Happy Vaisakhi to my friends, by Stevie Haston.

It is Vaisakhi  or spring festival in the Punjab. To all my friends to whom this festival has value have a good one. To my many Kundalini chums who are celebrating today have a good one. It's a Sikh festival, may the Guru smile on you.

 a tide of blue tiny jelly fish -we don't have tide in the Med!

One day I will be at peace. Its sad that I only am when Iave been climbing or exhausting myself but it is my religion. I have taken a few things from the Sikhs, but not enough.

was on this again today

Today I prayed to the sea, today I prayed to the stone, today I prayed to the sky. It was really hot 29 today, far to hot. If politicians don't get their shit together soon, it's gonna go bad. There will be precious little food grown on the island this year, its dry as -I could be rude now, but I wont- so I,ll just say as dry as Margarette thatchers…. and leave a blank.

 A plague of flowers

Went climbing had a dip in the sea, it's still cold. Did my hour of stretching, just like I should, have done my 20% of free work as I normally do- well its a bit more as I aint got any work for myself!

Theres a ground cactus in bloom just now, I,ll get you a photo tomorrow. Nice bit of spicy food, and dreaming of being in India.
    But obviously not as a sewage worker, or some one dying of hunger, or one of the huge amounts of indentured workers. It's shit having to qualify every thing you say- so I will stop now. Happy days to the good people, and may the bad see the light, and become good, and help the rest of us. 

 

Dodgy Dave versus Dennis Skinner. By Stevie the Menace Haston.

 Nice cliffs, looking towards Sector Bruno.

Guess the grade that Osborne leads. Go on, don't be fed up with politics, have a bit of fun. How about Corbyn? I reckon Osborne is a shaker, a vacillator, no self confidence-obviously because he has nothing to be confident about.

 "Ropes man", "unto thee I trust my life" these ones are a bit abused by the continuing gales.


Do you not think that Denis Skinner would make a better job on the crack I can't climb, than me?

 Contemplating very little, and little is contemplating me back.

I always understood the complete bias of the press, after all I have been involved in climbing and climbing media for decades. The climbing media is bent, and always has been. In this, it mirrors its dad, Big media. At one time the climbing Media of the world was influenced and dictated to by a guy called Ken Wilson. An acquaintance of mine who sat and pontificated from the flatlands of North London, while being able to lead grade 5 on a good day- with a severe updraft. The updraft normally came from his own mouth, which was powerful and eloquent but sadly, nearly always wrong. He was a nice man who had Socialist ideas and principles, but loved elites, and sent his kids to Private Schools! The media of climbing today is still the same, with a couple of noble exceptions. I have been kicked out of meetings for uttering the truth, meetings run by people who don't even climb sometimes. The houses of Parliament are a bit like that now, Denis Skinner being thrown out of the House for saying Cameron was baptised Dodgy, is far more accurate than Cameron accusing and branding Corbyn a Terroist sympathiser. Cameron wasn't kicked out!

 Carob pods.

Orange rock, blue sky, fluffy clouds. No climber in this photo.


So I reckon Dennis Skinner is a Lion among sheep, an 8a climber, not on bolts, but on dodgy gear. On my last climbing trip I went to the Elbensandstone and had something of extreme importance to the history of climbing confirmed. Elben sandstone climbers were ahead for years! It was only because of the backlash against the Nazi and the Big War that  their stature was diminished. It wasn't orchestrated, it was an organic nibbling away because of the need to create other national superior climbs, and climbers for each little country. The history of climbing is indeed Dodgy, like most other things. 

Stolen rope, slightly depressed. by Stevie Haston.

 lovely local plant.

I had a full rope stolen and a few bits of gear! It is a bit depressing sometimes. Anyway thanks Jacob Grech for contributing to the climbing here, thanks very much. Without help I can't really do that much for the climbing here. To show all the people my appreciation, here are two photos of a route called Master Ken a brilliant 7b. There would have been a good 6b+ done that day, but as I said, the rope and belays were stolen.

 Master Ken possibly the best 7b on the islands.

Master Ken is about 35 meters long, first 8 meters is dirty, and loose which will clean up, the rest is immaculate. It's so good when a route turns out so well, a few little tuffas, big stretches between great holds, and only a few tricky bits. Overhanging and strenuous, it gives a big pump to a dispirited heart, when you notice the missing gear on the next line.

Alex doing well on Master Ken although its a bit above the level of her arms.

Anyway a few laps on some good routes. There should be 7 routes on this wall when I am finished, and get more gear. Thanks again to every body who helps me. 

Gozo peace and mellowness? by Stevie "the finger" Haston.

 Mgarr.

Aint got muffin to say. It's all cool and zure as we say here. Azure isn't Blue, blue is sad, that's what northern tribes have.

 A crack, or my stone coffin, perfect chest jam, don't breathe out!

Tomorrow I gonna rock. I can feel the song of the stone, it's there in the colure de vent, it is in the air, the sand was falling, there's been a red mist, or fog from Africa for a week. A red point day?
Or a bloody day of failure, who cares, either way I win.

A tree on a cliff, plus an elf.

