The Wedding

The worst journey Ive ever had was three years ago when I was going to my friends wedding at a small village in Scotland. I was the best man so it was very important for me to arrive early. The ceremony was at 1 p.m., but my car, an old sports car which I loved, was eighteen years old and sometimes used to break down. Although it was only an hours journey from my home in Aberdeen, Id decided to set off at 11.00 in the morning. But when I arrived at the first crossroads, I took the wrong turning and I soon found myself completely lost. The engine was beginning to get very hot and suddenly black smoke began coming out. Five minutes later the car broke down. In my elegant suit I began walking towards the nearest village to find a mechanic. Luckily, a passing car stopped and gave me a lift to the garage. Finally, with my car repaired, I reached the village at two oclock in the afternoon, but the wedding had already finished. My friend was furious because Id missed one of the most important moments in his life. Why dont you buy a normal car, he said, which doesnt always break down when you really need it?

The Interview
My nightmare journey happened last year. Id been looking for work for about six months but I had just been called for an interview for a job. The interview was at 4.15 in the centre of town. But as soon as I got into the car, everything started to go wrong. First of all, I saw that Id almost run out of petrol, so I stopped at a garage. Then, as I was driving towards the centre, another car hooted at me and I realized that I had a puncture! I started to change the wheel myself, but I was wearing a very tight white skirt and jacket and was afraid of getting dirty. Time was running out, and I knew that being late for the interview would be disastrous. They might not even believe what had really happened. After a few agonizing minutes of indecision I decided to abandon the car and take a taxi. But even the taxi took ages to get there because there was a terrible traffic jam. I eventually arrived, ten minutes late, hot, sweaty and really stressed. When I walked into the managers office, the first thing she asked me was, Did you have a good journey? Oh, yes, I said. It was fine. But at least the story has a happy ending, because I got the job!

I cut the rope

Joe and I got to know each other in 1984 in Chamonix in the French Alps. We got on well together, and that was when we first got the idea of making a trip to Peru the -following year, as we both wanted to climb bigger mountains. We were thinking of doing the previously unclimbed West Face of Siula Grande in the Andes. We were experienced climbers, but we knew that it was a very difficult route, where lots of people had failed, and that if anything went wrong nobody would be able to rescue us. We succeeded in reaching the top of Siula Grande but we were suffering from frostbite and absolutely exhausted. We took some photos and then immediately started going down. We spent the first night in a snow hole on the North Ridge. The next day we carried on, but climbing down was difficult, and we were making slow progress. We were tied together with a rope, and Joe was ahead, when suddenly I felt a pull on the rope. When I reached him, I was horrified to discover that hed fallen and broken his leg. We were still at 6,000 metres, and I thought that it was all over for us. Wed never both get down alive. I knew I had to try to save him, so I started lowering him down the mountain on the rope. By early -afternoon the weather -conditions had got much worse, but we decided to keep going as it was -getting dark and we wanted to find somewhere safe to sleep. If it had been daylight, wed have seen that there was a vertical cliff of ice directly in front of us, but in the darkness, I accidentally lowered Joe over the cliff. Suddenly, I had all of Joes weight on the rope and it was pulling me towards the edge of the cliff too. I only had two choices. If I cut the rope Joe would die if I didnt, Id die too. After Id cut the rope I was in a state of shock and -exhaustion. I spent the night in another snow hole, waiting for morning. The following day I looked over the cliff and saw the enormous crevasse below, and realized that was the deep hole into which Joe had fallen to his death. I made my way sadly back to base camp, where I spent three days recovering. Then I packed all my things ready to go home the next day and went to bed. I was deeply asleep in my tent when suddenly I heard Joes voice calling my name Adapted from the Independent on Sunday
Glossary

injury to fingers or feet caused by extreme cold lower move down edge border, end of crevasse a deep crack in thick ice base camp climbers camp at the bottom of a mountain
frostbite

