Hard to please?

14 Feb 2008

As I get older, I find that I find the wow factor more and more elusive in the places I go to and the things I see. Take today for instance we took our youngest to an aquarium in a large city because he was desperate to see some sharks. It cost £25 plus parking for 2 adults and a 5 year old, we were offered no program or map and just sent on our way. We saw some nice tanks of various fish and water creatures on the way to the mediterranean section where on arrival there was a larger tank that went over your head a little but not completely. It was full of fish that were all the same so we didnt stay long and carried on trying to find some sharks. We got back to the entrance almost, where on asking, we found that the Med section we had just been to was indeed where the sharks were so returned and eventually did see 3 sharks. After this we went to the cafe which had a horrible smell in it and no one was serving at the till. We waited for about 5 minutes before someone came and then we had to sit at a table overflowing with someone elses rubbish because it hadnt been cleaned.
I left somewhat deflated by the lack of service definitely but also is it because I'm just getting older and things don't excite me anymore?
The last time I said WOW!!! and meant it was last year when I was in a different country looking at a view and the time before that again I was on the floor in New York looking up at the buildings around me.
Oh actually tell a lie...I did say Wow last year when someone showed me a pretty amazing electrical gadget and let me play with it redface

but I digress smile

Is it just me or am I getting harder to please and turning into the cynical person I have always never wanted to be sad

14 Feb 2008

Quote by firelizard
As I get older, I find that I find the wow factor more and more elusive in the places I go to and the things I see. Take today for instance we took our youngest to an aquarium in a large city because he was desperate to see some sharks. It cost £25 plus parking for 2 adults and a 5 year old, we were offered no program or map and just sent on our way. We saw some nice tanks of various fish and water creatures on the way to the mediterranean section where on arrival there was a larger tank that went over your head a little but not completely. It was full of fish that were all the same so we didnt stay long and carried on trying to find some sharks. We got back to the entrance almost, where on asking, we found that the Med section we had just been to was indeed where the sharks were so returned and eventually did see 3 sharks. After this we went to the cafe which had a horrible smell in it and no one was serving at the till. We waited for about 5 minutes before someone came and then we had to sit at a table overflowing with someone elses rubbish because it hadnt been cleaned.
I left somewhat deflated by the lack of service definitely but also is it because I'm just getting older and things don't excite me anymore?
The last time I said WOW!!! and meant it was last year when I was in a different country looking at a view and the time before that again I was on the floor in New York looking up at the buildings around me.
Oh actually tell a lie...I did say Wow last year when someone showed me a pretty amazing electrical gadget and let me play with it but I digress
Is it just me or am I getting harder to please and turning into the cynical person I have always never wanted to be

I def would have said " wow " to the prices. lol

15 Feb 2008

We took the son (aged 8 at the time) to an aquarium in france on our holidays last year me and dek were both deflated of excitement we had vouchers but it still cost around £30 for the 3 of us :eeek:
There were sharks (small ones) yes but it was nothing like we had expected and certainly no WOW factor the son enjoyed the submarine climbing frame best of all (£30 quid for him to say i loved the climbing frame) rolleyes

so your not alone i think treats like that are maybe to readily available or is the cash just easier to spend. dunno

As for the wow factor i rarely say it, last memorable time being around 18 months ago seeing my mother looking beautiful in her wedding dress,
Even OMFG moments are rare :dry: , last one being in october 07 going over the "pass of the cattle" in highlands. scotland (the highest? road in britain)in daylight for the first time oh it was scary :scared:

15 Feb 2008

I think I am pretty blessed, life does make me go wow a lot AND Kylie's new single is called "Wow" - so there! cool

15 Feb 2008

I'm with you on this one Fire, and I also think that as we mature so do our standards smile

15 Feb 2008

i went to an aquarium in Italy several years ago...it was reasonably priced and well worth it,the aquarium was massive...can't remember if it had sharks probably did though... but it had dolphins!! biggrin

i think "WOW" is the new "WTF...how much?"

