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Updates:

Testing... 21/12/07

Quick update before I go away. I'm off to Spain soon to meet up with my brother and my family in Valencia, and then to go climbing in El Chorro until New Year. This is with my partner who, well, I don't think we really know whether we are together or not. But regardless I will aim for a fun time - it's not ideal but hopefully we can make the best out of it.

So, thing the first, a new figure. I rather like this one.

Thing the second, music recommendations. Dark ambient to suit the bleak winter weather. I've just bought a couple of CDs from the opposite end of the spectrum: Nordvargr - "In Oceans Abandoned By Life I Drown... ...To Live Once Again As A Servant Of Darkness" is a great title and an ultra heavy release very much at the doomy noiz end of dark amb - some really powerful rhythmic guitar-based sounds on this. And in contrast Desiderii Marginis "Seven Sorrows" is a beautiful emotional musical piece full of melancholy melodies and haunting atmospheres. Both quite astonishing CDs!

Thing the third, climbing. I've been pretty chilled about my climbing recently, but have training indoors a fair bit, as well as bouldering on grit in the recently lovely bitter winter weather - both of these as much for the social side as for the climbing, I must be getting soft. Anyway, despite being banned from UKClimbing (I've not grovelled to get back in, yet), I've still managed to post a blog on their sister Rockfax site, and thus prattled on about climbing there :).

Happy Christmas and stuff. As always, communication and contact is welcome, use the email address below...

[Vibes - Pretty good for now, some worries on the horizon though.]
[Music - see above]
[Media - Timeshift PC game. Not played much more, but still good.]
[Reading - - in between books -]
[Climbing - Indoor training and random grit bouldering, it's all good.]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 25/11/07

Quick micro-update: new bouldering clip. The usual narcissistic bollox but some good light/shadow action in this one.

Testing... 21/11/07

Two months later I'm back with an update

Someone recently suggested I write a blog. This would be what counts as a blog if I actually updated the damn thing. For someone who prattles on so much over the internet, you'd think I'd be into regular introcentric blogosophy....I guess that I don't is some saving grace!!

To continue last bi-month's theme: More good weather - although I write this on a spectacularly dreary, dank and grim day, after a weekend with such a harsh snow dump that some Peak District roads needed snow-plowing. Alpine!! Until recently though, it's all been pretty good - and thus my climbing raison d'etre has all been pretty good.

When August was good, the thought was "Well that's nice, it doesn't make up for the hideous monsoon for June and July though".

When September was also good, the thought was "Actually, that's been good enough to balance out June and July, it's an okay summer".

When October was good too, one finally thinks "It might have been much delayed, but this has actually been a good summer!"

When the first half of November is good....hell one could get complacent!!

So maybe the current early winter grimness comes at a good time. Time to train and to remember to take advantage of any dry weather. Taking advantage sums up the previous 3 months: Lots of travelling, lots of exploration, lots of rewarding experiences. Should I write more?? Perhaps not. Ask me if you want. Current plans are to climb a few routes on the fascinating Lleyn Peninsula in Wales if the weather allows, and try to get re-used to gritstone or train indoors if it disallows. As well as doing other stuff as appropriate. Hmmm you can see why I don't write a blog maybe!!

Anyway...

New lead figure painted and posted. Again for a Warhammer.org.uk contest but hey their themes inspire me and I like to join in.

New photos of things and places - the latter including an explanatory anecdote to a powerful artistic experience I had. A couple of these photos are taken on my mobile phone and thus are considerably worse image quality but still show entertaining scenes. I hope!

[Vibes - Fine. Treading water a bit though.]
[Music - The DJ Producer - Helter Skelter Annual 1997 mix CD - awesome old skool gabber!]
[Media - Timeshift PC game. Nothing more than HL2 with bullet-time, but fun.]
[Reading - China Meiville - Iron Council....still...I think I'm turning illiterate!]
[Climbing - Training.]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 21/09/07

Two months later I'm back with an update.

Thank fuck for the decent weather over August and early September!!

Seems like "something" was aware that the summer was going beyond the limits of acceptability. The last month and a half (until just recently) has been perfectly decent weather. No heatwave (which I hate anyway) and some claggy days, but plenty enough dry weather to actually CLIMB. Which is what matters ;). And climb I have...varying trips to the South West, Wales, and Lakes, finally tackling some of the routes and climbing that really inspires me. Both a profound relief and a thoroughly enjoyable series of experiences that are "true to myself". Now it's gone a bit bollox for a while, but I've done enough stuff up in the mountains that I can hopefully play around on "weather window" sea-cliffs even if it is showery. Fingers crossed, I'm still psyched.

