New blog url:

www.womenoneverest.com/jane

More updates and info on regular dispatches from the team in my 19 Aug entry!

=)

gosh. this is it! the first 8000er! we’re in the big time baby! at this point, looking at my huge bags blocking the living room passage, i’m completely psyched, but also a little apprehensive and rightly so. eight weeks! i’m going to miss my parents, my dad’s yummy soups and most of all, kyo.

i try to remind myself that it’s only 2 months out of many many many more months together, so what the heck.

whoppee! next update from kathmandu! =D

imagine my anticipation after a long, hot day of technical training at yishun safra, when panda, peh gee and i trooped off to camper’s corner at capitol building to collect our sponsored marmot gear that had just arrived!

xavier, the chap at campers who handles our gear orders (and who lihui thought was cute, hur hur) had very thoughtfully packed everything into individual marmot backpacks and gave them to us like christmas presents. so yes, imagine our glee when the three of us started taking everything out to try on and coo over. i can’t say this enough, but i totally love new gear! and marmot is great! both the brand and the animal. incidentally, we came across wild marmots while climbing in xinjiang and they’re really hardy, cute and fuzzy looking, but dangerously feisty when they’re captured (trust me, we know).

pictures!

trying on gear at the back of campers. panda attempting the wide-eyed innocent jap anime look.

gloves! these are probably the best pair of gloves i’ve had so far. waterproof gore tex on the outside, with super warm primaloft on the inside and a really nice rubber-feel palm to make handling hardware easier!

really pretty driclime vest! lightweight and great for layering… oops… toes.

and did i mention how simple but nifty marmot’s mountain symbol logo is…

driclime windshirt! another great layering piece and it’s such a nice shade of green to boot. =)

plus, there’s also a matching green cap! we’ll look like woodland elves…

oracle gore tex pants! finally, outer shell pants that bloody fit la. no more wearing ill-fitting men’s pants! suspenders are great for when we all start getting skeletal and the waistband starts to drops lower. haha

this jacket had me squealing in veritable joy. it’s a pro shell jacket!!! so it may not mean much to most ppl, but this is the absolute latest in improvements to gore tex fabric. waterproof, breathable, sturdy and yet totally light! panda and i were completely elated, cuz now we actually *own* our own outershell jacket! previously, we used to borrow the huge men’s sized jackets from the nus mir store cuz outershell jackets cost a bomb to buy. after climbing for years with loaned jackets, panda and i finally own one! yippeeeee

marmot day pack! the size is great for those one or two-day acclimatization climbs and i like how streamlined it is and that there are no superfluous external pockets, loops and zippers that tend to annoy the hell out of me. minimalism is key to having less headaches. and snags.

marmot (www.marmot.com) rocks and the peeps at campers (www.camperscorner.com.sg) are great for getting us the deal. =)

in other happy news…

also received our sponsored buff (www.buff.es) headwear! check it out, it’s this really cool brand of technical fabric that’s wearable in a ton of different ways and oh so warm. not to mention the quirky designs…

fuzzy red fur with completely frivolous flowers!

the bank robber look. flowers notwithstanding.

panda is completely jealous of my great taste at selecting from the kukuxumusu range! i love the inane blur baa-baa look of the cartoon sheep. my kukuxumusu notebooks kept me amused during my uni days.

check out the silly looking sheep! the sheep are actually demo-ing the many ways to tie the headwear! talk about being self-referential. i personally wouldn’t recommend the suicidal “blindfold” though…

and here’s to looking frivolous but happy on the climb. =)

and…

PEEKABOO!

ok i couldn’t resist. the backing on this buff piece made for a hilarious photo op.

only 10 days left till cho oyu!

whooppeeeee!

just got back from my second (rather late) training session and i feel great! and hyper.

did a 15km run at 630am this morning (technically yesterday morning) before work and i managed to drag my woozy ass for a second 15km run after work at 930pm, followed by a gym session from 11 to midnight. one of the perks of cali gym, is the fact that it stays open till midnight, when there’s absolutely no one around for me to have to share weights machines with. =D

anyway, the best part about training, is getting to eat a hell lot. these days, i’m faced with the happy problem of counting calories to ensure that i’m actually overeating. yep. i’ve been trying to put on weight before the cho oyu climb. on average, a climber will lose about 10 to 12kg for a 2 month 8000m expedition, depending on how much freeze-dried food, myoplex, power gels and chocolate one manages to keep down. from personal experience, once the weight loss seriously kicks in from the cold, the sheer volume of physical exertion and the appetite loss, the energy level drops all the way down as well. hence, anticipating the debilitating weight loss, panda and i have been consciously trying to gain 3 to 5kg within a month so that there’s at least that bit of buffer mass to lose.

