Bouldering at Granite Island

I've spent a while mulling over this in order to decide whether I hated climbing at Granite Island, Victor Harbour. And I finally decided that I actually really liked it. Despite the rough granite with many many crystal pebbles in it. And despite the fact that most of the times, your spotter is considering wearing a helmet because of all the pebbles that you are sending down while climbing. And the fact that sometimes you might step on something and then fly off the route because your foothold just broke. Or, as in D.'s case, come down off the route really quickly because the super solid undercling you were holding as your start just came off. Nevertheless, one thing that is most cool is that the problems are not very high, and that the landings are pretty clean! More info including topos and route descriptions can be found here.

The problems are interesting and tend to be in the slab, mental kind of area - my favorite! NOTT! In terms of difficulty, the ones we tried ranged between V0 and V2, with a lot of mental stealth with respect to footholds and handholds coming off.

Here's me on something called Plumber's Crack (I wonder why!)

This is one of my favorite problems so far. Trust Issues, V2, Umbrella boulder. Start on some footsies under the crack. The name says it all: delicate footers over a bulging slab to a slopey finish. Clean landing either on D or on Stalin and some spiky bushes to finish it off.

 Psyched and scared to death at the same time.

Lolcat Dreamz

Last night I dreamt that a box full of kittens had made its way to my house. From this box, I could only pick a certain number of kittens to save - I'm not sure about the number because it increased in every iteration of the dream - and the rest would go to an unnamed place boo hoo

I had trouble picking out the kittens because they were all so different! I picked a Russian blue that was BRIGHT BLUE!! in my dream because he slept on his back. I picked a black kitten with white spots (I had problems with that one because there were many black and white kittens running around so I had to remember which one!) I picked a very skinny very tall grey kitten and a fat, older tabby.

After picking the above, the other kittens disappeared to lalaland, at which point i got distressed and the dream started all over again.

Eventually I rescued enough of the kittens and got to actually play with them. At that point Suzie somewhat appeared in the picture. I remember that the newly saved kittehs were a bit reluctant to play with me, and that I kept telling myself "suzie is the most loving of all", and "suzie is the softest of all".

I then woke to find Suzie sleeping on my face. Purr.

One picture Tuesday

Judge me not by my books, but by the super cool way in which they are arranged. On the right of the bookcase I will stash the books I have read -> note that this is almost* true for the background column, and not the foreground, which should be only for mountaineering books (how did the rest get in there?!) The nearly collapsing column of books on the right are books I have yet to read. These will be transferred to the column on the right once I read them. I have yet to decide the fate of those books from the left column that decide to collapse. So far, that column has managed to stay like that despite numerous feline interventions :)

*Hell will probably freeze over when I will actually read the Wheel of Time. I think that (and Sasha right on top of it) are the only books that are Marian's. Also, the Maigret Omnibus (the yellow book) has one emergency un-read Maigret mystery in it. 

I've been having issues ...

... with my kindle. You see, at some point last year I went to New Zealand and encountered many many days of superiorly shitty weather. At some point during the trip, I also acquired, among many other things, a library of about 1000 ebooks, which I then immediately put on my Kindle Keyboard. To be fair, I would probably not read most of the books as they tend to be in the "love-vampire-books?-well,-here's-a-thousand-of-them" variety.

And then the battery on my Kindle started to act up. I would charge it and then it would discharge to 75% within hours and then to 50% within a day, and to about 10% within two days, even if I did not read anything at all. Not connecting it with the addition of books, I first thought that there was a problem with the firmware. And when it wasn't that, I thought that the time had come for a new kindle. What better time than the beginning of February (HINT HINT HINT) for such a thing to happen? Endless conversations with San about which Kindle model is better, and after finally deciding on one ...

... I googled the issue. That is when I realized that maybe Amazon hired some of our students  to write software for the Kindle.  Here's what the interwebs had to say:

Also, keep in mind than from time to time, the framework likes to mess around with the index files, even if nothing's changed in the content, and the more books you have, the more CPU it'll eat. (That's kinda true as a whole too, since it'll churn a bit on the index file every time it wakes up from sleep, too).

I went all crazy with this new piece of information and removed all but two books (Perdido Street Station and Mountaineering, the Freedom of the hills, if you must). No change in battery charge in the past two days. All iz well!!

One picture Tuesday

Every new adventure starts with a new stationery item! I have gotten soooo fatt and sooo weak over the holidays that I've started a new training program woo hoo! I wrote it down in this little notebook and then forgot it at work before going for training.. Sigh..

