Ralph’s Place

Coconuts that is

Yup, I celebrated St. Georges day this evening by joining the worlds largest ever coconut orchestra and the cast of Spamalot in Trafalgar Sq to perform an extra special rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. It sounds pretty bizarre to say I spent an hour of my life knocking 2 halves of a coconut together (well, one half anyway, I got there too late so had to share), and frankly, it was! Actually, surreal might be a better word.

In all over 4 thousand people turned out, filling most of the square and sealing the Guinness World Record by some 3000 people! More importantly though, we beat the Americans!

** Update: BBC News Link
Turns out the final figure was over 5500 people… mad!

“Have a good weekend mate” I said as I left the office.
“Yeah man you too, take it easy” was the response.

Easy… yeah right lol. The weekend was going to be anything but easy, but with an awesome forecast, it was also set to be a great one!

The Lake District was the destination and here’s what we were up to…

Day 1 – Carrying tents, food and water as well as climbing gear we walked up into the hills to climb at Pavey Ark. It took just over an hour to get there but it was worth it. I climbed Black Slab (VS 5a) and Rake End Wall (VS 4b, 4c, 4b) with Mark, both awesome routes. I’d recommend Rake End Wall to any VS leader should they find themselves at the crag. The first pitch really makes you think, then the second is just amazing with some really bold moves in places (nice one Mark!). That night we camped by the side of Stickle Tarn at the base of the crag… incredible.

Day 2 – After waking up to one of the best scenes the UK has to offer on a brilliant sunny day, we packed up and made tracks for Gimmer Crag. It took about an hour to get there, but at least it didn’t involve much uphill! Once there, Mark and I “flew” up Gimmer Chimney, an awesome 5 pitch VDiff, in a little under 5 hours lol. Great little adventure. Then it was an hour or so walk back down to the car, and a drive to the civilization… well, the pub

Waking up next to Stickle Tarn

Day 3 – An evening meal in the pub, and a shower the next morning, then we were off up into the hills again. This time heading up Great Gable in search of Napes Needle. After much faffing, resting and a break for lunch, Mark and I set off up Needle Ridge, a mega classic VDiff. Incredible! It was cold, atmospheric, and an adventure! Even the route down was exciting! At no point was the climbing hard, just polished, but the situation made the route what it was… brilliant!

That night we camped by a lake nearby, and woke up in a cloud on Monday morning. No climbing meant walking down and the best pub lunch ever to set us up for the 7 hour drive home.

What an awesome weekend, and now just 4 days to go before heading off to Font! It’s a hard life ain’t it

Mark “chilling” out at the 3rd belay on Needle Ridge

I’ve finally, on the third attempt, managed to post up some photos from the last couple of weekends. Took a few go’s to get it right, mostly due to the shall we say “different” way that iPhoto stores pictures in it’s library.

Anyway, they’re there, so enjoy

Isn’t it great? By the magic of modern technology I’m sat writing this at Swindon station! Who would’ve thought computers could be carried with you and work on battery power! It’s almost like living in an advanced society.

Of course I’m only sat here faffing about because of a “technology” failure (I use the term now in the loosest possible sense). If you think about it, we’ve had much longer to perfect the art of running trains along rails, from one station to another carrying passengers as they go, yet still I’m staring at the board and trains to Paddington are simply “Delayed”.

I’m told this is due to a “track failure” near Newport, but quite what that means is anyone’s guess. Either way the trains going nowhere and neither am I… at least my laptop battery claims to have another 6 hours of charge in it, I sincerely hope that I’m not still here when it finally makes it’s apologies and goes to sleep

It’s weird the nonsense that goes through your mind while sat waiting for a train. For instance just now I was considering the possibility that the delay is in fact a very cruel April fools joke, and that any minute my train will turn up open it’s doors for 2 seconds and disappear again before I’ve even had chance to shut my computers little white lid… let alone save this document, shut down and pack it away safely in my bag.

Now that I’ve said that, an “Additional Service” has just appeared on the board, and despite already running 24 minutes late, should be here in about quarter of an hour. I remain sceptical, but equally not wanting to be caught out in the April fool scenario I think I’ll play it safe.

Bye for now…