15 Feb 2008

your in that 'grumpy old man/woman' age group. mad

15 Feb 2008

We had the BIG WOW!! factor at SeaWorld in Florida. it is really impressive. I cried at the dolphin displays and the whale shows,I was so overwhelmed they were amazing!
Nothing in this country makes me go WOW anymore, everything is going down the pan... rolleyes

15 Feb 2008

I am thoroughly blessed and say 'wow' daily. My son is the chief cause. But my friends make me 'wow' a lot too. At work I say good and bad 'wows'
I love my life and I am very happy.
I love the sky at night where the colours, particularly during winter, are crisp and clear. With hues of pink and blue merging with the clouds. I have a phone/camera full of different local landmarks that make me wonder at the effort that has gone to create a building that has lasted hundreds of years without our new machinery. A local landmark with a beautiful sky behind it is a double wow.
My son's excitement as he has learnt something new about people and/subjects at school. His enthusiasm about a film, console game, a friend all make me 'wow'.
Any of my friends sending me a text just to say they love me can make me 'wow' with happiness as I know they have thought about me at probably the same time I have thought of them.
My friends and I all send each other cards and letters too and they make me 'wow' too.
There is a lot to wow over. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places fire......
can I help you with your 'wow'? wink

15 Feb 2008

I definitely need to spend some time with you Splendid blink

15 Feb 2008

Whilst diving in Thailand a couple of months ago I was lucky enough to see many sights that made me think 'Wow!' (couldn't say it as I had a regulator in my mouth!) but the best must have been when diving on a wreck I saw a huge Grouper fish the size of a small car just a few feet away. It's times like that that makes a dive so special.
I watched it for maybe a minute before it slowly swam away - Wow! cool

Mal

15 Feb 2008

Quote by Mal
Whilst diving in Thailand a couple of months ago I was lucky enough to see many sights that made me think 'Wow!' (couldn't say it as I had a regulator in my mouth!) but the best must have been when diving on a wreck I saw a huge Grouper fish the size of a small car just a few feet away. It's times like that that makes a dive so special.
I watched it for maybe a minute before it slowly swam away - Wow!
Mal

Ooh you just made me remember the loads of wows I had when I did my diving course in the Red Sea about 7 years ago. Now that really was wow!!! Thank you! :thumbup:

15 Feb 2008

Quote by splendid_
I am thoroughly blessed and say 'wow' daily. My son is the chief cause. But my friends make me 'wow' a lot too. At work I say good and bad 'wows'
I love my life and I am very happy.
I love the sky at night where the colours, particularly during winter, are crisp and clear. With hues of pink and blue merging with the clouds. I have a phone/camera full of different local landmarks that make me wonder at the effort that has gone to create a building that has lasted hundreds of years without our new machinery. A local landmark with a beautiful sky behind it is a double wow.
My son's excitement as he has learnt something new about people and/subjects at school. His enthusiasm about a film, console game, a friend all make me 'wow'.
Any of my friends sending me a text just to say they love me can make me 'wow' with happiness as I know they have thought about me at probably the same time I have thought of them.
My friends and I all send each other cards and letters too and they make me 'wow' too.
There is a lot to wow over. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places fire......
can I help you with your 'wow'?

