Part 3

Well just over 4 weeks to go and the slight amorphous weight at the pit of my stomach is beginning to take a bit more concrete form in the shape of ice in my bowels. The fitness training has been going well and my upper body strength is definitely improving.  I have even started going to the gym and that will be stepped up in the coming weeks once I finish my NLP Practitioner Course.

I mentioned in my last blog that Guy and I had signed up to do a beginners climbing course at the Mile End Climbing Wall. The aim was to learn the basics so that we could minimise the time in the hills wasted faffing around tying knots etc.  

From the outside the place seemed like a simple warehouse in the middle of nowhere, but stepping inside was like entering another world. To be honest I was pretty intimidated by the mix of beautifully toned muscular bodies (men and women) and what you might describe as those who appear to live an alternative lifestyle. One thing was for sure I didn’t feel I would fit into either constituency particularly easily. (At the risk of upsetting my wife, I would say that if you are a young single man then there are a lot worse places you could go if you are trying to hook up with someone!)

It was with some relief that our instructor was about the same age as me and whilst clearly stronger, he wasn’t Sylvester Stallone – just a normal guy with a passion for the outdoors. It speaks volumes of JR that I offered to advertise him on here and he declined because he already has more work than he can handle!

Once we had been given the introductory Health and Safety speech I, and the other members of the group, was introduced to a wonderful new world – the world of knots!!!! Now I am a man of a certain age and remember being taught knots at Boys’Brigade - I believe there were more in the Scouts. It was all done from personal instruction, practice and dog eared books or notes.

To be told by JR, “Don’t worry if you can’t get it yet, visit animatedknots.com.” was a bit of a surprise, albeit in retrospect probably shouldn’t have been and says more about my advancing years than I would like to admit! On the way home I looked the site up on my i-phone and was staggered to find that not only was there an app for that, but several – Guy later told me that the knots books at Anness, our previous employer, were amongst the biggest sellers.

In addition Guy and I were introduced to the weird and wonderful world of carabiners and belays!After week one it’s fair to say I really was bamboozled by the knot, double figure of eight with a double stop I think it’s called. I THINK I have now got the hang of it, but I think it’s fair to say that I am not sure Guy has quite conquered it yet, the litmus test though will be when we return in May to have a go sans instructor!

As someone who can get quite nervous about heights and exposure I found that I really grew in confidence with the rope attached to me, to the extent that I didn't even hesitate in week two when we were told to throw ourselves off the wall to show how much control our partner has and how easy it is for them to arrest the fall.

Once the belay techniques were learnt it was onto bouldering, basically climbing without ropes. All I will say is that I am glad that there were soft landings. Guy’s height certainly helped in the trickier walls. The experts make it all look so easy, trust me it’s not and I would urge anyone reading this to have a go as it’s a lot of fun as long as you can handle the brief moment of embarrassment when you tumble down into an ignominious heap!

Guy bouldering

All in all it was a very successful venture.

In terms of the fundraising there have been a couple of events aimed solely at raising funds for the junior video coaching technology which have realised a few hundred pounds including the visit of squash legend Peter Nicol MBE. Now that they are done it’s time to focus on this.

Donations are easy just click on the paypal button below which will allow online support, or else contact me if you wish to give direct or corporately sponsor this page and have your company logo posted in an appropriate place.

My final comment for now is that whilst all of us based in the South have been moaning about the rain, it’s more than a little disconcerting when you see that as recently as Friday avalanche warnings were being issued in the Highlands!!!!

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