Today I went climbing at Westway with some friends, which was fun. It's something I've been meaning to do for years, but never got round to. I enjoyed it, but it was quite nerve-wracking. There's definitely an issue of confidence involved here, and that was something that improved over the few hours that I was there. On my first attempt, I got up to the top of the wall, then spent about five minutes clinging to it while the others persuaded me to let go, in order to belay back down. It's a bit like the trust exercise, where you fall backwards, and rely on the person standing behind you to catch you. Except that in this case I was 20 feet up in the air, and voluntarily falling back away from the wall, and trusting that the person at the other end of the rope would support my weight (to prevent me from plummeting downwards). It wasn't quite the same - I knew that nobody would deliberately let me fall, for a laugh; I was just concerned that they might not be able to support my weight. Anyway, I now ache in several places (particularly my fingertips), but I'm looking forward to going again. And next time I'll make sure to wear tracksuit trousers rather than jeans...
In the evening I went along to a Magic tournament at ICSF - I've improved slightly over my last attempt, by not coming bottom. Although admittedly this was due to the other person forfeiting rather than playing against me. But still, I'll count that as a victory!
