"there is nothing to fear but fear itself" which idiot wrote that?

I have a healthy respect for anything that can do me damage, large or small.

However I try not to let my "fears" stop me doing what I wish to do, which is what would happen if they are allowed to turn into phobias.

I have no interest to "hold" small mammals, insects(its the sudden movement that makes me jump), large or small reptiles, but do enjoy programs showing their life style.

Heights or enclosed spaces have never bothered me which must be why I enjoyed jumping out of / off of things and caving when I was younger and fitter (now perhaps I'm older and wiser ;0))

"Perhaps it is not strange that most people seem to have an aversion to leeches...is it the blood sucking or the slithering that does it?"

Like all phobias mine is irrational - I know what leeches do, and I'm aware of their medical uses; I'm even fascinated by the elegant way that evolution has ensured their survival. I'll happily let a nurse take a syringe-full of blood from my arm, so it's not that.

My phobia started - as so many do - with a single bad experience. A massive leech attached itself to my foot when I waded along a small stream in Sri Lanka and -without me feeling a thing - drilled right through my big toenail and proceeded to feed. I was concentrating on looking at the surrounding jungle, and not on my feet. I noticed the leech eventually, by which time it was enormous, and I was not happy at all - I yelled out, and my Sri Lankan guide came running. He couldn't understand why I was making such a fuss, and he removed the leech by touching it with the end of his cigarette.

The phobia was born, and you will not ever catch me going into freshwater streams or ponds in the tropics again. I braved the Borneo rain forest, but spend most of the time watching for (and spotting) leeches waving about on leaves as I passed by. It was difficult not to break into a run.

There, I've outed myself. I'm scared of leeches.

"In Malaya we always carried cigarettes in a condom to keep them dry."

In Sri Lanka I remember my father getting his cigarettes (Players) in a cylindrical tin of 50. It was sealed with a metal foil top under the lid which you opened by rotating the lid after you slid a small metal point out. This neatly cut the foil, and there were the fresh cigarettes.

I know so much about the opening technique because one day I pinched a couple and went behind the bungalow with a friend to see what smoking was all about. Severe nausea ensued.

The only thing that I recall, that really gave me a fright was landing at Kai Tak (Hong Kong) airport in one of those new model Boeings, and seeing what I thought was the aircraft falling apart as we 'hit' the runway. It was only the pilot applying the rear thrust!.

On TV's 'Doc Martin'...the Doctor...(he just can't stand the sight of blood) in one memorable hospital scene 'his escape from the ward' emphasizes his phobia.Doc Martin's desperation to get out of the ward, was really well filmed, with claustrophobic camera effects.

In a similar vein (pun intended) I cannot watch a needle getting stuck into my arm when I go for a six-monthly blood test.