My Nemesis

I am a weak climber. I know it, my fellow climbers know it, hell, everybody that has heard me climb knows it. The bane of my climbing existence are slopers because I do not train them enough, i have a weak wrist and a big bum (working on the first and the third). I am reasonably good at overhangs because I might be weak and fat but I am also strong beefy. I went climbing on Saturday at the gym and I nearly cried because it was crowded (again) and full of kids (again) - note to self: do not go to the gym on weekends. Anyway, after using their bouldering facilities for a while (pathetic, they are), one of the staff invited me to go climbing with them on Sunday. And off I went. Perhaps I should not have done the last two sets of campusing when they told me that.

Anyway, when i got to the climbing crag (Norton Summit, fyi), my grin turned to doubt and was later replaced by sobs of frustration. And here's why:

1. Overhang. About 30-35 degrees. Not much. Not much my ass!


2. Unfamiliar rock - quartz with sandstone (?) - no jugs, no pockets. Slopers (mostly), ledges, pinches, and crimps - Sandra would love it here!


3. Little roofs!


4. Gradewise: one 21, one 23, and the rest from 27 upwards. 21 is 6b.

Result: I top roped! HA!

It's been a week now

And finally I think I can talk about the farewell without starting to cry. And I know everybody is waiting with bated breaths to know wether I cried or not before I entered the gate.

And the answer to this is ... almost.

I was getting ready to go through the gates. And I was walking in front trying to control the tears that were already filling my eyes. When Daniel, who was walking besides me, sees the tears and says: "Awww... don't cry!" Which of course started them a bit but I managed to control them despite Daniel's insistence "Awww... don't cry!"

And I reach the gate and turn around to hug Sandra and Doris and I see that San is crying already and then of course all floodgates were open and there we were, the three of us, crying like lunatics.

And of course now that the floodgates are open I can't stop at all. And i go through customs and through airport clearance, and through the gates and I am still crying. And of course I have no tissue and the mucus flood from hell is spurting from my nose (yes, I wiped it on my pants thank you very much).

When I got on the plane my first stop was to the bathroom, where I picked up a big wad of tissue paper, because the girls had made a scrapbook for me and I knew I was going to cry. And cry I did, at every single page (pictures to come, once i find the camera cable).

This was despite the romanian couple that was sitting behind me and that was having the FIGHT FROM HELL (in romanian of course). I got to know all the private details of their life, how much they hated and despised their respective families, and how they were new immigrants, going, of all places, to Adelaide. And they fought and fought and screamed and fought and I was sure they were going to get a divorce right there and now because nobody says "death is going to de-flower your mom" (I KID YOU NOT) to somebody else and expect that somebody to be married to them after this?!!?! Right?! And I was caught in the worst of situations because I should have said something the moment i heard them speak romanian and how would it look if I said something now, three hours into their fight? And I was crying (because of the scrapbook) and angry (because of the nasty words they were saying to each other) and as such I devoured Jensen's bak kwa.

My only sweet revenge was when, before landing, I opened up charlene's box of chocolates, turned around and offered them some (in romanian). By now they were happy with each other again but the look of embarrassment (on his face) and surprise (on hers) was priceless.

And the image of sandra crying still brings tears to my eyes because it's not often that her hard shell cracks, least of all in front of so many strangers.

[and i promise, this is one of the last depressing posts]

Oh my, has it been so long?

Just realized that maybe, just maybe, I haven't been blogging for ages. The reason for this prolonged silence is that yes, I have moved to Adelaide. Initially I wanted to blog when a successful move happened, but sadly I can't do that yet. So, short of everybody declaring me dead or the equivalent, I am blogging now.

