I'm in on Saturday night when I should be out chasing skirt so might as well start a thread to keep my hands busy.

No honestly, this thread was inspired by a real incident that happened to me this morning. I was walking down town when a skip lorry swept past on my side. I noticed that the driver/operator of said vehicle had neglected to secure his skip chains.

So what I saw was a massive steel hook and chain swinging out a few yards in front of me as he passed.

Now if the swing of the chains had just happened to be a bit earlier and that steel hook had hit my head, the lights would have gone out instantly for me, I've no doubt about that.

It got me thinking what a knife edge I'm on. The most bizarre fucking accidents happen to people every day. The good lord takes you then you are no more. (I'm a cheery bastard aren't I). But it puts things in perspective.

Another one I had long time ago was fishing from a small boat in the Minch (the bit of water between the west coast of Scotland and America). We got caught in a freak storm.

I was 15 years old and we (3 of us on the boat) were really fucking lucky to make it back into shore. It makes you think about everything in a different way.

Have you had a near death experience and what kind of effect did it have on you?