Yesterday I was required to be at Warwick Uni for the day, to find out as per usual, that the other person involved on my project work has done sweet FA. As usual I gave her all my results and hard earned literature review and spent the day having holes picked in my work and plans for the future. Thankfully, this time I could answer all of the questions and defended myself admirably.
By the end of the day (again as per usual) my brain was on meltdown, the theorising started in the car at 8.30 and didn't stop until 4.30. At this time I was offered a lift to the station which was soon countered by someone else's input that we wouldn't be able to move in a car at this time. A quick google map was thrust into my hand and I was told I had 20 mins to find the station which is roughly 20 mins quick walk away. Fantastic!
On arrival, very sweaty, I found the ticket office to be closed and a post it pad pretty much saying "sorry" on the door. There was no ticket machine, only what looked like a car park meter selling permits to travel. It read; please purchase a permit to the value of your desired destination. Well, how much to Sheffield please? I rang the helpline which was where everything just went wrong. I was told that the cost was £27 (which I didn't have in £ coins) and that if I got on the train without a permit for that value I would be fined a further £90, preposterous, but the dumb (I presume blonde) on the other end of the phone continued along this line of thinking until I hung up and paid £1 before jumping on a train. A train which took far too long to get from Canley to Brum New St.
At Brum New St. I ran to the ticket office to buy a ticket for the full value to Sheffield, the woman seemed pleasant enough and told me that I could catch the next train if I ran to platform 4b now. So I did. However, as the train pulled away I realised that once again the information I'd been given was bogus, yes this train was heading north, but not on the correct line. By now I wasn't happy and all hope of getting back to the foundry in time for a session was gone. The train manager printed me off an itinerary:
Canley 16:55
Birmingham New St.
Crewe
Stockport
Sheffield 21:08
What an absolute joke, I guess its pretty much down to me not checking the information I was given but I did expect (seeing as though she just sold me a ticket) she might know her stuff. Damn Brummies. I pity anyone that relies on trains more regularly than I.
Oh I can't remember if I've posted this but I passed my Mphil transfer interview, barely. I also went climbing at the weekend I'll write about that some other time.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Long live the FOUNDRY!
I've given up with the Works, the recent set of comp problems is a new low even by their standards.
So last night, idiotically or not, Nat went to her wall whilst I headed to mine. The company was good and the wave was great. After what was probably a decent session already I managed to coax everyone else to the board and session part II commenced. I had a plan; instead of come back on my lonesome and figure out all the problems myself, I'd try everything and anything anyone would try. That way securing a good repetoire of problems to try that did NOT suit my style. This worked well and it was only when my forearms started aching that I realised the time, Malc wouldn't be happy but I certainly was.
Long live the FOUNDRY!
So last night, idiotically or not, Nat went to her wall whilst I headed to mine. The company was good and the wave was great. After what was probably a decent session already I managed to coax everyone else to the board and session part II commenced. I had a plan; instead of come back on my lonesome and figure out all the problems myself, I'd try everything and anything anyone would try. That way securing a good repetoire of problems to try that did NOT suit my style. This worked well and it was only when my forearms started aching that I realised the time, Malc wouldn't be happy but I certainly was.
Long live the FOUNDRY!
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Living for the weekend?
I didn't bother with the comp on Friday night as the forecast (Metcheck) looked favourable for Sat. When I awoke I checked my phone and peered out of the window. The road was soaked, the sky grey and it was raining. I had a few messages saying conditions were sh*t in various places. Darn. Nat and I filled the day doing other things until the evening. Once again I ended up at the works.
I'm not impressed at the new set of comp problems (what a surprise I hear you all say). The holds are mostly HUGE and juggy. Needless to say I didn't enjoy my session despite the soothing tones of Nic Clement shouting out 5 sec intervals for the British Team.
There's no longevity in this set of problems. The majority of them are flashable, there's one hard green problem and two volume centric ones, Percy's special (I'll never do) and P14 which should go next session. I didn't do these three. The green was going well but I couldn't get my heel to move from the starting position to the next hold higher, pulling on in this position, the rest isn't uber-hard, tricky enough though.
