poetsquib.com

Some of these are mainstream, some are a bit art house

1. Flying

I haven’t always been afraid of flying. But a morbid fascination with Air Crash Investigation has assisted me greatly in cultivating this phobia in recent years

It was a wonderful splash

2. Balloons

I’m more scared of bursting balloons than balloons per se. This is because I secretly believe a bursting balloon may blind me. After a birthday party I will not pop the left over balloons directly but instead I place them under a blanket and detonate them with a pin through a blanket

3. Champagne Corks (and party poppers)

One hit me in the forehead as a child. This fear was a real pain when I worked as a barmaid

4. Bellybuttons

Since childhood I have harboured a fear that since your bellybutton is where all your skin is joined together, fiddling with your bellybutton may result in all your skin falling off somehow

5. Nuclear Holocaust

When I was a kid, my dad was part of the anti-nuclear movement and I distinctly remember hanging around at a photo exhibition of Hiroshima which he was looking after. Since then I have had a recurring nightmare that I am trying to survive the aftermath of a nuclear war, the best version of which ends up with Mary Poppins carrying me to safety with her umbrella

6. Tidal waves

Another recurring nightmare and yes I actually checked our height above sea level when we bought our house

7. Off milk

I am fanatical about use-by dates

8. Being run over by a truck while sleeping in a tent

I developed this fear on a trip across the Nullabor. I like sleeping in tents but not when you pull off the road and set up tent. What’s to stop a truckie pulling over in the same spot for a bit of shut-eye?

9. The supernatural

You will not catch me within 10 miles of a ouija board nor any movie containing elements therof. White Noise scared me to death and I watched 95% of it with a cushion over my eyes

10. Public Speaking

I’d rather have a seance on a plane while drinking milk with a year 2000 use by date