In the past eight (EIGHT) oh my god has it been that long?! - days, I have done the following:

- took a plane to Adelaide

- got greeted by the C-C-C-COLD! It's freezing sadly, and it's only 12-14 degrees here. I guess one of the reasons for this horrible C-C-C-COLD is that I have chosen to fill my airplane bag with rope, quickdraws, running shoes, training clothes (climbing pants, running SHORTS ha!) etc. And .... summer clothes. This is because when i looked online, the weather said 20 degrees in Adelaide (must've been a hot day fucking hell)

- met up with Claudia and Bogdan, our Nepal trekking friends, who flew from Goldcoast to help me for a while with settling down.

- went to the climbing gym - the situation is kinda pathetic as the bouldering wall there is flat, but maybe there are more gyms around?! [gotta research this out]

- got myself an australian phone number

- ATE GOOD FOOD (but I am craving my tom yam like madd) - the western food here is quite delicious and not pricy at all (for australian standards, mind you)

- bought a CAR. This is the most significant purchase I have made (other than the 200 den stockings - the stockings I wore for my wedding were 15 den haha) in a while. Also, the most expensive yet. The car is a toyota echo and her name is Snow White. (guess why, pictures are coming up)

- found my office! It has a window!! (pictures coming up)



- got my application rejected! Here you have to apply for a rental property. If the owner/landlord/agent likes you, then you get it. If not, too bad. Good thing i have a car, worse comes to worst, I can sleep in the car!

- it was only after Bogdan and Claudia left, that i have truly started to feel alone and lonely (cue violins). I have trouble sleeping and eating - but this might be because I'm stressed about not finding a house as well - keep your fingers crossed!

Ok, this is it for the updates, will be resuming our normal flow this weekend!

Thoughts on leaving

I have been alluding to this for a long time now but I guess it is a good time to make an official announcement: on Friday, 3rd of June, I will be leaving Singapore and shifting to Adelaide - yay! aussie pictures coming up!!

Now before I bring out the tissue I want to say that throughout the years I have become VERY, VERY good at leaving. I am capable of leaving my family, dog, mother, grandmother, favorite place in the whole wide universe, turn my back, get on the plane, and not shed a single tear [Other than the violent sobbing in the plane toilet and the occasional roar during movies such as "UP!" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" (yes, when that duck looked into the panda's eyes and said "don't leave, Po!" I was bawling).] While I am so good at leaving, I am not so good at keeping in touch, and thus I have kept very few (2) friends from the olden days.

However, this time is different. Not only am I leaving behind a hoard of friends that have touched me and shaped me in ways I have never thought possible but I am also leaving behind a husband, my two bestest friends (aka the besties, for those big bang theory fans out there), tom yam soup, DURIANS, and last but not least the stuffy and chalky climbing gym. Not only that, but I am going to Adelaide all by myself (issue Celine Dion "All By Myself") to face the world of lecturing alone. And what really scares me is the fact that I have tears in my eyes as I write this, which only means that tomorrow when I will really leave I will be a spectacle of sobs and mucus. Hurray!

So I guess, what I'm trying to say is I'm leaving, but I'm not. Australia is only 8 hours by flight away (hey, compare it to Singapore->Europe!), 2.5 hours time difference ONLY!, there's climbing in the Blue Mountains and New Zealand is fantastic! So if you don't come visit, I will muahhahahahah! (right now I know for sure that I will be back in July and November, yay!)

Techincal helpdesk saga

I know for sure that there is somebody in this school that will be eternally grateful that I will be leaving soon. And that person is the one that is manning the technical helpdesk here at our NUMBER 12 in the world COMPUTER SCIENCE school. For you see, helpdesk here is run by non-extremely-technical-savvy people that rely on printouts of "next->next" screen to identify/fix problems.

Problem no 1: A while ago the internet connection on my desktop was down. A quick check to other comps in the lab revealed that they were still online, so the problem had to be either with my computer or ... . Anyway, I did all the usual things, restarted everything etc, even went to the trouble to change my mac address to the wildcard we sekretly hold in our lab, but to no avail. So I decide to call the helpdesk with my problem. The lady there, after listening, says: "Go to control panel -> settings " . And I say, I can't go there, it's a Mac. What do you mean it's a mac? Says here it's a windows PC.

