Ever fancied hanging around the top of the tallest of buildings like you were a treetop-dwelling monkey in the Amazon jungle? Or felt you might like to see how a spider feels when it’s dangling by a thread, being swept to-and-fro by the wind and bashed against adjacent hard, unyielding objects, and all the time having to clean windows as well? You haven’t? Then scary window cleaning probably isn’t for you.
Have a look at these blokes in China, after this taste of terror up the tower they’re probably having second thoughts about their chosen career too:
On the other hand, they might still enjoy spending their days almost within touching distance of the stars of the nearer galaxies, and life at a skyscraper’s dizzying summit might still be their trip. If they can bear to tear their gaze away from the job in hand, and aren’t frozen and petrified at the panes, there are spectacular views to enjoy.
In any case, your view on spinning around 91 floors up in an out of control window cleaners’ cradle and careering around at random like a great giant’s twisting plaything might well be, “Wow, how about that? Just like being at a funfair and best of all it’s free. Let’s go round again”.
A search of Google Images here http://goo.gl/aYDtxD reveals a fearsome selection of intrepid types strap-hanging from high-rise buildings with nothing but a bucket and a squeegee for protection, and I don’t think they’d even break your fall. I’m not sure either about the efficacy of a hard hat when sitting in a cradle, rear end swinging free and pointing at the ground while suspended from the top of Dubai’s 2,722 feet Burj Khalifa Hotel either. Perhaps the hat’s got your name in it and they use it for identification purposes.
Still, if you like being out in the open air, have a sense of freedom and adventure, a good head for heights (rather obvious, that one), hanker after a bit of excitement and enjoy being the subject of admiring glances, then high-rise window cleaning might just be for you. The sky’s the limit, you know.