pining

Fresh on the heels of my Egyptian trip, the aftermath of which is a strong rekindling of my need to live by the ocean and be on the water, I decided to add insult to injury by checking out Kura's blog. She's living in Rarotonga and the bitch (I say that with love) manages to make it sound and look pretty bloody idyllic. Her husband just completed his PADI course and saw eagle rays and sharks. Eagle rays and sharks!!!To say I'm spitting with jealously would be an understatement. I have to keep reminding myself that there are reasons for my being in London at the moment and have to resist the urge to ship myself across the world and spend all my life savings (which is sweet f*ck all at the moment and would get me nowhere) getting myself into the water. I've been back for almost 2 weeks now and it's still pretty much all I can think about, I think I've caught this bug bad. I also think I need to stop whinging and moaning about it though as I'm wearing out sympathy and starting to get a smidge annoying... ;-)

living on a prayer

I came across this photo in my weekly UK Climbing newsletter, for some more stunners check here but this one was definitely the winner.



The caption reads: James McHaffie on the finishing jug of Masters Edge - look at that run out! For those not in the know, 'runout' is the distance between 2 pieces of kit and if you look at the photo, that lad has a looooooong stretch of rope below him not clipped in to anything and it makes my breath catch to think how big a fall he'd take if he came off. "Eeek" doesn't even begin to cover it.

not surprising really

Killing time on a Friday, I had to try this philosophy quiz I saw on Marie's blog.



Apparently I'm existentialist (no surprise) with a penchant for justice which is pretty much me.

joining in

So I've come back from my holiday all rejuvenated and inspired and all go-go-go and eager to do new things. I spent my flight back from the UK planning my holidays for next year and let me tell you, they were awesome and action-packed. But then I spent the Monday night doing some rough budgeting and planning and the sad reality is that I can't afford to do them all so will have to pick and choose. Plus there are things in London I'd like to do as well and ultimately it comes down to an annoying financial balancing act.

I've decided that I'd like to take up swimming because it makes sense to be a good swimmer if you're going to be a diver (and by good I don't necessarily mean styley, more like stamina) so after some research, my local community centre pool is looking like the best bet. They also offer courses of all sorts and reading through their brochure yesterday had me laughing out loud and regaling my colleagues with quotes.


Now I love flowers and have always though I might enjoy something floristry-esque but TEN WEEKS worth of 2 hr sessions? I don't know.... I like that the course is "open to all levels" although it made me giggle as I tried to imagine what "extreme floristry" might be like: "not for the faint-hearted and recommended for people with over 300 hours floristry experience this course is a rewarding experience in dealing with the more adventurous side of floral arranging..."


I might have been peeing with laughter over this one if I wasn't almost silenced by shock. I mean it's great that they have a course introducing people to Macs but really 1Macs are pretty bloody intuitive and you'd think it's PCs that need the intro course and 2 How the HELL do you need EIGHTEEN HOURS to decide whether "a Mac is for you!"?!?!?! You'd think just one hour (max) would be enough....


This just amused me because there is Spanish stage 1 and 3 but what ever happened to stage 2?

oh I do like to be beside the sea

This was my instructor Claudio. Or rather, this is Claudio who was my instructor. When I did things right I'd get the okay sign, if it went rather well I'd get the okay sign with both hands and when I got something perfect it was full on rock hands like in the pic. We had a ball. It's funny how well you can communicate things underwater even when you can't talk. (And yet at the same time some things are very confusing.... ;-)


Claudio again. He's inflated his drysuit to try to make it look like he has big muscley arms. Goodluck.


And here is me with some people who were on my boat and their instructor. We've exchanged emails but you never know how good people will be at keeping in contact. Jess is Irish and I think we were without a doubt the two craziest girls of whichever boat we were on, we made a right pair.

I can't pinpoint exactly what it was that made my holiday so great because it was a combination of the people and the place itself... Camel is a great place to stay and the staff are genuinely friendly and helpful and it was very cool to come back and have people remember me from 9 months ago. Now I'd like to put part of that down to the staff being cool but I will also have to take part of the credit myself as I make a point of smiling nicely and saying hello and thank you and all that. Especially traveling by yourself, I think it's important. Heading over, I had been a bit anxious about being Little Miss No-mates (3 weeks by myself in Greece seems 5 years ago, not 2 1/2) but I had an absolute ball. I was on boats regularly with some of the same people so we'd meet up for dinner or drinks in the evenings. There is definitely something to be said for traveling solo because it does force you to socialise whereas otherwise it's easy to just be lazy and hang out with the people to are on holiday with.