And I say "It's a mac!"

She: "Ok. Go to control panel, settings ..."

After going to and fro she decides it's a problem with the fact that I have MacOS and therefore she can't help me. And that I should send her an email (see reason for problem number 1 - WTF?!?!?!!!!!!) with the error (WHAT ERROR!?!). After several more angry calls in which she finally changes her attitude (once realizing that I might be calling from a student lab but I am not only a student FUCKING HELL WAS THAT NECESSARY?!), and during which internet connection fails on all comps in the lab, she finally calls back to say that: "Internet is down. Will be fixed." and she hangs up!

Problem no 2: Today I needed to access an online form to extend something. Of course, I log in, and I find that said link does not work with any browser, neither Firefox, Chrome, Safari. I try a PC as well, in which I only (to my shame) try Firefox.After it does not work, I send email saying it does not work. Prompt reply: "Your browser has issues. Try internet exploder on PC".

Of course, I go try and lo and behold, it does not work! Email back saying it does not work.
Reply:
"Then is either your notebook or PC problem.

Alternatively you may come down to ... to fill in the
eform.
"


Future prodding reveals that if you log-in with a staff account, it works. With student account it does not work - although it's students that are supposed to use that eForm. I send her this revealing bug - probably some authentication since they merged such that login is done with NUS accounts, and also I send her my account with my password.


To which she candidly replies: "Dear ...

You are not supposed to sent your password thru email. The eform ONLY works if a student has both NUSNET and SoC a/c.
" - > lo and behold, EVERYBODY in the lab (yes, I had them try) has both NUSNET and SoC acc!!!!!!

There is steam coming out of my ears at this point!!!

And her last answer:
"Dear ...

I am aware that you are extending your SoC a/c

Please login using your NUSNET staff a/c ... to extend your SoC a/c

Don't worry about other user in the lab, if they have problem they can sent an
email to ...@...

Let's settle your case first.

"

ZOMG.

One picture Tuesday

And to re-instate the tradition ... First of all, WE ARE BACK TO SINGAPORE! YAY! Actually, I am not happy to be back, I would have spent at least one more month traveling through Europe, but there you have it, we are adults and we have jobs and responsibilities and what not. To cheer me up, here's a picture of Bingo in his wedding attire. I loved the fact that he was still able to participate in every aspect of the wedding.

Yes we did!

Finally, some pictures are up from the wedding! Not the pro ones (those will take a while and i hope are worth it!) but some to give a brief idea about a romanian wedding, an all-in-all endurance marathon from 6 am on Saturday morning to 6 am on Sunday morning.


First, the hairdo for the civil ceremony:


With my mother before the ceremony:



My grandmother and most of the family from her part came: my grandmother, her two sisters that totally made the show (see more below) They travelled all the way from Bacau to Caracal (500+ km?) in a bus, all SIXTEEN of them, together with my 85-year old grandfather and my 80-year old grandmother. This truly made my day.



They truly made the show, singing, dancing, showing my two Asian maids of honor the various drinks and dance steps... I was really proud of them!



And then we signed - muhahahahah Marian does not know that hell is just beginning!



After that, went to the hairdresser, changed the hairdo, got into the dress with the help of Dor and San:



Looking demure:




With the only two pre-Marian friends that came for the wedding: my highschool friend and my university friend. HOT, HOT, HOT!



At the veiling of the bride, my relatives composed and sang an entire song that included our meeting in singapore, bringing the asian girls for the wedding, and inviting them for the christening of our first child. I CRIED!!! Like tears!!! This is the only time when i cried.



In the church:



Wearing the crown:



Dor holding the candle: and she did not set the church on fire!!



Being welcomed by Marian's mom:



And my dog Bingo (notice the bowtie):



Dancing the whole night (from 9pm until 5 am I KID YOU NOT!)



The unveiling of the bride and wearing a womanly scarf:


And in the end, despite my deep hatred for weddings (and truly loathing being in the limelight), I really enjoyed my family being there, Bingo still being young enough (he's 14!) to enjoy, and San and Dor traveling all the way from Singapore to be there for me. WOO HOO!