That's all I have to say but I've also put a couple of pictures up, one here and one here. I like them!

[Vibes - Almost normal....for me....whatever that means]
[Music - More dark ambient etc! Coldspring had a summer sale on...]
[Media - Mostly custom Quake maps - still a great fun game!]
[Reading - China Meiville - Iron Council....still!!]
[Climbing - a little bit, taking a breather before an autumn assault]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 17/07/07

No news is not good news.

Neither is it singularly tragic news. But it is it fed up pissed off utterly frustrated stagnant and depressed news.

Warning: Ranting ahead.

As anyone in or near the UK will know, this has been an atrocious summer weather-wise. Even aside from the flooding and storms, the weather has generally pissing wet - either continually grim rain or constant sunshine and showers with scarcely more than a dry day or two in a row. For me, as a climber, and as someone who was specifically focusing on climbing again this summer, it has been utterly demoralising and teeth-grindingly frustrating. Sure, if all one is interested in climbing is local rock for the odd evening or afternoon, there have been plenty of micro-dry-spells. But my inspiration lies away from home, in the Lakes and Wales and Cornwall, and there have been hardly any 2+ day dry spells to make it worth a 6-10 hour total drive. It has been a complete waste and I've been able engage almost none of my plans.

All of this precipitatory SHIT comes after a generally fairly good spring. A good spring during the first part of which I had very little motivation to climb. I think I was partly burnt out by focusing on gritstone for 6 months (which included their fair share of unpalatably bad weather) and partly struggling to adjust to an unduly abrupt transition from winter to summer-style temperatures. Whichever, I spent several days and a few weekends pottering around doing fuck all climbing in great weather. It's a constant nagging in this country that, as a dedicated climber, one must take advantage of any dry weather....and boy does the current meterological fuck-up prove that necessity :(. During the latter part of this good spring, I had a shoulder injury which needed careful nuturing and plenty of rest, thus missing out on more potential climbing days.

So, summer arrives, my motivation returns, my shoulder heals, and the weather is fucking wank

I haven't dealt with this very well at all. The first line in this update / blog / whatever says it all. I've been feeling fairly shit, about the situation, and about myself. Obviously it is a better test of my character and moral fibre how I deal with a crappy situation like this. Well, I hold my hands up, I'm probably not passing that test. Still, at least I recognise that it's a good test and I need to adapt, to re-adjust plans and inspirations, and to just get on and fucking deal with it. Not sure how or what but I guess I just keep trying and something will happen.

One thing I have done is to re-indulge in my wet weather hobby of painting lead figures. I've posted a couple of new ones up.

That's all.

[Vibes - Utterly foul.]
[Music - Lots of dark ambient etc, rather fittingly.]
[Media - Addicted to Guild Wars, again. Not a good idea.]
[Reading - China Meiville - Iron Council (good as usual).]
[Climbing - Fucking indoor walls and pissy local shit.]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 25/04/07

The away season... Now summer is here (where the hell did spring go?!), I will be trying to get away climbing lots to different areas, so won't be updating this site as much. Let's assume no news is good news. In the meantime...

New photos of things and of places! These are taken with my new compact (not SLR) digital camera which has got me into taking photos again. I'm rather pleased with some of them, especially the Scottish ones - see what you think. I've thus booted a selection of the previous photos onto this page.

A few new video clips of Font bouldering. The usual simple stuff but hopefully showing some nice problems. I went to Font over Easter with my girlfriend - a last minute decision that was definitely the right one as I had a great time in the forest. Great weather (if a bit warm), good company, and loads of good climbing.

That's all for now. Oh, except, the new Klute CD is out, and purchasing it is of course obligatory - check. And....Christopher Priest is a rather good author, go read some books by him.

As always any comments or reports of site b0rkage, feel free to email me!

[Vibes - Adjusted to summer thereabouts]
[Music - Klute!]
[Media - Nowt]
[Reading - Christopher Priest - The Prestige]
[Climbing - *points car at the Lake District*]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 24/03/07

Still alive. No particular reason for this update except to signify that the site isn't dead. Nothing much to write about. Life has gone up and down as usual. Climbing has too, but have done some good things. It's about a week to the official (as designated by me) end of the grit season (gritstone being a rock that is highly reliant on friction and cool conditions, thus best on dry winter days). In a vague celebration of that, I've posted a fairly random video of me doing a neat boulder problem. This video I've managed to convert to MP4 so it should play straight away in Quicktime (and Windows Media Player?) without having to download the DivX codec. I've got rid of the older videos too.

