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Ever since I can remember I was taller than everyone else, in school, at University, in Newcastle, in Bondi Beach, in wrestling, in bodybuilding, in Asia.
Being tall has made my life rather different from most other peoples lives...
... try being taller than doorframes for instance. Every time you enter a doorway you have to duck to get inside. I used to be very self concious of this as a teenager and used to fake a cough or some such every time I walked through a door, so I could lower my head without appearing to duck through the doorway. Riduculous as it seems now, in my early teenage years, I used to think I was too tall.
In my later teen years I worked out that there was no such thing as being too tall only there was such a thing as everything was too small. I was alright, everything else had a problem.
Thankfully that is in the past - as are the idiots in Australia who want to start trouble because you are different in any way.
Doors And Tall People.
Bigger And Taller Than A Doorway
Athough I never got any taller, I got bigger with my wrestling and bodybuilding training. It became a joke for me to not only be too tall for the door but in some narrow doorways I had to turn sideways a little to get my shoulders through too. Or for fun I would just walk into the door frame and let my shoulders bounce me back, then walk forward into it again all the meanwhile calling for help to the people in the room as I could not get in.
I actually started working at the Maroubra Junction Hotel (bucket loads of trouble) when the owner sent the manager a request to find someone big to manage the security there - and clean up the crowd (and image). The hotel had a reputation for being a bloodbath and heroin dealers hangout. The reputation was entirely deserved.
Back to the story at hand - the manager was happy to report he had found someone for the door, in fact he had found a 'door', a new guy taller and wider than the doorway of the pub - me.
Beds and Tall People.
When I was training in the Australian Army the barracks had small steel beds with steel head rest and foot rest. Fantastic, the beds were about 6'2" tall - that left me about 8 inches short.
My corporal came in the first morning to wake us up (before sunrise of course) and burst out laughing when he saw I had to dismantle the small bed to sleep on it - I had to take the legs and headrest and footrest off and place the remainer on the floor. He was laughing the whole time and gleefully pointed out it was the first time he had seen someone have to literally make his bed in the morning.
Small bed continue to be a problem when staying in hotels when travelling for work. Sometimes the bed has a bed head or footrest at the end of the bed, and I need to hang my feet over the end of the bed. Either I sleep like a foetus, which works if I am drunk, or on a king or queen size I can sleep diagonally, otherwise I pull the mattress of the bed and sleep on the floor.
Another problem I encountered recently when shooting the French Film L'Ille Aux Tresors was beds we were put in at a 5 star resort (not a good idea for me - the food was terribly overpriced). The beds were single and quite soft. With my weight if I lay anywhere but the exact center of the bed the under mattress would slowly give way, leading to me slipping off the bed all night long - this sucked big time - I successfully requested a transfer to the cheaper beach bungalows down the road - much to the joy of the accounts department.
Cars and Tall People.
Small cars used to be a major problem for me, but now since I do not own a car and use vans, buses and planes for long distance travel it is not a major concern if I have to squeeze into a car for a short journey.
Funnily enough it was the Asian cars that always had the most head room in them in Australia. The cars from GM Holden and Ford Australia where stupidly built much smaller inside even though overall they were a much bigger car. Australians are generally recognised as a tall, well built people - so which planning department was thinking of their customer base here?
If I have to travel in a small car for an extended length of time (over 1 hour) I start getting pains in my knees and have to stop the car get out and straighten my knees, this makes the pain go away but it returns again shortly thereafter and increases in intensity until I have to stop again. Funnily enough I do not get this as I sit and type this blog, but then I fidget a lot, get up and cook, move around constantly.
So that is a little of what my life is like being tall, some would even say too tall (Too tall for what exactly?). You get used to it after a while though it does pose major problems for my posture, bending down all the time causes me to slouch more, this then leads to atrophied back, spinal, muscles and then back pain.
To counter this I do deadlifts in the gym often and try to pay attention to my posture and stand up straight and sit up straight at every opportunity - like a soldier on parade.
If you are tall be proud. Don't try and hide, being tall is a genetic gift.
I have also found recently that cutting up and loosing all the excess fat off my midsection has naturally improved my posture a lot. I find myself walking taller, with a better posture, in fact I believe I look far more handsome like this.
Let's see how many girls try to pick me up now ;)
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