Despite being a busy place (even in winter, Sharm is a tourist meca), the atmoshpere still feels very laid-back. Maybe it's the sun, maybe it's being by the ocean. Regardless of what it was, it was a reality check for me. I love my job, I love the friends I've made in London, I love my flatmates but I'm not living the lifestyle I want to. I'm a seaside girl, I will have to be honest and even on my last day, when I couldn't dive, I got myself onto a boat for half a day so that I could at least be on the water. Some might crassly describe me as happy as a pig in shit when I'm on a boat but I prefer to be compared to a dog hanging its head out the window of a fast car. But my time here (London) is not yet done so I'll just have to last it out.

oh I do like to be beside the seaside

I'll write something decent very soon but for now, here's a pic of me diving.

are we there yet?

Ok so I know I really need to blog before I go but suddenly there are so many things to tell or at least cool links to share, that the task gets increasingly daunting as the days go by and the easiest way to procrastinate is to, well, simply not do it at all.

But there are some big goings-on in the life of A:

1 My parents are moving to Australia

2 I'm going to Egypt for a week on Saturday to do some diving. WHOOPEE!!!!

I've also got tendinitis where my biceps tendon attaches to my shoulder but that's not so much big news as my being a cripple. I haven't climbed in a week and with another week off for diving it should come right.

Ooh and also- my sister met Giovanni Ribisi. I got a text from her saying that she was talking to him in a bar in Wellington and that's all I know. I'm SO jealous. I hope he was interesting to talk to.

Fluffy Stuff
This is a link to a crazy animated gif.


I came across some paintings which I really like. And I mean really REALLY like. I think they look awesome and I might almost be tempted to get one but 1-cost 2-it'd have to be shipped from the states 3-I think I'd like to see my art in person before buying it. Still, I think they're amazing. I think finding one to fit a room might be a bit of a mission because they're quite intense but I am totally and utterly in love with the style at the very least. I love the bold shapes of the strokes, the ways the colours mix and yet sit as blocks and the way it all feels so chunky and textured and alive.
Read more about how the artist does them here.


This little guy is so cute!

disturbing meat art
And yet somehow cool.

I've found a new cooking blog
And how could I not love it, given that it's called Yumsugar.


It even had a sister site called Geeksugar. That is like so totally me.

And this is another cool cooking blog I found. Lovely pictures. Although this recipe on Baking for Britain is on my hitlist. It looks AMAZING. All that fruit, yumyumyummy.

Right- for now I think that's gonna have to be it. I'll try to post as soon as I'm back from Egypt.

inferiority complex

Two of my friends are all off having adventures. Like big fuck-off huge amazing adventure-of-a-lifetime adventures. Of course I'm jealous. Of course I sit in front of my computer reading their blog feeling like I'm wasting my life and not living it at all when they are building memories of a lifetime. So of course I'm going to use this forum to complain about it.

They are traveling from the UK through to Thailand and doing the whole thing by train over 3 months. This is mainly because Lauren has issue with flying but it's an awesome way to do a trip and see a lot of countryside.

One of my favourite segments so far has been from the entry on Mongolia. Lauren has an acerbic and cry wit and the best of times and I like that when she gets going, I can hear her telling the story and see her facial expressions as I read it. Sue is a blonde which on the Asian continent would seem to be quite the novelty. Here is my fav snippet so far:

Next morning after breakfast we had all signed up for a horse ride. They kitted us out in helmets and chaps, gave us saddles and then we watched them corral the horses and put the saddles on - there was a LOT of nervous laughter at this stage. We all hopped onto a horse and were away - at this stage we noticed Sue had her own person Mongolian Herdsman who had a firm hand on the reigns of Sue's horse. I only started to worry when I noticed them riding away into the sunrise. I am not sure what happened for the time Sue was away from the main group but when they returned the herdsman refused to let go of Sue... and her horse....
At one stage we heard singing (a traditional Mongolian courting ritual) and when Nick went up to see if Sue was ok (I was too busy trying to get my horse to go slower) he got the "leave my woman alone" stare from the herdsman. Sue denies the romance but the whole group could feel the magic in the air.

