Friday, December 28, 2007

Escalade a La clape

Comment chaque annee, le rendez-vous de Noel a la falaise de La Clape entre les perpignanais de Carcassone Philou et Jean-Marie, et les montpellierains de Toulouse et Nottingham Guigou et moi meme. Voici Guigou charge comme un dromadaire:



Philou en train de grimper (!)



Jean-Marie bien fatigue en fin de journee:



La vue depuis le pied de la falaise en fin de journee:



Que du bonheur:



Pour plus de photos, cliquez ici

Monday, December 17, 2007

Where is Remi?

The climbing wall made a display of our old membership pictures from 10 years ago:



Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Victorian Christmas

Not much climbing instructing to do at this time of the year. So the centre has devised other activities making the most of the old mansion. Here you can see kids all dressed up for a "Victorian Christmas Day" singing carols on the main stairs:

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Modern Day Dinosaur

Murder Mystery



Great with a group of 8 years old!

Monday, November 19, 2007

No time for sport

But i can still dream about using these:

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Good day to work ...

Very nice weather last week



It was a pleasure to lay the kit out for the kids:

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Monopoly Money


150 notes in my hands to buy the new car...

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Apres 5 ans de bons et loyaux services...

Plus une longue annee ou elle n'a pas arrete de tomber en panne,

La 806 GPL est en vente sur ebay!



Elle m'a encore claquee dans les doigts hiers, elle a du etre remorquee a cause du froid je suppose. Pas de pitie, car j'ai deja achete sa remplacente, sur ebay elle aussi:



Je dois aller la chercher samedi...

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Rainy sunday

A bit too much on my plate, not able to find time to feed the blog? Or time to take good care of myself for that matter! Off to the peak on sunday, the forecast was all wrong and we left the climbing gear in the car to keep it dry. We walked up to the crag, Birchin, to say hello to Scott who drove up from his new home in Bristol to help the club for fresher's day.

The experienced club members had brought golf umbrellas with them and had setup a couple of top ropes. Usually, once freshers have been seduced into paying their yearly membership to the club, the experienced members try to discourage them from coming to weekend trips so i guess bad weather played in their hands ! Only joking ;)
So i grabbed a climb, some slippery chimney but in good style: rope around my waist and walking boots on:



I had a thought for the pioneers who only climbed that way. Back then a dif did mean difficult!

Meanwhile, i decided to lighten the load of crappy machines that constantly break down on me: a new laptop should be on its way. Hurray!

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Some computer progress

After weeks of computer frustration, something is going my way at last! In spite of a dodgy network connection and dead CDROM drive, i've managed to resurected my big laptop with a netboot install. Hurray!

Meanwhile, a storm last week has broken roofes and uprooted trees everywhere. Here's a picture from the park where i work:



The tree got broken at its base when the other one fell on it:

Friday, August 31, 2007

Reparation a la ficelle!

Je pars en vacance demain, avec cette reparation de derniere minute sous le capot:





Le ressort de l'accelerateur a casse, juste avant mon voyage de deux semaines dans les Alpes...

Pourvu que ca tienne!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

C'est la fete!



Je ne sais pas pourquoi flikr a refuse mordicus de mettre cette photo en format portrait. Alors je la mets ici. Na!

PS: Les photos de l'anniversaire de Maman sont sur flikr, visible sur invitation. Comme ca les gents mal intentionnes ne peuvent pas detourner mes photos des petit enfants presents a la fete...

PPS: Quelle drole d'epoque quand meme...

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Mode d'emploi ? A quoi ca sert ??

Hier, c'etait l'anniversaire de Maman. J'avais mon appareil tout neuf, qui n'a pas de bouton special pour le retardateur. Du coup:



Peut mieux faire:



Note: J'ai du telecharger le mode d'emploi de l'appareil pour pouvoir faire cette photo. Ca m'a bien pris un quart d'heure, pendant lequel Michel, Nathalie et leur deux petites sont partis ! Toutes mes excuses, ils ne sont pas sur la photo...

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

a weekend in Wales...

Last saturday with



we went climbing here:



We had to wait for the tide to receede. The



didn't make as much noise as the



And the music from the



added to the atmosphere: quite sureal really. Here i am stretching my arms half way up a hard climb. Only managed to fall at the final move. Oh well!



We camped at a site run by a farm and Louise couldn't resist the local pets:



Not much climbing on sunday morning due to the weather



but in the afternoon we climbed this



going up the north ridge (on the picture, the right hand side of the mountain) and walking down the heather ledge. From the top, we could see



on one side and



on the other. We didn't stay long!

On the way down i took pictures of these beasties



but Louise was more interested into this one

Monday, August 13, 2007

Archery

One team needed a bit more help during the archery session today:



Here's a little game: guess the order in which the teams finished the session...

Monday, August 06, 2007

On s'est bien battu...

Ca fait tres longtemps que je passe devant "flying buttress direct" a Stanage en me disant: Un jour...



Avant d'attaquer le surplomb, je place un bon coinceur et un gros "friend":



Et c'est parti:



Precieuse protection:



Ca ne rigole plus !



Va falloir se battre! Les spectateurs sont a fond derriere moi...



Louise est une photographe tres gentille, elle n'a pas pris de photo de moi en train de pendouiller a mon fil!

Matt to the rescue:





La, on ne fait plus les malins: on est creve et il nous faut recuperer le matos puisque personne n'a reussi a sortir la voie



En second, c'etait bien trop facile! Ne plus avoir toute cette quincaillerie sur le baudrier, quelle difference!



J'ai essaye, j'ai vu, j'ai pas vaincu. Mais je reviendrais...!

PS: Mike, if you read this, i've got to come back and do it properly this summer...
PPS: Those of you who paid attention must have spotted that Matt wore a bright helmet!!!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Rise of the Machines

Like John Connor, i have defeated a major computer rebellion this week. And i'm sure i'll have to face them again in an uncertain future...

But i'm smilling as i got my first digital camera!!!

I'd promised myself a decent digital SLR with my first real paycheck. That was 2 years ago!! Not sure if a consulting fee is a proper paycheck, i restricted myself to an older model bought on ebay that is compatible with my collection of lenses. Here is one of the first pictures i took:

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Homage d'Axelis

Je devrais etre en train de faire du SQL pour le boulot, non pas re-re-re-installer linux sur l'ordinateur #3 ! Mais de voir cette annimation de moi (!!!) faite par Axelis, je lache tout pour la mettre en lien sur mon blog!

I was work avoiding re-installing ubuntu on a very unco-operative computer when i stumbled upon this amazing animation of me (!!) done by Axelis !



Click here to see me move !!

Si ca vous a plu, allez mettre un commentaire chez lui, il sera tout content...

If you liked it, leave him a comment on his blog. Even if you write it in English, he'll be well chuffed...

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Ca vous a plut?

Vous en voulez encore?

Alors, apres le paillasson, la voiture:



Et Louise qui pensait que sa voiture allait secher cet ete...