Just several of thousands...

Stepping out of a tent 14,000 feet up on the Anapurna trail and seeing all around the immense, blue, ghost images of the Himalayas by moonlight. Ethereal and absolutley magical.

Riding a horse through the utterly beautiful and unspoilt Teralj in Outer Mongolia with deer running into the woods and wild flowers everywhere.

Swimming and playing with about 100 wild dolphins in FREEZING sea off the coast of New Zealand and being so entranced and happy, I never noticed the cold.

Flying a Tiger Moth over the Cambridgeshire countryside on a perfect summer day.

Camping out on the sand in the Gobi desert, watching a lightning storm lighting up the inside of the clouds on the distant horizon while meteors shot overhead through diamond-clear skies.

Ain't life grand! :)
( dragonesque, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:54, Reply)

best moment ever..........
Waking up after a particularly horrific shunt on the bike. A driver pulled out on me and i slammed into a set of cast iron railings. Waking up in Hospital to find a multitude of stiches and surgical splints........ The most beautiful moment was the words.....'Don't worry, we won't have to take the arm off'. Bloody fantastic!
(vamp1refrog, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:54, Reply)

Newquay
Camped in Trevelgue, and me and my mates were smoking a joint, having a few beers, and the night sky was as clear as it could possibly be - shooting stars across the night sky, it was amazing.
(scentless_apprentice takes two bottles into the shower!, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:51, Reply)

I like these.
I still can't think of one that sticks out above the rest, but a few here:

- Festival called Knockengorroch the year before last, in beautiful Scottish valley, gorgeous night, Peatbog Faeries playing. Someone was lighting nightlights and attaching them to helium balloons and letting them fly off, and I was *completely* caned. Felt like I was flying.

- Coming back from London in the train, having met a girl who kind of screwed me up rather a lot. Listening to XTC - Summer's Cauldron, sun suddenly came out just before it hit the horizon, and everything just went beautiful. Sigh.

- Seeing Northern Lights for first time from the house we'd just moved into in Aberdeenshire. Lying on the grass with a whiskey and a small spliff, listening to (again) Peatbog Faeries, watching coloured lights in the sky. Mmm, yeah.

- Spending an afternoon lying in bed with Wifey about a month after we'd first met, drifting in and out of sleep with Simon and Garfunkel playing in background.

- Ceilidh dancing, new year 2003, whirling wifey around during the last dance. In fact, that might be the best moment now that I think about it.

Awaiting moment no.5, which is birth of Trumpet Jnr, due 4th August. Life is great, really.

EDIT - ooh, and a whole summer when I was 18 and on the dole. Would sign on once a fortnight, then spend the rest of the time playing tennis, sunbathing, driving my Fiat Uno around, listening to Belle and Sebastian and getting stoned. God, it was great.
(trumpet, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:38, Reply)

Yet another sunset...
...but I was 3000m up, on the edge of the Teide caldera (Tenerife), with the tops of the clouds about 1m below me. I watched the whole thing and was then amazed how clear the stars were at that altitude.

Mixed feelings about the fact that the only reason I was there was due a slave-driver of a lecturer who thought nothing of working by torchlight.
(arawn, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:33, Reply)

It was that favourite summer...
after A levels, before University, when I was truly care free. No deadlines, no hassles, just endless summer days.

At the end of the previous term I had finally plucked up the courage to ask out the girl I had become besotted with for the past 8 months.

We'd spent a wonderful day together, picnicing, listening to music, doing jobs for parents generally enjoying each others company. As was usual, we'd stayed up late snogging each others faces off and it was time for me to walk her the short journey home.

It was 1am. The air was humid. Full of the day's heat. When we arrived, we stopped just short of her house, underneath the street lamp, out of sight of her parents' window, we held each others hands and kissed each other goodnight.

Whilst we were kissing, the skies opened and it started to rain. The rain felt divine as it cooled our skin. We kept on kissing for a few more moments and then it happened. The most beautiful moment of my life.

I opened my eyes, a split second before my girlfriend did. And I saw the most beautiful image I had ever witnessed.

My girlfriend, her eyes closed, lips parted, raindrops beading on her face. All illuminated by the shimmering fluorescent light. It looked like something from a movie screen, except that it was better than a movie, because it was just for me and because it was real. And no one else would see the image I had seen, and no one else could experience what I had felt at that moment in time.

Then she opened her eyes, wished me goodnight, and ran inside from the rain.

