,
Feet firmly
rooted to the ground, my pink sneakers were certainly not going to budge, take
a leap of faith and foolishly risk life and limb by clambering into the
claustrophobic plastic/glass enclosed bubble that appeared to be precariously
hanging from the bicycle-wheel-like spokes of UK’s famous “London Eye”. Towering an
impressive 443 feet above the South Thames River Bank, and weighing a colossal
1800 tons, this massive Ferris wheel is known as the Merlin Entertainments
London Eye or simply as the Millennium Wheel.
Officially inaugurated on Dec 31st, 1999 to commemorate the
millennium, the London Eye was not fully operational or made open to the public
until March 2000. Attracting around 2
million visitors each year, the Eye offers a “bird’s eye view” of Big Ben, Canary Wharf and London Tower Bridge,
just to name a few of the landmarks which dot the London skyline, hence, most
likely, it’s appropriately unique name.
Dangling,
spinning and orbiting round and round, the 32 egg-shaped capsules are roomy
enough to hold a maximum of 25 people, all of whom had dished out around £20
for the opportunity of soaring like a bird in a glass, plastic and steel tube
like structure. Apparently neither
deathly afraid of heights nor harbouring any fears of entrapment, these
thrill-seeking adventurists (tourists, actually), queue for hours to be
willingly suspended a jaw-dropping 138 metres above the ground in a rotating
capsule. Have they completely lost their
marbles? The mere thought of the remote
possibility of plunging to an untimely demise, should, God forbid, a technical
glitch or a tempestuous gust of wind snap a cable and thus disengage the
dangling capsules from their spokes, is the determining factor which solidified
my resolve to never step foot into said capsule. Unable to extrapolate the image of my
pink-sneakered self un-elegantly splattered on the cold dank pavement below, I
cringed in horror and disbelief when the Kid abruptly announced that she’s
going to “go for the gold” and
capture that National Geographic moment in time and snap digital memories from
her vantage point at the top of the Wheel.
Yikes!!
Unable
to convince her petrified ol’ Auntie to accompany her on the 30 minute “ride of a lifetime”, my fear-less niece couldn’t race fast enough to the
queue and clamber into the confining glass dome and soar to dizzying heights of
freedom and possibility. I, on the other
hand, was cocooned in my current state of self-preservation, hoping beyond hope
that this wouldn’t be her “last ride of a
lifetime”, one that could possibly culminate in a visually unpleasant image
of blood, guts, glass and steel, mashed and smashed body parts strewn about the
concrete below. Like, seriously?? Do I
ALWAYS have to be so “over the top”
dramatic??
Needing
to “keep calm and carry on”, I therefore
bravely embraced this well-known British phrase - thus, making it my mantra of
the day - and proceeded to calm my splintered nerves by indulging in one or two
pints of Guinness, as I languished the afternoon away in one of the outdoor
pubs that lined the Thames – eagerly anticipating the return of the pink-sneakered
Kid, babbling excitedly about her sky-high adventures of the day.
Come spin around the banks of the river Thames with the Kid and
I, as we eye the London Eye and orbit round and round the skyline of merry old
London.
Next week – where do my pink-sneakered footprints end up?? Stay tuned!!
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