I'm with Splendid here (oo er wink

)
I particularly get wow's from landscapes/views being very lucky to live in a beautiful area with fabulous views. It rubs off on my kids cos they often say "Wow look at that fantastic view Mummy". Our Picasa is full of arty shots Blue has taken of amazing architecture with sunny backgrounds or close up's of food at local markets. I get wow's from people I know who achieve amazing things despite their handicap. I got a wow yesterday when Blue bought me home a 20p flump for Valentine's day.
And funny you mention Aquariams. I was very cross with the crap London Aquariam for an overpriced, shabby building, mingy shark tank and no baby changing facilities (it was a few years ago) and only a shite they call food MacDonald's offer at the end. Grrr.
I digress. Fire, not sure cos I've not been around much but I think it sounds as if you feeling down at the moment sweetie. kiss

I know if I have fed up periods or stuff just gets too much in RL, I see life in a different way and find more negatives than positives. Tis our human nature when things get tough. That's when I know I have to change something. Easy to say, not so easy to do though.
pink x

15 Feb 2008

I remember another specific 'wow'
Last year I went through a difficult time and really needed all of my friends to make sense of what was going on for me.
Without any note, message or warning I received through the post, from one of those friends, a bar of green and blacks chocolate. There remains a piece of it in the fridge to remind me of how wonderful people are.

15 Feb 2008

Quote by flower411
I think the best way to retain the wow factor is to try to see things through your childrens eyes.
I try to do things that are a bit less mainstream. Of course I have been known to give in and go to the zoo parks and aquariums but it is possible to do things that make your children go "Wow" without spending the earth.
A beautiful sunset or sunrise viewed from the top of a hill never fails to make me go wow !
Fossil hunting or metal detecting is a great one for the kids.
A couple of weeks ago we rode our bicycles out to the new footbridge across the new bypass and waved to the lorries
Then on the way back we played pooh sticks at the stream. (My daughter had to ask me what a "motherfucker" was because it was enblazonned across one of the bridge supports in two foot high letters) but hey !!
At Christmas we check the local newspapers to see where the best streets are for houses covered in lights and we take a drive out to have a look....Wow!!
Watch out for vintage car or bike rallies, take a picnic and go and sit on the side of the road waving to the drivers and riders...Wow !!
Take a trip to the science museum.. Wow !!
Fly a kite ..Wow !!
On Mayday, find out if there any events being organised at ancient sites, standing stones and the like. We always go to the top of Bluebell Hill in Kent to welcome the dawn. There are usually about 15 dance troops and a "Jack in the Green"
Last year one of the troops was all female and they were wearing extremely short skirts with black fishnets and boots and very loose fitting tops ....WOW !!

Flower!!! today I think I love you rotflmao

15 Feb 2008

Quote by firelizard
Ooh you just made me remember the loads of wows I had when I did my diving course in the Red Sea about 7 years ago. Now that really was wow!!! Thank you! :thumbup:

I think you are a WOW kind of person Fire kiss

You just forget you are lol

Even in your initial post you 'WOW' lol

You took your son because he's nuts about sharks, you straight away latched onto his enthusiasm, grabbed it and ran with it, taking him to see some. You took him to see them, not because you personally particularly wanted to visit an aquarium, but because you wanted to see his enthusiasm even more!!
The reason you wanted to see his enthusiasm more is cos you WOWed at his initial interest, not only wanted to please him, but wanted to WOW with him.
Am I right so far? lol

:smug:
The shame is, the whole experience was a total let down - which feels even more so when you're so geared up for a big WOWEE time confused

Now you've got a memory, at the moment one that just thinks what a rip off - which will develop into a 'do you remember that time we went off to see some sharks, expecting a hungry 30 foot great white to be looking at us, and all we got was the bored tiddlers' :lol2: both cheesed off, and both feeling the same........ maybe go out and buy a shark dvd, sit down and watch it together, not quite the same as seeing them in rl, I don't imagine, but it would probably still feed his interest, more so when you're sat there just as interested............... just gets a tad boring when they play the bluddy dvd over and over and over rolleyes

So Fire, from the little I have met you, I don't think you're jaded, far from it, you always come across as so bubbly and sweet. You just had a total let down with an event that you wanted to be a perfect exciting day out for you both :therethere:
Haven't really answered the question tho have I :undecided: I do think that a lot of places are a rip off - but I think that is cos we're older and harder to scare or surprise (excluding partners that leap out of cupboards in the dark mad

