Up where we belong

Today was THE day to buy my first pair of climbing shoes. It's a a painful process, not helped by the fact that the shoes aren't designed to be worn except when on the climbing wall or crag. Parting with hours and hours' worth of hard-earned wonga is also best done under general anaesthetic or the influence of alcohol, I find. In this case, neither alternative was available.

I failed to get any decent advice or shoes in the right size in Gloucester the other day, so CleanSteve offered to take me over to South Cerney today, to a vast 'outdoor' shop. What he didn't know was that it was right beside a lake in the Cotswold Water Park, a haven for birds of the aquatic type. This worked out well: I faffed around for ages, trying out shoes in many sizes and variations, while he footled around outside, trying to shoot a tern in flight!

Afterwards, I shot my shoes on the cafe table by the lake. We had a look at the map and all the trails, including the Thames Path and the Thames and Severn Canal. We feel sure we'll be going back some time soon. It's a joy to get out of the valleys for a while!

Then we headed over to Eileen's for a cup of tea, and to discuss her son Freddie's recent school trip to Iceland (the country, not the frozen food shop)! Eileen is a friend from Uni days (Edinburgh, 1981) and the reason for my getting (back) into climbing. Or maybe I just needed an extra push...

The song title is a cheesy reminder that there is a Debra Winger movie (Black Widow) on some totally obscure channel tonight, for those of us that don't want to watch wall-to-wall ball sports. Debra was the An Officer and Gentleman female lead actor. Plus, it's a joke about climbing shoes wanting to be high up on the crags, where the eagles cry ...

It's also a personal reminder of my first visit to Bahrain, when TMLHereandThere was living there. The Bahrain Financial Harbour was still being built, and was covered with a hoarding, sloganised the catchphrase "Up where we belong", inplying that Bahrain would soon be recognised as a international banking centre. Now I haven't been back since 2010, but I feel that the revolution of 2011 might have scuppered those plans.