Thursday, July 23, 2009

The older I get the better I was



Last night I caught up with an old climbing buddy and good friend - Ashwin. Funnily enough we went climbing. I first met him circa 1990 in the climbing club at uni. Bach then he was a pretentious young cocksure wog studying law with grand designs as to what he was going to do with his life. He's now a jet setting $10K a day legal consultant with a veritable model wife, can climb some of the hardest climbs in the world and has an increadible sharp mind and wit, matched only by his cojones ferreas.

His climbing got so good I could never keep up and he was on-sighting 28 (French 7c, US 5.12C) where as I was a much more mediocre 23, 24 (6C, 5.11 b-c) on a good day. We spent many a winters day climbing through the Blue Mountains, and around Nowra. We holidayed together - climbing in Thailand and trained twice a week in the climbing gyms.

Last night was no different - he climbed many of the harder climbs in the gym, I managed a dozen of the harder intermediate routes, and had a good perve at my hairdresser - spunky little 19 year old. Caught up with Guy and james, also from the early 90's climbing era, and took ourselves off to a fab Malay restaurant in Lane Cove for dinner.

The reminiscent conversations about what Ash and I got up to in Thailand are probably better left to another post.

10 comments:

KJ said...

oh! you could SO do tom cruise in Mission Impossible!

and i 'aint just talkin' 'bout the rock climbing either. ;)

Ms Smack said...

lol @ ute,

She's right!

LẌ said...

Our Stephen must certainly be taller than Tom!

Spiky Zora Jones said...

I met tom's now wife katie at the studio before she was his wife. She was cool, fun and she was still going to Starbucks where no one noticved who she was. I bet she misses those days.

Um...steve babe...I'm pretty sure you are lots and lots bigger than Tom. I'm not talking height sweets. hehehe.

And I want to hear the rest of the story in Thailand...woohoo.

ciao sweetie.

unique_stephen said...

Ute, Smack > Have you been watching me dancing in my undies?!?!?

XL > He's a midget - At least I have better taste in women, no stick figures for me pls.

SZJ > Save Kate!
Thailand is cumming - I'm trying to get some of my slides scanned.

Ann Selig said...

Oh my gosh! So afraid of heights! Apparently I'm afraid of far too many things. You continue to impress me, especially with that nice save above re: your taste in women. :)

Ms Smack said...

I haven't, but can I?

unique_stephen said...

Ann > My standards are still unobtainabley high tho - gym toned athletes pls.

Smack > Mind that I'm not much of a dancer - Plan to take up Latin dance soonish tho.

. said...

oh god i miss climbing... the days when we'd sprint off to boulder at Groom Creek... slough off to Joshua Tree for a long weekend...

I'm ashamed of how un-calloused my tips are.

and... now at how scrawny i'm becoming...

ya really know how to ruin a girl's day man.

unique_stephen said...

:-)