Going to Extremes

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Simon Mason

(') said:

I wouldn't have put my daughters through what he did, although I can
see his point to a certain extent. His children will get a mental
strength and self reliance from the experience,

Self reliance! He wouldn't let them make one decision for themselves. He
wouldn't even let them decide what they ate for lunch, for heaven's
sake! And when he appointed his seventeen year old daughter as
navigator for a day, he over-rode her every decision. He wasn't
training her to be self reliant, he was training her to be an obedient
and submissive sheep for some similarly abusive man to bully in due
course.

Well, I didn't see it totally that way. I saw him shouting "you can do it"
when they were flagging and generally pushing them on when all they wanted
to do was give up. They will learn *something* from that.

--
Simon M.

Simon Mason said:

Well, I didn't see it totally that way. I saw him shouting "you can do it"
when they were flagging and generally pushing them on when all they wanted
to do was give up. They will learn *something* from that.

Quite possibly that just because you /can/ do something, doesn't mean
you should, or you'll be pleased you did.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Simon Mason said:

I don't know, but I bet there were times in your Audax career when you went
through worse than them, but I bet you look back on it now with pride that
you did what so few people are capable of doing.

But there is the knowledge underlying Audax that though you might not be
having a great time right now in this headwind driven sleet, it was your
idea to start with, you know very well you have the experience to get
through, and you had seen the weather forecast so only have yourself to
blame.

I was staying in a bothy once on a truly nasty weekend, decided to stay
in and play cards, a younger, keener chap went out in what struck me as
an experiment to see if humans can be dissolved by rain, but he
eventually came back, declared himself well pleased with the day and
derided the card players, pointing out we should be ashamed of ourselves
and that there were deprived kids in inner city areas who'd give their
right arms to be in an amazing place like that. We pointed out that if
he could teleport a representative bunch of kids in from a deprived
inner city area it would be entirely likely that the only reason they
wouldn't want to be teleported straight back where they'd come from
would be a certain degree of willingness to stay a few minutes to beat
the living [censored] out of him if they found out he was responsible...

I've had Completely [censored] days doing most of the things I profess to
love, but I've got a big store of better days, including some all time
highs, to compare them to. If I'd been taken on those bad days as an
introduction to the activity and understood that to be representative
then I'd have not been back.

As a mountaineering friend of mine often remarked when someone joked
about an epic as "character building", "what part of my character does
it build, and do I necessarily want it to be any bigger?".

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

His children will get a mental strength and
self reliance from the experience,

I didn't see the programme, but from the sounds of it, if they've any sense
they'll use that self-reliance to tell him to bugger off if he ever
suggests such a trip again.

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience? In this case it has got everyone talking about it, so it may have
achieved the desired effect. Who knows, there may be a whole bunch of stuff
on the cutting room floor that make him look like a more balanced and
caring individual. After all, it would hardly match the title "Going to
Extremes" if they showed a whole load of shots of them stopping every few
hours for chocolate cake at every tea shop.

Graeme

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience? In this case it has got everyone talking about it, so it may have
achieved the desired effect. Who knows, there may be a whole bunch of stuff
on the cutting room floor that make him look like a more balanced and
caring individual. After all, it would hardly match the title "Going to
Extremes" if they showed a whole load of shots of them stopping every few
hours for chocolate cake at every tea shop.

This is quite likely actually. I distinctly remember a program that was
"celebrating" John Peel's 60th <?> birthday, which included an interview
with him. During the interview he made some comment about his kid not
tidying his room. The editing was done so as to show this out of
context, at which point it came across as incredibly insulting and,
unsurprisingly, resulted in his kid not speaking to him.

He made another program off his back in which he apologised to his kid
in front of the nation for a crime which he didn't really commit.

Someone in the Beeb's editing suite clearly has a grudge against Mr
Peel.

Jon

Simon Mason said:

when they were flagging and generally pushing them on when all they wanted
to do was give up. They will learn *something* from that.

How to kill your own father with a chainsaw, perhaps?

--
Hackers do it with all sorts of characters.