unfortunately, the math hasn’t been too kind with the realities of eating. my basic metabolic rate says that i should be eating a ballpark of 1500 calories if i were to stay in bed and sleep all day. add in a very very modest 500 calories to account for walking around doing normal daily stuff, that’s 2000 calories on the low side (not taking into account things like higher BMR based on percentage of muscle mass etc. that’s like verging on rocket science and i prefer not to go there and kill myself). since my total 3 hour cardio session today burned a little over 2000 calories, thanks to my trusty HRM for the estimate, that’s a minimum of 4000 calories expended, not inclusive of my weights routine which i can’t calculate energy expenditure for. 

so to gain (or lose) one kg, one needs to eat (or lose) an extra 7700 calories. on average, that’s an extra 1100 calories per day. considering i spend about 2.5 to 4 hours each day for 2 training sessions, with more on weekends, that’s about slightly over 5000 calories i actually need to be eating each day to at least gain 1kg per week.

anyone who counts calories will quickly realise that it’s damn hard to eat 5000 calories. i mean, obviously the easy way out will be to down oil shooters, but erm, no thank you, i would like to avoid a premature artery clog, if ever at all. hence, it figures that the more heart healthy way to gain mass will be through the “body builder theory” of eating more protein and complex carbs, but even then, it’s still damn hard to be eating 5000 calories a day, even with all the 5 full meals a day. anyway, www.thecaloriecounter.com is pretty handy when it comes to estimating caloric values.

recently, i’ve been eating kyo flat under the table, much to his awe and still a colleague asked me today if i lost weight. with two weeks left to go till cho oyu, this is becoming a slight problem for me, especially since i tend to get cold really easily and force-feeding on climbs isn’t really my thing. 

i realise i’m sounding damn paranoid, but at this juncture, i would think that having more “padding” is going to stand me in good stead. for once, i’m going to stop laughing at panda’s roundness. 

xxx

speaking of food, i had the most decadent ”last day of work” division lunch today at this tiny little authentic (cuz the chef is actually from italy, none of that franchised imagined italian cooking crap) eatery tucked away at the corner of prinsep place. it’s called trattoria lafiandra. i ordered the tagliatelle bolognese, ate a chunk of lasagne bolognese and a tiramisu, all of which were superbly yummilicious. i totally recommend it for ppl looking to pile on the calories, especially since the lasagne came drenched with cheese and it was soaked in some liquid cheese sauce thingy. can you imagine? warm bubbly liquid cheese with hunks of beef.

ok now i’m hungry again.

two weeks without an entry and i have more or less confirmed my status as a bona fide toad-in-a-well.

so it’s exactly 17 days till the team departs for our cho oyu climb and i’m so full of excitement these days that i can barely drag my feet off to the gym.

yep. welcome to the land of training fatigue. these two weeks, i’ve probably spent more time battling pesky inner demons that have been telling me to take a break, rest the knee, ease off on the aching muscles and to just take a chill pill and sleep. so completing mileage has been more of a pain than usual, for the fact that i’ve had to spend an equal amount of time cajoling myself to get a grip and move it.

plus, the odds and ends of getting the mammoth creature that is an expedition, moving is boggling my mind so much so that more than once, i’ve wished myself away into a land of fluffy marshmallows, chick lit and crochet. life would have been so much easier if i was into manicures and baking.

on the upside, some things are finally moving and in less than 3 weeks, i’ll be back in nepal. maybe, just maybe, then i’ll start feeling human again. life here can be so unreal sometimes.

but! there’s definitely something to smile about today! it’s my LAST day at work tomorrow! woohoooo!!! got a better job offer which i’ll start after my climb in october, so in the meantime it’s toodles to mindless work! yippee! i’ll be teaching at a poly which coincidentally, happens to be the one my younger brother studies at. he’s turning out to be more psyched than i am, after calculating how much pocket money he’ll save each month by sponging off me for lunch.

