Sunday, 25 May 2008
Climbing and the weekend...
Had a fabulous weekend even if the weather was crappy!
I was feeling pretty tired finishing work on Fri evening and really just wanted a quiet drink. There were folk going for a drink after work but they were heading to D4 which I reckoned would be quite busy on a Fri evening so I thought no. Then on the walk home (all 3 mins of it)I decided that I would go but I'd just nip up to New World first to buy some stuff to make sandwiches for Sat. So spent a v enjoyable couple of hours in D4 (actually got seats which was great, just unfortunately right in front of the live band!). There's no way that in Dublin I'd have the freedom of going home to sort some stuff for the following day and then be able to nip out to meet work folk for a drink; the joys of living centrally!
On Saturday morning I was up early enough (not 4am early!) to make my lunch for the day and then head down to Fergs for my rock climbing course at Fergs which is less than 10 mins walk from me :) There were two instructors, Liz and Phenella (sp??) and six of us on the course itself. We were there at 10am leaving at 3pm and I had a fantastic time. Interesting variety of reasons for why we were all doing the course and I certainly had a fantastic time. We just being shown harnasses, shoes etc and then some instruction on body position when climbing (keep bum tucked in, small steps, use your core; pilates folk will be familiar with this!, don't grab at hand holds etc). All really interesting and then we practised just going horizontally across the wall. And within an hour we were doing our first climb on a v easy wall.
I partnered with Rachel and she belayed first. Her job is to keep the rope taut while I'm climbing and then to control rope while I abseil down. I have to admit that I love the climbing part but definitely not so keen on the coming down part. I guess it's all about trust... though I was informed when I was belaying that I'm great at controlling rope when climber is coming down (and my hand hurt to show it too :) )
After that we did another wall or two and then it was suggested we try a slightly more difficult, but free, one. This would be a higher grade wall if we were doing graded climb (only using holds of one particular colour) but for a rainbow climb we should be able to make some attempt so off we went. I was first up and made some progress before feeling that I just couldn't go any further. Liz, our instructor came over and was so encouraging that I'd got so far and pointed out a hold I could use etc (she did this after lunch when I had real trouble on another wall and was going to come down; her encouragement meant that I carried on and touched the rafters at the top!) so I carried on another bit before really just getting stuck and coming down.
I felt great having got as far as i did but I was really shaking when I got down! Looking at the photos now it really doesn't look that high up but it really felt it and I was definitely feeling unsure and uncertain up there. But it was such an achievement... as was my rafter touching moment after lunch!
The rest of the girls on the course were great and one pair, Amy and Lena were in my view quite nifty and good!
So I'll definitely be wanting to go back though not sure if I ever see myself getting to the stage of wanting to climb real rock face! Unfortunately the club meets Mon evenings so I'll need to wait until psychology course finished (though wanted to do photography course after that) before I can go along. But the great thing about having done yesterday is that I know I can email the girls and see if somebody wants to go down sometime other than a Mon evening. And Amanda from tramping club is looking for a climbing buddy too...
So, on completion of yesterday afternoon I got back here, sent some texts, ate some food and went to sleep. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. Had relaxed Sat evening eating dinner (after getting soaked in the rain :( ) in Siem Reap a yummy cambodian restaurant and then had a tasty cocktail in the Matterhorn afterwards. For anybody interested it was a Passionfruit Bishop consisting of 42 Below Passion, lemon & orange juices, passionfruit syrup and chilled red wine. Don't think I prefer it to a cosmopolitan but seeing as my choice of cocktails is relatively limited it was nice to find something new!
Today was a fairly relaxed morning though the rain was bloody awful! And there was a fair bit of trying to find parking space, finding one, cafe full, find parking space elsewhere, cafe closed before we eventually got brunch on Oriental Parade!! I guess with the horrible weather there were more cars out and about than is usual on a Sun here in Wellington.
I would like to say that this afternoon I upgraded my Mac OS to Leopard, but that would be a bit of a lie so instead I'll say that this afternoon my Mac OS was upgraded to Leopard.. just not by me! Then a cold walk along the sea front. And now it's 6:30 and I'm getting peckish so I might go cook myself some dinner before ringing Mum to wish her a Happy Birthday.
I was feeling pretty tired finishing work on Fri evening and really just wanted a quiet drink. There were folk going for a drink after work but they were heading to D4 which I reckoned would be quite busy on a Fri evening so I thought no. Then on the walk home (all 3 mins of it)I decided that I would go but I'd just nip up to New World first to buy some stuff to make sandwiches for Sat. So spent a v enjoyable couple of hours in D4 (actually got seats which was great, just unfortunately right in front of the live band!). There's no way that in Dublin I'd have the freedom of going home to sort some stuff for the following day and then be able to nip out to meet work folk for a drink; the joys of living centrally!
