Mike Owen's blog: Another milestone birthday

The weather here in the south east of France has been particularly bad this year, with lots of heavy rain. Consequently the crags haven't really dried out. We did manage to get a few visits to Jurassic Park and Cayenne, when they were semi-dry but that's been it for the last 3 weeks as they've got soaked again. I don't think Deverse will be dry until September this year (and that's only if it stops raining!). The forecast is for more rain and storms.

So we've had to climb indoors. We have continued to enjoy the excellent bouldering at Art Bloc (in Nice) and Bloc Party (in Mouans-Sartoux) and of course in our cave downstairs as well.

A few weeks ago it was "better than superb" to see an old mate from my college days at I M Marsh in Liverpool. Chris Aylmer was on his way from Britain to Greece, where he is intending to spend the summer sailing around the Ionian Sea in his catamaran. He arrived on his enormous Honda Gold Wing 1800cc motorbike and stopped with us for 3 nights during a particularly rainy period. We had a fantastic time reliving the past and catching up with the present and we laughed so much. Brilliant, great fun. Chris is now reunited with his boat (Alexandria) and having lots of fun in the sun.

Friday June 8th was a milestone birthday. I'm now 60!!! Where did all those years go? It was wonderful to go in to school (I'm still off with my long-term illness but making great progress) for the tradition of celebrating "special" birthdays with colleagues. In the evening we went out for a lovely meal with some friends, as usual organised by my wonderful, lovely wife Elaine.

This summer we're going to go back to Greece and perhaps the UK. So my next blog will probably be late August/early September. See ya!