No news is good news!

So, first, Marian and I are married. I am not going to write anything cheesy here so you should relax. What I am going to say is that the wedding party was fantastic and that we danced the whole night - from 9 pm to 4 am -nearly without break. My thighs are killing me now but it was an endurance event worth taking part in. 

I loved both my dresses - the civil ceremony and the wedding - and pictures will come soon. More importantly, I did not look like hulk's sister in them. I did not get a chance to stay in Lacu Rosu, but I did go there (and drove the extra five hundred km), just to play with two dogs. One of them, my favorite ever (other than Bingo):



I am blogging now while on the plane to Zurich - we are going to Switzerland first and then France. Pics will be up just as soon as dodo finishes uploading them. Let the honeymoon begin!

Good job, Claudia!

Yesterday was one of the days when i was truly and utterly myself. I drove from Marian's town of Caracal, to my town, Bucharest, to pick up my two maids of honor, San and Dor. The drive was horrendous because the road was very crowded, with a lot of carts and trucks and all that. Anyway, I managed to reach Bucharest just in time. So I hurry out of the car and into the airport and try to find a spot close to the exit such that Doris can see the bright yellow sign I made for her.

But of course, Romanian customs have to be their anal selves and really give a hearty welcome to everybody that comes in here. The girls were kept for a ginormous amount of time because they didn't know my address... I forgot to give it to them. And so they called me. But because I HAD FORGOTTEN MY PHONE IN THE CAR they could not reach me. And they called and called and called and facebooked marian and i had like ten missed calls when i finally got my phone back. And other people were calling me too cause the girls were bringing stuff for them and yeah, from now on, my phone sleeps with me.

World War III

I am up to my neck in wedding preparations and I haven't even started yet. Haha. Laugh all you can, but right now, we have all re-united in Marian's town, and are slowly starting preparations for a full-fledged war. We have only started to determine how many drinks to order and already the spirits (haha) are high and the tensions are blooming.

Today we are going to the doctor, the hotel, the restaurant, to buy nuptial flowers and for me for a hair try-out. And I have yet to run a long run, and the two of us have yet to practice the dance again (this is set for in-between today and tomorrow). And if we manage all this (the main argument last night was for example to establish how big the coca-cola bottles that are put on the table should be) without killing ourselves and still talk to each other it will be a massive achievement. Marian in particular gets especially hysterical around 11 pm at night. God help us all :))

A story of squirrels

An old couple was in the Herastrau park in Bucharest. I think they are there every morning this spring.


They have a number of furry little friends


With whom they have breakfast in the park:

Spring is here!

I am at home, and spring is here. Albeit a little bit chilly sometimes (read: fucking cold!!!) the blooming flowers are fantastic!












And running dachshunds (albeit old) really make my day :)

Mistakes of the past

Until now, Qatar airways has got to be THE airline with the worst food I have ever flown - it is even topped by TAROM, the romanian airline. When we boarded our seven hour flight we got a small bread stick as food, and a promise of breakfast six hours later. And this is where the mistakes of the past come to haunt me, because when I booked the ticket I had accidentally left "raw vegetarian" selected in the menu. Afterwards, i went to change it to cooked vegetarian, but turns out that it didn't change. And i got raw vegetarian. Which didn't contain any fruits, suprisingly. And the flight attendant was rude (to everybody), which did even more to sour my mood.

The other options for breakfast were omelette or fried rice. I was somewhat happy with my raw vegetarian as it looked much much better than what my neighbors were having (although they had fruits wtf?)

ALSO, MOST IMPORTANTLY, there was no coffee/tea. And here am I, awake for two hours already and I have not had my coffee. I am slowly turning into a little monster.

