Note to anyone who has enjoyed the stories. This is probably the last for a few weeks. I have loads but I need to pace myself a bit otherwise people might get sick of them. Thanks for reading them by the way.😊
Fame at Last
The phone rang. It was my climbing mate. "You're on the front cover of Climber and Rambler" he said. I couldn't believe it! I was a climbing nobody. Why? How? Where? I needed answers. Later in the day I got my hands on a copy. It was me all right. I recognised the chalk bag. But I was so far away! So small in the photo as to be virtually unrecognisable. Probably two people in the world would know who it was. Me and my mate! A well known mountain photographer had snapped me seconding a route in the Lakes. I had been in the right place at precisely the right time. It was pure chance. Still it was the closest I was going to get to fame. I now shared that heady place occupied by the climbing greats of the 80's. I was a 'cover boy'. Hmm I thought, it doesn't sound right somehow.
The next day I was climbing at Brimham, or Sandbag City as I liked to call it. I pranced about, certain in the knowledge that everyone was looking admiringly at this new 'star' in the climbing firmament..... I couldn't get off the ground! It was very embarrasing. Eventually I slunk off home. After all, even top performers have their off days!
A few months later I was pottering around a gift shop in the Lakes when some postcards caught my eye. It was me! On the postcard! The front cover photo had been reproduced as a postcard! The shop assistant looked at me oddly as I bought all ten cards displayed. "Great card that" I said. " There's some better one's over there" was the uninterested reply". When I got home I put the postcards in a 'safe place' intending to send them to friends and family. I never saw them again!