Stevie Wonder to Bosigran

06 Jul 2010

When Stevie stepped onto the stage he was a dot in the spotlight.  But soon you realised this tremendous riff was coming from beneath his fingers out of the massive keyboard strapped around his body.  The camera zoomed in on those fingers, which seemed just to glide back and forth.  The riff built and built and already he had Manchester within the palm of his hand.

Last Tuesday will remain forever in my mind and we’re already counting it as a proper family outing.  Stevie himself had two pianos, a keyboard (above), harmonica and drums as well as his voice, which simply doesn’t seem to have diminished (apparently he can play 27 instruments).  He was accompanied by 10 others, all incredible musicians and by the end 5 further drummers and a choir joined the stage.  If you saw the Glastonbury set, it was the same, but double!!  Two hours of non-stop brilliance, no warm up group required.

The previous weekend I judged at the British Bouldering championships.  It was great to see the other side of competition.  And perhaps I am better at climbing than judging.  I had to work hard not to make any mistakes, especially in the final.  It was seriously stressful.  But I was so glad I did it.  I feel really quite out of the climbing world right now but it was a great catch up and I liked being involved even though I’m not even bothered about competing any more.  I judged the qualifications and final for the women’s comp – great to watch a really close final – the girls were climbing well.  On Saturday I watched Ellie compete in the junior comp and she was super chuffed to make the final (2 in a week, well done!).

This was all followed up by a short trip to Cornwall.  I guess my last break before the big event.  For me most of the time was spent doing ‘nothing’, which was very relaxing.  I guess ‘nothing’ is a relative term compared to what I normally do on holidays, which is usually climbing.  Nothing involved cream teas, pootling around villages, going for a walk, looking in shops, lying on the beach and having the odd snooze.  But I did fit one climbing day in.  Unfortunately this was timed with a full day of rain but I just couldn’t believe how much fun I had on Alison’s Rib at Bosigran.  Graded at ‘diff’, this route had bumbly written all over it.  But I simply loved moving on the easy, wet rock taking out gear and getting blown about.

Back home now and trying hard not to get side-tracked by looking up Stevie Wonder videos on you tube...