When it comes to adventure of the extreme sports variety I am more than happy to sit on the sidelines watching the action (or in this case watching the video). I’d love to be up there lost in the beauty of the surroundings but my abdominal muscles go into spasm at just the thought. As you can see and that was relatively flat.
© irene waters 2016
My brother on the other hand doesn’t seem to bat an eyelid as he goes at speed down the slopes of what looks like lethal declines. Does this mean I am not adventurous? This is the question Charli has asked us to ponder in our flash fiction this week where she prompts:
March 23, 2016 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write an adventure, experienced or witnessed. Explore your own ideas about what makes an adventurous spirit. Is it in the doing? Does standing witness count, and if so, how? Be adventurous!
Respond by March 29, 2016 to be included in the weekly compilation.Rules are here. All writers are welcome!
Adventure is normally associated with daring and risk and certainly skiing on these slopes satisfies both those criterion. However, most of us take risks of varying degrees daily. Do these constitute adventure? Back in 2014 I posted about risk taking and adventure as did blogger Geoff Le Pard.
The biggest adventure I undertook was throwing in my job and moving to a remote island in the Vanuatu group of islands. It was an adventure but I didn’t see it as a risk (at least not when we made our decision to to go). We had minimized our risk and so all that was left was adventure but is it adventure if there is little or no risk. Would I have gone if I’d know what lay in store for us and would I have agreed to take those risks that unfolded as we settled into our life there. Our adventure turned into a Nightmare which has affected every day since. Not in a destructive way that prevents me from functioning but it has changed my thinking, made me cynical about life, tourism and humanitarian aid. Sometimes I wish it was not so but it is. Has it stopped me from having adventures. I don’t think so. The number of adventures has declined but I put that down to age rather than anything else. In fact I am planning my next adventure now, my feet want to get moving.
Chocolate Bacon Bomb Pie
“Come with us. It’ll be an adventure.”
“No I’m happy here.”
“You are so boring.”
“I don’t care. The weather isn’t going to be too good. Dangerous for canyoning.”
“Come on.”
“Nope.”
“Okay wimpy Wanda. Have it your way.”
“When will you be back?”
“You gona come and rescue us, eh Wimpy. Fat chance. Wanda is a scaredy cat.”
Wanda shrugged her shoulders, turned and went indoors to the kitchen. Tonight would be individual beef wellington followed by chocolate bacon bomb pie. Now that’s an adventure for a non cook.
“Just hope I can move to rescue you later.”
And in case any of you are adventurous the recipe for chocolate bacon bomb pie is here
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I think that recipe is very adventurous, Irene. Have you tried it? I’m not that keen on cooking, but I’d rather be adventurous cooking than canyoning. I couldn’t even watch the video! 🙂
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I’m with you there Norah. My brother tells me he had the first serious fall he has had in ages the other day. Watching the video now makes me even more nervous. I haven’t tried the recipe but I thought I would pass it on to the cook in the family. It sounds different and could be interesting and a little adventurous.
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I hope your brother is okay, Irene. Even small falls can result in serious injury.
I look forward to hearing the outcome of the cooking adventure! 🙂
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Adventurous! It is nuts… bacon and chocolate blllughhh! But I’d make mustard pecan marshmallows before I went near the edge or even stood on a ladder. You always twist the challenges superbly, i have had visitors staying so didn’t get this done but I will have a go next time.
Well done.
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I’d probably think twice about the edge or the mustard pecan marshmallows. Thanks Ellen. Visitors although great to have can throw out the posting although I think I noticed you may have made it in adventurous timing. I haven’t got there yet but will visit soon.
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Yes I did but too rushed i fear, never mind I gave it a shot. 😇
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The Vet has a bacon brownie recipe to die for so must be based on the same flavour combo. As for the flash spot on, adventures come in many guises. Today the MIL, having had a hip replaced 2 weeks ago came down stairs for the first time. Woo hoo, now that was an adventure for all of us. And thanks for the shout out; I’d forgotten that post. I may just repost it!
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In that case I am going to have to get Roger to give it a go. I am not quite as adventurous as my protagonist but then again I wouldn’t go canyoning either.
Downstairs is a great step forward. Hope she recovers quickly. Charli’s prompt prompted my memory. It was a good post Geoff so you should repost it. 2014 seems such a long time ago and so few people would remember reading it but it is a shame to let them die in the wordpress dungeon.
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I had about 10 followers back then!
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What a fertile imagination you have! Every cooking escapade is an adventure for me, so I think I’ll take my chances with the kiddie car!
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I’m with you but the kiddie car terrified me and my nephew was bored to tears wanting me to go faster and challenge his father and little brother to a race. Not sure where I want to take my adventures….
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Interesting. I think of you as extremely adventurous. Always have. All your travels? Dropping everything and moving to a remote island? That is what I’d consider adventurous. I don’t think risk has to be a part of adventure, necessarily.
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I agree. Life is an adventure and if you are living hopefully you are adventuring in some form or another.
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My biggest adventures concern standing up for my own convictions even when not popular. Especially true when any administration for which I’ve worked has gotten touchy that I won’t tout the company line. Not advice I’d give anyone else, but I follow my integrity to the peak and down again.
Irene you do look a wee scared on the back of that ridey thing but the little guy in front seems calm – and he seems to be in charge.
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I have a comic that I cut out and put a magnet on my stove vent:
(from “Rhymes with Orange” by Hilary B. Price tilted: Dinner for two; ‘the woman is saying to the man…): “Bon Appetit — The name of this dish is “I’m going to follow a recipe next time”
And the joke in my house is that even when I follow a recipe, I don’t!
Today it seems you can find bacon in everything! From soap to chewing gum.
I prefer Turkey Bacon. Now I have to look at your recipe 🙂
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I’ve never heard of turkey bacon. If you try it let me know what it is like.
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Not much different I think than real stuff…just a substitute for those who don’t eat pork products.
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I have kinestetic memories where I can feel what something was like. I look at that video and I remember that descent. Back in the day I was a black diamond skier and that video is about the equivalent of a run we called “Six” at Kirkwood where I grew up. Summers were spent in the store, on horseback or in logging camps, but winter was downhill skiing. No way I could do that now. Ah, but I remember…and therein lies the thought that such adventures can be had in the imagination. Yet YOUR adventure terrifies me! The uncertainties, the unknowns…yes, to each man his own adventure (and of course, in the gender reverse). I’m laughing at your flash fiction! I consider myself a foodie adventurer yet I have not done the choco-bacon combo yet! Brilliant!
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It must be an exhilarating skiing down something like that but not (even in my younger days) would I have done that. Yes each to his own adventure. Glad you smiled at the flash.
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I’m more of a calculated risk taker. I learned to ski early so felt confident when I skied that slope. I know some people who’d slap skis on and go for it whether or not they knew what would happen next. Those are the pioneering adventurers!
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Or just plain stupid. One of my nephews (the youngest 10) skis the most difficult slopes with ease, the elder I think has his aunt’s fear but being a boy of thirteen does not want to admit that in front of the youngest. He’d be happier on the gentler slopes. I agree – I’m a calculated risk taker also but I firmly believe that if you don’t want to do it don’t be talked or forced into doing it.
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Agreed! We should each be allowed to pick our own adventures!
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