Today was technically a working day in my office, but I took a day’s leave.  And I’m glad I did.

I had a nice lazy start to the day, then went to the climbing centre.  Did some top roping and then some lead roping.  I love top roping because I can do silly things (like jump to grab a hold) knowing that if I miss, nothing bad will happen.  I love lead roping because it scares me and I know I need to be scared every now and again.

Then I got a haircut.  There’s something nice about shiny coiffed hair, and something about the way they dry it which is irrepeatable,  so for one day only I get that “just stepped out of a salon” look.

Then I met my brother and his wife for dinner.  Its always fun to catch up with them, and they were on good form.

Then I went to the church ceilidh.  There were a lot of people there that I knew, and a lot of international students that I’d never met before.  And I was REALLY impressed with the international students for their willingness to give it a go and learn new dances.

And then there was a strange game which gave me the opportunity to do a handstand.  And starting the year upside down is probably exactly right somehow.

Bring on 2009!

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…

I believe in doing things that scare me.  Generally I’m quite good at it, if it involves hanging upside down, climbing somewhere high or putting my trust in someone who knows how to manage the risks involved.  However I’m really really bad at it if it involves medical stuff.

And I’ve never ever given blood.  I was thinking it through today.. I’m not scared of pain (well, not that level of pain) and I’m not really scared of needles.  But somehow, I’m scared of the idea that I’ve got blood in my body and that it could be redirected somewhere else.  And I’m scared of that hospital smell.  And I’m scared that there is something about my biological make-up which is somehow different from everyone else’s, which means a routine thing like blood donation is likely to bring me to the brink of death in a way that the medical staff will not be able to deal with.

So I didn’t volunteer for giving blood at work.  But half way through the day a colleague randomly said she was going at 2:30 and did I want to go with her.  Never one to turn down a face-to-face challenge, I said yes.  And then wandered off to the toilet and nearly collapsed from fear.   And pulled myself together again. And went.

And survived the thumb-prick

And survived the needle-in-the-arm

And didn’t visualise my life-blood seeping away

And only got slightly freaked out

And got lots of nice sympathy from the medical people

And got a free biscuit.

Did a lead climbing course today, and at the end of it the instructor got me to have a go at the huge big 6b on the scary wall.  Its the wall that all the serious climbers go on and without his encouragement I’d have stuck with the little flat wall.

And I got 3/4 way up before falling off and it was COOL and falling off wasn’t too scary either.

It was towards closing time and most people who were there were just packing up and ready to go.  So there I was, hanging under an artificial cliff-edge, quaking in fear with what felt like the WHOLE climbing centre cheering me on!  Kind of cool, kind of scary!

DEFINITELY want to try that climb again.

And I thought with lead climbing I could only climb several grades lower than my usual top-roping level, so it was nice to try a 6b and make a good go of it.

Good adrenalin rush.