Meet Nasim, by the slack-line...

The first day of a Turkish rock trip, and it rained.

It had been an inauspicious prologue too. The advance party of four had been bumped onto a later flight due to overbooking. Alex and I, following the next day were delayed on departing, and ended up spending a night in the airport.

But Monday morning arrived, and we were all gathered at JoSiTo's ready to climb. And the rain fell. Okay, so we could have started down at the steep crag that stays dry in the rain, but it didn't feel right to start that way.

Nothing for it, then, but to jump onto the slack-line.

We were pants at it (so I've already bought one to practice on at home here in West Lothian!), but it did give the opportunity to start to get to know some new folk!

James is on the line. John is watching with Nics to his left.

Nasim came over to introduce herself, and to join in with us laughing at ourselves. She's been at the camp for a good while now, living cheaply (occasionally working), being generally helpful (and enthusiastically friendly). We didn't cross paths much at the crag, but exchanged the odd word back at the Camp not least as I borrowed her laptop to switch photos from my camera to the small hard-drive I'd taken with me.



Now I am back at home. I'm sitting in a room with that portable hard drive now plugged into my laptop, connected to its multiple screens. Above me is a full wardrobe, and rows of books on the shelf. Beside me is a pile of paperwork that I should have tried harder to keep on top of. And downstairs is a slack-line sitting in a parcel in the living room waiting to be put up.

As I think of this 'stuff' that surrounds me, I am reminded of one of those conversations that Nasim and I held over her laptop. She said:

"Everything that I have is here with me..." ...Quite a contrast to my present situation!

So I comfort myself: There is nothing wrong with being surrounded by stuff so long as your first thought is to share it with your friends.

And I warn myself: It's all too easy for the same stuff to sway your ambitions towards acquiring more stuff, rather than deeper friendships.

As Nasim added a few sentences later, again in her words (or as close as my memory permits):

"If you don't have your friends, then you have nothing"

Amen to that! So there's something to keep in mind with the package laying downstairs, still to be opened: Who's up for a summer BBQ and slack-line party?!