After the horse ride and lunch we headed out to see the Nomad family in action (Sue paying particular attention, so that if her Mongolian romance worked out she would know her place as 3rd wife).

You can read their blog at Where in the world is Sue? but I must warn you, I'm not fussed with the setup by the people hosting it. I find it annoying to get only segments of entries as tasters and when you click through to read an entry, you're left stranded with only the back arrow on your browser to get you back to the main entry list. DUMB. And annoying.

I do have other things to blog about but for now work calls.

Rocking out

Last weekend I went climbing outside for my first time in the UK. Given that I had only climbed a couple of times out at Long Beach back home about 4 years ago, it might as well have been my first outdoor climb ever. It was terrifying, frustrating and exhilarating all at the same time. Inside I am a pretty fearless climber. I'll jump for anything, I don't care if I fall, I don't mind if I pop off and nothing really phases me. Outside it would seem is a whole different kettle of carabiners and I tend to cling to the cliff in a very accurate imitation of a limpet and don't trust my hands or feet one tenth as much as I do indoors. I have no idea why this is exactly- maybe it seems more 'real' outside, I don't know. All I know is that at the end of Day1 I was pretty disgruntled as I didn't feel I'd climbed well and was definitely vexed by finding myself scared, a feeling I am not at all used to. I have to say thought that my climbing buddy Graeme was a champion beyond belief and never lost patience with me and just found me something nice to climb on Day2, knowing that getting me up something was the main thing and he was infinitely encouraging and managed to do it all in a totally non-patronising way which is no small feat.

Apart from not feeling that I was on top climbing form, it was the best weekend I've had in a long time. We were climbing at Stanage and the views were stunning and it was great to be outside walking around and doing things which I haven't done it farfarfar too long, given that I've been cooped up in the big smoke for so long. I could yabber on about it forever but instead I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Me at the top of one of my first climbs.


This is the view from the top of one of the climbs. Heather moors. Mmmm, pretty....






Me belaying.


Me and Phil at the end of Day1.


Me looking sceptically upwards as the boys set up the rigging for our top rope.


This is the overhang I didn't make it up. I got to where Phil is in this pic and then had to let go. It was possibly one of the most terrifying moments of the weekend as it meant I pendulumed outwards. As I psyched myself to de-limpet from the rock, I realised that my life was quite literally hanging in the balance. The only things stopping me from swinging out into nothingness and down a rocky hill was the rope which was tied into my harness, which was running up and through a carabiner which was connected to another rope which was tied around a rock. Which is sweet fuck all really when you're that high up getting ready to let go of the rock.


And that's it for now. I'll try to upload the vid of Phil letting go so you can see the swing I had to do. Eeek.

achoo

I think that after weeks of avoiding the various colds going around the office, my body is finally succumbing to some weird mutation of the lot. I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat, have felt dizzy when walking, have a wonky personal thermostat and am in a foul mood (not a symptom, just a result of the afore-mentioned). But we go to press in a few days and there's no time to wallow at home so I just need to hang on a bit longer. And there is a weekend in the middle.

But still- people coming into contact with me at the moment should be aware that I'm prone to wallowing in self-pity and operating on a short fuse. Totally not my bad.

killer monkeys?!?!?!

I have to thank Carl for this link. I seriously didn't believe it at first and thought he'd found a spoof site. (He does read The Onion after all...) But no. It turns out that Delhi had a severe monkey problem. Thanks to my sick and twisted sense of humour, I was laughing in disbelief. Especially at this:

One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

Nice one. Bring in more ferocious monkeys. Good thinking Batman. Not. DOES NOBODY READ SCI-FI ANYMORE?! Or have common sense I guess but disaster scenarios of this caliber tend to come up more in sci-fi than real life.

ka pai

I always wanted to do animation but discovered very early on that I did not have the patience for it. You should all check out one of my friend's early ventures into doing it for himself. It's basic, yes, but stop to think about the time that has gone in to this. I think it's way cool and has not been done with all your usual fancy-pantsy 3D programs. I am particularly fond of the creature's funky little rocking gait. Props.

heaven

Yesterday I had what can only be described as a small slice of tv heaven. At least my idea of tv heaven- probably tv hell for some but for me it getting to watch two of my favourite childhood films- Ladyhawke, followed by The Princess Bride. The only way to make this better would have been to add on The Neverending Story but that might have meant a bit too much sofa time. Even for me...