Mammal adventures

Today we went to climb at Granite Island, in Victor Harbour. Again. I had Marian take plenty of pictures of us climbing in order to do a super duper post about it. I was going to post about this today, but then something else happened:

Today I saw my first ever dolphin! True, I had seen some at the zoo in Singapore, but never ever one up close (#define close 500m) and personal!

Do stupid things sensibly

Somebody's stupid actions while running (that is, full speed running in 36 degrees, immediately after dinner and without proper hydration) nearly had me pick up the phone and rebuke said person for totally fucking shit up.

But then I remembered that I too, have done some stupid things in my (running) life, some of them detailed here on this blog. A few gems such as:

• getting totally pissed on New Year's Eve and THEN going climbing on New Year's Day 
• spraining my ankle and then running a marathon on it
• running barefoot in the middle of the day in Singapore
• running a marathon just before a big expedition, resulting in a minor stress fracture that could have threatened the climb
• totally ignoring the running plan, and running much faster than planned (ran 5min 15sec/km, sometimes even 4min 15sec/km instead of 5min 30sec/km), thinking that "It's supposed to hurt like hell" and "I can push through it" and "Pain is weakness leaving the body"

will probably never get repeated, mostly because I have fewer ankle ligaments, I'm not in Singapore anymore, my feet are now used to long distances, and now I know how the "all wheels are coming off RIGHT NOW" pain feels like.

I cannot help but notice that most of these actions are running related - fair enough, if one does stupid things while climbing one tends not to be alive for very long. I wish I could say that I did these stupid things when I thought I was invincible and will live forever, but I can't, because most of the time I still feel like that, and some of these things are pretty recent. I know that I would not have done the second and the third one had somebody told me about WHAT THE FUCK MIGHT HAPPEN. And I've learned from my mistakes as well: for example, now I do not run with a cold unless I really have to (?!) because it really makes one feel woozy, hazy and close to fainting, which apparently are things that are not good for training wheeeeee!

So, summing things up, I guess I'm probably not the best person to preach anything, really. There's this brilliant romanian saying "Do what the priest says, not what the priest does". Damn!

Meet Dude

Went bouldering at Granite island with D. today. Sent some nice little problems and made a new friend. Uncharacteristically, it took me a while to name him, but finally decided on Dude. It's not the best or the funniest of names but then again, who gives a fuck anyway?

Note to self: next time, do not rely on yourself to put sunscreen on your back. Get somebody else to do it, or else you'll burn!

Quiet celebrations

Seven years ago on this day I quit smoking. This is perhaps the only new year's resolution that I've actually managed to keep. This is a big thing (to me) especially since the depths of my previous addictions can be easily judged by my current ones (and my old age has definitely made me mellow addiction-wise). I celebrated by reading two-three books, taking ample naps, and watching two Poirot episodes. Life, c'est jolie, n'est pas?

I won't miss you, 2012

Sure, you were the year I turned 30 - I have yet to decide whether this is good or bad!

And I got promoted and got tenureable. And had many professional accomplishments. And realized that all my students are awesome, even those that, well, aren't. And got Suzie. And went to New Zealand. And got the almost certainty that maybe I won't have to leave these new found friends like I had to leave my old ones. And Dodo, Jensen, Chloe and Uncle Pan visited, among others. And I sent a number of V5s. And I sent Iliad, which is probably the hardest v4 ever:

But you were also the year where I overworked myself and nearly burned out. And the motherfucker left us in the blue mountains. And a guy I went to school with died of leukemia. And a colleague got leukemia. And a friend's wife died of breast cancer. And my paternal grandmother died. Alone, in her flat. And my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. And I became the divorce kid. And my friend is grieving still. And I cannot help from so far away. And my running partner got injured. Again. And I got a pulley injury. And six foot got cancelled. And the weather in New Zealand sucked, and as such I didn't climb Mount Cook. And this made me feel like a failure. And because of all this mountaineering, I became unfit for climbing. And I didn't send Master Bates. And for some reason I decided to wear a white dress tonight. And there's an accident waiting to happen right under my nose.

I won't miss you, 2012 - but I don't want to jinx 2013 either. So, 2013, no pressure, but the standard is pretty low, so surprise me!

Christmas at the Grampians

... or, Force No Fortunate Feeling

On a side note, "Force no fortunate feeling" is what one would say to Jensen when he was stuffing his face. Which he did. Which we all did actually. That, and climb a lot. And send a lot of problems (Jensen and Chloe). And fail on a lot of problems (me).

To sum it up, I could just say that it was so cold (in the morning) and so hot (in the afternoon), and I was soooooo weak and the drive was soo long and then we were back in Adelaide.

To make it longer, I could say that Jensen's and Chloe's trip to Adelaide started with picking of cherries, right before we were to leave for the Grampians. My sekret plan was to take the cherries with us. Which they did, with their share, but I didn't with mine. Luckily, J. and C. are not only children, and as such they shared their cherries with me!