And for the first and only time in my life, I wept tears of joy.
( fishsticks, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:16, Reply)

Student memories
In no particular order:

1. Realising that everyone liked me at uni (I was _really_ badly bullied at school) - it was a situation I didn't really have much experience of.

2. Primal Scream at Glastonbury. 11:30, pitch black but for a visual battering ram of colour coming from the stage. Then, "Higher than the Sun" - just beautiful.

3. My girlfriend changing her mind about going out with me (it was January, damn cold, I gave her my coat, I froze my arse off, I didn't care).

4. My girlfriend telling me she loved me for the first time (although my reaction was "blimey!") and vice-versa.

5. Making love in the open air.

6. Siafu ants in Ngorongoro crater.

7. Oh, listening to OK Computer for the first time, too. It cheered me up. Honest.
( Parmesan Quality b4 Quantity, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:06, Reply)

Nature
We went to the Red Sea in Egypt. Not being a diver we had gone snorkelling on the reef. This day was a bit dull as it was a bit rough and others where sea sick. We got back on the boat and spotted a fin. We spotted a small school of bottlenosed dolphins. They surfed the bow and it was bloody fantastic.

Skiing in December was just brilliant. The views and it was just fabbitty.

I got up at six one morning and went down to the ponies field. I was about an hour too late as foaly had already been born but she was still gorgeous and ohhh so cute.

My friends brought a TV with DVD player. I was v. happy and can't stop grinning as i realise what brill friends i have. :D
(/lurks], Mon 14 Mar 2005, 20:03, Reply)

awww
Me and my boyfriend, in bed, he was asleep and breathing really deep, so I gave him a little kiss and he said "I love you"....it was perfect.

Then he cheated on me and went off with some horrible private school lesbian.
(mrmistoffeles, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:40, Reply)

Firenze
2000. I was a college student taking a semester in Europe. Just finished a few months in London, which was a blast, but looking for the "find myself" moment that's in all the movies and guidebooks and such.

Here's the cheesiest and beautifullest day:

Wake up in sun-drenched apartment with surprisingly minimal hangover - chase it away completely with a glass of blood orange juice - walk to the central market - buy lunch of pesto and asiago on ciabatta (all homemade) - have a half-hearted morning in class - eat sammich - walking home, hear music - trace source of music to a park I never knew was two blocks from my apartment - stumble upon outdoor rave - notice all my friends are there - purchase ecstasy tablet - carouse - me and my friends walk to Il Tirabusco, the greatest restaurant in all of Florence, where the bushy-bearded chef recommends to me the gnocchi in leek sauce and the duck carpaccio with a couple gallons chianti - swallow my caplet - walk to Piazza della Sancta Cruce - give my ticket to the gent with the gun - hum along with no more than 6,000 others as we watch Radiohead play in the open-air of the square - realize my roommate's hot - roommate realizes I'm hot - a few hours of fireworks (figurative) - we walk the streets looking for a glass of whiskey - fall in with a group of Belgians who play saxophone - I forget where it ends, but it did.

It's hard to read/write all that whilst sitting at a desk trying to avoid faxing invoices and filing receipts and such. It makes me wonder what's happened in five years to make me lose the grit and spark I once had. Maybe it's just been re-focused - as I'm pretty content with my life in general - but, hey, enjoy it while you can, if you can.
(ZugZwang refuses to update his profile., Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:37, Reply)

Brooklyn Bridge
One beautiful spring morning on my first day in new york. Trying to fathom the subway system and ending up on the wrong side of the brooklyn bridge. so i walked back across the bridge into manhattan with the sun shining and the feeling that this was one of the best mistakes i'd ever made and thank god i'd walked out on Mrs triangle and was here without her.
( Rhubarb_Triangle, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:33, Reply)

Bungee Jump
F Amazing

Do one - now

If you are scared of heights, definately do one - it will cure your fear.

The best bit is when you reach the top of the first bounce! Those who have done it will understand ;)
( ogwen69 has returned from Reddit, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:29, Reply)

8th of July 1999
Part of a 6 week trip around the US and Canada. (from UK you see) Had just arrived in Seattle from Chicago after spending 4th of July weekend there. Me and mate hired a car and drove down to Mt St Helens (in itself a beautiful series of moments). On the way back had a look at the map and realised that we were not far from the pacific. Now being British, the size of America/Canada is quite impressive, and the distances involved over there are sometimes humbling. The desire to go see the Pacific was enforced by the knowledge that this really is a long way from home. Anyway we got to the seaside fairly late in the afternoon, and went for a paddle in the Pacific - Hit home that we were a long way away, how far we had come both individually and the bigger picture. Took loads of cool photos. Later on phoned my Ma to tell her about the wonderful day - I was watching the sun go down from the HI in Seattle and she was watching it come up tomorrow morning in Rotherham. That was pretty cool too.

