Dog faces

Leaving for Singapore very soon ... i find it harder every year to leave my mom alone. And this beautiful beautiful place, but as we say, ... too bad people live here. Anyways, while flying off, here's a couple of dog faces i shot during this trip.

This is Dark. He's a spoilt, little brat that misses his master dearly (not me).


This is Bush. I love him. He loves me. It's that simple. Would I have never thought I will ever get to say I love Bush, ha!




This is a mutt. He followed us to a summit and then we gave him some food. no questions asked, no strings attached. I wish I could take all of them home, but I can't so I just grind my teeth and bear it.






This is Bingo. My baby, my soul, my oldest love. Ha!

And because I like to keep you on your toes ...


Singapore, here I come!

Great to be home!

Sorry for the long silence, but I am thoroughly enjoying the last few days home. With all the floods, I can't say it has been a wonderful climbing experience (6 hours over 3 days of climbing), but I enjoyed:

1. The cherries! About 15 kg in 2 weeks!


2. Picking sour cherries from my grandmother's tree!


3. My old dog!




4. Buildings in various towns






5. Storks on light poles in various villages in Transylvania.



6. Cheese, eaten with tomatoes that DO NOT taste like plastic!


7. Spending time with marian and his and mine folks - over endless BBQs!



8. Watching brazil play with my mom (never knew she was a fan!)

10 years

Well, ten years have gone by. Ten years in which I finished a university and hopefully will finish a PhD (next month). Others have gotten married and have two (TWO!!!! OMFG!!!!) kids. Or have turned from class idiot to airline pilot (remind me NOT to fly that airline). Like ever. Most of them, especially the guys, have gotten fat. The fattest of them all (in highschool) lost weight. I know I haven't changed much because I overheard the lit teacher tell the math teacher while i was skipping the highschool stairs - "You're right, she's unchanged". I also have ensured a backup plan for when I cannot find a job - I can go teach programming at my highschool.

My math teacher told me he had a crush on me in highschool. His exact words were "You are the only student I EVER had a crush on." Fucking freaky, but to give him credit, he NEVER showed it.

My lit teacher is AMAZING and I am so sad that I did not get to know her as well during highschool. She let us read the books we had to read and tell what WE thought about them. She was smart and funny back then but I could not appreciate it then. Now, we stood around her and listened to her tell stories. It was fenomenal - I needed the laugh indeed, but I could not stop myself.

And now, here we go, with the pics.

Me and my desk mate. Girly and spoilt as usual.


My crush with a girl he was friends with. Oh how I wished I was in her shoes. In highschool he was about 1.8 m and about 65 kg. I am so glad we never got together.


The math teacher and the lit teacher.


All of us around the lit teacher.


Me with the lit teacher. Notice my short hair. Product of romanian communist hairdressers. Pfft! I cannot tie it.

A few places where I thought I'd never willingly go

Today is the 10-year (OMFG am I that old?! shit!!) of my highschool graduation so I am meeting up with my former colleagues (more of that in a later post). The only one I've kept in touch with was my desk-mate. She has always been girly and delicate, and spoilt and aaaargh (she's the one I went to cambodia with - the one with the heels -must find link) whereas I have only been spoilt and aaargh :) Anyway, she has been dancing tango for the past year or so, and on thursday night she took me to her class to see her dance!

It was super fucking amazing and I enjoyed seeing her dance - she's quite good actually, especially her footwork (of course, as a true climber i am the one that notices footwork) - considering the fact that all of them were wearing 10 cm heels (at least) i think it is a great achievement even to be able to walk in them, let alone dance!


Secondly, I took my future step-mother climbing! This is another milestone because had you asked me years ago I would have sworn i would never EVER take her anywhere. But, my good nature (ha!) and the fact that i insist to take everybody climbing, and the fact that she's quite ok, despite being one year younger than me and a home-wrecker turned wife (good nature, my ass!). I enjoyed climbing, and i was brave enough to teach her how to belay me and! let her belay me on a very nice, very tall, inclined 6b+ yay. She was quite good, probably the best of all the noobs I took climbing so far. Too bad I will be leaving bucharest tomorrow and i won't have time to take her again. The pics are up on facebook and i am too lazy to post them anywhere else.

Durian Transportation

On how to transport durians, I am not sure if the internet is full of info. Perhaps because people have not tried it that much, maybe because the thing really REALLY stinks. I do not have pictures because Marian lost them (from now on, he can spare me any discussion about the iphone and he can shove it up his-you-know-what). But here is the story. The plan was for me to try to transport one (or two) such that we get prior beta in case somebody else would want to (ever) bring me durians. The sad verdict is that it's not possible.

