The quality of the shopping in Singapore

Says it all really, doesn't it? Couldn't have put the whole shopping experience any better myself. They didn't look busy, either.

Chinese New Year

Tonsai Beach, Krabi, Thailand




Rob





Gwen Stafani






And James






Plus, some gals from work turned up a few days later.




James had never climbed before; this is Rob giving him a helping hand. The boy did good, though. By the end of the week he was managing to get up classics such as this:






"Groovetube"






Marni's cousins also turned up for a day or two as they were travelling around south-east Asia. I'd never met them before and they were both very nice. This is Crystal...







...and this is her older sister, Jen.

One of the rare treats as a climber is that, from time to time, you get to look up at girls' bums for reasons that are totally legitimate. You don't need any excuses and it's not rude to stare. In fact, the more you look, the more people around you will be thinking, "Now there's an attentive belayer..." Unless they're blokes. They'll just be thinking, "He's not paying attention - he's just staring at her arse."





And once you get caught doing that, then you can't belay any more and you have to climb instead.




















It was an alright sort of spot.







When we got back to Singapore, Jen visited us a few days later and we went to this place at a local island called Sentosa. I was bound to win, what with being a lad, although Jen was in the lead for a short amount of time while I worked out how to get full speed on. Once I did though, I shot past Jen (Marni was way behind), and then sneaked inside a lad of about nine or ten, before taking a well-earned victory, mainly due to an effective combination of raw driving skill and committed facial expression. You can see Jen in second place and the young lad in fourth. I squeezed through a gap between him and the barrier about half the size of where he is in the picture. You can see his dad in third place who obviously decided to give me a wide berth once I'd raced through on junior's inside.