On Saturday morning I was up early enough (not 4am early!) to make my lunch for the day and then head down to Fergs for my rock climbing course at Fergs which is less than 10 mins walk from me :) There were two instructors, Liz and Phenella (sp??) and six of us on the course itself. We were there at 10am leaving at 3pm and I had a fantastic time. Interesting variety of reasons for why we were all doing the course and I certainly had a fantastic time. We just being shown harnasses, shoes etc and then some instruction on body position when climbing (keep bum tucked in, small steps, use your core; pilates folk will be familiar with this!, don't grab at hand holds etc). All really interesting and then we practised just going horizontally across the wall. And within an hour we were doing our first climb on a v easy wall.
I partnered with Rachel and she belayed first. Her job is to keep the rope taut while I'm climbing and then to control rope while I abseil down. I have to admit that I love the climbing part but definitely not so keen on the coming down part. I guess it's all about trust... though I was informed when I was belaying that I'm great at controlling rope when climber is coming down (and my hand hurt to show it too :) )
After that we did another wall or two and then it was suggested we try a slightly more difficult, but free, one. This would be a higher grade wall if we were doing graded climb (only using holds of one particular colour) but for a rainbow climb we should be able to make some attempt so off we went. I was first up and made some progress before feeling that I just couldn't go any further. Liz, our instructor came over and was so encouraging that I'd got so far and pointed out a hold I could use etc (she did this after lunch when I had real trouble on another wall and was going to come down; her encouragement meant that I carried on and touched the rafters at the top!) so I carried on another bit before really just getting stuck and coming down.
I felt great having got as far as i did but I was really shaking when I got down! Looking at the photos now it really doesn't look that high up but it really felt it and I was definitely feeling unsure and uncertain up there. But it was such an achievement... as was my rafter touching moment after lunch!
The rest of the girls on the course were great and one pair, Amy and Lena were in my view quite nifty and good!
So I'll definitely be wanting to go back though not sure if I ever see myself getting to the stage of wanting to climb real rock face! Unfortunately the club meets Mon evenings so I'll need to wait until psychology course finished (though wanted to do photography course after that) before I can go along. But the great thing about having done yesterday is that I know I can email the girls and see if somebody wants to go down sometime other than a Mon evening. And Amanda from tramping club is looking for a climbing buddy too...
So, on completion of yesterday afternoon I got back here, sent some texts, ate some food and went to sleep. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. Had relaxed Sat evening eating dinner (after getting soaked in the rain :( ) in Siem Reap a yummy cambodian restaurant and then had a tasty cocktail in the Matterhorn afterwards. For anybody interested it was a Passionfruit Bishop consisting of 42 Below Passion, lemon & orange juices, passionfruit syrup and chilled red wine. Don't think I prefer it to a cosmopolitan but seeing as my choice of cocktails is relatively limited it was nice to find something new!
Today was a fairly relaxed morning though the rain was bloody awful! And there was a fair bit of trying to find parking space, finding one, cafe full, find parking space elsewhere, cafe closed before we eventually got brunch on Oriental Parade!! I guess with the horrible weather there were more cars out and about than is usual on a Sun here in Wellington.
I would like to say that this afternoon I upgraded my Mac OS to Leopard, but that would be a bit of a lie so instead I'll say that this afternoon my Mac OS was upgraded to Leopard.. just not by me! Then a cold walk along the sea front. And now it's 6:30 and I'm getting peckish so I might go cook myself some dinner before ringing Mum to wish her a Happy Birthday.
Friday, 23 May 2008
Four things in 10, 5, 1,...
The Same but Different tagged me to do this so here we go...
Four Things I was doing 10 years ago -
1. Working as a technical consultant in my first job and getting ready to relocate to Long Beach for 6 months..(see next point as to why this was delayed for 6 months)
2. Breaking my left foot in same the place that I broke the right one (or is vice versa?) at the end of my 2nd year at Uni.
3. Sharing hangovers with my flatmate on a Saturday morning.
4. Getting to visit lots of different countries in Europe and the US (and Sth Korea) with the job mentioned in 1.
Four Things I was doing 5 years ago -
1. Getting ready to start my new job after being out of work for 5 months (about 3 months after I'd taken out my brand new mortgage!)
