The Thing Is with Steve Canavan

‘Don’t worry, relax, you’re in no danger’.

I peered down to see our rock-climbing instructor Graham smiling back up at me. He is one of those relentlessly cheerful human beings, the type who, if pulled out of a written-off car by paramedics after breaking multiple bones in a horrific high-speed motorway crash, would give the thumbs up and a cheery wave.

‘You’re pretty high up now,’ he added. ’Just watch you don’t slip – you’d have no chance of surviving’.

It was around this moment that, along with starting a new book and buying tickets for the FA Cup final, I regretted not filling out a proper will and testament.

The reason I was in this predicament was because I was on a stag do in the Lake District. The vast majority of us wanted to spend the weekend in a warm and welcoming hostelry, but annoyingly the groom is the sporty type and insisted on an outdoor activity day, beginning with climbing.

Now being outdoors is fine by me. I’m into that kind of thing myself, regularly walking from the front door to the car.

But climbing is a problem for I am - and this is putting it mildly - terrified of heights.

I’m pretty sure it stems from when, as kids, my twin sisters - five years older than me - used to hang me over the edge of the bannister. They’d hold on to a leg each and as I dangled upside down, staring into the abyss (well, the bottom of the stairs), would shout things like ‘don’t tell mum and dad we spilt Vimto on the carpet in the lounge or else you’re dead meat’.

It was a bit embarrassing as I was 27 at the time, but they’ve since apologised so I’ll let bygones be bygones.

My fear of heights is very specific and, in my opinion, very sensible, in that it only applies if there’s a chance I can fall off something and die.

So I’m not scared of being in a lift for instance because I’m enclosed. However, if I’m on the top level of, say, a shopping centre, and there’s a sheer drop to the ground floor, I get this irrational fear that I may clamber over the safety barrier and throw myself off.

Rock climbing, therefore, isn’t a great choice of activity but when on a stag do with eight other blokes you can’t really say ‘actually chaps, if you don’t mind I’m going to give the climbing a miss. I’ll wait in the cafe and nibble on some lemon drizzle cake until you’re done’.

And so it was that I found myself putting on a harness and setting off up a mountain, pretending I was perfectly Ok with what was to come and saying manly things like ‘grr, can’t wait to get up that cliff’.

It wasn’t, if you’re being picky, proper rock climbing. There were pegs hammered into the side of the mountain that we had to clip ourselves on to as we went along.

‘Now remember to always have at least one clip pegged on,’ grinned Graham, ‘otherwise you’ll plummet to your death’.

How we laughed.

This was a seriously worrying state of affairs. It was down to me to remember to attach my clips, yet I’m the sort of bloke who, if holding a dirty piece of kitchen roll in one hand and a five pound note in the other, will accidentally throw the fiver in the bin and then have to spend the next 10 minutes rooting through rotting vegetable peelings and empty drinks cartons in a bid to find it.

I’m absent-minded, which is probably the exact opposite of what you need to be when attached to a cliff-face by only two small clips.

The good news, at least for my family and close friends if nobody else, is that I didn’t die, though I did chicken out before reaching the top and had to be winched down in slightly embarrassing fashion, tears in my eyes. Indeed on the way down I passed a seven-year-old girl half-way through her ascent, who looked at me with pity, and asked if I was Ok.

I’ve learned, as I suspected, that rock-climbing is not my forte. On the upside, they did serve a belting lemon drizzle in the café.

It’s vital we react with composure and not hate

I’m a Mancunian, born in the city and raised there, and I’ve been in and out of the Manchester Arena/Victoria Station entrance scores of times.

While all terrorist attacks are upsetting and unsettling, it somehow feels worse when it’s such a familiar venue and so close to home.

The fact that the attacker selected a concert packed to the brim with teenagers and young children makes it even more depressing.

There isn’t any more I can add to what’s been said about how devastating and tragic the whole incident is.

The world seems to have become a pretty soul-destroying miserable place in the last decade or so.

We’ve had wars throughout history, 60 million killed during the Second World War. But suicide bombers, that strike in the heart of cities, in such a random and indiscriminate manner, are more disturbing.

Let’s get one thing straight. They are not Muslims representing Islam. They are fanatics, lunatics, unhinged madmen, the type who exist in every culture, who have lost all sight of what is fundamentally wrong and right.

Manchester, and the UK, is the city and country it is because of its diversity and cultures and we must never lose sight of that.

In the meantime, I’m proud to say I’m from Manchester, proud of the reaction to what happened – but devastated for the families and friends of all those who have lost their lives.

It’s vital we react with composure, control and reason though, not hate.