The Ice Men (and ladies) Cometh

Given the choice of staying in on our own and fiddling with our Xbox 360s, or having a laugh with our mates, we all met up at Greenfield Bakery for the ceremonial Filling of Fat Faces.
The routine goes something like this: buy a cheese and onion pie, a couple of butties, a bun and some gingerbread, and then top it all off with a brew. I also bought a whole Madeira cake (75p). Thus fortified, we went to Standedge. The whole area is rather mysterious and rather strange. One person who'd promised to come with us backed out at the last minute when he found out where we were going. He'd had a bad experience with a feeling of being followed, and the disappearance of his walking stick, and he was in no mood to return.
The rest of us had a laugh, culminating in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th "ascents" of the Pennine Way stomach traverse. Bravely led by Andi Turnip (or was it Mark Sharratt? I can't tell the two apart) the deed was done. After some excellent bouldering, we went to check out West Nab. "No bloody chance, youth!" and so we buggered off to Holmfirth to introduce our friends to Cliff (www.kirklees climbing.co.uk We all had some memorable moments, then we went to the pub, drank beer and finished it all off with chips cooked in beef dripping. Apparently, we are all on youTube, standing on a trig point.

Redemption songs

We're in that really curious stage of publishing called "proof reading and editing". It's a great way of finding out exactly what we've achieved and what we still need to do. There are gaps opening up everywhere, and they must be filled or we'll all be going down with the ship!
It is also fun. I can see sections of the book coming together and that gives me a feeling of progress and redemption. It's taken 10 years to get here, and I needed a sign that things were OK. It's fun to be able to send scripts out to people for checking, and then get them back with additions and compliments. It's going to feel that it's all been worth it. Next up, winter bouldering on Standedge, Bleaklow, the Glossop circuit and Bullstones.