The drive was long, but it was good for me in that I realized that I can drive all the way there by myself! We started the first day superiorly psyched. The weather was also good, a balmy 25 degrees. The "balmy" turned into fucking cold, which led me to wear my down vest at some point. Down vest! In the summer!

Jensen flashed a number of V7s, which was great because it meant that I was sort of trying starts on them. Progress!

 At some point, we realized that we needed something long to clean handholds, so J. constructed the Spear of Destiny, pictured here in action:

Our Christmas dinner was pre-cooked lasagna and pre-baked sour cherry pies! Most yum.

And then the heat started and the psyche started to go slowly downhill. I tried 253 times on Master Bates, and have yet to finish it. Chloe finished it very quickly - very inspiring, I wanna be strong again woo hoo! Here we are contemplating Minus (V4), at Campgrounds.

At Campground I also found my new travel companion, Ray the raisin hippo. The similarities between us are too many to mention, so I will leave them for now.

On our third day we went to Kindergarten, which was guaranteed to be in the shade. By this time, the temperature was predicted to go in the 30s, but in the Kindergarten cave it was quite cool, which led me at some point to wear my pyjama top AND my down vest.

Here's the route that nearly fucked my left knee. The sit-in on the left heel is monstrous, at least for somebody as unfit as me*. 

For variety, we tried a right-heel hook route and C. tried a V7. Here's C. showing me how it's done:

Here's me pondering the right heel hook route. Starts on the right, finishes on the left side of the obvious rail (<- book="book" guide="guide" i="i" like="like" m="m" p="p" sound="sound" starting="starting" the="the" to="to">

 J. in the meantime was playing on a V8. We tried the start of that, and got a quarter up the way, woo hoo! Surely that counts as a V2!

On day four we met D. His psyche would have been enough probably to lift one of us up, but not the three of us at the same time! 

And then we drove back and slept for two days and ate like pigs.  We each cooked a dish. Chloe: Pad Thai, myself: Tom Yam soup and Mango sticky rice, Jensen: Banana loaf. All dishes had varying degrees of success from awesome to unbelievable, and all were super tasty despite their looks. Here's Chloe's Pad Thai (before assembly)

 *Before we get into that, two monts of mountaineering and traveling around the world DOES NOT make one grampians fit. Bummer.

Dazed

I guess I'm not young anymore - heh. Let's start again. I guess I'm not young anymore if all this world hopping leaves me soooo tired. Adelaide to Wanaka to Queenstown to Berlin to Bucharest to Berlin to Hamburg to Berlin to Adelaide and all I want to do right now is sleep and cuddle with the cat for three weeks. 

Surely there must be laws for this

... Or maybe not. I have registered again for Six Foot Track Marathon. This year I think they will not be cancelled, and as such I will not have any excuse not to run. Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself. The answer is that I probably would not run otherwise. Which will then make fatt and therefore unable to climb.

One picture Tuesday

Oh the irony... The only good view of mount cook is from the plane, when leaving... Sigh.

It's ALL in the name

Today I led an 18 on traditional gear, or trad for short. I was never more scared in my life (maybe on the Matterhorn?) but my belayer and trad eye-opener was very patient and walked me through everything. The route was pumpy and the fact that I was trying to place as much gear as possible for her to check did not help. Anyway, there was this big cam I had aptly called "the motherfucker".

I had put in on my left side, with the other smaller cams on my right side. Anyway, I reach this spot where I'm super pumped and shaky, and super-duper scared. My feet and hands are not shaking yet but I am starting to loose grip on my right hand. It is an overhung crack that requires a bit of laybacking, and, as this is Wanaka, there are no jugs, only bigger crimps and some ledges. The crack in front of me is this big big void and I try to place EVERYTHING either below or above it. I am getting more pumped with every little thing that I try to place. Nothing matches and I am starting to think that maybe it does not matter: if nothing but the third bomb-proof one holds, I have a good chance of not hitting the ground.  Lydia is saying softly and repeatedly: "The moterfucker is on your left side". "The motherfucker is on your left side". "The motherfucker is on your left side". Eventually I hear her through a haze and wonder: "What motherfucker?" (I am thinking of you, Rose Petals!)

"Oh, THAT motherfucker!" I quickly grab it and place it poorly, but enough to proceed, place a better one, rest and adjust. Whew. I have found another scary dimension of climbing: trad climbing!!

Bugger all

Learnt this expression from one of my students this year. To cut a very long story short, no summit.


