Was up in the Lakes over the weekend weren’t i? The Cowboy and Helen were getting married up in Langdale and had requested my presence. Congratualtions guys!!! I obliged and thus am able to give an accurate account (minus booze induced memory loss) of the proceedings from this past weekend, lest you should hear of it from someone who wasn’t there. Introduction over so time for the main meat.
I travelled up having collected my dole money earlier in the day (it’s not funny but it is depressingly true) with that stalwart of decent British travel, the fine chariots of the National Express! Rule Britannia!!! Fast forward 5 hours and we arrive in Kendal – an hour later than planned…….no changes there then! We country folk fear change so in a way it was a good thing. Anyway stepped off the bus in the land of the anti-sun and met up with Dave (www.steepmedia.com – AWESOME looking film coming in time for the KMFF) at the indoor wall for a quick climb. I’ve been climbing a lot lately indoors at Bear Rock in Warwick (even seen Rich Simpson beasting it there too – but don’t tell anyone!!) but it makes such a difference climbing with someone you know isn’t gonna kill you – at least on purpose anyway – and at a wall that actually has some decent route setting credentials. Whilst Bear Rock has a some really good bouldering (mainly cos there’s so many holds on the steep board that you can make up your own problems) it’s route setting on everywhere but the main wall (a good 75% of the place) is at best shite! Why is that? Answers on a postcard please.
I had to get my sprigs of lavender out to make a potion warding off evil cos the next day dawned bright and clear with the promise of some late afternoon sun. If Dan and Helen needed a better omen for their marriage i couldn’t think of one! We had made plans to hit up George’s barn board but a combination of factors largely influenced by the relative comfort of our beds and the fact that George was away down in Bangor made it tricky to summon up the required motivation. So we settled for a leisurely start of breakfast and a walk round the village (haha that sounds so lame!!).
The wedding itself was awesome, kudos to the Cowboy and Helen for not forgetting their lines and choosing a great place to have a shindig. It was great to be there and cool to see how happy they both looked and are! Well done guys! Helen looked beeeeowwwtiful in her dress and Dan just looked nervous (in fact he said something about being more scared at the wedding than he was 10m up that E3)! They’re off to Canada for a couple of weeks and Dan will hopefully be passing on my phone number to the hot French/Canadian waitress at the Howe Sound Brew Pub in Squamish (cheers buddy!). The free bar in the evening was a NICE touch and the free meal before hand – which was a total surpirse cos i thought the uni guys were too wild to be allowed to sit down with others for a respectable meal!! (thank god we weren’t) – was excellent. Chin chin!
From this….to this (they scrub up nice!)
It was really cool seeing my mates from uni again. Everyone i used to fanny about with from there still lives up that way so i don’t get the opportunity to see them much which is a shame but makes the times when we do manage to get together all the better. Next stop the Kendal Film Festival in November i guess!
On a totally different note i’ll probably be getting Al Lee’s new flick ‘Onsight’ by the end of the week (it’s on pre-order baby!) so i might do a short review of that and Dosage V (which i’m borrowing – hmmm clue as to its quality??) in the next week or so. Because i’m cool and qualified enough to comment on these things of course! In fact while i’m on the subject – and i’m sorry for continuing to plug this – Dave’s film ‘Call It What You Want’ will have an all singing, all dancing trailer up by the end of this week (maybe!) and from what i’ve spied so far it honestly looks amazing and will definitely give the ‘real’ climbers on the forums something to spraff about!!