- I bought one of those durians that is in a box, so not the thorny fruit because it would have been very big.

- I wrapped it in cling wrap for about 10 times around. I had a picture of this but Marian lost it. Fuck the iphone.

- Then I wrapped it in aluminum foil.

- After which i wrapped it again in cling wrap. By now the parcel was pretty big.

- then we put it in a plastic bag (a ziploc bag with some coffee beans would have been better)

- and then we wrapped it in a T-shirt and put the whole thing in the bag. In Marian's bag of course.

The bad part about this was that the clothes around the parcel should have been packed in plastic bags because they were stinking when we got home.

We took the thing out of the bag and left it out (not in the fridge for two hours or so). The entire trip took: 12 hours to frankfurt; 6 hours in transit; 3:30 hours to bucharest. By the time Marian's friends tried it, the durian was a bit spoilt (not much) but on its way. It stank its normal self and his friends hated it. No big news there, but I do not think it is really transportable. Ah well ... this only means that my trips to singapore will be much MUCH more frequent.

Back at home

I have been back for a day and a half and I have not stopped eating since.

Zillions types of cheese!


Tomatoes that actually taste of something else other than plastic!!


Cherries!


Peaches! Apricots!


Sour cherries!!! To think that Doris actually didn't know that there are such things as sour cherries!

Raspberries - Lovingly delivered by my father at 7 am (because i am still jet-lagged AND the heat in bucharest is horrible, I have been running at 6 - SIX - am) and finished (i think it was half a kg) fifteen minutes later!!!


And lastly, something to sober one up!

Climbing brings out the best in us

A few memorable quotes from Monday's climb - the routes were not bad. We were tired. I had forgotten my shoes and was climbing with a pair that had holes in front of both big toes (still, not an excuse)

Me (while crawling on the mattress after peeling off the wall): Sometimes, I think I am Chris Sharma, but it turns out I am just Claudia.
Sandra: Wow, you and Chris Sharma have the same initials!
Me (suddenly perky): Yeah, man, how cool is that?!?!


Me (shouting to a guy doing my route - ending tile hangs off the ceiling like a stalagmite): Grab the penis, grab the penis!
Sandra (the person falls because his grip is wrong): Oh no, why you hold it like that?
Me: Well, you can't go against a lifetime of habit!

Doris (to herself, doing a very spanned route): Wow, I really am THAT short.

Wedding!

I am going to ask a million dollar question: What comes after a bachelorette party?
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Well ... a hangover you would say, and you would be entitled to. No hangover after Friday's party, at least not for me, but what followed on Sunday was the wedding.

Now, I hate weddings. I hate the fact that they are commercial, that they end up getting 300 people in one room (and how I hate 300 people in one room), and the fact that the bride is the center of attention. I hate the last part because if I were the bride and be the center of attention, I. WOULD. CRINGE. Brr! Oh. And I hate the fact that they last at least for the entire night -I have been to a wedding that lasted 3 days.

That being said, from this point of view I love singaporean weddings. They are totally devoid of ritual and meaning, that is true, but at least you go in, you sign the deal, in come the rings, vows, etc, after that the food and then we are done. Everybody can go home, yay! and get on with their lives. Signed, sealed, and delivered. I liked sunday's wedding very much in this respect.

And true, what contributed to me liking it was the fact that I had as much Palak Paneer (spinach with cottage cheese) as I wanted - and I served myself 5 times out of it muhahahaha. Of course, I have to pollute every discussion about meaning, rituals, etc. with intestine considerations.

This being said, I am also a sucker for cheezy stuff. Maybe because I am highly empathic and all that, but when the bride started to cry while reading her vows* I was crying there with her. And when the groom started to sing, I am still crying, but because I was laughing my head off this time.

*because of being tired and all that, not because of being emotional, or so she says. (AHem, BULLSHIT!)

PINK

On Friday night I had to go to a hen's party. The hen requested that we wear pink. I hate pink. Good thing I didn't try too much though, because in the end nobody was really wearing pink, the girls going with fashion over the utter mindlessness and crazyness that a hen's party should be. Sadly, the most fun I had was when Sandra and Doris were helping me choose my hanging rope. Other than that, we played truth or dare. It didn't help that I was sober because at one point i was so bored i was watching silent soccer on one of the tvs in the bar. Sheesh!

I had to choose between this one:


and this one (yes, this is how I glare :)) ):


The reason why the pictures are blurred is because Sandra was struggling to keep a straight face and help me choose!