Longer story. Shitty weather for Mount Cook with high avalanche warnings for the only good weather day in the trip.
Decided to change to Mt. Aspiring and gamble on that good weather day. Flew in at Bevan Col and walked to Colin Todd hut. Summit attempt started out quite good but then backed out when reached the ridge because of 80 km/h winds and a complete whiteout.

Came back to Colin Todd and walked out to French Ridge Hut in a complete whiteout -> glacier travel in whiteout FTW!  (GPS for the win!) And then from French Ridge to Wanaka with some river crossings etc thrown in the mix. I froze and soaked in the same day.

I am quite depressed however I am having a blast with my guide! She is 51 (FIFTY ONE!), insanely fit and is the first female to summit everest without o2 (in 1988!!!) (http://www.lydiabradey.com/index.html) There might be a good day on Saturday and we might do the double cone - single cone traverse in the remarkables (alpine 2+) or we might not.

Sigh. 2012 has not been a good year sportswise. Did not climb mount cook, did not finish a sub 4 marathon, did not finish six foot track (because i didn't run it ... ).  It was a good year careerwise, which is hinting at maybe that I can't give 110% to work and 110% to climbing? And that probably 100% to work and 120% to climbing will not work as well? At least the consolation is that Lydia says that I'm strong so there might be a chance that I might be.

Gotta go and change my clothes. Still soaked. Pictures of whiteout attached. Team is 15 m in front. Sigh. I don't know whether the tears are frustration tears as you can't (apparently!) change the weather or they're tiredness tears.

Positive mojo & karma urgenlty needed

Climbers have obsessive and addictive personalities, but on the plus side, can focus really really well!

I knew this beforehand but somehow it slipped my mind and I checked the NZ weather.  And the summary of it is, that it's crap. I will have (as usual) crappy weather, which will probably mean that I will be stuck in a hut, crying my eyes out, without any real chance at even starting a summit attempt to Mount Cook, let alone summiting it.  This brings back the Matterhorn fiasco, where two days crying in a tent ended in us spending the night on a ledge on the Matterhorn (it makes a good story for a long run, by the way).

It also means that I've been refreshing the weather page EVERY TEN MINUTES for the last two days. Add that to my overall tiredness caused by the 14-hour days i've been putting in since Monday, and the two/three coffees a day, and my anxiety level is through the roof. Most importantly, I can't relax at all, and I only get brief bouts of relaxation in the interval between the page refreshes. Of what? Of the NZ weather site, of course!

And of course, even being stuck in a hut becomes optimistic, in that I might not get to the hut in the first place!


Today
30 November
Issued at: 12:33pm Friday 30 Nov 2012
Fine with high cloud.
Wind at 1000 metres: Light.
Wind at 2000 metres: Southwest 40 km/h.
Wind at 3000 metres: Gale southwest 80 km/h.
Free air freezing Level: 1600 metres rising to 3000 metres tonight.

Tomorrow
1 December
Issued at: 12:33pm Friday 30 Nov 2012
Rain developing in the afternoon with some heavy falls in the evening.
Wind at 1000 metres: Northwest rising to gale 70 km/h in the morning and to severe gale 120 km/h in the afternoon.
Wind at 2000 metres: Gale northwest 70 km/h rising to severe gale 120 km/h in the afternoon. 
Wind at 3000 metres: Severe gale westerly 90 km/h rising to 120 km/h in the afternoon. 
Free air freezing Level: Above 3000 metres.

Realization. Part 243.

Just realized that one of the immediate (non-academic) perks of being here for a long(-er) period of time is that not only Suzie will not go on intercontinental flights but NOW I CAN BUY BOOKS!

One picture Tuesday

Spot me! We did this sharp and steep route in the first day. I found it not too hard (easy!) but my teammates found it difficult, so we sort of mellowed after that. It does not look like it in the photo, but it's a loong way down to those crevasses.

Heh

Summitting Single cone in the Remarkables on Wednesday on ice and snow for a 12 hour summit day, and picking 8kg of cherries (only 4 kg left!) on Sunday. In other words, I'm back for a week and getting psyched to mark my exams and do some research before tackling mount cook next week. It has just dawned on me just how difficult Mount Cook is, having experienced the New Zealand grading scheme for alpine ascents. ah well, in the quiet words of the poet, "suck it up, buttercup!"

As I'll be immensely busy this week, posts will mostly be (glaciated) pictures.

Alive!

Writing on a crappy computer with crappy internet connection. Stuck in the hut due to ginormous snow storms, sun burned, up to my neck in snow, can now do crevasse rescue and hauling reliably, and ice climbed!!!

Heading god knows where in the hills tomorrow. And when I say hills, I mean permanent snows at 2500m. Life is good!

Packed!

And psyched!!!

