We went climbing (PM)

Let me say straight up that I only agreed to go rock climbing because I have a hard time saying no to Chickpea when she has been asking me to do something over a period of several months. When the requests come over a period of days and weeks I am all "aww, thanks but no thanks girl" and "no way, girl". But after months I reach breaking point, and before I know it I am wearing some nasty-assed shoes and getting taught the ropes literally! (ha!) by a baby-faced Leonardo look alike (or something).

Of course, we only got photos of the shoes, not baby faced Leo, so we will all just have to keep wondering.

Despite only participating because I can't say no to Chickpea, I had a surprisingly enjoyable time climbing the walls. Even though I didn't so much scale as awkwardly clamber.

Note my proximity to people on the ground. I didn't get much further.
I also enjoyed referring to the karabiner (which is this thing):

The karabiner is an important part of climbing. It hooks you on to ropes and stuff and that's how we all stay safe. 

as a caribou.  Ha! Caribou. That's not a Caribou. THIS is a Caribou:

It was a little bit deliberate, and a little bit because I couldn't quite commit the word karabiner to memory. There are a lot of things you have to remember to do in rock climbing you see, and I felt that applying my limited mental capacity to learning the correct technique rather that the correct name for a karabiner was the right call.
But the joke was on me, because at the end of my last climb, I couldn't undo the caribou and liberate myself from the rope. Everyone tried, but we couldn't get it undone.

White knuckled attempt to liberate me

They plugged away for ages but in the end, we had to get a staff member to get me out, using a special professional tool* they have for when people get stuck in a caribou lock. So apart from that slight embarrassment, it was a swell time.




*Her hands.

We went climbing (AM)

 

After months and months of begging, Chickpea finally got me to go "rock climbing". You know, where you climb up a wall in a gym. Really she got K to agree to go and then she organised it, so I went. And by "begging me" I mean suggesting to me. It's not that I didn't want to go, it's just I'm bad at commitment. Until a thing is organised. Then I'm right on board. FOMO.

Strawberry, K and I were all first timers at this joint so we had to be inducted. That is, to learn the ropes. Literally. HA!

We got worded up by a young hipsterish dude that K thought had a young Leonardo thing going on. Frankly, I didn't quite think he was Leonardo, but he was something. K suggested a young Damon Albarn. I thought he was more a young Hamish Blake but the lower part of his face was a little young Brad Pitt. I don't know what the hell he was. I guess we were on some kind of pre-adrenalin high. In fact I'm sure we were because at the time everything he said seemed really funny but now it just seems like regular words. He instructed us how, as a climber, we should hook our harnesses to the ropes and, more importantly, as a belayer, how to belay. This is the important bit, because you are totally in charge of another person's safety and, therefore, life. Which is why I kept wondering when I looked at Chickpea why she was doing everything opposite to how the instructor told us to. I guess she was just being a helpful how-not-to guide. Thanks Chickpea.

Before we were let lose on the climbing gym we had to get some more intimate instruction from a delightful lady called Christina. She was super helpful, even if she did tell me I counted one pair of rope in a knot twice. Thanks Christina, but I have been counting to five for a really long time and I almost never count a thing twice.

See all the rope pairs in that figure 8 know. Five pairs.

But seriously folks. She was good and we all conquered that little wall pretty easily.K was the first to climb, and looking back on it her hysteria when being belayed down after her climb pretty well supports my pre-adrenalin high theory. So we moved to a harder wall. I scaled the heck out of it. See?

But enough about me. Let's hear what K thought this afternoon.