Back to the Northern General once again.

When we arrived at the check in desk this morning we were told that there was only one consultant on today and that there were some delays. Two and a half hours late I went for my X-ray and then a good long while after I finally got called in (trust it to be like this the day we really needed to be in lectures. After a few moments of prodding and squeezing my central frame rings the consultant muttered that the frame could possibly come off today. This slightly shocked me and I asked whether he was talking about the threaded bar! I was told, No that he was thinking of removing the frame all together, he then decided to go and get a second opinion leaving me on the edge of my seat for 5 minutes or so.
He returned smiling and said that the frame was coming off today and send me back out into the waiting room. Now at this point there was some serious mixed emotion, I was extremely happy that it is finally coming off:

• I can shower at will


• Sleep without pillows propping my leg up


• Wear more than two different pairs of trousers


• Sit on sofa's without the fear of shredding them

and of course at some distant point climb and drive. Unfortunately I had already experienced the removal of one wire and it wasn't fun then! After a short wait (not that I cared at all by this point) I was back in with the two pin site nurses who set about first de-tensionining all the wires. Again this wasn't comfortable at all, there was a great deal of sharp pain. Next they set up de-constructing my frame which hurt like hell (just imagine a set of spanners twisting some loose pins about!). After this they set about cutting all of the wires down so they were straight and small, this vibrates through your leg and is thoroughly unpleasant. No pain relief yet. Just as they were finishing the trimming of the wires I was handed the Air+Gas (it's crap) I took a good few tokes before they confiscated it from me fearing I was going to put myself to sleep (I couldn't really see the harm in this at all). After that they told me that; "once we start we'll keep going until they're all done" a promise they certainly kept. I was then re-handed my pitiful excuse for pain relief and the two nurses set about pulling my pins out with large pliers, it hurt a lot and true to form they didn't stop despite my shouting until it was all done.

After the gas wore off I took my first steps on my un-framed leg, it still feels a little odd and a bit tender now (it's bandaged until saturday to let the pin holes heal over), but a lot lighter and instantly I could feel less soreness when moving my ankle.

After all thats happened over the last 4 months I feel glad to be finishing university. Natalie and I are planning a nice holiday with the cash we saved up for the trip in order to get some hard earned relaxation and laying around in the sun. When I get back from that it will be time for graduation and I'll be able to start (trying) to climb again. Can't wait.

The Works

After having a lab class cancelled Nat and I both headed for the gym, unfortunately we got snarled up in crazy traffic and it didn't seem worth it to bother hitting the gym for less than an hour. Luckily however Nat had her climbing boots in the boot so we headed to the works instead.

The place was extremely warm so anything vaguel rounded felt as if it had been smeared with grease (practice for when the crazy swiss farmers start smearing animal fat upon the boulders?).

Anyway Natalie has now almost completely finished the greens, most of the browns, the odd blue and a couple of comp wall problems. Not bad...

The School

I guess most people now know that the building in which the school boards are resident is now under threat and all of the people who use the building have been requested to vacate by Nov. Last night there was a meeting of all the usergroups within the building, it was a strange bunch of people some of which had some good ideas to input, others I could barely understand becaue of their age. I won't go over it again Ben has pretty much summed it up in his blog however even after seeing the enthusiasm I saw last night I can't help thinking its pretty much a lost cause and the very best we can hope to achieve is the council suggesting premises for relocation but to be honest i'm not sure if the boards would survive a move. It would certainly be a bad day for climbing if these boards were to be lost. Almost every good climber coming out of the UK has trained here. Despite its poor build quality, its infamous abroad, how many other boards can say that or claim to have aided so many great climbers in achieving the level at which they once climbed. Maybe I wouldnt be so bothered if there was somewhere else to achieve these goals within Sheffield but its simple really, there isn't. Everywhere (understandably) caters for the beginners and middle grade climbers as thats where the money is, even in Sheffield one of the places with the highest concentrations of hardcore climbers.


On entering the board last night everyone was looking far too strong/large and Joe was trying his best to replicate the classic picture above. Can't wait to get strong again, however I dont feel too weak, I managed four one armer in one go and easily did a pull up on the smallest holds of "Uncle Crimpy Guts...", not too long now anyway.

Bus Jump!

Time for another blog update!

Ok... Friday night was Sarah's birthday party so I headed out for a few drinks, intending to head back home before too late as my parents were heading down on Saturday morning. This didn't happen however I ended up having a good night out at leadmill which wasn't too much hassle considering how drunk I was and the fact that my leg still has its scaffolding attatched.
My parents arrived on Saturday morning to find Natalie and I feeling pretty crappy. We spent the whole day looking around the European Market thing that was on in town, if I hadn't of been feeling so rough some of the food looked really nice! After this we headed out for a meal to celebrate my birthday. Showed Mum and Dad over the beetle and it was approved of, although they'll have to wait for a ride out in it until my leg is better.

Today I came across an interesting bit of chat about the bug:

"I'll always remember when we were driving the vdubs in convoy along the North Circ to one of the summer shows and JK made a B line for us in his Merc 300SL cabrio to pay homage"

supposedly he declined a straight swap...

Found another couple of good videos (check it out at around 1:45s, the bike can't keep up!)





Back to the hospital on thursday, hope this time they loosen the frame, then its just a matter of time.

Big Bang!

Saturday afternoon was spent frantically botching a bumper iron to hold a front numberplate for the bug in preparation for the 150 mile treck down to Santa Pod drag strip on Sunday. We got up pretty early for students on Sunday and began the treck down the country, to be honest the journey wasn't too bad with only a minor hicup following the AA route planners crazy route through some town center (No entry except for access....). It took an alarmingly long time to spot any other VW's on the way down, it wasn't really until we were about 2 miles away that we saw any. Anyway we arrived, paid our money and parked up (the car parks at these shows are a sight themselves with god knows how many old VW's of varying quality from Wow that must be worth a lot to How the hell did that even get here?). A quick hobble over the hill and there was the dragstrip, the noise was incredible. The whole place stunk of burning clutch and rubber as various people warmed up their tyres with absoloutely no mercy. We stood and watched some of the pro drag racers (in various classes) blast up the strip, it is pretty incredible watching a pre 1960 beetle launch on two wheels then blast down a quarter mile reaching 180mph! Unfortunately we had work to do the day before so we missed the 'Run What Ya Brung' so the bug will have to wait until Bug Jam (when I can drive again hopefully) for its run. Next up we headed over to the 'Show n Shine' section, the money people invest into these vehicles is truly ludicrous and one or two of the vehicles badly showed up my messy wiring having only one loom of cables neatly tied down to the body work. I definately had a favourite of the show (which I think i've seen before possible in a magazine somewhere), its a 1960 ish bug powered by a turbo'd flat 6 porsche engine complete with a carbon fibre fan shroud and an air intake from the rear windows (neatly detailed with a NASA afterburner cover). Inside the owner has somehow sculpted a fibreglass dashboard and sunk in fittings from the new cooper s.

As well as that bug there was another orange cabrio that won best engine the previous year, another bug where someone had mounted the fan assembly on at 90' to usual and yes you guessed it another bug with a massive nitrous tank mounted in the back. This year there was also a Show n Go competetion where vehicles were not only judged on the way they looked but how fast they did the 1/4 miles, unfortunately everybody in this category broke some part of the vehicle in a major way before the runs were finished. The most impressive thing I saw on Sunday however has got to be the Fireforce 3 jet car (used on top gear to burn a caravan or two). The 'car' shoots from 0-100mph in under 1 sec and achieved a run of 6.172s and 274mph. An enjoyable show and the weather even got out nice enough for us to drop the top on the return journey.