The Claw, V5, Campground boulders, Grampians

Only posting this up because there are really very few videos for lower grades, especially done by short climbers - although compared to some people, I am not short!! 

Photographic evidence

Of three  four things:

1. The spaghetti top from Dodo is most cool.
2. Even though I may be Hulk's sister, those muscles are useless. I cannot start Master Bates anymore.
3. I CAN hook my left foot to my left hand! (before I only had photographic evidence that I can hook my right foot to my right hand - it's on display in my office) This is an important achievement for an elephant like me!!!!
4. The reason why I can't start Master Bates anymore is because it's not a HEEL hook as in the photo, but a TOE hook. Go figure. A toe hook would indeed allow one to hold this tiny tiny crimp:

More photos here.

Heaven

My version of heaven is a 10-pitch, easy 6b limestone cliff. At the end of every pitch you have the following:

The first pitch has on offer cheese with olives.


The second pitch has a strawberry patch and the strawberries are always in season.

The third pitch has a coffee machine with good Yemeni coffee.

The fourth pitch has Tom yam that is spicy enough for me. Tom yam is also on the fifth pitch.

The sixth pitch has cheese again and some sort of anti indigestion medicine.

The seventh pitch has blueberries and raspberries and they are always in season.

The eight pitch has nothing but edelweiss flowers - they are beautiful and fluffy and nobody picks them because they are so high.

The ninth pitch has nothing and is very strenuous, to make me really work for it.

Lastly, at the top of the cliff there's a cherry orchard. And the cherries are always in season!

One picture Tuesday

It's been a while since I've taken pro shots of people climbing: here's Marian in the grampians over the weekend:

Existential issues

Last week, on Monday, I got promoted. I celebrated with a beautiful bag and we celebrated by going out for drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner!! However, it was all hush-hush for the entire week as all the outcomes had to be discussed with all the applicants. The news did not come out until today, during lunchtime.

Also today, during lunchtime, grant outcomes were published, and I obviously didn't get it. It would have been too good to be true and thus obviously it wasn't. Now here am I getting all the congrats emails but gloomy as to the little minor failure of.not.getting.things.my.way (when, truth be told, it was a chance in 200,000 of getting.things.my.way)

Should I be happy? Should I be sad? I was pondering this, but then I remembered this past weekend in the grampians with the dodo. And I realized that regardless of all the shit and angst that's been going on (and the lack of sleep, mind you - must.inject.coffee!) I am happy! And life? It is good!

The bird!

It has landed! And here is the proof!

9. more. days.

And so much happening until then. Like the bird arriving tomorrow. The bird! Here! In Australia!!! AARGH! Grampians woo hoo!!!

Now, I must admit that I have no idea where I'm going. I mean, I know I'm going to New Zealand. To do an advanced mountaineering course. And then climb mount cook. If the weather holds. And my students give me enough positive karma (or not enough negative karma) to keep me alive.

But I am absolutely clueless as to which town I'm going to (just checked the tickets, it seems I'm flying in to Queenstown) and what happens from there. No fucking idea. I think I will be automagically transported to a place. From which the course starts. And I think there's a book. That I have to read. In between marking zillions of assignments and writing two (TWO) journal papers. And doing course re-design. And climbing. And training. And entertaining the bird. And I think I have to manage a budget. And write an exam. Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? Who needs sleep anyway?!

And there's gear that I have to buy. Next week. I think. It was on a list. That I made today. When I got halfway I realized it was already two pages long so I stopped adding things to it and tore it and threw it away. Or did I? And we're in the middle of setting up some supercalifragilisticexpialidocious projects for our students!! They will put software into space!! For REAL!!! I think. Maybe. Help! :)

Anyway, what I do know (heh) is that I'm super psyched about all of this!! Even though the last time we went to New Zealand things were not as pretty as I remember them:

One picture Tuesday

And what probably is the corniest picture. EVER. Also taken with a phone. My apologies but today has been a horribly tiring day.  

Got the anonymous feedback from my students. Two things are troubling me: firstly (and I have yet to read it properly) there seems to be very few negative comments, and, moving from that, very little feedback. Secondly, the fact that they liked me does not mean that a) i'm a good teacher, and, most importantly, b) that they learned anything. 

And yes, I bought a handbag but not any shoes! YAY! One minor hurdle has passed but the "big ice cliff" (to quote one of my students when talking about an assignment) is still unresolved. However, I have a backup plan! It involves getting really angry at everybody, quitting and going climbing for three years. These years (and achievements within) should give me a good enough CV for my barista personal trainer career. The sad and at the same time exciting reality of this is that this is actually a very well specified backup plan, in that I have figured out all the climbing venues, all the climbing trips and all the other detail$. All I need is just to get really angry. And while there might be some degree of insanity associated with the fact that one goes to school for 24 years only to let it all go to waste and start a barista personal trainer career, I have to say, it really makes one sleep better at night. 

