Totally OT, but with lots of older folk here who may play on ladders, I am interested in some observations:
I have never had a significant fear of heights - used to run up a ladder on our 2 storey house when I was 14 quite happily.
Yesterday I drove our kids to the Isle of Sheppey (N Kent) for some fossil hunting. I saw this coming up in the distance:
and thought "Oh Christ, do I have to drive up on that!"
Call me a woofter by all means, but I have never experienced reticence at big high bridges before. The QEII bridge (Dartford) does not bother me. Nor the Severn Crossing(s). Maybe it's the fact the Sheppey Crossing looks like God's Own Scalextric kit.
I did it and it was not too bad thanks to the side barriers being solid, but there was a little bit inside me that went "wibble".
I've also noticed I'm a lot less gung-ho about almost everything - checking and double checking everything where the outcome of failure could be bad(TM).
Age? Or conditioning?