Vertical horizon

Cath and I went rock climbing for the first time last night at the Welsh International Climbing Centre in Bedlinog. It has the biggest indoor climbing wall in Europe and must be one of the undiscovered gems in South Wales.

It was fantastic fun, once you get over the terror of being at the mercy of a piece of rope. Old hands Jon & B gave us all the right pointers and encouragement, and before long we had each scampered up to the top of one of the climbing walls. OK, it was the easiest grade of all, but it was still over 50 feet up to the top. After a couple of climbs I was completely knackered and my arms were (and still are) aching. Yes, that's me looking likely to plummet at any moment.

Birthday Notes

Happy birthday to our Brother over the pond. 47 today.

Squash Notes

A tightly fought 4-0 win over Dave this week, 9-3, 9-6, 10-8, 10-8. Turning point came on a contentious let at 3-8 down in the third set.

Rugby Notes

Ebbw Vale managed a 26-26 draw at Glamorgan Wanderers on Saturday. It was a game where the Ebbw pack absolutely dominated in the set piece, demolishing the Wanderers scrum, yet squandered a lot of chances in the face of some enthusiastic defence. In the end it was a late Sam Mills penalty which earned us the draw. Good game for the neutral, but I think that both sets of fans left thinking that they could have won.

Highights: The magnificent try started from a counter attack deep in Ebbw territory. McLaughlan, Hunt and Bevan all had a hand in the break. Hywel Jenkins held off the tacklers long enough to give Nelly the easy run in.

Lowlights: Failure to capitalise when Wanderers had a prop in the sin bin. As seems to always be the case, we ship points when we have a man advantage.

Scorers: Tries for Neil Edwards and Sam Mills (great solo effort), and two conversions and four penalties for Mills.

Travel Notes

The development of the new train service is underway, but to nobodies surprise is behind schedule. This report says that passenger trains are now likely to start in October 2007. However, the Assembly is committed to paying the wages of Arriva Trains Wales from July. Oops.

Coffeenerdness

Another blow to civilisation has been struck in the past couple of weeks with the decision of Starbucks in Llantrisant to close an hour earlier, at 8pm. This has been forced upon them by the Borders store in which are located now closing at 9pm instead of 10pm.

TV Notes

This past week has seen the return of The Apprentice. On BBC on Wednesday nights it’s essential viewing. OK, so Sir Alan Sugar isn’t Donald Trump, but it’s a pretty good impersonation.

In a completely different vain, the new cartoon from the makers of Wall is BBC’s children’s show Shaun the Sheep. Brilliant five minute shows. Check BBC daytime listings and set your video/tivo/Sky+.

Baseball Notes

The boys of summer are back. The new baseball season started on Sunday. There’s extensive coverage on five (two live games a week) and NASN (umpteen live and delayed games, subscription needed). Go Sox!