2. Acting in my first play (very amateur dramatics :) )
3. Owning my first car
4. Joining bookcrossing and making some fab new friends!
Four Things I did Yesterday -
1. Had two Long Blacks rather than just my normal one
2. Emailed my brother and my sister (thank you Jill for replying... Paul??!)
3. Ate way too much bad food :(
4. Enjoyed two glasses of very yummy Two Hands shiraz with a mate from work after work in The Wine Loft.
Four Shows I like to Watch -
1. Morse
2. Lewis
3. Bones
4. Boston Legal
Four Things I Love to Do -
1. Spend time with people I care about
2. Walk
3. Read
4. Try new things (I'm slow to do this but love it at the same time... hence climing wall course tomorrow)
So now I'll tag An Cailin Elveiseach and Sonya in the Sun
Four Things I was doing 10 years ago -
1. Working as a technical consultant in my first job and getting ready to relocate to Long Beach for 6 months..(see next point as to why this was delayed for 6 months)
2. Breaking my left foot in same the place that I broke the right one (or is vice versa?) at the end of my 2nd year at Uni.
3. Sharing hangovers with my flatmate on a Saturday morning.
4. Getting to visit lots of different countries in Europe and the US (and Sth Korea) with the job mentioned in 1.
Four Things I was doing 5 years ago -
1. Getting ready to start my new job after being out of work for 5 months (about 3 months after I'd taken out my brand new mortgage!)
2. Acting in my first play (very amateur dramatics :) )
3. Owning my first car
4. Joining bookcrossing and making some fab new friends!
Four Things I did Yesterday -
1. Had two Long Blacks rather than just my normal one
2. Emailed my brother and my sister (thank you Jill for replying... Paul??!)
3. Ate way too much bad food :(
4. Enjoyed two glasses of very yummy Two Hands shiraz with a mate from work after work in The Wine Loft.
Four Shows I like to Watch -
1. Morse
2. Lewis
3. Bones
4. Boston Legal
Four Things I Love to Do -
1. Spend time with people I care about
2. Walk
3. Read
4. Try new things (I'm slow to do this but love it at the same time... hence climing wall course tomorrow)
So now I'll tag An Cailin Elveiseach and Sonya in the Sun
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Not much...
Well, after a rather poor two step count days at least today I managed to get up over the 10000 steps mark. Annoyingly last week I got well over 10000 steps every day (82000 for the week) without trying whereas this week I'm doing nowhere near as good. I guess it's because Mon and Tues evening this week I was at home rather than walking somewhere. But today managed to up that as we had the team lunchtime "jaunt" that I had organised in the Botanic Gardens. Our whole team couldn't make it but we did manage to get a decent turn out of 6 or 7 of us out there. It was a really beautiful day - about 16 degrees and wonderfully sunny. I got well warm but was great to get out for the hour.
I had one of those slow afternoons where I needed a kick or jolt of some sort but didn't know what. Luckily once 5:30 arrived I had to leave to nip home and get changed before meeting Dani and Simone for a bite to eat before club. Dani earned brownie points by telling me that she loves some of my flickr photos... not that I respond easily to flattery or anything :) We had a tasty dinner (tasty rich tomato mushroom gnocci) and glass of wine in The Lido. I'm used to that place for brunch but not in the evenings and i was pleasantly surprised. Not a huge vegetarian option but at least it wasn't spinach and/or feta. And it was relatively tasty at least! They had some light jazz playing in the background which was very pleasant and it just reminded me that i have to go there some Sun evening when they have some live jazz!
On to club and then lift home (yes yes I know I should have walked but I really needed the bathroom so...) and now wondering whether I trust myself enough to try backing up my hard disk on to my external drive!
I had one of those slow afternoons where I needed a kick or jolt of some sort but didn't know what. Luckily once 5:30 arrived I had to leave to nip home and get changed before meeting Dani and Simone for a bite to eat before club. Dani earned brownie points by telling me that she loves some of my flickr photos... not that I respond easily to flattery or anything :) We had a tasty dinner (tasty rich tomato mushroom gnocci) and glass of wine in The Lido. I'm used to that place for brunch but not in the evenings and i was pleasantly surprised. Not a huge vegetarian option but at least it wasn't spinach and/or feta. And it was relatively tasty at least! They had some light jazz playing in the background which was very pleasant and it just reminded me that i have to go there some Sun evening when they have some live jazz!
On to club and then lift home (yes yes I know I should have walked but I really needed the bathroom so...) and now wondering whether I trust myself enough to try backing up my hard disk on to my external drive!