In the end I chose the second one, because the first one had about 5 m in length and was double the price. Good thing I didn't bother, considering the utter bore of the party. I tried wearing it to dinner but the two of them started walking way in front of me and ignoring everything I said. I took the hint and took it off, but I still had to wear it later, waaay until 1 am when I managed to complete my swift escape. Vowing, NEVER again :)

My only problem is that now I have a pink rat's tail that I do not know where to use. What are the possible uses of pink skinny boas?

Recession is coming

Just bought tickets for Nepal in November. Annapurna Circuit, HERE WE COME!!! Starting to save. NOW. No more shopping. No more clothes. No more shoes. No more nothing. Sadly, I think no more W90 as well. Will use the money for us in Kathmandu.

NEPAL BABY!!

The benefits of long term relationships

I won't talk about companionship, support, care, love, breakfast in bed on request, and having somebody that is always on your side BY DEFAULT, but rather about monetary issues.

The best benefit of being in a long term relationship is that you can raid the piggy bank of your partner, count the moolah and then ponder what the both of you (ha!) are going to do with the money he has so painfully saved for as long as you can remember. (And that you have sekretly been raiding from time to time to take bus and coffee money, ahem)


So, what will it be?

A much needed Pentax W90?


The iPad?


The new iPhone?


My personal favorite is the W90, but i have a hard time guessing what marian would want out of the last two.

Pumpfest 2010

Before Pumpfest 2010, I had achieved the last place on 66% of the competitions as open woman climber. I am happy to report that after Pumpfest 2010, this percentage has dropped to a whopping 50%. That is, in 2 out of 4 comps I got last, and in 2 out of 4 I didn't!! How cool is that?!!

The routes were amazing, set by world championship standard route-setter and as such they were so pretty and hard and challenging I wanted to take them home and try them on and on and on and on.

The finals yesterday gave awesome spectacle and I think it is safe to say that the horrible buttitis I got from sitting for so long was worth the spectacle. The standard is high, the problems are hard, time to get back to the drawing board.

What your friends can teach you

A while ago I started befriending a person with a VERY bubbly personality. I enjoyed the fun and the hysterics that come with such a friendship and I must say I did not mind the fact that that particular person needed to be the very center of attention. EVERY time. Nor that she talked a lot, because let's face it, this blog is my most verbal manifestation. However, at one point I grew tired of the situation, because, as with most friendships with persons with such type of personality and traits, it gets to the point where one is mostly giving without actually receiving anything in return. They, the stars (or the blackholes as I sometimes think of them) get used so much to receiving that they don't really give anything back. Like care, companionship, etc. So now i am at the stage whereby I kick myself for even thinking that this would be feasible on the long run, and i am brooding and thinking a lot.

As I was brooding this morning about these blackholes (it was 5 am as I am still living somewhat on US time), it hit me. Marian has been telling me how another friend of ours is actually giving something back - she's volunteering with some special needs kids. Talk about actually giving back. While i did do my share of volunteering and true, my weekends have not been mine ever since i started writing the thesis, I still felt ashamed about this. Here am I, brooding and whining about people not giving back to ME, when there are people that are giving back to PERFECT STRANGERS without actually expecting anything in return. The utter shame jolted me awake (shame has such powers, doesn't it?) and I couldn't go back to sleep for an hour or so because of it. The conclusion that i reached was that I am inspired and as such will try to volunteer for something once i submit.


On a side note, as the shame was pouring over me (so to speak) I asked Marian who was fast asleep: "Guess what I am thinking about?" (he CAN answer questions while he's asleep, just that it takes a while to get the answer) About thirty seconds pass and he says:

"Um, I don't know... Climbing? Food?"

Pfft ...

Backk!!

Well, ten days of silence on the blog is enough to put anyone to shame. So here am I, blogging the instant i get internet access. I swear, the US might be one of the most advanced countries in the world, but in terms of Internet access and speed, I would trade it for Romania any day.

Conference-wise, I must say I attended less of the conference and more of the shopping malls around it. :) I liked Atlanta. The thing that shocked me most was the stampede in the Apple store. I was there to buy an iPad for my prof. But so where a thousand other people. I mean, why would people pay so much money for that useless device?!! Why oh why?! A genius at the Apple store in Atlanta looked at me as if I was some kind of freak when I told him I want to buy an iPad. "Pfft, you must order it online. It will come in 5-7 days and then you must come within 24 hours to collect it or else it will be gone." What the fuck!? In the end I managed to get him an iPad from the Georgia Tech campus Apple Store. The store was so remote that apparently they didn't have any demand for the ipads. Eat this motherfuckers!

