luckycanuck

Good Friday meant a solemn service in archaic language at St John's first thing in the morning.

bakerypenguin came too and talking about work prospects afterwards followed by a long drive to Bent's Basin broke the solemnity of Good Friday. I couldn't very well turn up to bootcamp all quiet and contemplative. There is a time for that.

I set up my tent and had plenty of space (though I'm sure my tent wouldn't sleep four as it said (at least not comfortably.) Then it was off to the basin for a swim. I followed the path with the other Convicts to the far side of the basin to a rock about 5 metres above the water, where they all jumped in. It gets very deep very quickly and is safe to jump from that height, but the rock itself is not nice and flat so you have to be careful you jump properly. Chickening out at the last split second and half jumping or slipping on the uneven surface would risk a bad landing and a broken leg or possibly a lifetime in a wheelchair. I'm not scared of heights and I had seen half a dozen of my teammates already jump. Still, having jumping advice shouted at me from below or having people give me an unsolicited countdown made it hard for me to jump. I knew I was going to go, and eventually I did once things were quiet and I stopped looking down, jumping well out and managing to half mumble "f*ck" on the way down. Naturally, I had a safe landing, though I chose not to tempt fate with a second.

I did swim back rather than take the path. It's about 100 metres across give or take a bit, but it was surprisingly tough. It's been a long time since I've swum anywhere other than in the ocean, and in the water of the basin I was much less bouyant that at the beach. The water was surprisingly warm especially given that it's in the mountains, I suspect because the whole thing is some king of volcanic creation.

The bootcamp opened with what was described as a gay pinata. It was the birthday of a teammate and the pinata was full of condoms and lube. It's probably just as well that the Tongan Seventh Day Adventists in the campsite next to ours were having a service at the time.

There was also a preliminary talent competition and a Convicts trivia competition before I went to bed and got what was a pretty good night of sleep. I didn't leave my tent until nearly 7am.

The physical part of bootcamp took up much of Saturday. I was nominated by the captain of the Mounties (we had two Canadians on the team including our captain) to participate in the core strength challenge. It consisted of one minute of plank, 20 squats, and 20 leg raises done on a count. Three strikes and you were out. Two were gone after two rounds and another dropped out when they started making things tougher by having us hold at the low point of a squat or by holding our legs at 45 degrees on the leg raises or by speeding up the pace. Eventually it was down to the club president and I and in the end he got his third strike before I got my first. Hooray for core strength! Crossfit has helped I think.

There was also a short relay run, a game of murderball (passing the ball across a gap whilst keeping your hands behind your back. If you drop it or break your hands without making a catch like when someone fakes a throw or when it is thrown between you and another competitor, you are out.) I managed to eliminate three competitors before my captain and I were eliminated, coming in second. Then it was carrying teammates. I suggested the Estonian Carry from wife carrying. Basically, it's an inverted piggyback where the onus is on the carried to hold on so as to leave the carrier free use of his arms.

Kevin did a pretty good job carrying us.

After lunch there was a run along a fire trail through the hills to be done as a team (i.e. the clock stops only when the last team member crosses the line.) One of our number struggled with a sore foot and heavy breathing but we finished before winning the swimming competition.

I'm not sure who won the talent competition. Team Mounties performed "I'm the only gay eskimo".

I did the filming.

I was in the Collaroy Castle by Saturday night in time to set the clock on my phone back and get a relatively early night so I could get up for the 5:00am Easter service at St James in the city. However, my phone switched itself as I slept, which meant it had gone back two hours and my alarm went off an hour later than I expected. So there was no 5:00am service. I went for a pre-sunrise Easter swim and went to a service on Balmoral Beach in Mosman featuring someone I know who is becoming a priest (though I didn't hang around to chat afterwards.)

I enjoyed all the things I gave up for Lent before picking up

minxyminou on my way back to Canberra. I was invited in for a lamb roast with the whole family and finally met

beth_is_bored. Dora and Mr Burns were happy to see me again, and strangely, Hez the three legged cat jumped on my lap and would not be parted from me even when picked up and dropped on the floor. They were going to send him home with me.

I didn't make it home until 3:00am having stopped to sleep twice along the way. It was a long day.

Easter Monday was pretty lazy. Watching of footy, eating of oreos, drinking of tea, roast pork for dinner with beer, and recovering from a busy weekend. I didn't leave the house even once.