Yuji Hariyama comes to tea

The Japanese world cup winner drops by our humble climbing centre to try some Borneo climbing. A good day was had by all.

Not really climbing but quite good anyway...

Some crazy-haired scientists wanted a 50 metre tower building in the jungle so they could climb up there to sniff the air. Who are we to wonder why? Who are we to turn the work down? Can you do it? they said, hell yes professor we said.

dopes with ropes and hopes

It seems like we just crash-landed into the new year.
A funny start to the year with Bear Grylls and although Ed and Naz did most of the work on the shoot I was the one that got the photo with him, it wasn't meant to be that way but thats what happened.
He's a dude though and no mistake, a great team that works with him too, slightly bonkers but I guess thats to be expected.
So the climbing centre has seen a decline in numbers at last, I know that many people were complaining back in October and November how it was too busy, well you all stopped coming and now its too quiet! In fact we are going to have to start marketing, its that drastic. Problem is that its pretty well tucked away at the end of a car park in a place that everyone knows but you just cant describe to anyone.for some reason all climbing walls are like that, even Camp 5 is a royal pain in the arse to find at One Utama, and you can see it from the street!
So we have a promotion going for Chinese new year; you bring along a novice to register and you get your climbing session at half price, its a winner all round. The way we see it is this: if someone tries climbing and they like it, they will always come back, if they dont like it then they have tried something new and now know a little more about themselves, how can it ever be a negative thing?
Did you see the new poster yet? a 'doctored' photo from Charles Phang (that guy gets everywhere), looks great and it should be appearing all over town any day now........

2011 already?

You have to wonder where all the time goes, one minute its piling up in front of you in the shape of plans and bookings and stuff you are gonna do then, out of the blue, wallop! Its zipped by, like a bee in a strong wind and you are left scratching your head and feeling a bit older.
So resolutions aside - since no-one ever keeps them anyway - what didnt you get done that you wanted to? I know for a fact that I was going to get strong, train on the bouldering wall for a few hours a week and do a lot of routes. Did I? No, I didn't so I am not strong. Also I was going to try to sort out my 'store room' at home or as my wife likes to call it, my Junk Room. I did open the door a few times with good intentions but the task will require so much time that it seems easier just to close the door and forget it again for a while. Since my beer fridge is in there I do have to go in with some regularity but do my best to avoid eye-contact with any of the mess.
So I hope that twenty-eleven is going to be a year that I can get strong again, I love climbing at Berhala so its worth training before I go again, what a great sense of satisfaction to clip the top bolts.