Bittersweet - part II

Today I said goodbye to my supervisor. While he will forever remain my supervisor, the next time I will see me he will no longer be my boss. Sadly, he will not be here for my convocation. Nor for when I leave for Adelaide next month. I chocked again, as when I wanted to thank him during my defense. I think he was troubled too, but whether it was because he will miss me or he was scared that I was going to hug him or kiss him on the cheek or something, I do not know.

For you see, our prof is very very shy. The kind of shy that if he were to suddenly be in the limelight (outside professional limelights) he would be so distressed and shudder as if a cold, slimy snake (no offense to snakes!) would suddenly slither up his back. And by limelight in this case would be if somebody would say, ask him what was the color of his t-shirt yesterday or wether he would like prawns or cuttlefish for dinner.

While we have not been friends (and imagine, i was his golden child! how shy can one be?!), he has been a very good professional mentor to me. I do not know about him, but I know that I will miss him immensely. And in truth, the only reason why I am still considering a career in research (rather than only in teaching) is because I think it would make him proud. I guess that in this respect a part of this Chinese make-your-elders-proud has rubbed on me as well.

Bittersweet

On Sunday, Marian and I had our singaporean wedding celebration plus a farewell party for me. It was not a very exciting event but! at least we and I got to see everybody that i wanted to see before I left. With a few exceptions that i see everyday and some that couldn't make it. I do not wanna talk about that, nor about my very pretty dress!


Or the very very cute baby!


But I do want to talk about the fantastic guest book that everybody made! I got fun, quirky, cute, sad, bittersweet messages from everybody, and these messages literally bought tears in my eyes. I cried and cried and cried which did not do my face any good as I was still wearing my non-waterproof mascara. And it was 2 am. And I got a headache. Add that to the late time going to sleep and i was a total mess on monday, which explains the lack of posts. See pics below for details.

Chloe was the producer of my whale-signing CD.



Ely made me cry - with the drawings but mostly with the text.


Jensen drew a portrait of the future hahahahha



Jups drew a PERFECT dyno.


Reg, shaoting, felicia, daffy went crazy! (pardon my finger nail, i dig earth for a living)

One picture Tuesday

On Sunday we had our wedding celebration party + my farewell party (see next post). This is what San and Dor made for me. It's a picture of me with little pictures of me and my times here. I gave San a hug that dislocated her jaw. I don't think she'll ever hug me again.

Oh my ...

Last night I had this entire post ready in my head. It was about growing up, getting married, changing etc. I was all glitzy and mature and nice-worded. Well fuck me blind! I can't do it today because I am so truly and utterly shacked from last night's 3 HOUR session of PT.

It started nice and easy enough at 6pm when I met Doris to do her monstrous PT session. We did only 2 half-hour sets of: 10 biceps curls, 10 triceps curls, 10 shoulder curls, 10 lifts, 10 prosperity kitty, 30 wrist curls, 15 elbow curls on each hand, with 5 kg weights per hand; 20 crunches, 20 leg lifts, 6-8 explosive pull-ups (mine were only on crimps so more of the i-will-use-my-momentum-to-lift-up), and then 20 push-ups (for her). Oh yeah, and the 1-minute 90-degrees wall squat, which is the ONLY exercise in this world that I can do better than her (thanks to my monster thighs). My psych had been hovering just a little above zero when I met Doris. However, her psych was minus infinity so by the time we were done both our psyches were minus infinity.

And then Chloe came, and in a while Shaoting came. Now you see, I had agreed to join them for a run since Shaoting had said before that they only run 2.4 km on the track. Seeing how I did 10 km the day before, 2.4k did not sound like such a big thing. Right?! RIGHT?! Well, this is where plans changed and they decided to run the SP route (4.5km). And while inside I was all NO, NO, NO, NO, NOOOO! I kept my cool and just went along with it, in a "nothing you decide to run right now can scare me". And thus went another half hour.