Where the training board has made some large improvements the comp wall seems to have taken a big leap backwards maybe this will be rectified with the filler problems going up tomorrow. I'm hoping I'll get to a few of the boards this week and if not I'll be heading towards the foundry. Its a ball ache that Nat and I will be going to different places but I'm sick of not enjoying my evenings.
Saturday night - protect the human and far too much to drink. Andy K scores points for player of the evening coming out with some classic lines.
Sunday morning - asleep
Sunday afternoon - Nat and I took Dom (young kid from the works) out to Burbage South, we did a bit of a tour of the boulders before doing the same on the edge. The problems later in the day were a bit tricky for the other two but nonetheless I think they had a great time. I did too, ticking a lot of problems I've never really tried before, most of which were surprisingly good. School boy error of the day was leaving my head torch in the car and staying 15 minutes too long. This led to very muddy legs after flailing in the dark.
The evening was capped off with a bottle of mulled wine. Tues is my transfer interview *GULP*...
I'm not impressed at the new set of comp problems (what a surprise I hear you all say). The holds are mostly HUGE and juggy. Needless to say I didn't enjoy my session despite the soothing tones of Nic Clement shouting out 5 sec intervals for the British Team.
There's no longevity in this set of problems. The majority of them are flashable, there's one hard green problem and two volume centric ones, Percy's special (I'll never do) and P14 which should go next session. I didn't do these three. The green was going well but I couldn't get my heel to move from the starting position to the next hold higher, pulling on in this position, the rest isn't uber-hard, tricky enough though.
Where the training board has made some large improvements the comp wall seems to have taken a big leap backwards maybe this will be rectified with the filler problems going up tomorrow. I'm hoping I'll get to a few of the boards this week and if not I'll be heading towards the foundry. Its a ball ache that Nat and I will be going to different places but I'm sick of not enjoying my evenings.
Saturday night - protect the human and far too much to drink. Andy K scores points for player of the evening coming out with some classic lines.
Sunday morning - asleep
Sunday afternoon - Nat and I took Dom (young kid from the works) out to Burbage South, we did a bit of a tour of the boulders before doing the same on the edge. The problems later in the day were a bit tricky for the other two but nonetheless I think they had a great time. I did too, ticking a lot of problems I've never really tried before, most of which were surprisingly good. School boy error of the day was leaving my head torch in the car and staying 15 minutes too long. This led to very muddy legs after flailing in the dark.
The evening was capped off with a bottle of mulled wine. Tues is my transfer interview *GULP*...
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Basic?
I've been feeling a little rough since the weekend and today was no different. Nat is away on business again but that's ok as my anti social habit of working really late doesn't really get in the way of anything.
Tonight I headed to the works to check if my general ill feeling was affecting my body badly. I keep re-trying this place, desperately hoping that it will offer something for me whilst still being the best place for Nat to head in the evening. On that line of thinking I was ready to splash out on a 3 month membership, dependant on whether or not the board was going to be of any use.
I'm only ~£6 lighter.
Effort has been made to improve the board however I still felt like bashing my head against the nearest girder. Intermediates, left right and centre, Egyptians and nothing really all that hard. *Sigh*, given these problems are within the usual grade range of the place and aren't as basic as I believe basic should be I can't imagine what the harder problems (to be added soon) will be like. I was very disappointed but again you have to hand it to the guys for actually giving a cr*p.
Here's Malc, heed his words!
I'm glad I have access to Dylans board now and then and an invite to climb with Ned at theirs.
Apart from that I think I really should give the Foundry my business, after all it does make more of an effort to cater towards my wants (probably totally different from my needs).
The evening ended with Stu and I comparing weaknesses on the finger/campus board which was great fun.