). Kids do seem to be a lot easier to WOW, and I do feel they feed off of adult enthusiasm...
For example, was only reminded of this yesterday by youngest and her mate. Took them over the forest ages ago, I was flying my kite and thought they might like to have a couple of hours playing. Trouble is, they're quite girly girls and like to talk about make up and fingernails n stuff rolleyes

and quickly got bored of the forest.
Long story short, I was so busy concentrating on kite, the two girly girls had got themselves in a load of bog :shock: Not happy bunnies, especially the time I chose to see what they were girly screaming at was the moment the mate lost her footing and fell in the bog, and my angel tried to run out of it and left her shoe behind :shock:
I couldn't stop laughing, sympathy zero rotflmao

I got em in the car still with no sympathy and tears running down my face, drove mate home and apologised to her mum for returning swampy instead of the crushed velvet angel she had left me with confused

Only yesterday they were talking about it again. The memory had changed from being peed off cos all mucky, to one of the best days they had ever had in the forest, sooooooo funny, and can we go do it again one day :shock:
Trouble is, it's one of those things that can never be repeated, they've forgotten they were peed off, and peed off with me for being too busy with my kite to save them!!! They just remember the funny bog and all the laughing
So maybe our childhood WOW memories are just that, because we forget about the boring bits, the rubbish bits, and only remember the more rare bits that did make us go WOW. Add up all those less often WOWs over one childhood, and you've just got a bunch of memories that were nothing short of little miracles? dunno

Can't concentrate now, cos writing about swamp kids has set me off laffin again :lol2: They were just so horrified at the time :lol2:
So anyway, where was I......

15 Feb 2008

Bluddy ell evil

now it looks like I've just done a copy of Flower411s post :lol2: only not anywhere near as ....... can't think of the word (when someones written loads more examples in a better way?)
Flower, you must've had a head start!!! poke

I'm gonna ask admin for a button that can move posts, so I can move my near identical one to before yours :lol2:
Still trying to think of that word confused

15 Feb 2008

Fire,

......Just keep swimming. wink

15 Feb 2008

The perfect picture :lol2:
and thank you winchy, the words I was looking for were succinctly (blast, already forgotten how to spell it rolleyes

) and eloquently.
I meant what Flower said! lol

15 Feb 2008

The first words spoken in that film are Wow wink

15 Feb 2008

Quote by Mal
Whilst diving in Thailand a couple of months ago I was lucky enough to see many sights that made me think 'Wow!' (couldn't say it as I had a regulator in my mouth!) but the best must have been when diving on a wreck I saw a huge Grouper fish the size of a small car just a few feet away. It's times like that that makes a dive so special.
I watched it for maybe a minute before it slowly swam away - Wow!
Mal

:scared: I just couldn't be underwater where there were any fish that might touch me or get too close :cry:
We had lots of 'wow' moments at Florida Seaworld, at a distance, watching the whales. I was brave enough to stand at the side of the dolphin pool but ran away (yes, ran redface

) when one came to the edge to be petted confused

Our most recent 'wow' moments were at the museum in Cardiff.

15 Feb 2008

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post in this thread you are all lovely!
Missy you were spot on in your post :thumbup: and as usual very entertaining lol

Winchy, I know I can rely on you always for some visual gratification cool

Flower, I meant I love you even more today :P

15 Feb 2008

Quote by firelizard
Is it just me or am I getting harder to please and turning into the cynical person I have always never wanted to be

I seem to be at the other end of the scale from you Fire.
With feeling a little pressured from life in general as I get older, im more easily pleased.
Then again, maybe my standards are just slipping(cant be arsed sort of way) confused

Louise xx

15 Feb 2008

Quote by splendid_
I remember another specific 'wow'
Last year I went through a difficult time and really needed all of my friends to make sense of what was going on for me.
Without any note, message or warning I received through the post, from one of those friends, a bar of green and blacks chocolate. There remains a piece of it in the fridge to remind me of how wonderful people are.

