Elaine came to visit and we went to The Castle in London where we bought her her harness. We climbed a good few routes and then met up with Dunk and Liz, Andy and Meri (over from the US briefly and fitting us into their hectic schedule where they could) in Leicester Square for a good meal after climbing and then some essential catching up in the park.

Just another example of how old the computer systems running our trains and train timetabling are.

The semi-annual Good Friday Picnic attended by, well, pretty much everyone who could come. Good food, good friends, an aerobie and juggling balls.

Not content with exhausing ourselves with a weekend of partying Cormac, Steph, Elaine and I headed out to find some wind to put the kites up in. Even though we didn't really get much the pull of a large Blade III and a Bullet was more than enough to make us ache in the morning. Some guys turned up with a 10.5m Blade III and a 9m Blade II which they let us try. Now I have to forget about the new kitchen and buy one. I have some good movies as well, but I can't upload them yet.

Elaine, cooking. That's about it really. You don't want to see the image I didn't upload. No, you really don't.

It's a nice day, there's not much to do and there's a whiff of wind. _Obviously_ we went kite flying. There are no images of what happened when the sun went down but Cormac brought some glow sticks along, attached them to the powerlines and some of the edges of the kites and long after the sun went down we were still happily powering back and forward across the sky.

For the first time I took Elaine out on the river and we had a go at punting, as well as getting some food down us and enjoying the stunning weather.

Vicky, Nicky and their little newborn son Benjamin decided to have a little barbecue and alcohol-tasting thingy one Sunday evening. While I didn't indulge in the wine tasting, or beer tasting I did go with the whisky one and very much appreciated the types on offer. Getting a taxi there and back with six other people may not have been the most cost-effective way to do it, but it was a very pleasant way to do it.

A bit of Venetian exuberance on a hot summer's evening. Eighteen of us bought tickets to Jesus College's May Ball and after assembling at Keith's house we took taxis to Jesus, queued, entered, ate hog, doughnuts, popcorn, fajitas and pizza while drinking champagne, Shark, cocktails and water. While the comedians died on their arses, the hypontism act was fun (what we heard of it) and the music was good. Coming home at 0-dark-30 in a taxi and falling in to bed turned out to be the best remedy for a Monday spent at work; Tuesday off!

Not to be outdone by Elaine a while ago I signed up to be a volunteer for any MRI experiements that might be taking place at the brain imaging centre here. My name came up and I went along to spend an hour and a bit lying in a tube listening to Dido while loud bangs and clangs happened around me. When my image come through I'll put them up too.

Miriam came round on her bike. We took pictures. I helped wheel it back into the driveway, rather than letting some idiot in the street knock it over with their car.

Elaine ordered a new sofa. I thought it'd be too large. It arrived, I think it's too large. But it's so very, very comfortable. So we're keeping it.

Finally there was enough snow over night for it to settle. After the fun of cycling to work (I do enjoy cycling in fresh snow) I spent ten minutes or so making a snowman at work. I was asked to come back in just after I'd finished but other people from work went out throughout the morning and added other little bits to it. There was enough snow to allow it to remain after all of the rest of the snow had gone days later.

It was Cormac's birthday, so he had the bright (mad) idea of going night kiting with power kites. Of course it was raining, but that didn't matter. We had a mini picnic, people came out. Then it got too dark to do anything sensible so we went to someone's house and drank.

It was warm, we wanted to see friends. We had beanbags.

Headed up to Rylstone (just north and west of Skipton) climbing with some other people for the weekend. Drove up on Friday evening and arrived in the dark to find we thought we had two bits of different tents, met some gypsies who lent us a tent until the morning when we found we had all the right bits after all. Climbing on Saturday was pretty good, I think I climbed my first E1, seconded some HVS and VS routes and generally tore most of the skin from my limbs. Sunday was less busy but we headed over to the Cow and Calf area near Ilkley where I top-roped a fairly hard VS before we headed home.

More climbing with the club. This time to The Roaches in the Peak District. Those of us who've been with the club for a little while went up on Friday night and stayed in the Don Whillans Memorial Hut, did some excellent climbing on Saturday and then stayed in the hut again that night. On Sunday we split into teams and showed around forty new people the basics of bouldering, roped climbing and abseiling. This was a rather excellent weekend. Although I did no leading I climbed some good routes seconding (almost as hard... sometimes). Notable climbs were Delstree, K2, and almost all (not the bottom move) of Bulwark (an E1).

It snowed again. After a lazy morning we both decided to go for a walk through town, down by the river and to see if the Botanical Gardens were open. They weren't, so instead we went to a placed called Browns and had some delicious food before walking home again. There was snow and ice and ducks and stuff.

Went to a local lecture on how Chemistry Is Fun. They're right, it is. Lighting wasn't too great though, for obvious reasons.

