My friend took me rock-climbing the other day.  Outdoors.  I’d had visions of hiking for hours in the pouring rain and then climbing a gruelling and terrifying multi-pitch route.

But in fact – contrary to the weather forecast – it didn’t rain.  Neilston quarry turned out to be the perfect height for scaredy-cats and there was no need for any multi-pitch stuff.    I had two moments where I was picturing my own death but I think that was more due to an overactive imagination than any actual danger.

And then, just when it was getting to the point where I was thinking it would be nice if quarries came equipped with coffee-shops, the guys next to us asked if we wanted a cup of tea!  Tea?  Out in a quarry?  Oh yes.  They had a little stove.  It was good, it was fast.  And they gave us sweet black tea and a slice of madeira cake.

Nice.

Last time I was climbing was in January. I didn’t think I was missing anything by not going, because I’ve had lots of other exciting things to do instead. But yesterday I went for a climb because a couple of friends (R and Ninja1) wanted to go.

Good thing about yesterday’s climb:
- all the serious climbers were climbing outdoors, and all the students were away, so there was lots of space
- Ninja1 picked up the basics quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen, and LOVED it. Nice to see a new convert being so enthusiastic about something you love.
- I got to climb again! And I can still do it! And it still makes me feel good!
- I now have two new belay slaves (oops I mean climbing partners) which means more opportunities for climbing throughout the summer

One of the world’s best natural highs is that feeling you get which is a combination of adrenalin, physical exercise, and the happy feeling of having faced a challenge and overcome it. Oh and being with people who are fun to be with, that is the icing on the adrenalin-cake.

Yippee! Its good to be alive!

I went to a capoeira class. Its a martial art which has intrigued me for years. I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time to dedicate to getting really good at it, but it was fascinating to get an insight. Things I liked about it:

- its a martial art

- its about music

- its about community

- the words are Portugese and Portugese is cool

- fighting isn’t aggressive; its a game

- it has an acrobatic element (new opportunities to be upside-down!)

All my life I’ve wanted to be able to do a backflip.  Or any sort of flip – except a pancake-flip which although kind of cool is not the kind of cool I’m willing to work at.

I can do a cartwheel and a round-off mainly because they were things I could practise as a kid without much risk of landing on my head.  And now that I’m no longer a kid (apparently), I reckoned I’d missed my chance at ever being able to learn to do a backflip.

But no!  Its not too late!  In my trapeze class we have a harness which means we can practise flipping over backwards, and if we don’t quite make it, we will simply float around in mid-air (assuming that the person pulling the strings is concentrating that is…)

Yippee skippee, can’t wait to try it again next week!!

In the spirit of continuing to take risks and try new things, I tried out an ice axe and crampons this weekend. I’ve always been wary of both items, first because they’re just an extra thing to carry and second, because if the mountain is really that dangerous then my inner parent generally doesn’t think I should be allowed out on it.

However, I had the chance to go for a hillwalk with a good friend and an experienced mountain leader and this chance coincided with the opportunity to borrow an ice axe and crampons.

We had a great day out, and stopped to play with the ice axe in a suitable icy patch which had soft snow and heather at the bottom of it. Lots of fun, and it did convince me that an ice axe could have uses other than accidentally impaling its owner.

And as for the crampons, well they are just an extra thing to carry and extra weight on your feet while you’re wearing them, but they gave me a magical superhuman ability to walk on ice without slipping. Apparently you can even walk UP sheer walls of ice, but that’s an adventure for another day.

Went hillwalking on Saturday. Planned this walk about 3 weeks ago. And the weather recently has been horrendous. I spent the days leading up to the hillwalk sitting in the office looking out at the pouring rain, wishing I hadn’t agreed to go walking at this time of year.

And then the day came, and it was beautiful. The mountain (An Caisteal) was covered in snow, various different sorts of snow – by turns powdery, fluffy, icy and sparkly. The sky was blue, the sun was bright and there was barely any wind at all.

Couldn’t have asked for better!

Have been working recently on a trapeze thing known as double skinners coming up onto the trapeze, then “falling” off backwards straight away into a foot hang. Double skinners is a bit fiddly if you don’t get your arms in the right place, and falling off a trapeze backwards is actually harder than it sounds. Somehow the human brain is designed to resist it.

Funny that.

I spent a lot of time sitting on that trapeze trying to will myself into falling backwards, then trying to trick myself into falling backwards. Finally, I found a way. Smile a manic smile and then go for it. Also, yelling “argh” as you go seems to help, although it may somehow detract from the elegance of the move…

“sigh”

Had to give the hired car back yesterday. It was a short relationship but no less meaningul for its brevity. We worked well as a team, but in the long term, it just wasn’t meant to be. We’ve parted on good terms and if we ever meet again there will be no bad feeling, we will just smile at each other sadly and think of what could have been.
And as part of the grieving process I’ll make a list.  Lists are always helpful at times like this…

Pros of car ownership:

- freedom!

- can visit friends in the country

- can offer people lifts

- can randomly drive to Loch Lomond for coffee (well, not completely randomly, you still need to follow the rules of the road, most of the time..)

- you can carry lots of stuff around with you

Cons:

- expensive to run

- parking round here is a nightmare

- huge responsibility (a lapse in concentration and someone could die, that is really scary if you think about it too much.. and as a general rule, I do think about it too much)

- not good for the environment

And the benefits of travelling under your own steam:

- more sociable (if you see someone you know when you’re walking to the underground, you can stop and say hello)

- healthier (when you have a car, somehow its easy to get into the habit of driving 3 miles to the supermarket instead of walking 500 metres to the grocer’s)

- cheaper

- flexible (if you ‘re walking in the street and decide that its just way too busy you can stop and turn around. In a car, once you’re in a jam you’re in a jam and there’s no way back)

- you spend less at the supermarket because you can’t buy more than you can carry!

- you can hire a car anytime you want and have the best of both worlds

- you can feel slightly smug about your carbon footprint

I haven’t played netball since I was 12.  I think I used to enjoy it, but I had no idea the rules were so complicated!

A group from work got together to take part in a netball challenge, and asked me along at the last minute.  I happily signed up to playing “centre”, blissfully unaware that my job would involve sprinting up and down the entire court while other team members were confined to one or two sections.  But at least there was no pressure to score, only two members of each team are allowed to do that.

We played against 4 other teams, and lost every game.  But on some games, had some really good sequences of passes and made a good effort at retaining our dignity.

Nice moments:

- one of our craziest subs yelling “come on, the hobbits!”

- oranges.  Didn’t think I’d appreciate them, but quarters of orange after the second game were a life-saver.

- major adrelanin high after a very high-speed game

- good feeling of teamwork

- lunch.  Mmm lunch has never tasted so good

- rediscovered a team game that I would seriously consider playing again.

My odometer declares I have now cycled over 1000 miles!!

Some of this was cycling to work and back (and since having the odometer, I’ve worked in 4 different locations), some of it was on cycling holidays (the outer hebrides, Italy, France..) and some was just cycling around the canal paths of Glasgow. Its even been with me on a sponsored cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

And yes, the statistic of 1000 miles would be more meaningful if I told you how long it had taken, but I have no idea, except it was several years, and included several long periods of no cycling at all.

The bicycle was a good invention.