xxx 

these two weeks, in between the training and the work, the only thing i’ve found energy to do is read, which is great. finished heidi howkin’s “k2: one woman’s quest for the summit”, which is possibly one of the most evocative examples of climbing literature i’ve ever come across. there’s none of that mundane “3 July, 2am, it’s -50 deg outside and i’m 236m from the summit and the wind is blowing at exactly 32.86km/h” spiel. for some reason, howkins reads like jack kerouac. plus, the epigraphs at the start of each chapter pandered to the lit detail junkie in me. so yeah, go read it. very little of that techical stuff that only a climber would appreciate and really really big on heart.

also read dan simmons’ latest novel, “the terror”. i really dislike the title. it has this awful stephen king-esque ring to it. bad title notwithstanding, “the terror” was a fantastic read. i’ve been a huge fan of simmons ever since “ilium”, so i had pretty high expectations for the new book and fortunately, it didn’t disappoint, all 800 pages of it. think “lord of the flies” set against the historic background of an 1845 british polar expedition gone awry, with heaps of conrad’s bleak observation of humanity ala “heart of darkness” and very ben okri-type magic realism thrown in along with simmons’ great knack for pacing and you have a page turner. if you must read one 800 page book this year, this is it.

finally, there’s “the 13 1/2 lives of captain bluebear” by walter moers. think terry pratchett on ecstasy with an illustrator gone bonkers and you get a huge tome, with half the story told in pictures. can’t say i loved it, but the pictures were highly entertaining. which is great for those horrendous days on the super crowded mrt.

on the topic of reviews, “the simpsons” was rather disappointing =(, especially after my 6-month wait. lihui agreed with me on that. granted, there were some great laughs in the film, but i guess i’ve become too inured to homer’s acts of banality that the slapstick isn’t so funny anymore. plus, spider pig really wasn’t that inspired.

xxx

brain dead. i am so brain dead these days that i’ve committed literary sacrilege twice in a row. first, i fell asleep during “the seagull”, played by THE royal shakespeare company. i had stage front seats for once, i could actually SEE the props down to the tea cups on the table, but i was so freaking tired from training, i actually fell dead asleep, complete with head lolling to one side during the first half.

and then just two days ago, kyo and i walked out 30 mins into “hey figaro!” because once again, both of us were so exhausted, sleepy and hungry from training and rushing around earlier in the day that even italian soprano voices weren’t enough to perk us up. at that point, the prospect of food and an early night in bed seemed more inviting that the singapore lyric opera. sigh. something’s gotta give, i say.

xxx

pictures. the team spent a saturday taking studio pictures for our up and coming promo campaign, so watch out for it! although undeniably, my “spontaneous” poses were horrid, to say the least. i honestly can’t be counted on to do anything physically original.

speaking of pictures, i have completely uninspired phone cam shots. see, i totally love how slim my w880i is, to the point that i use it as a bookmark and music sounds fantastic on it, but the non-flash, non-autofocus camera can be really shitty in indoor lighting.

one of the perks about climbing: the expected weight loss and getting to eat a super hell lot before a climb. pg, panda, jo and i shared SIX large fries after a full pizza hut dinner on one particularly hungry night… (the photo is just one tray btw =D)

panda, es and me reflected off a totally cool “floating” floor light!

and on a totally incongruent note, BABY!!! he’s 7 months old now, weighs a hefty 10kg and i haven’t seen him for so long that when he saw me again on sunday, he stared at me for TWO whole minutes without blinking, broke into a small frown and apparently suddenly remembered me (as the only human who speaks to him like a grown up with none of that coochiecoochie rubbish), laughed and lunged towards me to be carried!! how cute is that? =) he’s such a darling. he bites anything soft and hits himself with anything hard. it’s amazing how babies understand the world.

had stairs training yday, followed by a run, during which i think i pulled/ strained something in my left knee. so now when i stand up or walk around, there’s like this tugging feeling at the back of my knee cap. sorta like having a neck crick you can’t get rid of.

major bummer.

i really must be getting old.

stairs trg was totally agonizing. we’ve graduated to doing a 40 storey block now and i started by myself ahead of the rest yday so it was pretty much plod plod plod without looking up the whole time. at least that was an average day. on bad days, i swear i sometimes feel sorry for myself.

