#35 From one project to the next

Apparently, the fewer obligations I have in life, the less I keep this blog updated. One reason might be that I find it hard to focus. As I don't have any "real obligations", my days are spread out across multiple projects. I find myself having days filled with varied snippets of many little things.

It feels great to have the freedom of waking up in the morning and be like "nah, not today". However, I do miss the continuity of working on one big project consistently. Until I manage to focus my brain, here is a list of the small ongoing projects I have at the moment.

• learning about plants and creating a herbarium
• home improvements (starting with building a bookshelf)
• getting better at JavaScript (usually because I am working on yet another unnecessary feature for my website^[1])
• gardening with France
• learning ways to preserve food
• climbing, climbing, climbing
• working on a private Pocket alternative with Robin
• planning our 2024 big trip

Special climbing note

Since we've arrived in Ardèche, we had a number of "climbing first times". First, we had to learn to climb a real mountain wall and get used to how varied rock types will feel different. Being used to bouldering only, our stamina was also challenged. After feeling comfortable climbing top rope, we practiced lead climbing again. And most importantly: lead falling. (I am still in the middle of properly learning that one.)

Last week, we tried our first multi-pitch climbing (Alien vs Predators, 50m). And this week, we directly went on with our second multi-pitch (Biotone, 110m).

Multi-pitch climbing adds a thick layer of new techniques to "regular" sport climbing. Suddenly, you have to be extremely organized with how you manage your rope and tools to make it to the top (and back to the bottom). It is not that much about performance climbing anymore, but more about planning and technicalities.

I love how rich the world of climbing is and how far you can potentially go, if you are motivated enough. Let's see how far we'll dare to go. ⊙