Splendid that sounds lovely and you my dear need this smackbottom

get your bluddy fridge cleaned out that bit of chocolate must be minging by now if you got it last year :shock:

15 Feb 2008

Flower, I think I want to be one of your children biggrin

I think the older we get, the more we have seen and thus our standards are raised.
This is a poor example but the best I can think of at the minute LOL lol

,
Imagine, years ago you never magpies as they were shot to almost extinction, and the nearest you got to a Magpie was looking at Mick Robertson, Jenny Hanley and Tommy Boyd on a Tuesday night.
If you did see a real live magpie, you though wow!! (or I did anyway, because they are stunning birds) then you though "oh cr@p....one for sorrow!!" Then they banned the shooting of them and they multiplied.
Now wherever you look there are magpies, chackering away at the top of their beaks, and you have to wonder what the significance of 15 magpies is if one is for sorrow, two is for joy etc!!
You search for something to throw at then when they start their racket at 5am, and we are no longer impressed.
I suppose its the same with day out attractions, they keep making things bigger and better and making more species, environments and situations even more accessible by bringing them directly to us, and screwing us in the price at the same time.
One of the best wow places, and I highly recommend it, if anyone ever goes to Edinburgh, is a place called "Our Dynamic Earth" and its the most amazing hands on, touchy-feely exhibit laden place imaginable, with stuff all about the earth from its arrival in the solar sytem, to the polar regions, the rainforests, seas etc.
Theres a iceberg in the middle of one room, and in another a rainforest that pours with rain in a simualted monsoon......wow...just wow!!
Fire, I hope you find your wow soon hun kiss

If anyone deserves it, its you!

15 Feb 2008

I'm having the most ridiculous visions of Mrs B as an "adult baby" right now confused

15 Feb 2008

Quote by winchwench
I'm having the most ridiculous visions of Mrs B as an "adult baby" right now

you have started early today haven't you... back away from the alcohol.

15 Feb 2008

Quote by splendid_
I'm having the most ridiculous visions of Mrs B as an "adult baby" right now

you have started early today haven't you... back away from the alcohol.
:cry:
Yes Miss Splendid......although I was so looking forward to drizzling it over your gently quivering abdomen.

15 Feb 2008

Quote by winchwench
I'm having the most ridiculous visions of Mrs B as an "adult baby" right now

you have started early today haven't you... back away from the alcohol.
:cry:
Yes Miss Splendid......although I was so looking forward to drizzling it over your gently quivering abdomen.
sorry wenchy... for a silly moment there my alter ego had use of the keyboard..... drink up.
quivering would suggest muscle tone.. think more... wobbling

15 Feb 2008

great post Fire,
As a mature(being kind to myself) guy I find that I am harder to please in many respects but my values have also changed so my wow button is pressed by the natural rather than the material.
I have a thing about value for money and usually am not shy in pointing out to providers when their product is shoddy and £25+ I expect a full half day or days attraction with sufficient entertainment to hold mychildrens attention throughout the period. Examples of venues where this is achieved would be Warwick castle on a day where they hold medi-evil(sp?) events. The science museum in London is out of this world.
However creative man is he can never recreate the wonder of seeing the sun rise over a beautifully calm azure blue sea where you can actually see the curvature of our beloved there was the moment after a hard days skiing when post shower i walked on to the balcony of the apartment and was greeted by the wall of snow covered mountains directly opposite covered in a bright golden orange glow as it reflected the setting sun's hues...that truly was breath taking.
However these days I find my ass cheeks tighten and my heart warm by the sight of a smile wiping away the hurt on a tear filled face, by the sound of a laugh deafening the sound of a tormented sob, to see children letting their natural talent explode in a school xmas presentation. As we get older we have such a capacity to make the world a better place for others ... from there comes the wows to end all wows in the very best land of wows.

Are you sure?