So I haven't posted anything for a while. The reason may possibly be LOTRO, which has all the addictive qualities of the MMO genre along with the compulsive need among Lord Of The Rings geeks to hunt out accuracies/inaccuracies with reference to the original text. Yes, I'm an anorak. Sue me.
What's been happening? Well, I had a holiday. Yep, a holiday. We packed up Lucille and headed north for Splendour In The Grass and a chill in the warmer north coast climate. This year didn't turn into Splendour In The Mud but was in fact Splendour In The Dust. We caught a few bands, but managed to miss Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party, which is becoming modus operandi de rigeur* for festivals as a whole - miss the headliners, see some interesting sideline gigs, spend much time chilling in the bar. We also popped across the border into Queensland for a quick lunch at Surfer's Paradise an spent a night at The Pub With No Beer, then found a nice gravel trail from there to Kempsey, which allowed Lucille to stretch her legs, so to speak, and really kick up some dust. For those interested, it's the Sundowner Road track from just outside Tailor's Arm towards Kempsey, joining up with the Armidale Road after about 40 minutes or so. Fun with 4wd, possibly even more fun with a rear-wheel drive sports car, if you like that kind of fun.
Yesterday stands out as a good day. In the company of James Taylor I headed off to the Blue Mountains for my first cimbing day in a few weeks. By he time we got to Leura, the original plan of heading to Barden's Lookout or maybe Mount Boyce was abandoned and we decided to have a multi-pitch day on Sweet Dreams at Sublime Point, which has some great views of Echo Point from the other side, and a spectacular vista out over the Jameson Valley as well as a grade 17 variant last pitch to keep things more interesting than pedestrian rambling up a grade 14. I was unprepared as camera gear goes, but a poor-ish mobile phone video will follow is here. We plan on returning with a proper camera and maybe a handycam later.
After climbing, it was out for dinner at Leichhardt with Esther, Jody + Paul, James + Liz and Hannah, followed by beers at the Porterhouse and a 1-0 victory for Sunderland over Tottenham. A great finish to a damn good day.
But oh, do they not know how to poach eggs in Katoomba.
* to coin a horrible portmanteau