The second house I bought...
One day I noticed that the gutter was leaking, onto the flat-roof extension at the back of the house.

"Blast" I thought, "That could be expensive"

However, the gutter was that black plastic stuff, and I had a roll of black gaffer tape. Aha! A cheap fix would be mine! So, I tucked the tape and Stanley knife into my pocket and fetched my stepladder - which was one of those extending ones. Extended to its full length, it reached about 6" higher than the flat roof. I scampered up the ladder and onto the roof like a particularly graceless fat monkey with a fear of heights. Part 1 complete!

Next, I pulled the ladder up behind me, and propped it against the house. Repeating my monkey impression, I was mere inches from the gutter...

Then I looked down. I mentioned a fear of heights, didn't I? The fat, graceless monkey? Well, I really do have a bit of a fear of heights. Looking down, the ground was about a mile away. I was sure to plummet to a painful death, I could already feel myself toppling. I froze, heart pounding, palms sweating, buttocks clenching in fear terror. After about 10 minutes* I climbed back down ever so carefully, put the ladder away, and had a cup of tea.

The following week, I tried again - this time I didn't look down. I did however say "Don't look down, don't look down..." to myself over and over again the whole time I was up there. This time I successfully managed to stick the gutter back together. When I got back down to the ground the repair was invisible! Master craftsman, that's me.

Length? A whole week, with 30 seconds of work...


*It felt like 10 minutes, it was probably more like 30 seconds
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 15:35, 1 reply)

This also comes with age.
I spent a summer working with a guy who put lead on roofs. At 16 I wouldn't think twice about climbing one handed up a rickety 40 foot tripple extension ladder with a 30lb roll of lead on my shoulder.

Couple of months ago, my neighbour came round with his ladder to help fix a leaking gutter, which was maybe 20' up, I climed up that and felt distinctly uncomfortable, and get straight back down again. He fixed it in the end, I just skulked about on the ground.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 16:13, closed)