Tonight I headed to the works to check if my general ill feeling was affecting my body badly. I keep re-trying this place, desperately hoping that it will offer something for me whilst still being the best place for Nat to head in the evening. On that line of thinking I was ready to splash out on a 3 month membership, dependant on whether or not the board was going to be of any use.
I'm only ~£6 lighter.
Effort has been made to improve the board however I still felt like bashing my head against the nearest girder. Intermediates, left right and centre, Egyptians and nothing really all that hard. *Sigh*, given these problems are within the usual grade range of the place and aren't as basic as I believe basic should be I can't imagine what the harder problems (to be added soon) will be like. I was very disappointed but again you have to hand it to the guys for actually giving a cr*p.
Here's Malc, heed his words!
I'm glad I have access to Dylans board now and then and an invite to climb with Ned at theirs.
Apart from that I think I really should give the Foundry my business, after all it does make more of an effort to cater towards my wants (probably totally different from my needs).
The evening ended with Stu and I comparing weaknesses on the finger/campus board which was great fun.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
HULKenstein
I've been a little slack with posting recently, mainly due to getting the final draft of my transfer report done and dusted. Now its printed and bound all I have to worry about (dread) is the examiners meeting, I need to convince them I'm not a waste of space and worth of transferring onto a PhD.
Climbing wise? as well you know the weather has been utter sh*t. Last Friday (Halloween), dressed as the hulk, I went up to the plantation for the UKC/UKB bouldering meet with Nat. TBH the evening wasn't that great at first, I quickly realised my error; the majority of people weren't actually there to climb.
One tall man did laps on Deliverance getting a massive ego boost from the woo'd crowds. I rapidly became bored of this, each repeat made me want to shout abuse at him more and more. There were no lamps as such and therefore the light was poor, as everyone was focussing their headlamps on Deliverance I used it to warm up, naturally failing on the last move (but not being far short really for a first go).
After that I braved the darkness and headed up to the ace. 5 mins later I declared it impossible and played on the green traverse (probably warming up fully by now). A minute or so later I was shocked by the arrival of Ryan Pasquill and Katy W. They were shocked at the amount of people present and Ryan was set on the Ace. He talked me into giving it a go, I muttered 9a at him but promised to come over and use my green hulk of a figure to spot him.
First go Ryan hit the top with his left, foot still on and just didn't bother trying to match. I got excited (he didn't). The small crowd of three spotters all agreed that if he actually tried to match he'd cruise it and that's exactly what he did next go. LH bang to the top, what seemed like an age of body tension and then a quick match. We all screamed (he didn't) but did return shortly afterwards with a big grin. I booted up and Ryan talked me through the start beta using the heel, including all of the little intricacies. First go it felt shit but a little more coaching and I was happily camped on the first crimp, holding it easily and crimping hard. I dragged my toe into the right spot and lent out to the second crimp, falling off. Now, I had a BIG smile on my face, the ACE, the f*cking ACE is doable.
Ryan and Katy left for a romantic curry for two. Nat and I remained camped out as I kept getting back out to the right hand crimp, I never got to actually slap the top but to be getting (nearly perfectly) set up made my night. After that, goes got worse and worse and I got a bit downhearted, it turned out later than my tip was pouring blood I just couldn't see it.
Now here is something contentions (a blog post here wouldn't seem right without it?); the ace doesn't seem that hard. I'm not saying its not 8b, but I'd always regarded it as the hardest of the peak 8b's, I'm not so sure any more.
The small list of ascentionists is however a testament to its difficulty.
Jerry - old beta
Ben - old beta
Malc- old beta
Tyler - old beta
Earl? - old beta
Mick- old beta
Scott M - New beta (given by Ryan)
Ryan P - New beta (CONGRATS!)
However, I do believe (for me at least) that the new beta makes it lower in the grade bracket, the traditional way of starting with just your foot below is the living end!
The rest of the weekend was a let down as I had no skin and then the weather was poo on Sunday. The week flew by and again the weather was poo on Wednesday. This weekend? rubbish. Yesterday was spent at trackside in damp conditions and realistically this was one session where the wall would have been a million times better for me.