i was telling kyo last week that for some reason, stairs trg doesn’t really feel like real trg to me, so these days, i’ll do a run as well on my stairs days to mitigate the strange sensation of having spent a couple of hours but not exactly “trg”. even though stairs trg = completely knackered, maybe it’s because i can’t exactly move very fast cuz of the pack and the leg weights that stairs trg doesn’t really “feel” damn shiok, as compared to a run or swim.

after stairs, i just feel like crap.

gah. thanks to the bad knee, looks like today’s going to be an unconducive day for trg. i live in the blissful hope that one day, i’ll be able to replace my bad knee tendon/ joint with some artificial crap that will never act up on me.

so the other day, es’s bf, jeremy (*waves*) suggested tt we all blog/ blog more about our lives, to which someone replied that we don’t really have what most ppl will call, “a life”.

i mean, i was trawling through some ppl’s blogs the other day and there were a ton of pictures and entries on hip and happening places to eat at, new clubs to visit, ppl they’ve met, things to do. heck. some of these blogs read like a veritable lonely planet guide on what to do in singapore. the only “lonely planet” moment i’m currently experiencing is the self-inflicted state of isolation somewhere in a 40 storey block in toa payoh.

and then you have others who blog about exciting travels now tt it’s the sch holiday season and more who write about the great time they’re having on exchange overseas and being able to travel around in between term breaks.

to be frank, for all of 5 seconds, i sometimes catch myself wondering how different life would be if it weren’t for the monolith that is the everest project. i would definitely have gone for exchange overseas, maybe travel a bit, see a couple of places. i might also have ended up clubbing/ shopping/ dining and possibly succumbing to doing a whole host of other reputedly “hip and happening” things.

but what’s more likely, is that if there wasn’t the everest thing going on, i’ll probably still be trg for something crazy, of the “once-in-your-lifetime” category.

i’ve always suspected that the entire school-stress-rat-race mode of life has had a deleterious effect on our mental and emotional sanity that simply screams out for release in various adrenaline junkie type ways.

so when the 5 seconds of living a mental existence of the “other side” is up, i’m pretty much happy to admit that by having “no life”, probably as perceived by 99% of sane human beings, i’m strangely content.

these days, with everything save mars all mapped out, adventure expeditions are no longer about exploring the unknown, but the unpredictable. for me, the mega huge “paycheck” of an exhilarating (crevasses and all) climb is more than worth the routine monotony of having “no life” the rest of the time.

so in the same spirit of yh’s buoyant optimism (perfected by years of ribbing on her “svelte” figure), that being “round” in figure is also being in “shape”, whoever said having “no life” can’t be something to aspire towards anyway?

although i somehow don’t quite think this is what j had in mind when he told us to blog, but oh well. what can i say. i have a bad knee, no social calendar and my running shoes are my best friends.

wouldn’t have it any other way. =)

did an early 12k trail run in the morning, followed by bukit timah training and then a quick paddle session at sentosa. spc was having an open house, to which i actually managed to entice 2 colleagues to try out.

totally loved the fact that by the time i was done with a fulfilling day of training, it was only 5pm. to think, i could have just been sleeping at home until 1pm and having sunday brunch until like, 3, and there goes a sunday. =D

but having said that, the bukit timah session was especially tough today. it might have been due to the run earlier that my legs were doing the ridiculous “sewing machine” thing and spasming all over the place, to the extent that i sometimes couldn’t get proper footing on the terrain. yikes. so i was pretty thankful for the little paddle bit. at least i still got to do something while resting my spasming leg muscles.

following the sentosa session, kyo and i went to catch “transformers”, which in all honesty, wasn’t as painful as i thought it would be. i mean, it’s a toy movie! plus, i had a bad experience with “TMNT”. sometimes, you just gotta give in to boys and their fixation with action figures. so turns out that the robot flick was brainlessly entertaining, except that the robots were a cgi blur whenever they moved around too quickly and all you see is flashing metal parts.

anyway, i do totally recommend it as a de-stress flick.

gah work week again. 5 more weeks to cho oyu!

xxx

my grad ceremony was on friday morning.

to be frank, i didn’t get all warm, fuzzy and emotional about it. neither did i do that cliched mortar board toss thing, even though i was supposed to gather with the rest of my usp cohort after the official ceremony. it was an absolutely unromantic affair for me: got the (empty) scroll case, certs, took like all of 3 photos and that was that. no hearty congratulations, teary hugs or warm reminiscing about nus. in fact, my parents were more excited about the ceremony (isn’t that generally the case?) and almost flipped when i carried on with my morning training as per normal and made it in time for the ceremony by barely a hair’s breadth. haha. i guess that’s always been the way i am with life. constantly moving on without much of a second thought. haven’t yet decided if it’s a good thing, or if my lack of sentimental attachment is necessarily a bad thing. *shrugs*.