Trees have seen a lot, we cut them down here, to make way to park more cars, or to plant others that the EU buy us for the ones we cut down. This tree winks at everybody with their cameras and selfie sticks, nobody sees it, they just don't see her, or him, or its collective usness. The pleasure tour people tout for customers a few yards away, and this magnificent tree hangs out with five of it's clan, I think it is a MacTavish tree from Libya, one of the early migrants. Good luck and good wishes to good folk, otherwise the fat finger of Fatima and Stevie Macsporran Haston to you.

Bilingual Illiterate, by Stevie sublinguil Haston.

I was sick, am still sick, and am now training thanks to the Pet shop Boys. The crack I tried to climb made me a bit ill. I tried this brute, and the moves for 3 hours. Probably too long considering I am overweight. Things felt good, I got carried away, and didn't realise the effort I put in. 

they laugh at you, millions of pounds to celebrate that she devils life! 

 "Cracks hurt, they hurt in proportion to how much you want them ", unpublished Pet Shop boy lyric.

 A bit of rain on the ruffled sea.

 Pull ups, or rows in this case for the poor belayer, 3 hours on top of a chockstone trying to pull me into the right positions.

When your sick you shouldn't train. Very scared I am going to mess my pants.

When your sick you have a right to complain. I am sick of failing on my route, I am sick of it hurting me, I am sick of it busting my balls, I am sick of not getting to the end of that pitch and spitting into the ocean with a final "done it" feel. The moves make me feel like a Bilingual illiterate.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xowlb_pet-shop-boys-always-on-my-mind_music 

Lovely lines from a very reasonable film with sound track by Pet shop boys. 

Oh and by the way, what are our musicians saying about all the fiddling in government, well not much they were some of the first on the boat to the Bahamas! However they are not in government pretending to be the good guys.

Great Fruit Cake Land, by Stevie Fruity Haston .

Alex not believing that this route is 6b.

 Had a great day at Fruit Cake Land, one of my favourite cliffs in the world. It was really good conditions which does make a difference here. It can be very humid, or the sea can be belting in like a soggy train.

 the abb down the 6b, me thinking is this the F..ing 6b or an 7b?

We warmed up on a perfect 6b, it has only had a few ascents and feels like your own private 7th level of heaven. My fore arms found the wood, John Holmes would have been proud of me.  It might be 6c. But who cares, the price of getting into heaven is a pure heart and nimble footwork.

 The access onto the first belay of Bernd was looking a bit sketchy.

Tried one of  my projects a route called Bernd, its ace to the power of ten. The first tiny pitch is a bit tricky and dangerous. I don't like doing it as its two broken legs minimum, and then a swim with your arms, as your legs will just be grinding around causing you a bit of pain.

 the initial moves off the chockstone belay are piss, I fell off them and had to clear some weird slime off one of the holds.


Forgetting the moves I lurched up with a stupid sequence and plummeted, no probs the friends held. I had a great session, worked some neat ways of robbing gravity until gravity reminded me who was boss. I thought it might have gave in today, conditions were actually perfect, friction was great, temperature cool. I even had luck with the rope drag by some better placements.
  

Fruit Cake Land in all its majesty.


There are 40 routes here now some of them are as good as routes get this side of heaven. Bernd is gonna go, I,ll have to  loose a bit of weight, it will be one of those classic climbs, can't wait.

Animal inside, by Stevie tame Haston.

 Didi, our so called President of Gozo Climbing association.

I will try and put up a page on Gozo climbing Web site in Maltese, it was an over sight, sorry. We Maltese are multilingual, but I realised it was just not right not to have some thing in our own language, please forgive me. My excuse is that my Maltese is very rusty and I also only learnt dialect anyway.

 Didi my East German mate had torn a bicep, and just felt like he had recovered enough to do a few 6a's. So we did Gormengast Crack and Rocket Man, and then did a bit of cleaning. I made a new path to a sector and cleaned a few routes for doing later, they look to be good and mid range.

 A sadly dead Chameleon.

I have to thank Alistair Smith for giving me some money, and Ken for getting me a bit of glue recently. The Donation button at the top of the page is working slowly thanks everybody. I need another bit of time to do the next batch of routes.The last new route I did was 35 meters, a bit of Tufa or collinette climbing, and an overhanging wall on big holds, it's called Master Ken after the You Tube Vids and my mate Ken obviously.

My pigeon on his ring from France, thanks Laurence for sending my exercise rings, bet your glad to see its being put to a good use.


The Chameleon I found injured after a car had knocked it out of a bush, nothing I could do sadly, lovely little animals with fantastic little feet and hands.  The little cliffs don't have much wild life, snakes, lizards, rats, rabbits, frogs, lots of birds which are making a come back since the hunters have moderated some what.
The next step is to get some of the locals into climbing instead of just foreigners enjoying our cliffs. The Gozitans are natural climbers, but the new generation are very much like everywhere else, a bit fat, a bit lethargic. We will see, there always was an interesting gene on this island, it made early Gozitans great seamen, then they immigrated in large numbers to America, Australia and the UK. Hopefully we can get some of them climbing.