And to continue the series of unfortunate events, we joined Chloe and Judith for their speed PT. And this is how at 9pm I was still doing PT. This time it was 3 sets of: put 0.5 kg ankle weights on each ankle and then bob up and down, trying to lift your knees as high as possible, as fast as possible for 30 seconds. After this Chloe and Jud did their campusing and their dips while Shaoting and I just stoned. And then, it was the lunges. After 3 sets of lunges (20 each leg) I have to say that never ever has my butt hurt soooo bad. I never knew they were so effective!!

Claudia - Climbing Gym: 2-0

It's been a while since i have admitted to embarrassing things on the blog, and I have yet to recount the story of how I chafed my thighs while running. However, the battle between me and the climbing gym last night was so epic that I have to recount it here as well. I am winning this battle because I have prepared long and hard for it and I have one very important ass-et. [You might have noticed how I have been complaining about a slight increase in my mid-to-lower circumference lately, due mostly to the increase in noodle intake and decrease in training due to work and other commitments.]

Why, only last year I recall that I stepped on a very big (size of a watermelon) green tile and I cracked it right in the middle. That tile is now on display and still in use on the bottom right corner of the Sun moon wall in the NUS climbing gym. How could I crack such a big tile is beyond my understanding. Firstly, these tiles are not made of glass, they break people's skulls when they fall on them. The resin they are made of is quite tough. PLUS, I might be the heaviest of the girls, but there are guys that are heavier than me, right? RIGHT?! Claudia 1, Gym 0.

Last night it was different. Sandra climbs and finishes a route that required stepping with the right foot on a small tile a bit to the right - so a lot of load would go on the foothold. Psyched by the fact that the route seemed finishable, I start climbing it too! I swear that while i was starting I thought that the foothold looked a bit cracked! Anyway, I hold something, I step with my right foot, I load, shift [part] of my weight on it, and in milliseconds I am down on the floor again. The foothold is cracked right in the middle, half of it on the floor, the other half still on the wall. Everybody is laughing and San is saying "NO MORE DINNER FOR YOU!!!" Claudia 2, Gym 0.

One picture Tuesday

The stuff one finds in one's office if one just opens the door: trashy novels (crime novels, harry potter, and some other stuff).
Yerba mate - 2kgs - anybody interested?

Down gloves.

Two blocks of chalk and one chalk box (just when i was starting to say that we need to buy chalk).

One guide book.

One (ONE) climbing shoe.

Meet Tommy!

A new addition to the wide range of one-eyed friends that we have. A good successor to Bobby, whose tired old bones cannot write the photos on the card anymore. Initially we wanted to make Tommy a girl and named him Coco, but firstly, I know a cat named Coco and that would not have been nice (to the cat), and secondly, he really does not look like a girl, now does he?



We will use Tommy together in Romania this year, but for now he will be going to China with Marian, and Bobby will stay with me. Tommy will come back to me as soon as Marian will make it to Adelaide (haha, one more reason to wait for Marian to come visit me in Adelaide!).

The battle of the Fatts

With my upcoming uprooting (ha!) from the singaporean soil, i have gone a mass-frenzy eating spree, in which i stuff my face with everything asian but mostly thai food, especially tom yam. This is because after my recent trip to Sydney to get my wedding dress I have found that thai food in Australia is a) expensive and b) guaranteed not spicy (at least not for me). As such I have proceeded to eat as much as possible whenever possible. Needless to say, this has an enlarging effect over my soft bits, which is to say that my butt is truly getting bigger because I have not seen any improvements in cleavage.

And since the PT done on Monday with the bird did not totally killed me, I am insisting that I do the same today. And since the PT itself is too boring to be done by any sane person by herself, I have guilted the bird into staying with me and counting my sets. She is now learning to count in Romanian, and hopefully we will move on to food names by next week. For now, it is:

OONOO ...
DOY ...
TREY ...
PARTOO ...
CINCH ...
SHAHSEH ...
SHAHPTEH ...
OPT ...
NOAH ...
ZECHE!!!

PhD Metrics

I am thinking about clearing up my office and my computer. This involves sorting though all the pdf files that I have, all the books, and all the work that I did through my phd. This is enough to send me screaming in the lab because, as most of you know, I am not really a tidy person, and when it comes to keeping stuff organized I fail [even more] miserably.