In fact the whole 6 weeks was spot on.

As an aside, While I can agree with humpty that the more messy posts are fun, (and knowing him and Mrs H as I do I can fully empathise with the welsh mountain thing) isn't it a good karma thing to have some nice posts? I think so.

...off to medidtate... (well drink Grolsch anyway)

No apologies for lenght - it's the Americans fault....
( ogwen69 has returned from Reddit, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:23, Reply)

Summer of 2004
My addition to this qotw would be from the summer of 2004, being in Livingstone, Zambia. Just up from victoria falls theres a small village, it doesnt get many visitors because its a poverty stricken place but i was on a school exchange and so to an extent, thats what we were being shown. Anyway, just outside of the village is a giant baobab (really odd looking tree), with a ladder going up to it. I climbed it at about 6 in the evening, when the sun was just setting. The view was spectacular. Miles of tough savanna and at the centre of it, the Zambezi river and the spray of victoria falls, illuminated in a reddish-orange cos of the sunset. The tree's bough was scarred by the signatures and initials of previous visitors, I felt it appropriate to add my signature at this poignant moment.



This qotw is soppy, i like it.
(TheintolerableGS, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:21, Reply)

Beautiful moments you say...
Well then. Sitting with my family watching a live volcano blow its top in Costa Rica was pretty damn special. The locals had said it was overdue a bit of a bang so we'd gone up a neighbouring hill to sit and watch just on the off-chance, and after 3 hours of being rained on in the dark with the view totally blocked by nasty black clouds we were packing up to go home... but all of a sudden the rain stopped, the clouds vanished and the whole thing went boom in mind-blowingly spectacular fashion. Amazing, frankly.

Oh - and snorkelling over coral reefs in Kenya for pretty much a whole day, in no rush to go anywhere at all. That was nice.

Apart from that, good festivals are always packed with those lully moments... like me and my then girlfriend, completely arseholed after a full day of messy excess at Glastonbury, having a water pistol fight with a confused and incredibly cute 3 year old kid called Milo who'd accidentally managed to eat something trippy, and his very concerned mum. For an hour. With Squarepusher playing just round the corner.

Or... sitting on a hill for a whole day looking down on everything at the Palgowan festival (3 days, 1,500 super-friendly hippies and half a dozen soundsystems in the Galloway forest) last year - just utter relaxation in the glorious sunshine with 2 of my best mates and no contact whatsoever with the outside world.

Can't complain, really.
( Button Man ...a right bottom feeder., Mon 14 Mar 2005, 19:08, Reply)

I've had multiples...
Firstly, lying on a rooftop in southampton with my partner at the time, middle of summer. We were high up enough for everything around to fall away and not matter.

Secondly, me and a mate, around midnight, down in dorset. Went on a latenight walk to the shore. The tide stopped and the sea was flat like glass. Perfect reflectiona of the moon and sky above it and not a sound to be heard. then the freaky singing started from no where and we ran like the clappers. (which we could still hear back at our campsight, no drugs involved either...shudder) still beautiful though.
(Lemster the sound of one luma clamping, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:32, Reply)

Jackson Square, New Orleans, Christmas Carols
Each year just before Christmas, thousands of people gather in Jackson Square in New Orleans for Christmas caroling, and I was one of them in 2003. There were about 5 thousand of us, singing by candle light.

So simple. No fancy light show, no big names, no over-blown hoopla.

I usually don't recognize special moments until much later, but for some reason I knew at the time that I was part of something I would always remember.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:20, Reply)

When I was six or seven
I remember walking down the hallway in my house, the sunlight was streaming through the window making everything glow a fuzzy yellow, and I just felt so warm and light that I could fly, so I did. I floated two feet off the ground down the hallway, down the stairs, and back to my room. It was such a wonderful feeling, such freedom, that I spent years trying in vain to do it again, insisting to anybody that tried to stop me that it was possible, I'd done it before. It was more than a decade before I realised that I had been having a hallucination from a very high fever.

I have since managed to duplicate the results through other means.
(Random Ferret, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:20, Reply)

The last night of the festival
A cast party for a festival I was working at. There had been thunderclouds all day long, but they held off until exactly fifteen minutes after the festival closed. We went to one of the pub areas and listened to music and drank beer. The heavy black clouds blocked out the moonlight. Someone had brought some floodlights, but they didn't illuminate so much as blind.

