Parkour!

I am quite fascinated with parkour. It's related to the strength and fitness required to do all that jumping and climbing, combined with the fearlessness required to launch yourself off something metres above the ground to land and roll on concrete. Or even better...to climb something until you're x metres off the ground :D. I was a right little monkey as a kid and...well...while puberty changed the centre of my gravity, perhaps one day that monkey will return. One day.

Last night, I went with a group consisting of Markdod, dancinghula, Punz, The Pom, and Annie to go watch a demonstration of this down at Fed Sq. I thought *Awesome! I'd love to watch some ppl climb the information booth at Fed Sq!!!* Instead we were treated to some people climbing a pre-built apparatus made out of metal poles and vaulting horses. Still good, but perhaps not as exciting.

Some pics and a vid:

Sunset looking southwest from Fed Sq. towards the Arts Centre Spire

The apparatus. I realise this makes the city look kinda glam

The traceurs do their climbing

And more climbing

The really good thing about the demo however was the inclusion of a chubby girl. Apart from her size and gender, I picked her out because her running compared to the others noticeably lacked the grace of the others and her vaults/climbs were not as fluid. But it made us all say this afterwards - if she can do it, WE can do it!!!

But here is a link to an entertaining vid from Top Gear of James Captain Slow May racing a Peugeot vs. two traceurs on foot to the Liver Building in Liverpool. Enjoy! (Seriously, watch this vid)