Driving isn't something that I usually enjoy. I'm a over thinker so driving already not fun thinking of all these other tonnes of metal moving around you at high speed, and just one wrong turn ... Anyways there's other reasons I don't enjoy driving. Working out directions to the location, looking for parking space, and paying for petrol are probably my biggest gripes.
Thing is I've been finding myself enjoy driving other cars which I've never done since getting my full license. The holiday in Gold Coast I needed to drive as I was one of the few people on full license. The other two drivers really wanted to drive the Swift so I was stuck driving the Almera. I say stuck but once I started I fell in love driving it. It could have also been the company I had while driving that made me love the drive. Even got to the point I was reluctant to give up the drivers seat after driving all day. The Almera ended up being named Tyler, party boy Tyler. Since being back I've driven a Liberty which had quite a kick. Had turbo which you can feel during acceleration. Also drove another car which I forgot what type it was. What I know about is it was front wheel drive and could feel it when going down a dirt road. When breaking I could feel the back wheel slipping behind me.
Maybe I'm just bored of driving the same car, or maybe my cars falling apart so not enjoy driving it as much. Probably be great to get a new car, however I don't have enough saved for a car. I have said cars just need to be able to get from A to B. Anything else is luxury but I guess its alright to get something that includes luxury. Guess I'll keep using my Accord until it dies then upgrade. Time to save.
Cathedral
Ranges. Woke nice and early to make it on time to the meeting point and
what do you know, there was only one other person was there early. By
8:30, the time we had planned on leaving, there were only 6 people out
of the 20 people who was suppose to be there. Even some BWMC people were shocked but I pretty much knew it be that way. Old habits. By the time we left it was past 9:30.
On
the drive up people stopped for breakfast so it wasn't until 12:15 that
we began climbing. And yes it was a climb. When I first heard about the
climb and told how we wouldn't need equipment I was thinking 50-60
degree angle climbs. However once we started climbing it most of the
climb was 70-85 degree angles. This was a real dread for me as I am
scared of heights. Basically there were no man made hand or foot holds.
All you had was the natural groves in the wall. To know where you could
climb once in awhile there were orange arrows pointing the way. At times
I would look at the arrow pointing straight up the rock face and I
would think "how am I suppose to get there?!?"
There
were lots of difficult and scary climbs but I'll just recall some of
the most "memorable". Start with the scariest. The mountain was on my
right side at an angle of 85 degrees straight up with no ledge till more
than 1.5m up. Around 30cm off the wall was a vertical rock formation
30cm wide that rose up higher than the ledge but had jagged rocks on
both edges to use as hand and foot holds. I was able to pull myself up
the rock formation but it wasn't until I got to the top that I looked on
the left side. Let's just say it was a drop there that almost made me
hug the rock formation I was on but stopped because it was covered in
jagged rocks. I stayed really low and managed to get my foot onto ledge,
crawling over onto solid ground. The next part was surprisingly easy. A
man was showing a woman how to climb a vertical groove but the woman
wasn't very confident. We waited for around 10 minutes for the woman to
eventually make it up the climb so that we could move through. The
couple had climbed on the outside, the wider section, but further in the
groove met in a sharp corner. I got further in before I climbed
directly up. I was able to push against both walls and get on top of the
obstacle fairly quickly. Sometimes its good to be small. The most
interesting climb was a crevice that cut through the edge of the
mountain for about 30m. The walls get closer and closer together until
you have to climb sideways to make it through. Another good reason for
being small.
With
the climb to the top finished me and a friend who made it to the top
first had lunch with the previous couple waiting for 15 minutes. The
others who had gone the climbing path were spending a lot of time
helping some of those who couldn't climb up by myself. I hadn't really
considered people needing help because I'm not great at climbing but I
still managed it. However the other group that took the easier way also
turned back because it was too hard. For the next hour consisted of some
people eating lunch, some people going down the easier path to get
those who had turned back to climb to the top, and me trying to catch
lizards. There was a really large one that kept coming out, however it
was too difficult to catch because of all the rocks and spaces where the
lizard could hide. Even without catching it I had fun. The next part
wasn't as fun.
Rocky,
windy, up and down path that seemed to be unending.The worse thing is I
ended up being ahead of the crowd, well ahead of the others. This is
because firstly because I had no idea how far there was left to go or if
anyone was actually following me. Secondly I got to the point and
waited for over 30 minutes before the next of our group made it to that
point. I had no water at the time so that made it even worse, never been
so thirsty in my life. Even at this point there was still an hour trek
to the road then half hour run back to the car. Eventually a group of us
got together at the road but we found out that the rest of the group
was going to be hours late. The lack of water and the difficulty of the
path contributed to this. It also got harder as it got dark and people
started cramping up. We had planned on being back in Melbourne by around
6-8pm so leaving around 4-6pm. We ended up leaving at 10pm. At least
everyone made it back safely, because when it got dark there was genuine
concern for peoples safety.
In
the end it was quite fun and would be up to doing it again. I probably
would of enjoyed it more of the "hike" if I had water. Got to be more
prepared with water next time. Also be good to know the difficulty so
know what to prepare for it but I guess difficulty is subjective.
Plans on blogging as things happen but that hasn't been happening. Mainly because the weekend were basically packed from end to end. I would like to be able to backtrack and blog all of it, but I feel like I might miss out stuff. Sigh. Guess all I can do is try my best to recall it all.
Another thought came up about blogging. Sure I'm posting about my life which I don't mind revealing stuff but if I talk about things involving other people should I be naming them? Reminds me of writing up reports working in childcare. Always have to keep from naming children for their protection and privacy. Maybe I'll do the same thing and use first name initial.
Thought this might be a good place to start. I just got back so started back up the board gaming with the SCGH and BWMC people on Thursday and Friday nights respectively. Originally the idea was to bring the two groups together so that we from different church can get to know each other so that we can work together as ONE church. However it's quite hard when there isn't a regular attendance in any of the groups. I'm not the greatest at organizing stuff so it's probably just me not been able to put may intentions out there for meeting up.
Tailoring board gaming sessions is hard ... well I find it quite hard. Number of players, game time, genre, or theme are just a number of factors that will affect people's willingness play the game. Statistically with our commonality of Christianity, the likelihood we have that many more similarities, having same preferences is lower ... okay I'm rambling but do you get me? Having the same preference in board games is seriously unlikely. I've had to chose to play games that don't exactly fall in my preferences but guess that's what I need to do as game host. This isn't expected of other people. Bringing more and more people means more and more differences in preferences. Maybe I need to have a specific heavy game night and a lighter game night?
Take playing Resistance. Playing on Sunday after like 20-30 minutes two of us were already over the game. People played the game different to how other people expected so were suspected of spy just because they play different. Even under a genre, when people play dramatically different it's almost like a different game because other people need to respond differently.
Think I need to come up with a different way to organize these game nights. I did make an Excel sheet stating peoples preferences in different game properties ... maybe I can come up with something.
Blogging again ... so what to blog about? Apparently things happen in my life and it's been suggested that those things should be posted. I've been sort of lazy about it because writing's not my forte. Came back from Gold Coast a week ago which could have been good blogging but might not want to start so heavy this time blogging. Just say I had fun most of the time ... take it how you will, ask me about it if you want. Gonna split up my posts a bit so I can put them under different titles ... my OCD is showing, well I probably don't have OCD but sometimes I have similar tendencies.
