news just in: stalagasaurus, that well loved beach warm-up climb at ton sai beach, thailand, is now no more… *sniff* the enormous stal pictured in the images above decided it was no longer happy where it was, and fell to the beach (as someone was climbing).
in a small mall thing in the city, there are a group of young security guards (they all seem to be in their 20s). i call them the goons. but when they were buying outfits for them, it was obviously decided that big black trenchcoats would be a good look. nice for intimidation etc. so you have this group of three young goons, all wearing enormous jackets. the thing is, i don’t think they checked the sizes before giving them the jackets, as they all seem at least a size too big – you see the goons walking around, and you can just see their fingers poking out the bottom of the sleeves. this is combined with the fact their trousers are all too big – nice and bunched up around their shoes. i think it’s hard for them to look like they’re in a position of authority when they’re walking around looking like little kids dressed in their dads clothes. and they all have nice big walky talkies, that they like to use for gesturing at things, and generally waving around so they can show how important they are.
so, i now have a new tent…
a macpac olympus – second hand, but good as new, except for an odd smell i’m trying to get rid of at the moment, as the tent hangs to air outside. and i’m staying home to guard it from the rain, because we all know that regardless of what the weather looks like in the morning, in melbourne it’s always quite likely to start raining. or hailing. or having torrential downpours or unexpected sun or galeforce winds. so i’m home guarding the tent against adverse weather conditions (silly really, given that it’s supposed to be a tough 4 season tent that i’m going to be taking to the snow).
meanwhile, i’m going to eat some pie.
hoorah! i’m to go to a piratical house-warming. it’s been far too long since i’ve indulged in pirate-type behaviour, and longer still since i’ve dressed as one. although the last international talk like a pirate day (which is september 19th by the way) was fun. meanwhile, not of particular interest to anyone else, but the ‘o’ key on my keyboard has decided to misbehave. i tried to fix it, now it’s worse. essentially every ‘o’ in this has either not come out the first time, or come out as a double. much use of the backspace key, it’s driving me insane. especially as i’m supposed to be writing up at the moment (satellites and sounding systems chapter of thesis – trying to work on terra and aqua satellites). grrr. much grrrr.
… and just for the record, here is a photo of kachoong. (not my photo, will put up one from our trip as soon as i can get hold of copies)