in the car on the way to ucc…

my great parents! i must say that my 4 years of juggling school with training and constantly disappearing for months on end for climbs would have been extremely pesky to deal with if not for my parents. =) so yeah, having supportive parents is one of the blessings i’m completely thankful for.

the parents. =)

after my grad ceremony, i went off to join my team mates who were at a photo shoot at yishun safra. we shot an advert for centrum, which is one of my team’s sponsors. yay for centrum multivit! the advert should be in print sometime in oct. so this is a particularly scary picture of major lee. she has on MAKE UP and plucked brows. and hair gel. the horror. for once, she managed to look vaguely human, but of course she simply had to spoil this photo. she insists on striking fear into the very hearts of all potential threats to singapore.

after the safra bit, we moved off to ssc’s tampines gym for the second shoot location. it was kinda weird to be doing hair and make up in a gym with ppl working out and staring. plus. we met our local adventurer, khoo swee chiow, who was training hard for his next expedition. we looked completely frivolous in comparison. there we were, surrounded by a team of phtotographers, reflector-holding ppl, stylists, spotlights and what not, striking very un-natural weight-training poses. erm.. oh well. i still maintain that as a women’s team, we can climb and still look gorgeous! so there. =P

snarling at yihui.. the hairstyle hurts btw. 3 rubber bands and 17 pins in all just to hold up hair.

joanne and jane! ppl say we look like sisters =)

panda in make up! not like there’s much difference though. bwhahhaaa.

look who’s back! miss lee is back from her amazing holiday in europe! kyo and i met her for dinner at billy bomber’s at central. i wasn’t hungry, but ended up eating 1/2 a roast chicken, cheese fries, onion rings, a brownie with ice cream and a fizzy drink thing. yikes.. talk about storing up for winter. and babe i’m totally proud of you for your valiant backpacking efforts and running for trains with 15kg in tow! =D

baby!

french braid!

 
kyo looks damn bored. i made him take this weird angle shot so i could have another picture of my painstakingly tied braid. =) air heads unite.

=D not a particularly safe spot for a kodak moment, but oh well.

and this looks hilarious. i collected my climbing down suit from camper’s this evening. it’s super warm 800 fill down and looks completely ridiculous here. it’s made by marmot, and the kind peeps at marmot have agreed to be our outfit sponsors! so we’ll be kitted in marmot gore-tex xcr jackets and pants, plus fleece jackets, gloves and whatnot. yippee!!! check out www.marmot.com for super cool gear sold by really savvy *AHEM* ppl with great *AHEM* foresight. =D

talk about being a ba-zhang. i could probably roll down stairs in relative comfort.

lalala. have a great sunday folks. =)

nice speedy 12km macR trail run with team mates bright and early in the morning.

weekend was good. discounting the niggling pain in the knee.

pg gave me a long lecture on leadership on sat. wise words from the *ahem* major. there were times when i felt a healthy team-mately urge to sock and floor her, but then again, i’d have no one to watch my back and cover the gaps.

so yes, the disadvantages of leadership infancy (hey but at least i don’t suffer from hubris!), but thankfully, there’s straightforward, objective criticism meted out when i need it the most.

and i guess the milestone that shows up during the norming stage, is the ability to whack each other (verbally!) and laugh about it later. well the world will be a much easier place to live in if everyone simply spoke their mind. and i appreciate it. =)

anyway.

spent a sunday afternoon in the national library with panda. it’s fast becoming our secret sunday afternoon activity, except that i found her sleeping against the wall when i arrived. these days, paranoid of losing excessive brain cells due to formulaic work, i’ve taken to reading obsessively, like X number of pages minimum per day to finish one novel a week. i live with the dread that whatever literary feelers i ever managed to cultivate will expire under the duress of mind-numbing work. doesn’t take the joy out of reading though, but it forces me to set aside time everyday to read. obviously, my “sex and the city” dvd marathons had to go. sigh. always another time. on the upside, having a dedicated reading period during the day has been beneficial so far, in that it’s sort of a mental getaway during lunch, or a nice calming conclusion to a hectic day.

anyway.

