I have a functioning laptop again, hooray! Despite the UPS man’s best attempts to escape with it, I saw him out of my window, and chased him down the street, barefoot.

(Oh, and I didn’t throw my old one out the window, despite earlier threats. It is, however, sitting in the corner in disgrace.)

Banksy is a graffiti artist from the UK. Google can tell you everything I know about him…. but to give you a general idea, the wikipedia article about him: “Banksy is widely considered to be a talented artist; he uses his original street art form to promote alternative aspects of politics from those promoted by the mainstream media.”

He came to my attention after I saw this article – about a fake cave painting he had planted in the British Museum, of a caveman pushing a shopping trolley. He’s pulled similar tricks in a few other museums, and has a lot of interesting artwork and exploits to his name (I like his parachuting cow).

On the injustice of gear pricing and sales in the USA, and why I will find it very hard to return to Australian climbing gear prices.

As a sample, we will refer to the pricing of a Green Colarado Custom Hardware Alien. In the US (from REI, for example), they retail at $US52.50. In Australia, the RRP is $AUD148.50, equivalent to $US111.00.

We will now turn to the case of the red (number 1) C4 Black Diamond Camelot. $US62.50 at REI, RRP in Australia of $US89.

We may also note that I have NEVER seen an Alien 20% off in Australia, whereas I have purchased one for 20% off over here. And Camelots are very rarely available for 20% off in Australia. Here, it’s hard to find them full price (NOTE – possible exaggeration).

Australian gear prices are unfortunately high. I rest my case.

(I will accept orders for people who want me to buy them cheap gear; extra cut on top of gear price can come in the currency of Australian food – tim tams, freddos, caramello koalas, crunchies, natural confectionery etc are all welcome)

Red-spotted Newt, Eft Stage (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens)

Most newts are aquatic, but some species, including the red-spotted newt, have a juvenile terrestrial stage (the “Eft” stage) where they hang out on land for a few years, before they transform into sensible adults and go back to the water. The reason the red-spotted newt comes in pretty colours is to warn predators about the toxic mucus its skin produces (nice – isn’t that always the way). And apparently “the efts are found on the forest floor after rains”, which would explain why we kept nearly walking on them on our way down.

Well, an update of my page is long overdue. I have been out doing things, but there have been technical problems, and then a mild case of depression. When you spend most of your day lying around the house watching people walk past outside, I don’t know, you just begin to lose the will to go on. It’s hard sometimes, being a moose. Particularly when you’re having to battle against constant comments about your gender – yes I am a MALE moose. Pfft. Anyway. Old Rag. Lovely granite. Nice relaxing trip. Spent some time with a nice young fellow named Vegas. Got to the summit, and stayed dry in the thunderstorm afterwards, thankfully.

Weekend at Old Rag… Early morning pancakes, lots of sun, hiking up the mountain like little pack mules, loaded down with climbing gear, sweating like crazy, gloriously evil granite crack climbs, thunderstorms and rain at the end of the day, soaking wet trekking down off the mountain through brilliant green landscape, bright orange geckoes lazing on the road, cooking dinner sitting on the ground next to the ute, dragging aching legs to hike out to a campsite, collapsing in the tent and melting into the ground with exhaustion … fun :)

Now excuse me while I go and throw my laptop out of a window. It will not stop crashing… and crashing… and crashing. In fact it won’t even get through startup without crashing now.

I got my copy of Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (the Philosopher’s Stone – or the Sorcerer’s Stone if you’re American) in the mail yesterday. It’s like being a kid again, learning to read. You’re just guessing what half the words actually mean from context alone. It’s fun :)

The Albacore fleet, and some Lasers (smaller one person boats) sail on the Potomac River a few nights a week. I went and played with them last night. (The Washington Monument and the Ronald Reagan National Airport in the background)