie in Hollywood, with me behind the wheel pressing the gas pedal down to the floor and more than delighted to flip the car, tossed into the air before it comes down crashing and burst into a ball of fire. And if I was born as a son of the late Alton Senna, the legendary F1 driver who had died in a crash, it requires no stretch of imagination to see me as Alton Senna Jr now.
But, on the other hand, I don’t know what I would be if I was in the family of the Snake King, Ali Khan Samsuddin who died of a cobra bite late last year – for I found it treacherous and bloodcurdling – spine-chilling to deal with a serpent. I might then be in contentment as a Carpenter-in-Chief, in command to make boxes for snakes, instead.
Granny knew it all too well when it comes to how bold, intrepid and daring I was when I was a little boy that always left her nerve-wrecked. I couldn’t comprehend why people were hysterical seeing me on the tree top for I was not scared of height. I would even be in airborne leaping from one branch to another like a monkey, at the dizzying height of 3, 4-storey building of a tree with nothing less than fun to me.
Alas, fun or not, that damn branch of the pokok bacang was not in my favor in that afternoon. It snapped when my hands were just inches away to grab hold on another branch that brought me down to the ground to some 20-something feet below. And thus, it was as good as all joints on the right hand side of my body except for the knee, were dislocated. The pain was so unbearable that put me drifted in and out of consciousness. The hardest hit was on the pelvic joint. I tell you, it’s not a good idea for you to dislocate this major ball-and-socket joint. It’s killing you. Don’t try this at home!
Did it stop me from coming back dissipating my energies on more perilous acts after the incident? Well, the word quit or repent was not in my dictionary. I was still full of zip as before, perhaps with better skills.
Telling a wounded but brave warrior to stop fighting a battle and turn effeminate is just like telling a succulent lady with passion for stitchworks to stop stitching after a needle pricks into her finger. They are not deterred.
Likewise for me, it lives on – the trait lingered. Perhaps the zest was only channeled into something else. In no doubt I would be foolish to still meddle around with trees when I got older.
“No hands…! No hands…!” as I tried to conjure up with hands off the handle of the bike. I fell off the crude wooden bridge without guard rail spanning across the swampy waterway. Not too bad to be drenched in the swamp below as the mud had cushioned up my fall but the bike fell off later right onto my head is a different story. Mind you, it was not BMX or Chopper, you know. It was Raleigh. Raleigh was like Harley Davidson for motorbikes, damn bloody big and heavy, strong enough to carry a pregnant cow. Anyway, this incident with some cuts and bruises can still be downplayed and not fit to be blown up in my resume since I have a few major motor vehicle accidents in my late teen and early 20’s.
You can imagine when I started to mess around with motor vehicles – motorbikes and cars after a measure off from bicycles. I had one ugly incident with motorbike as well. But I think this one deserves an entry of its own since I do have a long story to tell about the “tragedy”. In short, since the risk-taking attribute was still streaming in the bloodline, I did many “ridiculous” things in the name of fun – enjoying a kick from the rush of adrenaline.
This is the hardest. It was a head-on collision between my Ford Mustang and a Chevy. It brought me to the Intensive Care Unit which I was practically in the threshold of death. I had to go through surgery due to the massive internal injuries; fortunately my head remained intact. It could be fatal if the medical team did not act fast. Lucky I still live to blog this up. Lucky I did not make news in the media back then in the home country. Perhaps it would if my dead body were then flown back to Malaysia. The centipede-like of an 8-inch permanent scar on my belly serves as a very good reminder and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Well, due to age that along the way has taught me lessons together with the tapestry that decorated on my leaves of experiences, I am becoming more careful by the day in doing things with only well-calculated risk taking involved.
Whether of you are a risk taker or not, I think all of us can see within ourselves the changes that have taken places from one phase of our lives to another. We are somewhat more cautious today than 10 years ago in any actions we are taking; be it in conversations, in dealing with people, in making decisions regardless of personal, professional or family matters, perhaps in every area of life. It is essentially reflects the wisdom we are acquiring as we waved goodbye to the years passed.
