Red Gecko (Blue Monkey)

A huge lurch forward has occurred since I wrote the last installment, my departure on a two-week road-trip seems to have happened during the ideal growth period. Ed and the boys have made monumental leaps.

1 - the lower half of wall 4 is now in place (Eat Blue Llama)

2 - the bouldering arch is almost complete and ready for painting

3 - all the strength tests are completed (thanks to the Climb Asia team, especially Halil).

4 - the Cave subframe is almost complete, cladding begins on monday

Not bad for a ten-day stretch, powered by lemonade I suspect.

As we approach completion we are thinking about the management and staffing of the place when it opens to the great unwashed. Good staff are being sought.

The gear and clothing outlet is to be called Red Gecko with the cafe to possibly be called Blue Monkey, those who inspired this know precisely who they are....

Ed thinks he will take a holiday once the project is complete, considering his job consists of doing all his favourite things at the same time I fail to understand what he could do on holiday that could be better.

A new project looms on the horizon also, one that will require us to purchase a new outboard motor for my boat in order to get to and from the project site (on an island), its expensive but alas, necessary hmmmmm.

Our experience of the the last island project should have taught us that neither Ed nor Naz can be allowed to drive the boat, land lubbers the both of them.

Lemons

....for making lemonade.

If thats what you have, thats what you do, apparently.

Its a commonly held belief that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, I have my doubts that Formula One is going to be prepared to let me have a stab at the world championship next year and however hard I put my mind to it the fact that I am, er, several years older than the current racers and slightly heavier than I should be would probably make me an outside chancer, even if I had the money of Roman Abramovitch or the chap that just bought Man City (theres a wally if ever there was one) I would stake everything I own on not getting a sniff.

On the other hand, if you have lemons you probably stand a good chance of becoming a lemonade maker, maybe more so than a Formula One driver in fact.

My point is that while we are in the throes of building a climbing wall it is still a wonder for us to stand back and admire our work, not in a particularly smug way, more like getting the job done and enjoying the way it looks.

We are climbers and project managers so building a climbing wall is like the lemon man making lemonade, its the natural thing to do and thats why it is a pleasure for us.

These words of wisdom issued forth from Edward today as we were hauling up the third big wall, the arete in fact. At the time they only served to make me thirsty but then these things sometimes take a considerable time for me to process.

As you can see from the photo its pretty nice, the colouring is different from the last one and the piece that fits between them is going to blend the two shades together, we hope.

Four weeks to go, the clock is ticking but the team continues to work hard, eat messy burgers and nurture a wholly unhealthy sense of humour.