The first week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Seven of us travelled down from the UK to Spain by a variety of trains initially meeting up at Waterloo and all of us ending up safely in Moraira on the Costa Blanca. This week consisted of eating out, staying in, climbing, sea kayaking, snorkeling, reading in the sun, poi practice and, of course, drinking.

The second week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Two more people arrived by plane (boo!) but were happily added to the throng. More climbing, more going out of an evening, some excellent walking, quality foodage, my birthday (including far too many cocktails and a feisty barmaid), time out in Barcelona and Paris and eventually, sadly, a journey home to the UK again.

James got himself recertified (to fly) so a few of us jumped in a plane and he flew us to Skegness (well, why not?) and back.

Wandered by the Strawberry Fair on the Friday and saw an excellent VW Kombi which I took a few shots of, then met people the next day to wander around the fair proper and do some poi and staff demonstrations with other people from the Circus. The evening was a barbecue at Keith's.

James' birthday barbecue and evening party on the Green. Lots of people, fun, poi, staff, juggling and general frivolity.

An afternoon of relaxation and (you guessed it) more poi and juggling fun with close friends and small boys with water. Also Shaun and Linda's son, Tom.

Cormac managed to keep a secret. This by way of being a calendar event we decided to celebrate by taking Steph punting and then to a Teri-yaki-catered meal at my house with balloons and helium and cake (by Elaine) and plenty of champagne. Oh, it was also pretty much her birthday too.

The Latitude Festival near Southwold. I went along as part of a juggling crew and helped run two workshops a day for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Between those times we got to sample some of the exceedingly varied acts on offer. From Marcus Brigstocke in the Comedy Arena to The Zutons and Snow Patrol. Literary criticism, burlesque cabaret, theatre and live poetry reading. Along with the phenomenal weather and some very late nights (read: early mornings) a damed good time was had by all. Sorry the shots aren't so good; I only had the compact on account of not wanting to tote my big kit around.

Just a few shots I took at V and James' Hallowe'en party. Nothing stunning photographically but there <em>were</em> some wonderful constumes. Which I didn't manage to capture.

So Ben (another Ben) and I decided to build a snowman. Turns out we went a bit overboard. This guy is about 6'7" tall.

And he has a penguin carved into his chest. Fear the penguin!

Cormac and Cat had birthdays. This weekend kind of fell between them, sort of. So they had a Murder Mystery Party and we all came. It was great and I got to con people out of money. I also took lots of pictures, some of which are OK, others are just a bit too blurry owing to lack of flash. Still, a damned good time was had by all I do believe.

I went to do another fMRI experiment, specifically for left-handed people (no more "Oh you're right handed? Sorry, we can't use you." for me!). Here's what I came away with

Jenny and I went to Greece. It was brilliant. We had lots of fun and did lots of walking and swimming and eating of food. Probably too much food, if I'm honest. Still, we didn't get burnt, which is nice.

I headed on over to the Big Apple to see Kris. Cue a week and a bit of Central Park wandering, meals out, exploration of the city, walking a duck down 5th Ave, seeing Avenue Q performed on Broadway and a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

A whole load of us (and Kris, who was over at the time) headed off to Porlock in Somerset to stay at (take over) a hotel on the coast. Walking, running, supporting the local economy buy buying lots of produce from the village shop, murder mystery parties on trains, hiring a whole cinema, kiting, horse riding, falconry, cycling, drinking, cooking, croquette, football (of a sort), pass the parcel, games console playing and all kinds of other things I don't recall were the order of the week.

I believe we also celebrated two birthdays at some point, too.

Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire. Rather a strange collection of buildings-as-art. Lovely weather though, and fabulous company.

Kris was spending some time in China, researching her Ph.D, teaching to get free accommodation and generally using her time usefully. Given she speaks/reads/writes Mandarin and knows an awful lot about China we figured it'd be the very best time for me to come and visit her and China. Especially as we both needed a holiday.

Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Yangshuo and back to Beijing again. Some fabulous hotels, amazing archeological and historical sites, lots of people (LOTS of people) and some truly astounding scenery. Not to mention some lovely company.

Cormac and Steph turned 30. This seemed like a good idea for a party. 16 of us (and one small child) descended on a large white house in Salcombe, Devon for a week. There was cooking, drinking, running, kayaking, golf (apparently) and lots of wandering around and looking at things in wonderful weather.

Kris and I took off on the train and bikes to Scotland, just a few dozen miles south of Edinburgh, for the week. We stayed in a fantastic place called Barns Tower just outside of the town of Peebles. Cue a large amount of excellent cycling, wonderful walking and even some time to just relax and read without interruptions from phones and computers. Bliss! It only rained a few times too, and we never got soaked. Much kudos to Kris for carrying two heavy panniers on a much heavier bike than mine!