h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh, sweetheart.

I am good, between jobs which should be scarier than it is, and with a pile of things that I have been putting off that I really have to do. But all in all, I am fine. I did wonder about blagging a trip to Seville....

B

Really? Well Blues Shark and SLG are here right now. You are certainly welcome.

I've heard that London-Seville flights are going for as little as 99 euros return atm.

az

Sounds like you have a lot on, at the moment, so probably better not.

Take care....

B

Oh, not terribly so much 'on'. Other than a dying cat, which is breaking my heart. Blues and SLG are leaving on Saturday. Noggin is coming in September. Up to you really.

I hope you know I wouldn't offer if it wasn't sincerely meant.

I'm really not very polite you know!

az

Were you serious? About the suicide option?


az

Perfectly. I mean, it's always an *option*, right? It's just one that, because of some aforementioned circumstances, has occurred to me rather more often and rather more forcefully recently.

I wonder sometimes if I'm the only one - doesn't *everyone* who stands on top of a cliff fantasise a bit about what it would be like to jump off? Doesn't everyone who paraglides occasionally think "all I need to do is unfasten this buckle and lean forward and it's a minute of exhilarating freefall then goodnight..."? I know I do. I've just been doing it a bit more recently...

H.

I used to sometimes get that fantasy when I lived in an apartment with a large balcony on the 26th floor in Toronto, but it wasn't actually connected with any desire to kill myself. It was more a 'what if. . .?' sort of thing. Like once in the glassware department of a huge department store I suddenly got a mental image of myself racing up and down the aisles and knocking everything off the shelves with my bag. But these are more unbidden thoughts. I think that seriously considering suicide is not as random as just suddenly thinking you could jump off a high cliff while standing there. There is a more obsessive quality to suicidal thoughts.

Anyhow, sorry for being a bit pushy on the other thread. I didn't mean to pry. You just took me by surprise and I got quite upset.


az

I was reminded of this conversation when I recently took two friends out for a weekend of travelling around the south of Spain in a car I borrowed from a friend of mine. Neither of them drove, so it was up to me to be the sole driver, and it was the first time I had driven in about ten years (very stupidly I thought this wasn't going to be a problem . . .)

Anyhoodle, whilst white-knuckling it along some very steep windy mountainous coastal roads (with sheer drops on one side) I *did* get those very same thoughts, like *what if* I just suddenly let go of the steering wheel, stuff like that (which at that point would have at least put me out of my misery!)

Meanwhile, I do know I don't have any sort of death wish, yet those thoughts occurred to me nonetheless.

So perhaps they are just random thoughts rather than an indicator of what we would actually like. What do you think?


az