Atlanta, home of the south, Margaret Mitchell (she of the "Gone with the winds" fame), the Coca-Cola company and CNN. I enjoyed running in the dry air (dry by Singapore standards). I didn't visit much because I spent my free day shopping, replenishing my shoes collection nom nom nom. And buying five thousand sweets and chips varieties for Sandra and doris. I swear I will get arrested one day.




The conference site:


Sorority house. WTF? I thought they existed only in movies!


Random flowery sighting:



The college football team is everywhere, even on the sidewalks.


It has been a while since I saw so many churches on one street. It is so different form singapore, where, although there ARE churches, they are not so obvious.


Yellow car!


And an artsy photo. The only one of the batch i think.

From Changi, with love

I reached home yesterday morning at around 7 am, only 8 hours after I left it to go to the states. No, I am not supersonic, just plain stupid (see the previous post). After a quick dash outside to pee* I slept like a log until 2 pm. Went for a palak paneer lunch (most nom) and then crashed back until 7 pm or so, with some respites in which i read one crime novel and answered a couple of text messages. It's been a while since I spent so much time indoors and lying down. A much needed holiday, I guess ... I did sort of go for a run, but it turned out a 1-2km jog because my ipod died on me.

Am now back in Changi, at the Coffee Bean at terminal 3. The girl that is minding the place recognized me from yesterday but am not sure what she made of me - new ang moh terrorist around? (all my bags are black and i am wearing the same clothes - but i showered!). I see a familiar crowd of people here from yesterday. Never knew that Changi is favored by students to study and hang out. The armchairs at Coffee bean are also favored by many to sleep. I should know, they are the most comfortable chairs at T3. Last night I tried to sleep on the benches but couldn't, mostly because I was not properly geared (i.e. didn't have a sheet to cover myself), but also because the airport jingle managed to seep through my ear plugs and. just. kill. me.

I am taking a break from thesis writing and doing some people watching. How do some of these people pick their partners is beyond my understanding. Eurasians are so beautiful. I want one. Hell, I want to be one. Tall and delicate, not short and pudgy ... How can people board a plane in singlet + shorts + slippers?!! Whoever put up this airport music should be shot. I want one of those four-wheeled bags. Some unknown stranger asked me to charge is iphone/ipad. Does he know i can download his pictures? Singaporeans are getting fat. Volvo XC60 is damn sexy, but I still want a bicycle.

Hopefully I will be on the plane in six hours or so. If there's no post tomorrow, it means I have finally succeeded and the land of the free and the home of the brave is one hop closer.

* No, i did not go outside to pee al fresco, thank you very much. A friend is staying in our bedroom and she had locked her door. I did not want to disturb her, but because i had been holding it for long, i dropped my bags and dashed for the pool** - a great sight for 6:58 am, I should say.

** to use the toilet at the pool, not pee in the pool, of course.

Early

My grandmother raised me for most of my toddler life, waay until I reached 6 years old. She used to travel with me to and from my mother's town and hers by train - it was free for me, and she paid less I think. The distance between the two towns is about 300 km, and the train ride used to take about 4 hours (now it takes 6). As any true provincial I guess, we would be at the train station hours (about two hours) before the train arrived. It was not because we didn't have tickets or anything, it was just because I don't know, what if something happens? What if the bus breaks down? Or the train breaks down? Or anything. I guess it was also because the train stopped in that station only for about 5 minutes before it went on its merry way, so maybe they needed 2 hours in advance to prepare.

In later years, when I was about 10 - 11 and my grandmother still had to accompany me (by now she had a pensioner's discount and I had to pay half ticket), this thing would annoy the hell out of me and I would grumble and complain and make fun and what not, but still go. I still remember the skinny figure of my grandfather who would rush us along (2.5 - 3 hours before the scheduled arrival time) "Come on, let's get going, take that bag, come on!!" And then we would reach the station 2.5 hours before and plunk our bags down on the platform - especially when we went when school began in autumn, my grandparents were LOADED with goodies for my mum: preserves, cakes, the occasional dead chicken, cooked food! And my grandfather would glance satisfied at us and then he would start pacing the platform up and down, with his hands behind his back, talking to the other people that were there - waiting for the same train of course. Conversation would range from the subject of wether the train would be on time/late/packed/empty. How many kids did they have in the capital? Yes, it was a struggle to get food to them, but what are you going to do?

