Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me - 30/04/09
Back in work today on my birthday. Better that than sat at home bored... well just about. Works' night out tonight, which should be good. Hopefully I'll get a lot of beers bought for me. Yum yum yum. I got in to find my desk decorated with 21 balloons and photos of a random baby from the net with my name over it. Plus some cheeky sod had put a photo of Vanilla Ice (I have a dodgy haircut on my passport photo) on the door. At least it wasn't in the lift. Oh and I got bottle of JD off Mike. Cheers Mike! And.... I'm being taken out for lunch, I just have to choose where without taking the piss.

Day of Heroes - 29/04/09
On my second day off work. For some reason we get to carry 5 days forward, but only for a further month. I've not done a great deal, just chilling out after busy weekend. Catching up on Heroes.

Drunk Breakfast - 26/04/09
Good lord, in bed at 4am up at 8am, down for breakfast at the hotel. What a night! I didn't win a thing; some of the lads won big, but not I. God, I drank a lot!

Haydock Races - 25/04/09
Haydock Races with the lads for my birthday. Should be a laugh, am looking forward to it.

No Climbing Tonight - 22/04/09
Intended on going climbing tonight, but Vinny has phoned in work sick, so that has scuppered those plans.

Saturday Walk - 10/04/09
Went for a walk today; on a Saturday instead of the usual Sunday. Most of the car parks were busy apart from our usual spot. I was following Jonathan's lead on the walk up and he'd found the easiest route up there suitable for a 4x4 to get up there. However, this was welcomed as I'm still on my diet and I am now full of a cold. A normal route would have been done me in.

Chicken and Casino - 09/04/09
Again didn't feel too great when I got home from work. Ate half a chicken and had 3 beers. It seemed to help, but not much, so met up with the lads for a few more beers and to watch City. Ended up getting home at 2:30am after running home (again!) from the casino. I am now a member of the Grosvenor casino. My signature is funny. Pissed when scrawling my name.

Sick Climbing - 08/04/09
Did not feel very well tonight; shivering and the aches. Probably wasn't the best idea to go climbing. Vinny brought his rope so I could have a go at leading, but I just didn't have the strength to do it. Basically the warm up knackered me out. Still want to give it a go though, although I'm going to have to restrict it to the easy routes.

Not much else going on at the moment... apart from being on a diet. About 3.5kg gone in the first week, which isn't too bad. I'm hoping that shedding a few kilos will help with climbing.

Ice Wall - 03/04/09
Finally got myself to the ice wall for a session. I did a couple of goes straight up and down to get warmed up and attempt to get back into it. Even though I climbed using the monkey hang style I really made a conscious effort to push my hips into the ice to put more weight on my feet. It certainly made a difference and my arms didn't get as pumped as normal.

The gulley has been shaped pretty well over time with it getting narrower at the top. I'd found I nearly had to stack my feet on top of each other to keep contact with the ice. I then tried bridging either side of the gulley whilst keeping my axes inside. I thought this would be easier, but I found I was climbing slower as my leg reach was reduced.

Next up the chap who was belaying drew a route on the wall with a marker pen (it's actually very effective, surprisingly). I could put my feet anywhere, but axes had to go inside the small boxes. This was good as I had 5-6 axes placements to get to the top; meaning I had to mantle quite a lot. Mantling off my Petzl Quarks is always dodgy as the pinky rest skit off the ice. I used one of the rock holds with my axe upside down levering back. The ice crunched underneath, which despite being roped up and safe, always makes me a little nervous.

Last route was up the chimney/lip of the gully with the intention of traversing right and then over the overhang. Left axe went around the opposite side of the chimney and I reached across with my right to hit at the side of the overhang. I stemmed my legs to maintain balance. I then put the majority of my body weight on the right axe whilst I matched with the left. Then it was a leap of faith to jump with the left and right to an inline position to the axes. By this point I was pumped and I knew I couldn't do the overhang section without letting go of an axe or two. My hour was up, so that was that.