between the rock and the cold, cold sea

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.

You know, if I'd done that Asgard sail training thing when I was seventeen or eighteen? I might have ended up doing a nautical science course out of CIT after all. It was one of the courses I applied for, even then.

And now I find myself looking at the Certificate of Seamanship course and thinking, Well, that's another option if this Ph.D thing doesn't work out.

Along with finding out what I have to do to qualify as a climbing instructor (obviously, become a better climber first), see if I can get some diving qualifications without bankrupting myself, and find out if doing some basic courses in yachting and RIB-handling would be of benefit, or if they'd be an investment with no appreciable return. (Everything costs money, of which I have but a very limited supply.)

Because, really. If I can't get into some kind of decently-remunerated academic gig before I'm thirty, I am not taking my arts degree and getting an office job. And being honest with myself, I'm never going to make it as a full-time writer, not without an unholy amount of luck: just getting published will probably take me at least the next ten years. (And I'm okay with that: I write slow, and improve slow, and I can live with that.)

So I guess the thing to do is prioritise my interests and investments over the next three or four years in such a way that they give me the most enjoyment and the most useful possibilities with the least financial outlay.

Which means I should concentrate on climbing (pick up a lead-climbing course, go away with the club, get a couple of classes at outside venues), diving only if I'm in Crete again next year, and maybe a RIB-handling course (useful for diving, at least) over the next three years.

Also, driver's license. I should maybe get one.

I do go on, don't I? But it helps to write things down. :)