hanging out in manly

Well, Caro is now in town so we thought we'd take a stroll around manly, headed down to the fairy bower & around to the artillery school, nice walk, shame it was cloudy... still waiting to go climbing again.
took a few pics.

yep, i'm an idiot

I never knew we had a waterhole up on North Head!

and I stubbed my toe, it's actually pretty sore as I caught it under a rock and stretched it

Anyway, it was nice to wander about in some sorta warm weather and the wildflowers are pretty cool too. Later.

birthday pressure & barrenjoey

Well, it's that time of the year again, Maria's Birthday - Happy Birthday Baby! and, as usual, she was doing her best to get present clues out of me - and I sorta cracked this year... but, I got her a sweet new lens for the camera and thought she may enjoy playing with it on our mission to Barrenjoey with Dave yesterday. So yeah, I caved & she got her present a day early.
Anyhoo, we headed up after a brief morning shower to find nice dry rock and we racked up for a warm up on the mixed 'Professor Wiggimworth's Chunder Bucket' (16) - charming route name ay? I'll just call it 'the professor'. I've top-roped this a few times in the past but this was my first time on point and I was pleased to find it easier than I'd remembered. Dave cleaned & we rapped off to hit my mission for the day - 'Liquid Insanity' (18). A pretty thin start for an odd first clip then up with the remainder of the climb being pretty straight forward - disappointingly I had a slip onto the first bolt, so, like 'Marsupial Smearer' (18) next door, I'll have to come back to get it clean. Interestingly, although it looks harder from the ground, I found LI a fair bit easier. With a belay set, Dave pretty much levitated up where I had struggled (to my disgust!) and we were soon rapping off and I found myself belaying Dave on Carrie Bradshaw.
Meanwhile, we were watching storm clouds burst to the south over the city, happy that we looked in the clear, until we felt a few raindrops from a storm just to the north of us - but, never fear! Dave pulled out his iphone and after studying the weather radar he declared that we were about to be hammered by a storm moving in from the west! After a quick scramble to get ourselves organised, and a look at the blue skies to the west, Dave double checked his radar and we were amused to see that it was a few hours old...
After Dave made short work of CB we decided we should bail so as to have time to prepare 2kg of meatballs for a dinner party for Maria.... mmmmm Köttbullar!
With Maria's new lens, there's a ton of pics! Most are by her, but I think the first few are mine - but, whatever. Peace, out.

Our target!

I can't get tired of coming up here!

Our new wheels & Dave

Racking up

and from here on in, Maria gets pretty trigger happy!

Dave setting new heights for climbing fashion whilst following on the Professor

'my feet go where?!'

mmmm pastels

lock & load - next!

'no no, that way'

aaawwwww.....

back in action!

I headed up to barrenjoey with Maria & Camilla yesterday to test out my finger and have a play around - and the news is good! After my whole week out, my finger is good! Phew! But poor serge is still down with his sprained ankle... Anyway, after a warm up on the good old Carrie Bradshaw and starboard barnacles next door I lead up Judgement Day (14) for a new climb for me - not too bad, fun climbing but a few bit with sketchy pro... After Camilla cleaned, it was time to go! All in all another great day up there!

Maria & Camilla below!

Camilla cleans up on Judgement Day (14)

A cracking day! The pittwater must be paradise on a boat - if only I had one!

all that food is good, but I just wanna go for a climb!

hmmm... as I was sorting out those pics from last night, I stumbled upon a couple of pics that reminded me of all the climbing to be done now the weather is getting warmer (once my finger is better!)
The dam cliffs are a great spot for a day of cragging in the warmer months (freezing in winter) as the crag is in a gully by a dam which happens to be perfect for a swim to cool off!

with some fun, featured steepish routes

and, a kick ass rope swing, not to mention the cliff-jumps in the background! They are pretty high & puckering!

satayday!

Well, headed to Gabby & Kev's last night to reap the real benefit of Chinese mates, cooking! (jk mate!) Anyway, a great time was had by all! After some killer satays, kev whipped up his specialty - char kway teow! I think it's a pretty complex cooking process, which I definitely lack the discipline for! So, whilst I wait for my finger to heal up, this is how it happens!

Start with everything chopped up & ready and a hot wok oiled up

Add the chinese sausage (that dried stuff in the supermarket)

...don't be shy with the garlic!

some sambal olek & fish cakes

Add some squid, then some flat nooooodul

a few shelled green prawns

get saucy - light soy & some sweet soy (?) sauce 

Fry, then scramble an egg

some bean sprouts and shrubbery

and, enjoy! 

Thanks for having us around guys, and a big thanks to the iron chef!

rain, busted fingers & onshore gales

Well, as per the post title, things here aren't all that ideal for the main core of my blogging; skiing, climbing & surfing - so whilst trying to to bore things out too much - a quick update never-the-less!

Well, this week has been a little crazy with our wedding planning/scheming reaching a fever pitch - 10 days until the first of our international entourage begins arriving! (hej tobias & karen!!) However, I still had planned to head down for a ski with Nick but he's down for a few weeks after busting his ass through the Oxfam 100km trail walk, but that didn't matter too much in the end as I cancelled anyway after seeing the forecast - gale force winds & a metric shit-ton of rain! misery! After cancelling, I consoled myself that I could find some dry rock somewhere & all would be ok, but after putting a key-ring point into my finger (through my finger nail!) I put climbing off for at least a week... It's wet as anyway so it's kind of a moot point in the end. Serge's ankle is still on ice too!

Maybe a surf? hmmm tempting, as there is actually some swell at long last! but it's pretty messy out there thanks to a 25kt+ nor-easter, but there are a few die-hards out there - good on 'em!

So, there it is... I'm confined to the apartment! But since it's spring, we hit bunnings and resurrected our herb garden.

Tomatoes first up, the one on the right has almost doubled in size since planting 2 days ago!

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The main section, I like the stand Maria found. The mint (front left) is looking strongest.
We are going to have lots of chili!

Our lavender is starting to flower! (Marlins V Penrith down below)

My olive tree looking strong, with my next long-term project next door, blueberries!

and for Shirin - so she doesn't eat everything else!

and my fingernail piecing, the latest trend!