Bassenthwaite weekend

Packed everything up the night before in my new POD black ice rucksack and met everyone down at the underpass at 5.30 after an interesting maths lesson with Struggles Matt and Rachel in which the only thing I learnt was that Pizzeta was 15m to the right of the room. Along with my POD I had bought a few dry bags, chalk bag and chalk from ultimate outdoors 20% off night. I must have que'd up 4 times, and we all had to go to the pub after to recover.

Set off in the mini bus and I fell asleep straight away, arrived at 7.15ish, me and fran claimed a corner of the room, unpacked, chatted etc .... Anna and others on the exec did most of the cooking and cottage pie was on the menu for the first night. Was upset by the lack of gravy but otherwise it was amazing. Woke up early at 7.30 to the sound of Anna shouting BREAKFAST! NOW! Soon we were all packed up and everyone on the ropes course headed for Sheppard Crags. Andy Brown took the course, (who I already know from snow and ice) and despite the horrendous weather, we all had a good day. I think I ended up helping out more that being helped on that day. I fixed some gear at the top of a pitch, taught people how to abseil with a prussic and how to belay with an Italian hitch etc ... we were all glad to get to the cafe at the end I think! Had a chat to Andy back at the hall and I’m thinking about doing my ML and one day SPA. Ill have to get in some serious lead climbing and practice my navigation skills though!

That night, me fran, Lindsey, mark, struggles and a few others helped out in the kitchen, the night then proceeded to table wrestling, wall climbing and cardboard box snogging well demonstraited by Matt. Amy now had some impressive bruises. Got up very confused on the Sunday as the clocks had, or were supposed to go back! Anna forgot to change her clock and got up to make breakfast at 6! Due to the rain over the last few days, we couldn’t get down some roads as they were policed off. Ended up in Keswick car park, then ... the mini bus door fell off! (Sort of). As a result I ended up spending allot of money in ultimate outdoors on quick draws and almost buying a hat in needle sports. We all got to Keswick climbing wall at about 1ish and had a good boulder around for a few hours. The other group got there allot later as they had had an epic journey in Borrowdale trying to rescue 2 ropes ... getting two others stuck in the process, but all was rescued in the end. All in all it was a good weekend ... although with less climbing than expected.

‘QUICK-DRAW BAR CRAWL’ AND OTHER DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES’

Had our first fiend tips to Kingsdale vally to see some terminal morains, glacial erratics and EUGENE THE UNCONFORMITY (an old friend of mine and Becky's) was a good day in all apart from not being able to open the mini bus when it started raining when we got back.

Met up with the rest of LUMC in Cartmel bar, put my harness on ... for we were going on a bar crawl with a difference. Attached myself to Craig with a quick-draw and ordered drinks. The aim of the game was for each pair to go round so many of the bars on campus, having a drink at each bar, and collecting a sticker to decorate a stick – climber. First pair back to Pendle bar were the proud owners of new chalk bags! We set off at a run from Cartmel for Lonsdale ... both amazed at how well I could run in heals. Quick drink at Lonsdale bar and off to grad bar, a few shots later we sprinted to Pendle bar where we got caught by some of the exec ... and missed coming 1st by about 10 seconds, loosing to Matt and his partner.
For the next few hours, we visited all the other bars on campus (attached to each other) ... a few trees got in the way, some railings too! A few manged to attempt climbing up the overhang at the back of Spar before heading to county bar for a drinking race. Fresher’s against the exec ... we lost. At some point me and fran went back to hers for cheese on toast ... bringing some back for Andy of course! Ended up in the sugar house at about 12ish and stupidly practiced karate with Amy before dancing the night away then heading to elements for the last half hour or so. Back on the bus with Struggles, Claire and Matt X2. Went to Pizzeta with Matt then crashed into bed at 3ish ... up for 9am lecture the next morning.

LECTURES, KARATE, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND TWISLETON!

I must admit, its taking rather allot longer than I expected to get into the way of doing work again. I’m enjoying my course so far, particularly the ‘global climate change’ module. Met some interesting people this week on my course, and in the mountaineering club. Went home on Saturday to see Rach, Emma, Eddy and Jon and the famous Southport musical fireworks! Apart from the moment when the bridge was almost set alight ... and the smoke, they were SPECTACULAR! Despite being stuck between 2 ‘romantic couples’ that were Emma and Jon, and Rach and Eddy, it was a nice evening of friends reunighting. Walked back through Southport after, and I realised how much I had missed it. Up early on Sunday, I and dad drove up to Langdale to meet up with Neil (dad’s oldest friend and my Godfather) and Ian for a ramble. We had a spontaneous day without much map reading (which proved a silly idea when Neil started going off in the wrong direction on the way back and I had to rescue him), and we all laughed at stories old and new. May have seen a few mad scouts from ‘Splash and Dash’ on Coniston Old Man at some point (I still feel bad for not going to help Jenny out). Had a long lunch break looking over to Dow Crag and Eliminate A. Got back late me and dad tidy my room, got some food and went to bed.
Went to the mountaineering clubs ‘safety talk’ on Thursday with Struggles (a friend of me and Rachel’s from our course) then got chatting to a fair few people in Furness bar after. Went to twistleton scars today with the club, me and Lindsey nailed a few good routes with a stupid amount of laybacking and smearing involved, and got to know people. I LEAD A SEVERE! I have decided I need to buy some guide books now.
Anyhow ... we’ll see how this week goes =]

FOAM AND GLOWSTICKS!!!!!!

Lonsdale’s ‘Big Night Out’ and passed out people

Went on my college ‘Big Night Out’ last night (I think) got to the 1st bar where this guy was passed out (despite it only being 8:00) after checking his pulse I proceeded to show everyone just how crazy I can be ... I attached allot of Menu’s to him and pics were taken. Wont go into details, but throughout the night, Kate bought me my 1st drink (VK Cherry) which was my only drink of the night. I didn’t get into ‘walkabout’ as I only had my purple card on me and was told that would get me in, so when I met up with the others they gave me some of their wrist bands and I sat down in the middle of the floor to put them round my ankles. I ate a lime =] and chatted to allot of cool new people in ‘Mint’ and also stood on top of the fountain yelling ‘Lonny Lonny Lonny!!!’. We all ended up at the ‘Sugar House’, which was packed ... and we danced the night way. Got back not too late and Sam proceeded to clean the kitchen.
Had another meeting with my department, had a quiz, and the lectures started giving out free beer ... such a strange department is the Environmental one. Went to check out one of the lecture theatres with Rachel, and then headed back to cook tea and get ready for the FOAM? 80’s RAVE PARTY!!!!! More pics will go on the wall of shame tonight I think in the kitchen!! All my body paint has washed off and I’m’ soaked!
Back now! So covered in foam it’s unbelievable! Once they turned on the foam machine the whole bar was about 1m deep in the stuff ... I swallowed some and nearly choked on it! I collected about 50 glow sticks and decorated my shorts with them ... and spent about 10mins chasing round 2 guys who thought they could steal them!