between the rock and the cold, cold sea

Some pictures!

First, from a while ago, the church of Saint George on Lykavittos Hill:













And then from today, from Hymettus Wood:















I got the bus over to Nekropoli Kaisariani, and walked up to the wood. Twenty minutes from the busstop, there is clean air! Trees! Green things!

Next time, I will be more prepared and bring a bottle of water. Because ~1.5hrs strolling? Made me really thirsty.

More here.

Flickr finally worked. Yay!

Clicky for pictures. :P

This is what the best parts of my town look like.

It's not much, but sometimes it's all mine.

Great Irish Elk skeleton says hello!

After six months of shagginess, I finally have a haircut. It makes me look about six years younger. I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing, but, well, no one takes me seriously anyway, so it won't hurt to look a goofy seventeen.

(Yes, I have two bibles on my shelves in that picture. I also own an interlinear Greek New Testament, but it's not my fault, honest. They made me study bibles. Critically.)

I also took pictures. Here is the harbour: it was a brisk day, and the water was coming over the back wall in an arc of white every so often. (Sadly, this happened too fast for me to take a proper picture of it.) There was also the occasional out-of-control crow zipping past on its back, due to the wind.

I'm a wee bit out of it at the moment. I'm not entirely sure why, but I suspect it's the holiday season making me all anxious. But! We shall overcome.

So.

Yesterday, climbing. I led a 5 and a 5+, with only about three pauses each. Toproped a 5+ and a 6A, and after that the Incompetence Fairy paid me a visit, and despite my best attempts at other routes, I only barely made it up a 4+.

You should see the holes in my shoes, though. Wait, you can. And two!

Today... Well. You know what happens when you start feeling optimistic? A pigeon shits on your head, is what happens.

I do have some decent pictures from the weekend, though: went walking at Malahide Castle, and the light was fabulous. I can only put so many up on Flickr, though. (Maybe if I sell enough poems, one day I'll have enough money in paypal to get a paid account.)

Anyway. The weekend starts here.

And here. And maybe here.

There are new routes at the climbing wall. On balance, the consensus seems to be that they're easier than the ones that were there before.

This is probably only half true, but the ratings aren't up, so I couldn't tell how difficult they're supposed to be. I sent two 4+ routes (one was definitely a 4+ at most, the other might have been a borderline 5) clean on sight. I had to do a bit of dogging with an orange route, probably also a 5, but I managed it.

Alas, that is the sum total of my sent routes for tonight. Although I made a good stab - within three moves of the top - of a borderline grey 5+/6a, and of a very reach-y blue 5+. (Got stuck on a move than required me to match hands well above my head on a flat slopey block and smear up through sheer strength, and I wasn't that strong. I could see the next two moves to the top! And how to do them! Didn't help that the wall was sauna-warm.) I also made it halfway up a blue that I think will probably end up graded 6a - the start is straightforward, but it gets rapidly more complicated from there.

There are some tempting probably-6a routes there, now - two with only one move on the roof, making it just possible I can do them, or will be able to within a month or two - a ladder route (it's now my avowed goal to lead that one at least partway by the next routesetting) that has a whole lot of roof, and one really interesting-looking black route in a corner that I think will work out to 6b, probably - the start is all reach and balance and pressing down with the heel of your palm on one wall while standing up and stretching tippy-fingers on another. It should be an interesting learning experience. I look forward to it.

As I look forward to learning to lead on the gloriously simple green 4.

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Today I made use of a present. The parent gave me a new mobile phone at the end of October, so I could actually call home from away. I changed over mobiles permanently with great ceremony last night, and today uploaded the pictures I have from Calgary to my Flickr account.

I remain astounded by the size of North American cities. And I don't really travel well.

I don't have many, and none of WFC itself, or other people. But it's nice to have a reminder of my Grand Canadian Adventure. With any luck, one day I'll be able to repeat it at greater leisure.

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I was considering, today, the sanity of my desire to be hawkwing_lb, PhD. It is a fine dream, but do I really want four or five additional years of student poverty and an uncertain career? Would it be more fruitful to consider a masters in International Relations and a move into the vast bureaucracy of a the civil service or a transnational organisation?

It's a good thing I don't have to make these decisions for at least another year.

Pictures.

Divers.

Archanes house model at Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

Venetian Fort at Herakleion. Inside. Outside, upper courtyard. Another view. Ramp to courtyard.

A bit of Knossos. 'Royal road' at Knossos.

Countryside near Kritsa. Hawk near Kritsa. Lato, agora. View from Lato.

I have about 500 pictures from Lato alone. The same amount from Herakleion and Knossos.

Looking at them now, god, I want to go back.

Watch me lose track of what day it was.

( Tuesday: Agios Nikolaos Archaeological Museum ) But after the morning's sojourn in the museum, I spent the rest of the day hiding from the heat. Apart from dinner in a place called, "Trata."

( Wednesday: Diving )

( Thursday: Ierapetra )

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will follow. Although I will note here the weird dream I had on Saturday night - my dreams in Crete were rather fertile, to say the least. Very vivid and memorable, and full of narrative.

Anyway. At the at the tail end of Saturday night, I dreamed of travelling to Toronto, except the city resembled a mirror-maze version of Dublin and bits and pieces of American cities as seen on tv, all distorted and labyrinthine. And I got lost by a river, and eventually found the bar where -- for some reason -- I was supposed to meet cristalia and some handsome Greek bloke who appeared to be her boy.

And in the manner of dreams, it turned out to be my birthday - or somebody's birthday, at least - and everyone knew. And wouldn't listen to me when I got embarrassed about celebrating. And J. and C., who I (in the dream) had met and left in a mirror-maze version of Dublin airport (complete with palm trees) turned up. And there were pink lanterns on the tables, and in the logic of dreams, the celebration changed, and became one for cristalia's book deal and movie option.

So, you know. That one was a little unusual for my dreams: they're usually more full of people trying to kill me.

( Monday and the Venetian fortress-island of Spinalonga )

Pictures of the amazing Spinalonga start here.

Okay, fuckit. You know what? If you really want to see more pictures of Spinalonga - in fact, of my whole Cretan trip - email me, and I'll zip a folder and email you back. Because trying to put even a representative selection on Flickr is... probably not going to work.