20 years of my life. Wasted!

I spent the entire weekend reading. That, and showing my friend and mountaineering mentor around the wineries of Adelaide. But mostly, reading. Oh, and eating nectarines. Lots of them. That, and reading. I read "The man in the high castle" and "Among others" and started on "Montaineering, the freedom of the hills" and "The Golden Notebook" and "Ubik". I even read a few student reports while I was supposed to be, uh, resting ...

What I'm really not saying, and I should, is that "The man in the high castle" is my first PKD. I will say this again: I am 30 (THIRTY GODDAMMIT!!!) years old and I have just read my first PKD. This means that I have wasted 27 years of my life. Well, really 20, as one could probably not really appreciate PKD until ten years old.

To add insult to the injury, I have yet to read any Heinlein. Or any Le Guin. How could I be so stupid, so out of touch with reality? (<- dexter's laboratory quote) And, more importantly, dear me, where do I start?!?!! There's only so few days left!!! AAARGH!!!

Shallowness

At some unspecified point next week there will be a meeting that may or may not decide my future as an academic. Really. The possible outcomes of this meeting are either "yay! still a chance at academia!" or "Boo, gotta start finding new careers! Barista trainer here I come!!"

I have decided that, if the outcome is positive, I will maybe reward myself with a nice beautiful bag that has been living in the window of this shop I keep walking past. And maybe a little notebook if the outcome is really good. If the outcome is negative, I will definitely reward myself with a bag and at least a pair of shoes. Vain, I am.

Also, I have decided I should be an octopus!! Or maybe, I was an octopus in my past life, which would explain why I am not one now and why all this suffering in this current life. As king octopus, I probably wore all my shoes and all my bags at the same time on my hundred-strong tentacles! This was great because I could give my bags and shoes all the TLC they deserved. Other octopodes carried me on their back and I didn't have to carry any loads. Other than, of course, the load of the bags and shoes I was showing off. Of course, as king octopus, I could eat anything and not get fat, and most importantly, I was flashing V8s.

But I digress. The bag has thus become a minor-major focus at this point - and yesterday all I could think of was "Let next week come sooner and the outcome be revealed such that I can finally get me that bag!!!" ROAR!!!

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One picture Tuesday

Today's photo was going to be an inspirational photo from the grampians. Or maybe, from New Zealand, while I pondered my upcoming trip woo hoo! That is all going down the drain because earlier this morning, I found out that KIWIS GROW ON VINES!!!!!!!

I know that this is not a surprise for some, but it was for me! And, after a quick run around the school, turns out it was a surprise for my boss as well hahaha. Life is good. We're all dodos.

Grampians wee!!!!

Marian sent Mary and Claudia sent The Claw. And if I were to stop here, you would just not know first, how fantastically awesome it was, and second, how close we came to Marian sending Lygon Street Massacre and Claudia sending Master Bates.

The beta I had for "The Claw" turned out to be totally useless. There was no way in hell in which I could link the route following it. I could, indeed, do it by parts easily, but really needed a truckload of oomph in order to finish it like that. And so I changed the beta completely, requiring me to hold a shitty crimp with my injured hand, load on it, step very high with my right leg, load the leg, and then cross my right hand in the pocket that makes the claw, and then onwards to victory. There's a video of me doing it - I will post it once I get over the fact that I was not wearing at t-shirt.

The next day I tried Master Bates. The ending section, that requires one to have a bucketfull of stainless steel balls, went within the fifth try. Subsequently, it went really really quickly, every time I tried it. I had done the start in the previous trip and was superiorly confident about it, so I was pretty certain it was going to go. This allowed me to dream. I visualized myself coming back from the Grampians with two beautiful V5s under my belt. I saw myself telling Sibby how I did master bates and how easy the ending was. And then I tried the start.

And I couldn't even start. Not then, and not in the two hundred times I tried after that. Must've been the giant bucket of stainless steel balls I was carrying with me in order to get to the top part. Either that or the grampians gods decided to smack me for visualizing the end without actually being there. Pfft.

One picture Tuesday

Providing that nothing special happens, this weekend we're going to the Grampians! It will probably be the last or second last grampians trip before going to new zealand. My sekret plan is to try to finish The Claw (V5) in the first day, and work on Master Bates in the second day. It's important to try the claw in the first day methinks, because it's really intensive and it requires me to be superiorly fresh. Or, you know, loose weight, become skinnier, stronger, more mentally focused, all before saturday. DOABLE!