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
La Boheme
Myself and a group of people from work went to see a performance of La Boheme performed by the The NBR New Zealand Opera last Thurs evening.
It was an early enough start with curtain up at 7:30pm so that didn't really give time for a relaxed dinner in advance. Instead three of us headed down to Chow at 6 to grab bite to eat; to be told they were full. I'm used to waiting in Chow but I thought that at 6 we'd be fine but apparently not! I then suggested we try The Lido so off we headed. As we got closer we could see that that was chockers too!! So in the end we ended up in a little Malaysian cafe off Cuba St. I've been there lots and while it's far from fine dining it's amazing value. For $7 (I kid you not!) I got a bowl of noodle soup full of freshly cooked crunchie vegetables and tofu that had me more than full after not being able to finish it. Yummy! Then off we headed to the St James Theatre to meet up with the others.
I hadn't been to that theatre before but it's really quite beautiful inside in the main theatre. Not sure how to describe it (here's why I rarely write book reviews on bookcrossing; I'm rubbish at this sort of thing!) but it was beautifully maintained and not at all gaudy! We had pretty decent seats so no obstructed views or peering around corners or anything like that which was great. I had to laugh when before the performance started one of my colleagues said that he reckoned Puccini had a problem with women as most of the female love interests in his operas end up dying!! The performance was very enjoyable; i couldn't believe it when the first act ended after 40 mins... it hadn't seemed anything that long at all! The production had been somewhat modernised but I liked the sets and the some of the scene changes were very well done! The only time I had a problem with the set was for the last act where they lowered a "ceiling" down to represent room but I could still the light above. It shouldn't have bothered me but it did. We were a mixed crowd there; some people have been to quite a few operas in the past, some like me, have only been to 3 or 4 and for others this was their first. But there was a unanimous decision that it was a very enjoyable performance though not everybody liked the scene. For me I found it visually pleasing while one or two others felt that it was too crowded and left nothing to the imagination. But wouldn't it have been boring if we'd all agreed?!!
Afterwards 5 of us headed to Motel for a couple of drinks. I didn't have a cocktail on this visit but a very tasty vodka and tonic instead. I do like this place though I always find it very cold!! Finished up the night around midnight. A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing Thurs evening!
Oh.. and the new Melbourne shoes got their first outing :)
It was an early enough start with curtain up at 7:30pm so that didn't really give time for a relaxed dinner in advance. Instead three of us headed down to Chow at 6 to grab bite to eat; to be told they were full. I'm used to waiting in Chow but I thought that at 6 we'd be fine but apparently not! I then suggested we try The Lido so off we headed. As we got closer we could see that that was chockers too!! So in the end we ended up in a little Malaysian cafe off Cuba St. I've been there lots and while it's far from fine dining it's amazing value. For $7 (I kid you not!) I got a bowl of noodle soup full of freshly cooked crunchie vegetables and tofu that had me more than full after not being able to finish it. Yummy! Then off we headed to the St James Theatre to meet up with the others.
I hadn't been to that theatre before but it's really quite beautiful inside in the main theatre. Not sure how to describe it (here's why I rarely write book reviews on bookcrossing; I'm rubbish at this sort of thing!) but it was beautifully maintained and not at all gaudy! We had pretty decent seats so no obstructed views or peering around corners or anything like that which was great. I had to laugh when before the performance started one of my colleagues said that he reckoned Puccini had a problem with women as most of the female love interests in his operas end up dying!! The performance was very enjoyable; i couldn't believe it when the first act ended after 40 mins... it hadn't seemed anything that long at all! The production had been somewhat modernised but I liked the sets and the some of the scene changes were very well done! The only time I had a problem with the set was for the last act where they lowered a "ceiling" down to represent room but I could still the light above. It shouldn't have bothered me but it did. We were a mixed crowd there; some people have been to quite a few operas in the past, some like me, have only been to 3 or 4 and for others this was their first. But there was a unanimous decision that it was a very enjoyable performance though not everybody liked the scene. For me I found it visually pleasing while one or two others felt that it was too crowded and left nothing to the imagination. But wouldn't it have been boring if we'd all agreed?!!
Afterwards 5 of us headed to Motel for a couple of drinks. I didn't have a cocktail on this visit but a very tasty vodka and tonic instead. I do like this place though I always find it very cold!! Finished up the night around midnight. A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing Thurs evening!
Oh.. and the new Melbourne shoes got their first outing :)
This evenings itinerary...
hold your breath folks it was deadly exciting!
In no more particular order...