"Helen Deborah Vecht" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I don't know, but I bet there were times in your Audax career when you

went

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

through worse than them, but I bet you look back on it now with pride

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

you did what so few people are capable of doing.

I was an adult and had chosen to do my audax rides myself. I did not
impose them on anyone else, much less those below the age of consent.
(Actually, I would often argue that kids of >10 can give valid consent
to many things.)

Well, I remember a few years ago that you "had a go at me" for ferrying my
children 3 miles to school in the car when it was snowing or pouring with
rain etc. You said get them some waterproof clothes and let them walk there
;-)

--
Simon M.

Simon Mason said:

Well, I remember a few years ago that you "had a go at me" for ferrying my
children 3 miles to school in the car when it was snowing or pouring with
rain etc. You said get them some waterproof clothes and let them walk there

Is a 3 mile walk quite the same thing as riding a bike across Europe
over a whole winter?
Also, do they have to be in school anyway, and is that the same answer
as do they have to ride across Europe?

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Graeme" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience? In this case it has got everyone talking about it, so it may

have

Quoted message said:

achieved the desired effect. Who knows, there may be a whole bunch of

stuff

Quoted message said:

on the cutting room floor that make him look like a more balanced and
caring individual. After all, it would hardly match the title "Going to
Extremes" if they showed a whole load of shots of them stopping every few
hours for chocolate cake at every tea shop.

Judging by his kids faces I doubt if there's much footage of their happy
beaming faces lying around!

"Peter Clinch" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason said:

Well, I remember a few years ago that you "had a go at me" for ferrying

my

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

children 3 miles to school in the car when it was snowing or pouring

with

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

rain etc. You said get them some waterproof clothes and let them walk

there

Quoted message said:

Is a 3 mile walk quite the same thing as riding a bike across Europe
over a whole winter?

Looking at some of the obese kids around here, then yes!

--
Simon M.

Graeme said:

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience?

Given that it always seemed to be raining, I'd suggest editing was a
culprit.

Also, it seemed to take a month of Sundays to get from Cherbourg to
the Normandy Beaches and then to Mont St Michel, and then all of a
sudden they were in Spain.

Since the whining started at the mere idea of being seen with their
parents as they departed, I'd suggest that a bit of character building
was needed.

--

Cheers,

Al

in message <[email hidden]>, Graeme

(') said:

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

His children will get a mental strength and
self reliance from the experience,

I didn't see the programme, but from the sounds of it, if they've any
sense they'll use that self-reliance to tell him to bugger off if he
ever suggests such a trip again.

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience?

Oh, yes, I think so. The guy cannot have been as bad as he was made to
appear - he appeared a total monster.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; may contain traces of nuts, bolts or washers.

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Wait a minute. If you folk saw this on TV there must have been a
camera crew following them around. Does that mean they were paid money
to let the camera crew film their holiday? Would what the camera crew
wanted have had any effect on the way they behaved?

I thought that the film crew might have been tempted to give the small
girls a lift when it got tough.

Chris Malcolm said:

Graeme said:

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

His children will get a mental strength and
self reliance from the experience,

Quoted message said:

I didn't see the programme, but from the sounds of it, if they've
any sense they'll use that self-reliance to tell him to bugger off
if he ever suggests such a trip again.

Quoted message said:

Is it at all possible that the programme was subjected to the common
practice of editing to make it more appealing/controversial to the
audience?

Wait a minute. If you folk saw this on TV there must have been a
camera crew following them around. Does that mean they were paid money
to let the camera crew film their holiday?

Dunno, do CH4 normally pay people to do documentaries on them? It's more
likely that the people that are the subject of the documentary contacted
CH4, so perhaps not.

Quoted message said:

Would what the camera crew
wanted have had any effect on the way they behaved?

There's only so much you do to to please the camera, after a bit you'd
probably stop caring or acting in a way other than the way you wanted to
act. No one could pander to the camera for so long. So methinks it's genuine
behaviour, albeit it could have been heavily cut to make the father seem
like an [censored].

--

Burning_Ranger

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