Today was a trial. So much admin. Horrible.
Tea-o-meter reading of 4, 87.5% so not massively stressful but getting ever so slightly desperate!
Anyway, I just got home from a session at the wall. I was feeling really weak, achey and sluggish but nevertheless actually had a remarkably good session.
I had a few more goes at the red project and whilst I still didn't finish the thing, I did manage to latch the crux crimp. I also managed the moves on from the crux but then fell off due to surprise/getting the sequence muddled/generally pumping out. This baby will go!
The blue project was also attempted tonight (this is what happens when you get involved in a really enthusiastic group) and happily - finished. Well, sort of. I didn't do the last move to the bar which appears to be a ridiculously uncontrolled slappy dyno for the big guys - it was far too daunting and scary for me. I have no real desire to break my legs/back by fluffing that move. Anyway, I'm happy to take the tick without it (the others all approved too) :)
Now - I'm sitting here munching my way through a warm fresh baked bread roll with blackberry jam on it - yummmm :D
Showing posts with label the tea-o-meter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the tea-o-meter. Show all posts
Friday, 3 October 2008
Thursday, 2 October 2008
pain and frustration
Yesterday's tea-o-meter reading: 3, 100% + 1 EHC
And what is an EHC? Emergency Hot Chocolate. Yes, things got that bad yesterday afternoon.
Anyway, last night I went climbing again and dispatched some more of the new boulder problems. I also managed to seriously struggle on a couple I had already done on Monday - serves me right for being such a show-off hehe.
Not a bad session, although I was feeling pretty sluggish after eating a humongous plate of Phil's amazing home made Chilli con Carne (this is my absolute favourite meal of all time - we really have cracked the perfect Chilli recipe!)
Anyway, Scott and I had a fair few goes at the red problem on the bulge - the current project. The grades have now been put up and it is apparently a V4, the same as the white I did a little while ago (and also the same grade as a problem I did second go and now consider a fun warm-up - hmm). Anyway, it's hard. I think I've got my sequence sorted for the first few moves, I'm just struggling to latch the hard crimp. Scott was managing this better than me and will [almost] certainly finish it next session.
There were also a couple of rather good looking chaps at the wall last night that I have never seen before - all good. Hopefully I will see them again :)
Now, my fingers hurt. I must have had 20+ tries on the red, plus repeats of other V3s and V4s and attempts at the other V4 project problem (ridiculous blue foot follow thing. This will probably go before the red if I really try it - there's only one slightly awkward move I need to find the balance for).
So in conclusion, I have definitely got stronger and it's looking like it may be a good time to get back to the more serious training again seeing as progress is being made :)
Climbing is painful...
And what is an EHC? Emergency Hot Chocolate. Yes, things got that bad yesterday afternoon.
Anyway, last night I went climbing again and dispatched some more of the new boulder problems. I also managed to seriously struggle on a couple I had already done on Monday - serves me right for being such a show-off hehe.
Not a bad session, although I was feeling pretty sluggish after eating a humongous plate of Phil's amazing home made Chilli con Carne (this is my absolute favourite meal of all time - we really have cracked the perfect Chilli recipe!)
Anyway, Scott and I had a fair few goes at the red problem on the bulge - the current project. The grades have now been put up and it is apparently a V4, the same as the white I did a little while ago (and also the same grade as a problem I did second go and now consider a fun warm-up - hmm). Anyway, it's hard. I think I've got my sequence sorted for the first few moves, I'm just struggling to latch the hard crimp. Scott was managing this better than me and will [almost] certainly finish it next session.
There were also a couple of rather good looking chaps at the wall last night that I have never seen before - all good. Hopefully I will see them again :)
Now, my fingers hurt. I must have had 20+ tries on the red, plus repeats of other V3s and V4s and attempts at the other V4 project problem (ridiculous blue foot follow thing. This will probably go before the red if I really try it - there's only one slightly awkward move I need to find the balance for).
So in conclusion, I have definitely got stronger and it's looking like it may be a good time to get back to the more serious training again seeing as progress is being made :)
Climbing is painful...
Thursday, 25 September 2008
oh god, my head!!
Today was awful. What more can I say? It started badly - I had a headache. I got into work knowing I had to conduct a 'departmental technical review' to try to sort out all the balls-ups. Even more of a headache.
