Dining 100ft in the Sky....

This is the view we saw from 100 feet up in the air, dining at a table which was suspended from a crane - Anders is so relaxed, and me, well I wanted to make sure no part of me was going to fall out!!!

Having slept on the experience overnight, and the challenge of depicting something Raw, I am going to put this under that very title, facing up to and not letting the raw emotion of a fear of heights or vertigo stop me from doing something.....

When we arrived, unfortunately Dexter was not able to go up because he was too small. You needed to be 4ft 11 inches in height (and he was one of the reasons we booked it in the first place as he really wanted to do it), but he stayed below and was looked after by one of the staff who got him a huge burger to keep him happy in addition to the promise from us of a football strip of his favourite UK team! The whole trip at 100ft lasted about 30 minutes.

After being seated, Anders and I were given seats 13 & 14, we were hoisted up 100ft in the air! I was terrified as not only am I scared of heights, I also get vertigo!!!

The other diners and staff were impressed by me doing this - not as much as me though.

Of course Anders rotating his chair didn't help me!

Nor did him reclining the chair which he and the main safety chap did together, laughing and chatting - knowing that I was imagining my chair falling backwards!!! Yep, Anders thought this was really funny....

He laughed as he suggested I look down to see Dexter who was waving up at us!

No, I just kept my eyes either on my food (part of it being ((ironically for this challenge)) raw smoked salmon but didn't photograph it!), the horizon of Princes Street which was ahead of me, or Edinburgh Castle itself which was to my right if I turned my head and I did force myself to get some nice photos of the castle and Anders laughing at me!

Can you see the raw fear of terror in my face?

The ride did however include Fizz, which I drank to numb my fear and it should have had a Jo added to the front of the name of it (which I only realised when I downloaded these pictures because I was so sh** scared) - (yep and did that too, drink some alcohol that is) in the hope that it might make me less scared - it didn't, this is a raw fear and I had to let my mind process this!

I do like to show you my home city at it's best!

Yep, I am happy to be back down, although I did enjoy it and now that my mind knows that it is actually safe, I would go up again!

Yep, I am very proud of myself indeed for doing it, and getting you a prime shot of Edinburgh Castle which is a castle I see every day!

So having slept on the challenge of depicting something RAW

RAW emotion it has to be - A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling: the emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love.

Well, I did experience all of the above, fear of going up 100ft, sorrow that Dexter who really wanted to do this couldn't, reverence that Anders and the couple next to me were so at ease with the whole experience (the couple next to me were from New Jersey USA on holiday and had even been skydiving over here in Scotland the day before!), hate initially because I was so scared of the thought of being so scared of something that was only in my mind and then of course love - love of having done something for the people I love, love of myself for doing it, love of Dexter for letting us still do it and well of him and Anders it goes without question is always an instant response of love and it comes right back at me!

So rather apt that I also saw this form in the sky too....