Friends

Posted by Wayne (Melbourne, Australia) on 9 September 2007 in People & Portrait.

Its such an interesting concept that bandied about. As a kid, when I was going through my 'intellectual' phase, I decided to restrict myself to using it only when I really meant it otherwise it would completely devalue the word (this was during the twillight years of the mIRC and the dawn of ICQ instant msging, which seems like a lifetime and a half ago).

These days, I can't say I've grown wiser but I've definitely grown somewhat since then. I love this photo and quite often I'm drawn back to it. I love it for several reasons.

1) because I really enjoyed my time climbing up that mountain

2) I started up that mountain alone but I certainly did not go up the mountain alone...and when I got to top...I had mates around me.

From the top: Marc, Me, Sophie, Ching (who is mindbogglingly a Chinese Scotsman).
Bottom: David (I think), Chris and Stephanie (Who are currently touring the world and last I heard were on their way to Russia from China via train).

3) I love the unpredictability of it all. I planned the trip to be quickly executed. A quick hop off the plane into a waiting cab to the Park's entrance, a short overnight stay to acclimatize, early start the next morning, rest over on the mountain, dawn summit and by lunch I'd be in a cab on the way to a plane to take me across to Brunei. The plan still continued as previously schedule but they enriched my life in the most wonderous and unexpected of ways. Marc and I spent 3 hours as we rested in the mountain huts, waiting for chow time, talking about the similarities of swiss and singapore armed forces and the War in Iraq (He was/is an officer in their mechanized infantry units). Sophie who is Marc's girlfriend and who is incredibly funny. Chris and Stephanie who told me of their lives and their travels around the world (they had me sold on 3 months kayaking around British Columbia..which I plan to do as soon as time and funding becomes available), Ching shared with me his life with C|net as a backend coder and about life in London. David who is portuguese but had an indonesian girlfriend (who came down with altitude sickness and wasn't able to come up to the summit with us) and who was really an all-round nice guy who could speak really decent bahasa indonesia.

Good times I say.

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