Humble and angry

Today the chief engineer from "insert famous web search company name here" for "insert country & region where I am here" gave a guest lecture during my lecture. It was fun and relaxing for me to finally sit in a lecture theatre at this university (damn those chairs are uncomfortable), which was a challenge in itself as these days I find it very hard to sit still for more than 10 minutes (must be the coffee I guess). It was also humbling to think of this very exciting journey from the three year-old girl queueing up for hours on end just for the possibility of maybe getting some food in communist Romania, to sitting in my lecture theatre as the chief engineer from  -insert famous web search company name here- for -insert country&region where I am here- gave a guest lecture. I wouldn't go as far to say that it was a hard journey, although this is relative too, but I would say that it's a loong fucking way, even if you only count it in kilometers and years. And if you consider just how blatantly below average I am both in knowledge and intelligence (but this in itself is the topic of another post), then it becomes a loong motherfucking way. But I digress. Humility was in my thoughts and soul.

And also anger. Initially a bit of a surprise, but then damn outright anger. At the number of students that were NOT there. We got I think, with gross over-estimation, about 55% of the class attending. This is great, and most of the students I had expected to be there were there, but this also means that 45% of the class was not attending. Now normally, I would think that it would be the lecturer's responsibility  to engage the learners into the lectures, into doing assignments, and well ... learning. This is especially true for immature learners that well, are immature with respect to taking responsibility of their learning. I would also think that ah well, maybe the lecture was boring, or maybe they have deadlines, or they are working, or they have a lot of work, or they overslept, or the bus came late or  the dog ate their fucking alarm clock! etc. But not today. Not when we're talking about the opportunity of being in the same room with the chief engineer from "insert famous web search company name here" for "insert country & region where I am here" giving a guest lecture! And asking him questions! and finding out about how stuff works! Potentially asking for internship opportunities! Not today.

In NUS at some point we had a guest lecture from some mid-level software engineer from "insert famous web search company name here".  The 200-people lecture theatre that had been booked overflowed and people had to watch the lecture live, streaming, in another room. The lecture had not been advertised more than what I did, and the little bit of advertising that went on took place a month - A MONTH! - before the visit.

And to this I say:

FUCK. THIS. SHIT.

A call from Kathmandu

The highlight of an otherwise shitty day was talking on the phone with the bird. She was, of course, in Kathmandu. The conversation was, of course, highly philosophical:

The bird (without saying hello): "do you want a spaghetti top or a vest?"

Me:"wha?!! DODO BIRD HOW WAS NEPAL?!!"

The bird:"ah it was allright. Spaghetti top or vest?!!"

Me:"wha?!! Whatever you like leh"

The bird:" I can't choose so that's why I called you! What would you like?"

Me:"Me?! oh, for me?! I don't know leh, both of them show my guns so both are scary. Pick whatever you like. "

The bird:"so if I get you a spaghetti top then you wear it?"

Me:"ok get the vest. I miss you dodo bird! When are you back?"

The bird: "Sunday. Ok I will hang up, I think this is expensive.. "

I heart teknology.

One picture tuesday

A while ago I found out that Marian was going home for Christmas, leaving me all by myself for both Christmas and New Year. I visualized myself sitting in the shade with a cat purring on my chest while reading the many many books I had just ordered online.

And then multiple offers piled up to relieve me of my loneliness. At first, I thought I was going to go to Melbourne for a pig out Christmas. But then! Jensen and my favorite producer are coming over to visit, so it looks like I'm going to spend Christmas in the grampians, woo hoo! They too, don't camp.. What is it with people these days?!!?!!

Fluffiness

Spotting koalas is like doing pull-ups: the first one is very hard, but the rest follow easily given enough persistence and application. On Saturday I went in my "conquer the motherfucker" (CTM) run. This time, I ran up chambers gully and descended on Mount Lofty. In my next CTM run I plan to run up chambers gully, down mount lofty, and then up mount lofty and down chambers gully. Provided that I'll do it, this will be the final full CTM run for this year. I've been doing so many CTM runs now that I feel there's a need for either a label or a new blog entirely dedicated to CTMs.

I spotted eleven koalas in this run, all in the lower parts of Chambers Gully, before reaching the motherfucker. They were small koalas, big koalas, moving koalas, sleeping koalas, chewing koalas. All were very fluffy koalas.

Sweet thoughts

Until I started to actually earn something, I used borrowed gear for all my mountaineering trips. And by gear I mean everything other than backpack and boots, as gore-tex and merino base layers and crampons and harnesses and ropes and helmets and poles and gloves and beanies etc were very expensive. This always resulted in me wearing clothes that were too big for me and had weird color combinations, making for very very funny pictures. For example, I used a down jacket that was size XL for Aconcagua. It was very good (kept my knees warm too!) but it made me look like a very very fat blue! penguin. With an orange beanie!