It seemed like absolutely everything was going wrong (except for the beer).

Eventually, we started venturing out into the rain. There was barely any talking, just the music. I don't know who it was, but someone started dancing. Then someone else joined in. Soon I was dancing, too. I was completely blinded from the floodlights and the rain, but I could somehow tell who was around me. I didn't need to be able to see. The rain poured down and we could barely see and we all danced like wild things and the horrible night was turned into something that I still can't seem to describe. It was incredible.
(dragonrose, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:19, Reply)

Ain't nature great?
1. Standing on the foredeck of the three-masted schooner STS Sir Winston Churchill in a gale. The swell was about forty feet and the sea was grey-green with foam. I can still remember thinking how awesome the raw power of nature is.

2. Lying on a hill at night watching the Perseid meteor shower, listening to The Carpenters singing "Calling Occupants" on my walkman.
( finnbar has officially retired, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:18, Reply)

during the same skiing trip one night we were doing team games
at the top of the mountain and our hotel was at the bottom. The sun had nearly set so all the distant mountains were slightly lit but infront of us was pitch black.

We had to do the 3 mile route skiing down the mountain holing giant candles for light.

With me being near the back i could see about 40 candles infront of me showing me the way down with the mountains in the background.

It looked like a cold, peaceful ho chi minh trail
( Gaz, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 18:15, Reply)

My most beautiful moments is..
discovering the greatest sites on the web,includeing b3ta.com
(Demented Hobo, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 17:48, Reply)

My 'mazin moment
Took some shrooms (legally) and decided to go for a walk.
I live in canterbury, and theres a large hill that goes up to the university.
From the top of this hill it is possible to see the entire city, which is dominated by the massive catherdral.
On this day there were many moleste dark storm clouds, all different colours and textures...
But the amazing thing was the speed with which they were moving.
There was no wind at ground level, but it must have been blowing a gale up by the clouds because they were travelling sooooo fast.
But the sky was clear over canterbury and the cloads were coming from the direction fo the top of the hill.

Effectivly, this meant while i was in a state of mind to aprreiciate it, I had an amzi9ng veiw of canterbury as clouds Sped increably fast over the city from behind me. Quite possibly the most amazing thing i've seen.

I litterally sunk to my knees and cried because it was so beautiful.
(Orkran Mild Euphoria Ensues, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 17:36, Reply)

Storm
I was at Bath Spa Uni up on Lansdown Hill, in my room one night when I heard a bang. Then came the most spectaular thunderstorm ever. The rain was think and so heavy putting you arm out for just a couple of seconds drenched it through.

I came outside to hear everyone had put on Massive Attack's Weather Storm and were dancing in the hot rain. I looked up and all you could see was black sky and the orange-lit rain rushing towards you and the most amazing atmosphere. It was like being the only people in the world, and it made you want to cry. My friend went in and made us coffee, and me and my friends all perched on his window, watching the rain and fork lightening, listening to the track over and over, barely speaking.

You can say what you like about West Country hippies, but they sure as hell know how to construct a party out of thin air. Literally.
(niceandwarmandhot vive la résistance, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 17:21, Reply)

The Title of this weeks B3TA newsletter
Was a quote from me.

Yay Me.
( Lord Manley of Ven www.justgiving.com/manley - please?, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 17:13, Reply)

Running into the playground
with my trousers round my ankles, knife in hand. The looks on their little faces... Mmmm...

This is also the answer for last week's question.
( TV's Nosemonkey, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 17:08, Reply)

Beautiful moments
It was my first time
my second time]
my third time
as a mother
To hold them in my arms
to kiss and embrace my little angels.
(G10A9L, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 16:34, Reply)

not in any order part 3
Oh and of course babyspacemonkee
(spacemonkee77, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 16:32, Reply)

not in any order 3
-Watching St elmos fire for first time
-Listening to The Verve album in late nineties smoking a cig out of my bedroom window
-riding scooter along seafront early on a bright sunny summer morning on a spurious shopping mission, love it!
-Putting the CD into the Playstation and watching the opening credits of Gran Turismo 2 and feeling SOO excited.
(spacemonkee77, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 16:30, Reply)

After reading all
your dull, poorly written, and quite often badly spelt crap about your dull children/holidays/concerts/hills etc. I felt like I had to yak my guts up.

I did.

and it was beautiful
(you're all a bunch of twats anyway, Mon 14 Mar 2005, 16:27, Reply)