I didn't actually drink all that much tea, well, not until the afternoon when the dung hit the twirly thing rather forcefully - major fault in a major situation. This thing had been brewing all week so it wasn't entirely surprising when I got the call at around lunchtime informing me of how dire the situation had got. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I am flying to Glasgow first thing tomorrow to try to perform an engineering miracle - I have to fix a system for which we have no spare parts! Lovely! So, I've got a 6am start, to have a day of pain and perplexity and will probably get home at some time between 11:30pm and midnight. On a Friday. Grrrreat.
Tea-o-meter reading: 6, 100% (spread uneven - only 2 cups were drunk before 2pm!) . Major, major stress today! I got home in an absolutely foul mood, especially as someone stole my parking space just as I was about to put the car in it!
On a slightly more positive, but even more headache inducing note, I went over the the aero club to participate in a Radio Telephony groundschool training evening. This was my first one and seeing as I have no clue about any of it as yet (including the basics of even understanding the charts), it was rather hard work. Really entertaining though, and apparently it will get easier!
I am hoping to go sport climbing somewhere on saturday - it will all depend on just how tired I am after tomorrow's efforts and, of course, on what the weather is doing. Ho hum.
I didn't actually drink all that much tea, well, not until the afternoon when the dung hit the twirly thing rather forcefully - major fault in a major situation. This thing had been brewing all week so it wasn't entirely surprising when I got the call at around lunchtime informing me of how dire the situation had got. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I am flying to Glasgow first thing tomorrow to try to perform an engineering miracle - I have to fix a system for which we have no spare parts! Lovely! So, I've got a 6am start, to have a day of pain and perplexity and will probably get home at some time between 11:30pm and midnight. On a Friday. Grrrreat.
Tea-o-meter reading: 6, 100% (spread uneven - only 2 cups were drunk before 2pm!) . Major, major stress today! I got home in an absolutely foul mood, especially as someone stole my parking space just as I was about to put the car in it!
On a slightly more positive, but even more headache inducing note, I went over the the aero club to participate in a Radio Telephony groundschool training evening. This was my first one and seeing as I have no clue about any of it as yet (including the basics of even understanding the charts), it was rather hard work. Really entertaining though, and apparently it will get easier!
I am hoping to go sport climbing somewhere on saturday - it will all depend on just how tired I am after tomorrow's efforts and, of course, on what the weather is doing. Ho hum.
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
lots of tea, rain and windy circuits
Today's tea-o-meter reading was 5, 100% for just the morning. I had this afternoon off so the tea-o-meter covers a half day and to hazard a guess - I probably would have had another 3 or 4 cups had I stayed at work. So all in all not a good day at work. Ok it wasn't actually catastrophically bad but did include a certain level of stress.
This afternoon I went for a walk and got wet. I said to Jim just before we left - "do you think I should wear my waterproof jacket?", "no", says he, "it won't rain again - trust me, I'm a glider pilot!".
I swear, the next time he uses the 'glider pilot' line when talking about the weather I am just going to stay indoors - every time he comments on the weather it does the exact opposite!
Anyway, despite the wet, wind and really low cloudbase, my flying lesson did actually go ahead today. More circuits, but this time with wind to make them more interesting!
I didn't do well. I might even go so far as to say that it was my first 'bad' lesson - I did everything wrong. All my procedures went out the window. I forgot my radio calls. I fluffed the circuit in a variety of ways including: turning too late, turning too early, getting blown off track and not correcting, not trimming properly, using too much power, using too little power...you name it, I fluffed it!
Eventually it did all start to fall into place again and my last couple weren't too bad. I am happy to say that all my landings were good though, and general control is becoming alot more instinctive - so it wasn't all bad.
Before my next lesson, I must read through my notes and refresh myself on exactly what I should be doing - hopefully this will help.
On a side note, my copy of the PPL confuser arrived today so I will have no excuse to not get on and do my Air Law exam next week. My medical is also booked!
This afternoon I went for a walk and got wet. I said to Jim just before we left - "do you think I should wear my waterproof jacket?", "no", says he, "it won't rain again - trust me, I'm a glider pilot!".
