The Quay's birthday bash

Spent an amazing evening watch the last few rounds of the various competitions laid on to mark the climbing centre's second birthday. There was a really good atmosphere with the audience cheering on every epic dyno and groaning in sympathy with every fall, regardless of who was involved, making it feel more like a celebration of climbing than anything. It was a real treat to watch the finals, to see just what the best people could do and how easily they crushed even the most impossible looking challenges — it certainly left me feeling inspired.

The only wrinkle in an otherwise perfect evening was the lack of food: we managed to miss supper after getting caught up in the finals. The others didn't seem to bothered, but I was really hungry by the end — a consequence, no doubt, of burning off almost all my metabolic reserves on Friday morning — and turned me into The Thing Upstairs from Trap Door.

I failed to persuade R as to the merits of getting food in town — actually a good choice, given how busy it was — and she ditched me to catch her train. Karma, however, inevitably meant that by the time I was tucked up warm at home eating bagels and fresh figs, she'd discovered that the train she'd been planning to catch didn't exist and that the takeaway where she'd chosen to take shelter was populated by people determined to demonstrate their lack of vocal talent to the world at large.

Still a fun time was had, even by those beset by transport and sustenance problems...