Oh, I do have something, some drum'n'bass recommendations. DnB was a bit dry earlier this year but in the last couple of months I've snapped up some pretty sweet CDs that have kept my ears soothed and my spirit energised (mostly available from Juno as usual):

Seba & Paradox - Beats Me (Paradox Music) - deep breakage style with complex crafted breaks, dubby bass, soulful melodies. Excellent.

Various - DAT Music (Soul:r) - various mellow, rolling and funky dnb with a mix of tracks, some with a harder edge. Nice sound.

Big Bud / Various - Fear Of Flying Remix Project (Soundtrax) - excellent remix album of an excellent artist album. Smooth, rolling and bassy.

Various - Juice Blender (Citrus Records) - proper straight up techstep album including a good mix CD. Energetic and consistently good.

Gridlock - Break The System (Project 51) - hi energy mix of techstep with a squelchy dancefloor edge. Full octane stuff.

Rinseoooot selecta!

[Vibes - Okay in general....unspecific.]
[Music - See above]
[Media - Nothing!]
[Reading - Kinda philosophical/spiritual books....need to get back to sci-fi, explore other worlds, I think]
[Climbing - In transition...]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 12/02/07

Early February is an interesting time... In 2004 it was the culmination of me getting properly confident on gritstone climbing, which tailed off soon after. In 2005 it was when my brother moved to Barcelona for a year and a half, and when his awesome spanish dog was born. Both on the same day....which happens to be my girlfriend's birthday. In 2006 it was when I regained some confidence on gritstone after a bad summer breaking my foot, and shortly after it was when my previous girlfriend of 4 years left me. In 2007 relationships are no less challenging, and climbing is no less interesting. Just recently I managed my hardest gritstone climb, which was an intense experience. Gritstone, although not my favourite rock, is significant to me as it is particularly mentally challenging and a particular test of my confidence (or lack thereof!). A good climbing friend was nearby giving encouragment and taking photos, of which the following is perhaps my favourite climbing photo of myself ever: This says it all.

I also have finally got a new camera - Canon Powershot A640 - as a belated birthday/christmas present. Very happy with it - much better quality and many more options. I've been taking quite a few photos but haven't decided what to post here....maybe I should get rid of all the old photos?? Hmmm...

[Vibes - Generally a bit fucked up]
[Music - Some random drum'n'bass mix]
[Media - Pan's Labyrinth (good), Gothic 3 (great)]
[Reading - The Rock Warrior's Way (3rd time through, a truly important climbing book)]
[Climbing - More please!]

Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Testing... 17/01/07

Welcome to a new year...
Somewhat late for a New Year's update - but then I've been busy errr lazy. I decided to wait until the date had a nice number of 1s and 7s too....;). Also quite long overdue for an update full stop, so this one features the obligatory "stuff". But first, as 2006 moves into 2007...

Okay, 2006 was a pretty cool year for me. My previous girlfriend left me, which sucked. But my current girlfriend joined me, which was cool. I tried to be more friendly to people and some of them were more friendly back. I stayed in good health for the whole year! And climbing....I did the best climbing I've ever done, both in terms of my own climbing ability/confidence, and in terms of the quality of the climbs I was able to tackle (the former allowing the latter). I look back on what climbs I've done this year, and so many of them were climbs that have inspired me for so long, and have turned out be awesome. Which is nice.

Onto 2007, well, I hope it continues similarly, subject to the resolutions below. Unfortunately so far it has been utterly atrocious weatherwise - 2 dry days since Boxing Day! Generally regarded as the worst, wettest, and mildest winter in memory. Awful for climbing and awful for the general non-wintery atmosphere. One just has to be patient and hold out for those rare cold crisp days. And try to keep other stuff flowing smoothly in the meantime.

Resolutions...
Always have things to improve....a bit different to last year's resolutions, hopefully I can stick to them more too...

• Drive more safely and calmly - I've been getting carried away over winter and don't want to f--k up badly.
• Try harder with website design work and other avenues - have been neglecting this and I need to fit it in more.
• Follow my instincts as to what I feel like doing - I've learnt that this helps a bit to overcome motivational problems.
• Try to stay open-minded to new experiences, ideas, and opportunities - just a general good state of mind.
• Keep progressing and learning with my climbing, via methods and attitudes that are proven to work - following on from 2006.