As with any gruesome task, it is best to start with a break and a background assessment of what I have to do. During the last years of my PhD, I have collected:

- 8818 .PDF files
- 1061 .JPG files (on my work computer, I am truly scared to see what a count on my laptop will be)
- 76 .TEX files (some of them are not mine, ok?)
- 9226 .JAVA files
- 27000 lines of code (excluding desperate student emails)
- 6 flight itineraries (god knows what happened to the rest!)
- 1668 MP3 files (looks like i don't listen to a lot of music)
- 1453 electronic books - but i read a lot haha

One picture Tuesday

Because operation nightmare has reached a happy conclusion, I am more than happy to bask in our success. Pretty much like this little guy - (s)he uses this rock quite often!

Operation Nightmare. Part I

I never thought it would really get to this, but I think I am a bit out of shape when it comes to shopping. I guess it is because I had to finish a thesis and do stuff but then again I will not complain here. I knew I hated weddings when I jumped on the wedding wagon but this is getting ridiculous... I mean why do you have to match the jewelry to your gown? Who cares about that anyway? Why do you have to have matching shoes for your civil ceremony dress? WHY? WHY? WHY?

My bridesmaids and I have been looking for a dressy enough shirt that one of them can wear for the numerous weddings that she has to attend in the near future. And this is where I find that singapore is truly a really boring place because all we could find were formal, i-gotta-go-to-work-and-look-serious-in-this kind of shirts. I mean, is it too much to ask to put just some silver threads in the fabric or something like that? Why oh why must they all be either white or erm white? And of course how many shades of white you can try on?

Yesterday we achieved 50% of our objective and managed to find a superb dress for Doris (aka The Dodo) to wear (it's not chinese as the one below but it is golden... I love it!!!)



Today we are hitting the stores again in search of the elusive shirt - and i just remembered that Esprit has a formal - dressy section! To get all of them to come I have traded my soul with the devil: I will join dodo to do her Physical Training (PT) (the same dodo who is third in the climbing open women category) and whom i can better at climbing only by grabbing her while on the wall and pulling her off it... This means her PT will not be easy and I will probably not make it till the end! which would leave me fat (as before) and with a tattered pride. All of this only because we need three people to make a decision (we go by 2/3 majority haha) and as such Dodo needs to skip training. Sigh ...

A different kind of training

Sure, as a climber you get a lot of hand-foot coordination. And balance, and core control, and resolution, determination, and commitment (some of us a bit less on the last one - oh my god what am i going to do in Fontainebleau?!?!) And of course, if you are a member of a team or willing to improve yourself, you are all too familiar with training, doing infinite amounts of pull-ups and so on. And of course, if you really want to improve and do harder routes, you are left to intensely contemplating for what seems like eternity how to grip a handhold in a particular way, how to shift your (stately) butt on a tile etc. And all of these will help me in this particular situation.

At first, Marian and I decided to dance the tango for our wedding. But then when I couldn't find a short dress, we decided against it because there's nothing like a big white whale gliding on the dance floor. Good thing we did because even trying to learn the waltz is proving a different kind of training. Oh don't get me wrong, we are very very good on hand-foot coordination. And on tempo, and at least one of us remembers what we have to do (we found a video on the web and we are copying that). Endurance we have since we're also runners.

The problem is grace. I for sure will not be the most graceful bride what with the defined back muscles (THANK YOU JENSEN!!) and the gung ho - "we can move any mountain!! ROAR!!!" - attitude. And Marian has a tendency to bend his knees and stay on his heels (a direct consequence of the national dances he's so good at) that he's miles away from tall, stiff, austrians dancing the waltz.

And so, we train ...

One picture Tuesday

Ierba mate - incredible analgesic, endurance drug, hunger and thirst quencher. 0.5 kg mate = 1 gr cocaine. Putre, Argentina (near the border with Bolivia) - 2008.