bonjour maman!

Yep, my mum's arriving tomorrow morning from Chicago to see her favourite (and only) daughter. I'm really excited to see her especially since I've been able to take a few days off work to spend time with her.

Of course, this also means that i've had to pack a lot in over the past two days. Today, for example, I got up early to walk Solly then went to work for 9 am. I was getting lots done so kept at it til about 9pm but because I know that I won't get a chance to train for the next two days (and shopping and visiting stuff isn't really training even if the bags are really heavy) I thought I should finish off the day on the campus board.

I'm still struggling to get 1-3-5 fluidly but I reckon if I keep at it a few times a week I'll get there eventually.

So since the Plywood Masters on Saturday the week has flown past. I went for a quick jog on Sunday but that only resulted in 2 inch blisters on both arches of my feet due to my new orthotics. Damn. Monday I tried the new problems in The Pen. Did all the problems up to 6b and found all the 6bs really really hard. Tuesday I went to the BMC open meeting which was at the Houses of Parliament (well nearby). It was a good meeting and really nice to meet everyone there. We all bemoaned the low attendance to the London and Southeast meetings. Despite having 40% of the BMC membership it's rare to get more than a dozen people turn up to a meeting. I reckon that it's because we don't really have any local issues to get fired up about. We all climb at different crags and have such a broad range of interests that we don't really have a common identity. My solution? A flag that we can pitch up that says- I'm from London and I don't need your pity!