I cannot begin to say how much my mother opposes me doing any type of climbing and mountaineering, and long distance running for that matter. Oh, and trail running. And bungee jumping. She would really love it if I did more tennis, not-long-distance running, and frankly, would be very happy if the only sport I did was chess. She gets so disturbed and so worried about any trip I take (probably more disturbed as she ages), that I don't even tell her anymore. All of our grampians trips have been "trekking with friends". I did not tell her about the last Alps trip (and had to take the photos down from picasa as well), and I will not tell her about New Zealand either. At least not about Mount Cook. When I went to Aconcagua she checked (and worried) about the wind conditions and the weather conditions and every fucking little thing more than we did. She, of course, had interwebs, which we didn't.

Even with all this, when I went in my first alpine climbing trip, she bought me a (very expensive for Romania) pair of crampons that I badly needed and I didn't have money for as I was at the time a poor-er PhD student. That pair of crampons turned out to be the first technical alpine piece of gear I owned. I have yet to take them out and look at them but here is a photo of how they looked when they were new:

Vanity

... definitely my favorite sin.


On Sunday I went for the usual long run with the club people. As my running partner is still out of commission and will probably be forever for "not short" distances, I had planned to run alone. I had my running playlist and my not-bouncy-waterproof headphones on, and was ready to run at whatever pace I felt like. Which was, on a lazy Sunday morning, after climbing harder on Saturday and reading ALL THOSE ABSTRACTS!, a slow to very very slow to "I'd be faster if I walked" pace. The run went through North Adelaide (nice, pwetty!) and then all the way to Regency park (not nice, not pwetty!), and back again, for a total of 18km.

I had planned my slow slow pace by texting San and telling her that I will be stopping throughout my run to take pictures of pwetty North Adelaide in spring.

And then we started the run. For some reason that was later edified, I started at the front of the pack, but not exactly leading the pack. Once we reached the first uphill section I moved at the front of the pack, because of my tendency to sprint. Up. Hilly. Sections! And yes, I'm still trying to stop doing that. This however, posed two problems.

Firstly, I had no idea where we were going, although I had a map. This is because the instructions that came with that map were "head north on X street, then west on that street and then east on the other street" etc. Why not say left and right and straight and back!?! WHY?! Also, the map itself, as in the drawing, was so badly printed that you had to be "not-a-tourist" to know where the hell you were going. And so, a lot of pressure on me: had to take my headphones off everytime I reached an intersection and wait for people from behind to shout at me if I were to be taking the wrong turn. Hopefully shout after me, because they do enjoy to pull tricks on you!

Secondly, I was at the front of the pack. Which meant that I had to keep going at the front of the pack. As I'm absolutely pathetic at pacing - my pace has three levels: "This is slow", "I can't really talk right now", and "WHAT THE FUCK!?" - I needed to pace myself to ensure that I was within sight of the group (so as not to get lost) but still in front of it (so as not to loose face), without turning to look behind too often. Heh. Vanity.

Turns out that the group had run Yurebilla* the previous weekend and the faster runners were still recovering, and therefore were slow as snails.

And so we ran.  I stopped only when I really had to, but I didn't sprint either. I did a thorough review of every part in my body that hurt. I did this review many many times, and frankly, my conversation with myself either went through the list of pains and aches or was interrupted with more complex philosophical issues such as: "Oh, a bird! Oh, two birds!" or "What should I have for breakfast when I get home?" or "If I run on the street now, will cars run over me?!".  I guess this is really the place where you want to be for a "not short" run: not mulling over the world's problems, having arguments with your various relatives or (ahem) motherfuckers,  or giving in to your inner voice (always negative, if you must know), but just humming along without caring about anything.

The pace was not bad either: I think in the end it turned out to be 5:25 min/km, which, provided that I kept this for the remaining 24kms, would get me under 4hrs/marathon, without even stressing about it. So I guess the morale is not to really stress about it.

*Good thing I didn't know Yurebilla was on, or I might have tried it this year.

One picture Tuesday

Labor day long weekend was upon us: we couldn't go to the grampians because a conference track I am chairing had its deadline over the weekend, which implied that I to work 2/3 days to get it done. And so I did. However, on Saturday I slept in, snoozing blissfully until 6:45 am!

On Sunday I couldn't sleep in more than 7:00 am because I went for the sunday long-ish run (more about it tomorrow!)

However, yesterday i so totally slept in, waking up at 7:30 am and going for a run up Chambers Gully (the motherfucker was conquered again, hooray!).

And yeah, this is Suzie, our cat - just realized she never made it here - she likes to sleep on her back.