The Princess Bride
This is my favourite movie of all time. I can quote most of it to an annoying degree. I could yabber on and on about it but I'm short on time so I'll let the links do the talking. There is of course the obligatory wikipedia link but I quite liked this guy's review although parts of it made me laugh:

I was surprised to learn from the documentary on this DVD that The Princess Bride was a low-budget film, because it doesn’t really look like one.

Umm.... pardon? I rather think it does. And I say this with all the love I possibly can. It's not a cheap and nasty, badly filmed, green-screen-arama movie but there are quite clearly a lot of built sets and not location shots and I'm assuming it's easier to build it than take all the crew out to a location... Anyway, to me, it smacks of low budget, but in a good way.

This has to be one of the most iconic scenes from TPB. There are many more of course and I could embed YouTube movies till the cows come home but I shall restrain myself and stop here:

classic

I feel rude not giving Ladyhawke any space on this entry- maybe the next one. Right now I gotta dash.

it's official.

Ok so I know this is a bit geeky but look at my rope! I have my own climbing rope, I am now officially one of the cool people! Isn't it beautiful? Look at those colours! I am such a proud mum. It doesn't have a name yet but tends to be called 'ropey' or 'baby'. I know, I know, there is little hope for me but, at least for me, getting a rope is a Very Big Deal.

not funny

stomp

I'm in a foul mood today. I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something similar but I am dead tired, have no motivation and all I want to do is go home and sleep. So I trying to decide- work through lunch and try to go home early because I think I'm getting sick or go to the gym and try to sweat it out. Now I know Plan B would be the best course of action but seeing as going to the gym yesterday was the least enjoyable activity in a long time, I'm thinking my bed sounds good.

But enough of my misery- if I need to cheer myself up, all I really need to do is think of going to see STOMP last night. I've been wanting to see this ever since I got here and now, nearly 2 1/2 years later, I finally made it. It was totally worth it and was up with the most amazing performances I've ever seen. It's totally my kind of thing- dance, percussion, a bit of humour. I would go and see it again in the blink of an eye. If anyone every gets the chance, leap at it. It's amazing.

comic genius

With some birthdays coming up at the moment, I've come across some brilliant cards I had to share. I'm a huge fan of the Edward Monkton cards.

OCD or just common fashion sense?

Last night was the second and final installment of my lead climbing course and I am shattered. I was quite literally peeling off the wall last night. It's a good feeling as you know you're working as hard as you possibly can but at the same time, I still get frustrated with myself because I think I should be able to do more. And now that we've done this course, we need to buy a rope so that we can actually practice. Also, with a view to climbing outside, I'm looking into a helmet. A helmet is one of those items of climbing gear that I think some people don't wear when they're outside because it isn't 'cool'. But for me, just starting out, I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Plus the company that made my harness does matching helmets and how is a girl meant to be able to pass that by? I'm practically salivating at the thought and won't even look at any others. I want the one that matches, it's that simple. It may not be the prettiest of colours but it matches my harness so, as far as I'm concerned, that's it. Graeme and I were looking at ropes in the shop last night and he was just shaking his head as I immediately discarded certain ropes because they would clash with my kit. Admittedly, my weird brown and bright green (not to mention the mustard and black shoes) are hard to match but I have to try. Of course if I'd had my way initially I'd have blue or purple shoes and harness but it was not to be...

I've also been looking at climbing t-shirts and this one made me laugh out loud. What does it say about me that this is the one that makes me laugh? I'm sure Graeme would appreciate it.

outrage

In other news, I've found out that I have to wait till the 19th of October for Stardust to come out here. The 19th. That's ridiculous. Boo hiss.

drooling

I don't know why, but Stardust has come out in NZ WAY before it has in the UK. Like it's not even out in the UK yet. And I wanna see it bad.

My parents went to see it and my dad has blogged about it. I have to admit to not reading it (his post) because I don't want to spoil the movie for myself which is actually funny because 1- I've read the book so I know what happens* and 2- I skimmed through the post to look at all the pictures anyway. It looks amazing though. On the phone, Dad described it as a mix between LOTR and TPB**. I really really can't wait to see it but of course now I'm worried I'll have built it up too much for myself and it won't be as good as I expect. But still- everyone should go see and if not, read the book anyway, it's magical and Neil Gaiman is a genius.

*but it was over 2 years ago now so my memory on it is a bit fuzzy.
**The Princess Bride. If you didn't know that then SHAME ON YOU.