I swear, the next time he uses the 'glider pilot' line when talking about the weather I am just going to stay indoors - every time he comments on the weather it does the exact opposite!
Anyway, despite the wet, wind and really low cloudbase, my flying lesson did actually go ahead today. More circuits, but this time with wind to make them more interesting!
I didn't do well. I might even go so far as to say that it was my first 'bad' lesson - I did everything wrong. All my procedures went out the window. I forgot my radio calls. I fluffed the circuit in a variety of ways including: turning too late, turning too early, getting blown off track and not correcting, not trimming properly, using too much power, using too little power...you name it, I fluffed it!
Eventually it did all start to fall into place again and my last couple weren't too bad. I am happy to say that all my landings were good though, and general control is becoming alot more instinctive - so it wasn't all bad.
Before my next lesson, I must read through my notes and refresh myself on exactly what I should be doing - hopefully this will help.
On a side note, my copy of the PPL confuser arrived today so I will have no excuse to not get on and do my Air Law exam next week. My medical is also booked!
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
not much happening
Yesterday's (Monday) tea-o-meter rating was 5, 100%
I made and drank 5 cups of tea during my working day. It hadn't been hugely stressful but certainly wasn't stress free - the rating matches the scale.
I should have gone climbing but didn't. I did manage to get the rock rings up and have a bit of a play. I was feeling pretty weak though so didn't do too much, although I did manage to do 13 full pull ups in one set - an improvement on my previous record of 12.
I made and drank 5 cups of tea during my working day. It hadn't been hugely stressful but certainly wasn't stress free - the rating matches the scale.
I should have gone climbing but didn't. I did manage to get the rock rings up and have a bit of a play. I was feeling pretty weak though so didn't do too much, although I did manage to do 13 full pull ups in one set - an improvement on my previous record of 12.
Monday, 22 September 2008
the tea-o-meter©
Today I am introducing the tea-o-meter as a system of measuring the state of my working day. The system is as follows:
Each day the tea-o-meter will generate a figure displaying the type of day (see "Day Scale" below) and the desperation factor (displayed as a percentage - the lower the percentage, the greater the desperation).
E.g. 4, 75%
The Day Scale
The day scale is a measure of the status of the day as determined by the number of cups of tea I have made.
0 - 3 cups = Fairly normal, everything pretty much ok. Nothing of note.
4 - 6 cups = Slightly stressful and/or mildly boring
7 - 8 cups = Not good. A bad day in fact, possibly including meetings. Too much crap.
8+ cups = Really should have stayed at home. Day has taken 1 year off my life span.
The Desperation Factor
The desperation factor is an additional indicator of the day's highs and lows (well only the lows really I guess).
The desperation factor is calculated thus:
(Number of teas drunk/Number of teas made) x 100
I felt the need to introduce this factor to the tea-o-meter as there are a number of reasons why tea might be made but not actually drunk:
I shall endeavor to generate a tea-o-meter reading whenever I have a day based in the office and will update and improve the system whenever new methods and ideas come to light.
Each day the tea-o-meter will generate a figure displaying the type of day (see "Day Scale" below) and the desperation factor (displayed as a percentage - the lower the percentage, the greater the desperation).
E.g. 4, 75%
The Day Scale
The day scale is a measure of the status of the day as determined by the number of cups of tea I have made.
0 - 3 cups = Fairly normal, everything pretty much ok. Nothing of note.
4 - 6 cups = Slightly stressful and/or mildly boring
7 - 8 cups = Not good. A bad day in fact, possibly including meetings. Too much crap.
8+ cups = Really should have stayed at home. Day has taken 1 year off my life span.
The Desperation Factor
The desperation factor is an additional indicator of the day's highs and lows (well only the lows really I guess).
The desperation factor is calculated thus:
(Number of teas drunk/Number of teas made) x 100
I felt the need to introduce this factor to the tea-o-meter as there are a number of reasons why tea might be made but not actually drunk:
- Tea has been made purely for the sake of making it, i.e. as a means of getting away from the pc.
- Tea has gone cold and therefore not been drunk due to high volume of work and forgetfulness
- Tea has gone cold as it has been left due to a work based emergency
I shall endeavor to generate a tea-o-meter reading whenever I have a day based in the office and will update and improve the system whenever new methods and ideas come to light.
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