1. Bit more of a tidy up
2. Put away iron from last night (i should have ironed the skirt i forgot to do last night but...)
3. Empty dishwasher
4. Laundry (okay i didn't do this but i should have)
5. Vacuuming
6. Open up external hard-drive parcel... got this last Tues.
7. Dinner
8. Phone call
9.This post
10. Watch Boston Legal (well will be doing so in 15 mins)
11. Catch up on a few emails (yes I know I'm still way behind!)
12. Lose the ability to count (my fingers insisted on typing 12 for 11. Took three tries!)
13. Listen to CD1 of the beautiful John Elliot Gardiner series Bach Cantatas, volume 13 (For the Fourth Sunday after Trinity).
Obviously not all chores/tasks but for someone who for years has refused to housework mid-week this housework two evenings in a row thing is worth noting!
I see that Myanmar/Burma is to start a three day period of mourning. I can't help feeling if they were shamed in to it (if that's possible) after China's 3 days of mourning which happened so much sooner after their earthquake(s). Somewhat of a pity that the military Junta didn't feel that they could let aid in to actually reduce the number of people that need to be mourned for...
In no more particular order...
1. Bit more of a tidy up
2. Put away iron from last night (i should have ironed the skirt i forgot to do last night but...)
3. Empty dishwasher
4. Laundry (okay i didn't do this but i should have)
5. Vacuuming
6. Open up external hard-drive parcel... got this last Tues.
7. Dinner
8. Phone call
9.This post
10. Watch Boston Legal (well will be doing so in 15 mins)
11. Catch up on a few emails (yes I know I'm still way behind!)
12. Lose the ability to count (my fingers insisted on typing 12 for 11. Took three tries!)
13. Listen to CD1 of the beautiful John Elliot Gardiner series Bach Cantatas, volume 13 (For the Fourth Sunday after Trinity).
Obviously not all chores/tasks but for someone who for years has refused to housework mid-week this housework two evenings in a row thing is worth noting!
I see that Myanmar/Burma is to start a three day period of mourning. I can't help feeling if they were shamed in to it (if that's possible) after China's 3 days of mourning which happened so much sooner after their earthquake(s). Somewhat of a pity that the military Junta didn't feel that they could let aid in to actually reduce the number of people that need to be mourned for...
Monday, 19 May 2008
Finally...
at 9:35pm I get to relax for the evening!
After somewhat busy last couple of weekends and v busy last week I skipped psych course this evening to get back here to clean bathroom, unpack, tidy up a bit, do laundry and iron. I knew I had alot of ironing to do but I didn't realise I had quite as much as I had... I started ironing at the start of Bones at 8:30 and finished at the end at 9:30! Not fun. Even with my decent ironing board (had piece of shit for the last 8 months) I still hate ironing :(
And can you believe that I still haven't opened my parcel that arrived last Tues containing external hard drive for my Mac book. That's a task for tomorrow evening I think!
Starting to feel pretty tired at this point of the evening as well. Had the alarm set for 4:05am Sat morning for 4:20am taxi to airport. Even though I'm not known for being a heavy sleeper, and have only slept through an alarm twice in my life, and had set two alarms for Sat morning I still woke up frequently from about 12:15 onwards on Sat morning.. just in case both alarms decided to not work. Ridiculous. Arrived to a very cold (coldest May day in over 30 years!) and very wet Melbourne and was checked in to hotel room by 9:15am. Had lovely weekend shopping, resting, reading, eating and arrived back home at 1am last night. Early night tonight I think!
After somewhat busy last couple of weekends and v busy last week I skipped psych course this evening to get back here to clean bathroom, unpack, tidy up a bit, do laundry and iron. I knew I had alot of ironing to do but I didn't realise I had quite as much as I had... I started ironing at the start of Bones at 8:30 and finished at the end at 9:30! Not fun. Even with my decent ironing board (had piece of shit for the last 8 months) I still hate ironing :(
And can you believe that I still haven't opened my parcel that arrived last Tues containing external hard drive for my Mac book. That's a task for tomorrow evening I think!
Starting to feel pretty tired at this point of the evening as well. Had the alarm set for 4:05am Sat morning for 4:20am taxi to airport. Even though I'm not known for being a heavy sleeper, and have only slept through an alarm twice in my life, and had set two alarms for Sat morning I still woke up frequently from about 12:15 onwards on Sat morning.. just in case both alarms decided to not work. Ridiculous. Arrived to a very cold (coldest May day in over 30 years!) and very wet Melbourne and was checked in to hotel room by 9:15am. Had lovely weekend shopping, resting, reading, eating and arrived back home at 1am last night. Early night tonight I think!
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