Years have passed and now I am there very early everytime I have to travel. This practice of being exhaustively early is driving Marian nuts, but I have never failed to be early. Except when I lost the plane in 2008. From that day onwards, Marian checks my flights everytime because I no longer trust myself to get the dates right. And there you have it, today he didn't check them because he also had to leave for Melbourne.

And here I am, thinking that my flight leaves at 7:10 am on the 15th of May. And I was here at 11:59 pm on the 14th of May. Happy like a dog playing with a rotting corpse, thinking that oh great, I won't sleep tonight and then I will sleep just right on the plane. Am sitting comfortably in coffee bean when suddenly inspiration strikes and I check my ticket. I am officially 28 (TWENTY FUCKING EIGHT) hours early for my flight. My plane leaves at 7:10 am on the 16th of May. I have decided to stay here at least until tomorrow morning if not the whole day tomorrow. Anybody around Changi area can come and have lunch with me, yay! Fuck it!! I am going home, the airport music is killing me. Pfft ...

Moving out

4 years in one spot can accumulate a LOT of clutter, especially if u are a little hoarder like me. I guess the only part about the new office being smaller is the fact that a lot of stuff got thrown out, finally. I actually managed to keep just a box of papers, as opposed to the predicted three boxes. I am actually proud of myself :)


The computer plus the displays are still here because tomorrow is my last day in this office and contrary to common belief that I slackalot (fueled also by the fact that my monitors are facing the entrance - and my back is facing the door hahaha-- and I do not know how I do it but everytime somebody comes in I am browsing the web :D), I actually plan to work tomorrow.

And, totally unrelated, today we went to a talk by a famous professor whose research is well-appreciated the world over. The talk was extremely BOOORING and unfocused. I have yet to attend a talk by a famous guy who actually lives up to his research - and no, I am not talking about Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer. (are all famous men called Steve? Stephen Hawking?) Wait, no! G.W. Bush - whew, I can always count on Bush to bring me back to normality.

Durian fiesta

Would love to blog about how we are moving. And about how I am literally sitting on boxes while I am writing this. Or about how I do not know how the movers will lift a box full of very thick books. Their problem i guess...

We sent Crystel off on saturday. A bit sad and a bit weird at the same time as all her boyfriend's family was there. Like all 7 of them.

Before that, Dodo, San, Crystel + bf and I went to eat durians on Friday night. Only us girls dug in the creamy goodness, and sadly, with very obvious effects. In total, the four of us ate 6 (SIX) durians, with Crystel and I eating the last 3 (THREE). With an average of 800 calories per fruit, it would be around 1800 for Crystel and I (that is, assuming that San and dodo had an equal share of the first three, which we know by now is not true). I don't really care about this - with durian being right up there with the cheese in not making me feel even the least bit guilty when my fingers are screaming murder while they pull my big ass up the wall. As far as I am concerned, durians and cheese are calorie free and my fingers can just suck it. But I know that Crystel cares so I will make sure to send her an email . Like now [chuckles evilly]


[this was the first batch of durians. after that, when crystel and i decided we want more! more! more! san and doris when to get it, yay!]

Sadly, a more obvious consequence of the pigging out on friday is the gigantic zit I now have on my forehead. And considering that tonight we are going for DURIAN FRIED RICE, i think the only direction in which this zit can go is upwards.

[the chubby frankfurter you see in the first picture is doris' finger]

When stupidity hurts

As discussed on Friday, I went running barefoot on the track.


Everything would be quite ok with this statement, if not for some minor details. First of all, I went running barefoot at 4 pm.

Second of all, Friday was a very hot day in Singapore. The sun was blazing on the track from 8 am.

What, my dear readers do you think is the result of these two statements?
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I shall spare you the excitement of figuring it out: after running only one lap I had developed a tingly painful feeling on the soles of my feet and stopped. Thank god I stopped and i didn't have any weird ambition to finish the 2km I had initially planned.

By the time I got to Climb Asia to climb with Doris, the tingly painful feeling developed into 5 cm in diameter blisters on both my soles. The blisters were 1 cm deep. And painful. VERY PAINFUL to climb on them. Because you see, something i learned maybe in my second year of climbing is, that climbing is a lot about the feet. My eyes would slightly bulge a bit whenever I squeezed my climbing shoes on - not only are they 1 size smaller but my feet were also swollen - and my upper lip would sweat a bit whenever I had to really (and I mean really) step. I also learned very quickly how to land on my heels and do routes that were very hard at the start such that I would not fall from high.

In the end, Friday night found me naked in the bathtub, armed with a pocket knife (not good) and afterwards a needle (works much better) to break the blisters. A lot of liquid oozed out, but I will spare you that picture.