Today, supposedly the tor was in fine nick, I didn't bother calling around after the night of rain and went to the sanctity of Dylan's board instead. This place is seriously growing on me despite handing out a spanking each time I visit. The scene was good today, Stu L, Ru, Gary, 320d Saltus, Ed R, Dylan and a few ladies. I came up with some great problems which other people finished off on my behalf. Ru as ever looked strong, poor Stu as ever was nursing healing injuries (or so I think).
Where the school was very flicky between pinches Dylan's place seems to be all about the shoulders. Sean Myles eat your heart out.
Climbing wise? as well you know the weather has been utter sh*t. Last Friday (Halloween), dressed as the hulk, I went up to the plantation for the UKC/UKB bouldering meet with Nat. TBH the evening wasn't that great at first, I quickly realised my error; the majority of people weren't actually there to climb.
One tall man did laps on Deliverance getting a massive ego boost from the woo'd crowds. I rapidly became bored of this, each repeat made me want to shout abuse at him more and more. There were no lamps as such and therefore the light was poor, as everyone was focussing their headlamps on Deliverance I used it to warm up, naturally failing on the last move (but not being far short really for a first go).
After that I braved the darkness and headed up to the ace. 5 mins later I declared it impossible and played on the green traverse (probably warming up fully by now). A minute or so later I was shocked by the arrival of Ryan Pasquill and Katy W. They were shocked at the amount of people present and Ryan was set on the Ace. He talked me into giving it a go, I muttered 9a at him but promised to come over and use my green hulk of a figure to spot him.
First go Ryan hit the top with his left, foot still on and just didn't bother trying to match. I got excited (he didn't). The small crowd of three spotters all agreed that if he actually tried to match he'd cruise it and that's exactly what he did next go. LH bang to the top, what seemed like an age of body tension and then a quick match. We all screamed (he didn't) but did return shortly afterwards with a big grin. I booted up and Ryan talked me through the start beta using the heel, including all of the little intricacies. First go it felt shit but a little more coaching and I was happily camped on the first crimp, holding it easily and crimping hard. I dragged my toe into the right spot and lent out to the second crimp, falling off. Now, I had a BIG smile on my face, the ACE, the f*cking ACE is doable.
Ryan and Katy left for a romantic curry for two. Nat and I remained camped out as I kept getting back out to the right hand crimp, I never got to actually slap the top but to be getting (nearly perfectly) set up made my night. After that, goes got worse and worse and I got a bit downhearted, it turned out later than my tip was pouring blood I just couldn't see it.
Now here is something contentions (a blog post here wouldn't seem right without it?); the ace doesn't seem that hard. I'm not saying its not 8b, but I'd always regarded it as the hardest of the peak 8b's, I'm not so sure any more.
The small list of ascentionists is however a testament to its difficulty.
Jerry - old beta
Ben - old beta
Malc- old beta
Tyler - old beta
Earl? - old beta
Mick- old beta
Scott M - New beta (given by Ryan)
Ryan P - New beta (CONGRATS!)
However, I do believe (for me at least) that the new beta makes it lower in the grade bracket, the traditional way of starting with just your foot below is the living end!
The rest of the weekend was a let down as I had no skin and then the weather was poo on Sunday. The week flew by and again the weather was poo on Wednesday. This weekend? rubbish. Yesterday was spent at trackside in damp conditions and realistically this was one session where the wall would have been a million times better for me.
Today, supposedly the tor was in fine nick, I didn't bother calling around after the night of rain and went to the sanctity of Dylan's board instead. This place is seriously growing on me despite handing out a spanking each time I visit. The scene was good today, Stu L, Ru, Gary, 320d Saltus, Ed R, Dylan and a few ladies. I came up with some great problems which other people finished off on my behalf. Ru as ever looked strong, poor Stu as ever was nursing healing injuries (or so I think).
Where the school was very flicky between pinches Dylan's place seems to be all about the shoulders. Sean Myles eat your heart out.
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