As for me personally, risky moves, shoddy if you like, were long gone but not until I paid those with heavy prices. The basic trait of a risk-taker is somehow still in me but the question is how is it being channeled to suit the phase of life I am in. Doing what I am doing now, like it or not, risk taking requires a big chunk of it. To certain extent, it becomes pre-requisite to see through things effectively.
The rule of the thumb says, the higher the risk taken, the bigger the reward will be. And at the same time, the higher you go up, the higher the stakes will be and if you were to fall, the harder the impact will be.
In whatever things I am doing now, I pray to God that I don’t have to absorb the impact like the way I absorbed when I fell off from the tree in my childhood days. Or the kind of blow I received upon hitting on the oncoming car.
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10 comments:
Boys and men have this think about bikes, don't they? My husband always tell me that if he weren't married young, he'd be riding a bike!
I'm happy he's not a risk taker, but ur right, the higher the risk the bigger the reward... if ur meant for it... otherwise... we'll settle for ordinary which isn't bad, but not outstanding, of course.
It's a bird, it's a plane....it's...SuperGab!
Gab: Born to be wild
Welcome to Gab's fear factor.
Gab: Jangan tiru macam saya (iklan JPJ dan PDRM)
Have u got the right attitude to be Gab's Apprentice?
Thank God, u r still blessed with longevity. Your guardian angel mustve done a hell of a job...
Wish you a happy life Sir Gab...
Darah pendekar jugak Gab..
ker Spider-M Melesia nie..:)
Allo pendekar Gab, huhu! Jatuh pokok la pulak. Sib baik la tulang besi urat dawai. kalu dok?
Tapi betul la, masa kecik2 dulu, wat apa2 pun tak takut. tak pikir risk. Main dalam kebun getah pun relek jer. Dah besar ni, nak main dalam kebun getah pun dah takut. Ulau ler, rimau ler, pacat ler (ni yang paling geli geleman sekali), orang jahat ler. Makin tua makin banyak pikir. huhu!
Wow, a colorful array of risky adventures (and misadventures).
Things happen for a reason - whether in the physical, emotional, financial and any other realms you can think of.
Glad you turn out the way you are now for us to hear and read more of your roaring tales! ;)
Congratulations! Your have won a Thinking Blogger Award. Please collect your blog-sticker and list of rules at NJ's!
like u said.. u r older, thus hopefully wiser... ur mistakes will not only cost u.. but it will also cost/affect the ones u love. Therefore, u try to be as wise as possible for fear u may inflict ur fall on them..
but gab.. u were a nightmare when u were small!! u must have come from generations of tarzan :0)
tapi memang kalau nama aja budak lelaki... memang ganas! what a pity my boy wont be able to have chances like that..those i myself had when i was young... they r too protected these young generation
... my couches definitely bear his *keganasan* :0)
woi..u should be born to Evil Keneival.. was it you that was cought climbing the Twin Tower back in March ?
Poor me... only today I am replying to the messages left.
Thank you guys....
INTAN --> Not too bad to settle for ordinary INTAN as what security would suggest you to do. Outstanding or not, that's not the issue here. Sometimes the ordinary achieved more than the high flyers / risk takers.
MANAL --> I was mischievous when I was young Doc. My wife can testify to this since we grew up together. Pity those guardian angels, they have to work extra hours for me.
ANGGERIK MERAH --> Likewise, I wish you a happy life as well.
KOPI O --> Not darah pendekar, it was just stubborn of a kind. Hehehe
DLT --> That's the beauty of growing older, we are able to think better...
THETA --> That is right, things happen for a reason. If I didn't go thru such back then, I would have led different life course then.
NJ --> I thank you a lot for awarding me that NJ. I am humbled to the knees. I am a good sport. Of course I try not to break the chain.
SIMAH --> I have to admit I was a nightmare when I was small. That due to lack of love I received. Psychologically speaking, without me knowing I had to be doing somehing to fill up the vacuum in life that I never knew of.
And me come from generation of Tarzan? hahahahahah
DJINSAKTI --> No, not me... I was caught climbing on other things... ahahahahahah
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