pictures! =)

i realise what a truncated blog entry this is. sometimes i think i’m genetically wired to think in disorganized, spontaneous bursts and kyo is convinced that i have ADHD.

dinner with izzy! =D haven’t had a loooooong chat with izzy since like, forever! everyone’s so busy these days. glad to know that some things don’t change, even with the long gap in between.

lovely team mates!!!

with lihui at her company event… blame the pixelation on hp cam. i cropped out the girls to the either side of us since they’re like hot and this IS my blog. hahaha

post saturday training team meeting at al-ameen… gesticulating panda and *ahem* L major tapping away at infernal pda…

joanne! eeps and i don’t have one of es, who was unfortunately sitting with her back to the sun and came out shadowed…

kyo 

baby! =) glad things finally worked out after this long long while… slowly working our way back. =)

on hindsight, i really do have much to be thankful for. should stop with the sudden bouts of melancholy.

or at least until i feel like setting my workdesk on fire again.

like, 3am.

by 4am, panda and i began what was to be our rather maniacal 4hr fri morning run.

like i said, panda is probably the only friend in the world who willingly indulges my moments of insanity.

thus, our great 4am start to the day. =)

eventually, we clocked 36.12km. exact distance, thanks to a very trusty polar footpod, which is this very nifty device that after calibration, measures speed and distance by some infra red thingy that picks up the elliptical distance and frequency of your stride. or something. ok i just know that it beeps a yellow light, my watch picks up the signal and i’m happy. anyway, 36.12km by most counts really isn’t great time but oh well. can’t really expect much from a couple of creaky knees.

all in all, i’m pretty pleased. clocked 63km of runs so far this week and it’s only fri! still the whole weekend for a 6hr bukit timah session tomorrow and an 11km trail run on sunday. *beams*

the only gross thing was having to sort of “pop” my left knee cap down cuz it started to get strangely shifty after about 25km, probably because i ran out of tape to support it with. eeks.

speaking of gross running-related incidents, panda and i were doing another run on wed, but it was during the evening at about 8pm. part of our route takes us through the kallang riverside park, which although dark, is pretty safe to run through at night since there are always strolling couples around till late. but some weeks ago, panda and i literally ran into a flasher. eeks. he was this gross old man on a bike who kept cycling beside us, deliberately keeping pace when he could be ahead and when we purposely slowed down and stopped, he would cycle a bit ahead then stop and wait for us to resume. the thing is, he was cycling with just a black thong.

talk about disgusting la.

panda and i were more in hysterics than anything else. i mean, gross, old flabby man??? eww…

we didn’t think it could get any worse, until this wed, when old flasher made an appearance again. i didn’t even recognize him until he came cycling up towards us, made a u-turn and repeated his pacing thing. just that this time, he was naked below the waist.

old flasher ass??? double eww….

amazingly, the first thing panda said was, “wa, this uncle not pain wan ah?”.

eventually, old flasher took off into the trees by the river when he spotted a few more ppl running ahead. i’m increasingly tempted to run with a weapon of some sort, just in case. like my dad’s old switch blade in his fishing tackle box.

XXXXX

i recently discovered the coolest function on my new sony ericsson w880i hp. it has this “TrackID” thingy, which basically allows you to record a snippet from any song and the function then sends back the recording to some abstract webby space and sends you all the info on the song, thus eliminating the “eh what song was that” question forever.

not like our politicians and world leaders are falling over themselves with that conundrum, so it really isn’t SE’s gift to mankind, but still!

and it worked! i recorded a snippet of the intro from bon jovi’s “lost highway” as a test and the abstract webby AI space computer thing actually replied me with the correct info!

i suppose for most ppl, this isn’t groundbreaking stuff, but i’m a modern day IT caveman! i’m not even sure what’s the difference between GPRS, WAP, wi-fi, 3G and now i think i’ve seen 3.5G somewhere.

somewhere along the way, i picked up a climbing boot and technology left me behind.

which is sort of ironic really, since we more or less rely on technology as our safety backup to call for help on climbs.

and it’s weird cuz i’m reading william gibson’s sci-fi book, “neuromancer”, and it’s all about a world where tech runs amok.

coming just after bronte’s “jane eyre”, one of those books that i’ve embarrassingly put off reading till recently (i totally recommend it btw), my brain is sort of in limbo between the 1850s and 3000. 

and i’m babbling.