Of driving, umbrellas, and running

Today was one of those days when you do a number of different things for the first time. One first: I got behind the wheel of a car and drove on the road. That was exciting and stressful. I was out at Greenpoint with a driving instructor, on some small, residential roads, in a car which seemt expensive and like something I didn’t want to ding too much. But it went OK, even though when I got behind the wheel everything I’d been trying to remember about the clutch, K-53, and how sensitive the pedals were, kept on fading from memory. But I managed to pull out and do some really slow driving. And all this without any unwanted dings and pedestrian fatalities.

Another first: a cop (not a traffic officer, but a real police officer) asked to see my license. Talk about combing stressors: first time on the road, first time asked for a license by the Law. I wasn’t even doing anything illegal, I was just stopped at a stop street.

Another first: I ran across UCT campus today. Just like being stopped by the cops, this isn’t a first that I wanted to do, but it did stop an umbrella of mine from dissapearing in the nasty clutches of some undergrad. I’d just got off one of the UCT shuttles only to realise that I’d forgotten my umbrella onboard. By now the shuttle was already driving away along ring road. I’d already lost it once already this year (thanks Simon for finding it!), so I ran after it – cutting across campus to run up the stairs (and hill) behind the food court to reach the West Side shuttle stop.

Only the shuttle had already moved on – I hoped only to the next stop, but I was worried it and my umbrella were already on their way to town.

I’d already run half the length of campus, and now I ran the remaining half. I was really relieved that from there on it was all down hill. And yes, the shuttle was still at the South Side stop, and I found my umbrella being kept warm for me in the arms of an undergrad. I was probably a disturbing site: out of breath, slightly sweaty, and really short on words. But I was damn happy to get that umbrella back.

And I really don’t want to do that run again.

Highlight of these past few days

Tonight I replaced my old climbing shoes with a pair of Evolv Quests. Chris and I spent some time at the climbing gym and so I tried breaking them in. They seemed to climb just fine in the gym, although they still give new-shoe pain in my toes. At the time when my toes weren’t hurting, though, the shoes did feel slightly less sensitive than my previous pair. But I’ll wait until they’ve broken in a bit before deciding.

Falling stupid

I took a fall tonight. Unfortunately it wasn’t anywhere exciting: I was carrying a bunch of groceries, had just got into my apartment block, and then proceeded to trip on the very first step leading up to my flat.

My left arm was pinned down by my pack of groceries (in left hand), and one of those huge packs of toilet paper (under left arm pit). It’s odd how I had enough time to think: “Bugger, no way to stop myself,” and then, “Fuck, gonna break my groceries.”

Thankfully, all the groceries were just fine. And so was I! Except that a nail I began tearing last week now tore completely into the quick, and was bloody (no pain, thankfully).

Now I just feel stupid for tripping on stairs.

The First Law (Joe Abercrombie; 2006, 2007, 2008)

This has been an odd series to read, somewhat enjoyable, but very much a chore. I’m about 80 pages from the end of the third book and I’ve decided not to finish it: I no longer have the energy to read it for more than a few minutes at a time. But many of my friends enjoyed the book, so I thought I’d briefly give some of my thoughts on it.

Silvermine with Felix

A friend of mine, Felix, is visiting SA for the next few weeks. Chris and I took him out to Silvermine yesterday to get some climbing done.

Standard butt shot of an abseiler

Abseiling in to the crag was fun: at the end of it we were suspended in the air, feet touching nothing until we reached the bottom — although by this stage the bottom wasn’t far away. The serenity that comes when you’re hanging free from everything is something I enjoy a lot.

Felix clipping in to a bolt

The rest of the day was good fun, if uneventful. But it made me think of the changing face of my fear of heights / falling: I led the abseil down, and didn’t feel too nervous clipping in to the abseil or stepping over the edge. And these days I barely feel nervous when reaching the top of a route, or cleaning a route, or just enjoying the view. I can feel something that could grow into fear, but it’s at the back of my mind — like a forgotten word on the tip of your tongue. Thankfully, this particular word usually stays forgot.

