I decided to pick up learning guitar a week ago-ish (found out I have the wrong type of guitar but I'm too cheap/lazy to go out and buy another one). So I'm terrible and I slightly regret not starting to learn 2 months (years) ago. Learning Chinese also hasn't progressed very much. I should be practising writing and reading full sentences (and not the wishy washy sentences in songs that don't make sense half the time) but I'm too stuck on picking up single words that I probably won't use and trying to learn those.
I improved with my swimming somewhat; I managed to swim 600 metres last week, though my friend swam double that amount in roughly the same time. Still, being able to run 9000 metres makes me feel good. My goal is 12km in one hour, but I didn't go running last week because of rain/laziness so I might not be able to reach that in the time I set myself (before honours starts, heh). At least the city-to-surf isn't for another few months, and I should be able to get there by then.
Anyway, here's half a short-story I wrote a while ago that I still don't know how to end (hence only putting up half):
Sandy emerged from the crevice, ragged and dirty, gasping
for clean air. She had not realised how deep it had been, and how quickly light
ceased to penetrate the musty atmosphere trapped between the ancient granite.
The skin on her arms had been cut both on the way down, and again on her way
up.
“Well maybe you can grab some long-sleeves and a helmet-light,
and have another go?” said Alex.
Alex Winter watched as her friend silently complied, donning
a bright red jacket, and grabbed onto the rope that fed into the chasm. It
would be very hot in there with the jacket, compounded by what she believed to
be sulfur fumes swirling between the narrow rock walls.
Sandy ignored them, descending deeper than she had before.
She thought about possibly acquiring a face mask, in case she ever needed to do
this again. She hoped she wouldn’t. Her nose squirmed and contracted in
protest, and her eyes began to sting and water. The pupils would dilate to
accommodate for the reduction of light; she wondered if it would cause the
fumes to affect her more.
Suddenly she reached the bottom. Or rather, the point at
which the crevice no longer plummeted vertically down. The light from her
hard-hat illuminated more dust than anything else in the cave, but it was still
welcome. Now she won’t trip over her feet and embarrassingly small rocks.
Tentatively, Sandy took a step forward. She didn’t notice
her breathing becoming more laborious, despite the stench that reeked heavier
than before. She also didn’t notice something was drawing her in deeper, and
when she finally became aware of her surroundings, she could no longer see any
light besides the one radiating from her forehead. She started to panic.
Sound wouldn’t travel
here from the surface, would it? she thought, as she peered at her
surroundings. She was in a completely non-descript cavern, perhaps eight metres
wide, but the ceiling was much higher than she thought possible. It seemed to
reach further than she remembered climbing down. Just a trick of the light, she
thought.
Alex wouldn’t be able to hear her down here. Sandy recalled
agreeing that 3 tugs on the rope meant she found something noteworthy, while 4
meant she was in trouble. Either way, Alex would have come rushing down to her,
leaving the third member of their party at the surface.
Was the fact that this cavern appeared taller than was
possible noteworthy? Sandy didn’t think so. Yet she could see nothing else. No
markings on the walls and no other exit save for the one she had just entered by.
She took careful steps around the cavern floor, feeling for loose stones and
unnatural edges. Nothing.
Well, only one thing for it now, she thought, as she leapt
at the wall and found easy handholds. Expertly she scampered up the rocky wall,
but the higher she climbed, the further away the ceiling appeared to be. All
right, that’s noteworthy, she thought. But before she could tug on the rope,
she felt three sharp tugs at her waist. She’s out of rope.