But then I can still get nervous and sometimes out-and-out scared doing silly things, like walking along a trail with a steep drop-off to one side. Moments like that are extremely frustrating, but hopefully more exposure is going to help me cope in the areas where it still affects me.

Yesterday I felt the fear when we were climbing out of the crag: I’d reached the top of a route and was sitting on a three-by-two-or-so meter ledge, unclipped but perfectly safe. Still, I had to take a few minutes to relax enough before I could do a short (and safe) three meter climb up a chimney at the back of the ledge to top out and reach the path down.

So frustrating. But at least I’m coping with it substantially better than when I started, when it was fear and nerves all of the time.

After climbing, we landed up at Olympia Cafe for wine, supper, and relaxing.

CL-HEAP

I just released my first free software project: CL-HEAP. It’s a small library implementing some heap data structures and priority queues. I wrote it for my phd and thought that it would be neat little thing to release into the wild. I’d say, “Download it and try it out,” but it’s really not that exciting unless you’re implementing algorithms in Common Lisp.

Hopefully someone other than me will use it!

A wish that my front door lock could recognise me

And also let me back in, without a key. Because last night I walked out of my flat, and as soon as the Yale lock clicked closed, I knew: I didn’t have my keys on me.

I was off to see my father on his birthday, and I knew that either my mother or my sister had my spare keys, only they were — as are all spare keys — unfindable. After considering climbing up to my kitchen window on the first floor, and possible even tying a safety rope to the balcony above it, I gave in and just called a lock smith.

Who arrived this morning (saving me R200 from calling him out in the night), and now I’m back in my apartment. Yay!

Last night’s spare key debacle left me so cranky. I need to make some more sets and distribute them.

22

I had a great  climbing session  tonight. It was my first time back indoors after a few months of outdoor climbing, and I’ve missed it. I always come away from time spent in the gym feeling as if I’ve worked harder than I do outdoors — although the mental aspects of climbing outside are so much more challenging and interesting, trying to manage both my fear and any over-confidence I might feel during a climb.

I climbed a great 22 tonight on top-rope. At the time it felt as if I just flew up it, since all the moves came together for me in a way that they usually only do on easier routes. I also managed to visualise climbing the route beforehand, and the climb worked out almost exactly as I saw it. I did fall once, at the crux. It was a stretchy bit, that required smearing and placing a foot and hand on the same grip, but the second time I didn’t have any problems with the move, and felt stable all the way through.

I wish every 22 felt like that.

Eggs

Eggs sound awesome when they crack open on tiled floors. They also feel funny when they bounce off your feet. Bouncing off your feet does not, you will be pleased to know, crack them open.

Owls and such

One of the great things about climbing at Higgovale is how beautiful the quarry is. Tonight, while I was at the top of a pitch untying the equipment in the approaching twilight, an owl started hooting. It was the end of a climb,  I was safely secured at the top, and I had a moment to just relax and enjoy the dusk, the cool breeze. The owl. And the whole quarry below me.

On the walk out you can see the city bowl below you, still sunlit enough to clearly see the buildings and their colours, but now the buildings also have their lights on, those darker yellow lights and the bluish florescents and halogens.

So pretty.

And it seems that the paper I submitted has been published on the journal’s website, here.  I think  it’s been available for a few weeks now, although I’m not sure when it’ll be published in print.

The amount of work I put in to it is frightens me. The paper’s a writeup of my masters, which I finished off  at night while working a full-time job during the day. Then there were the examiners’ (thankfully limited – I finished those in a day) corrections to my thesis, followed by the whole paper process: choosing what went in, cutting that down so that it fit into the length restrictions, cutting down the tables, submitting, working on reviewers’ changes, looking over the proofs. I am very relieved that that part of my life is finally over.

And now for the PhD