On January 3, 1912 Captain Robert Scott set out with four other men, Oates, Wilson, Evans, and Bowers, on the last stage of an 800-mile journey that he hoped would make them the first people to reach the South Pole. Scott knew that a Norwegian explorer, Amundsen, was also trying to be the first man there, but he was determined to get there before him. Scott kept a diary during his journey. January 6 We are now further south than I believe any man has been before us. There appears to be no sign of the Norwegians ... January 10 Yesterday we stayed in our sleeping bags all day, as the weather was so bad a blizzard that we could not go out. Today we continued our march, and covered six miles. We cannot be more than about 97 miles from the Pole. But can we keep this up for seven days more? We are dragging our own sledges, and none of us ever had such hard work before. January 13 I am sure we shall do it now.

January 16 This afternoon Bowers saw something ahead which we thought looked like a pile of stones. When we got nearer we saw that it was a flag tied to a sledge, together with tracks made by sledges and dogs, many dogs. We fear the Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. January 17 54 Oates, Evans, and Bowers all with severe frostbite. Great God! This is an awful place, and it is terrible for us to have laboured to get to it without the reward of being the first. January 18 We have found the Norwegians camp. They have taken 21 days less than us to reach the Pole. We have planted our poor sad flags. We now face 800 miles of solid dragging, and goodbye to our dreams. It will be a wearisome return. February 17 Yesterday Evans collapsed and we had to make camp. This morning he said he felt better and could go on. But he marched for a while, then stopped to tie his boots while we went on. When we went back we found him kneeling in the snow with a wild look in his eyes. He died soon after midnight. March 5 Temperature now 40. Oates in constant pain. His toes are black and gangrene is setting in. God help us, we cant keep on with this pulling, that is certain. Among ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess. March 16 Yesterday Oates said that he could not go on, and wanted to be left in his sleeping bag. We refused, so he struggled on. This morning there was a blizzard blowing, and Oates said, I am just going out and I may be some time. We knew that he was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman. We never saw him again. March 20 certainty. March 29 We cannot leave the tent, the blizzard is too strong. My foot is a problem. Amputation is a

It seems a pity, but I do not think that I can write more. R. Scott.

Last entry Glossary

Old-fashioned words

For Gods sake, look after our people.

These are usually referenced as formal in dictionaries, or may not appear at all. forestall do sth before sb else labour to work wearisome tiring unendingly never stopping In November 1912 a search party found their tent almost buried in the snow. Scott, Wilson, and Bowers were in their sleeping bags. They had all died of the cold. Captain Scotts diaries were found, along with his last letters. I had looked forward to helping you to bring up our son, but it is a satisfaction to know that he will be safe with you. Make the boy interested in natural history if you can. It is better than games. You know how I feel about remarriage. When the right man comes to help you in life, you ought to be your happy self again. I wasnt a very good husband, but I hope I shall be a good memory

A rose without a thorn

Katherine Howard, an apparently naive teenage girl, became Henry VIIIs fifth wife. But despite being so young the new queen already had a past, which would soon destroy her In 1540 Henry VIII was forty-nine and unhappy. Although in his youth he had been a handsome, athletic, and charismatic man, he could now hardly walk because of painful abscesses on his leg. He was grotesquely fat (135cm round the waist) and his mood alternated between depression and moments of terrible anger. He was also bitterly regretting his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, whom he found totally unattractive. His only consolation was the company of a young girl called Katherine Howard, with whom he was fast falling in love. There is some doubt about her age but she cant have been much more than fifteen. A cousin of Henrys second wife Anne Boleyn, Katherine was a pretty, vivacious, and graceful girl and the King was captivated by her. He called her his jewel, his rose without a thorn. In spite of his physical problems, Henry could still be charming when he wanted to be. What Katherine felt for him is not known. What is certain is that Katherine was ambitious, though rather naive and empty-headed, and like most girls of her age, mainly interested in clothes and dancing. On 28th July, after managing to get rid of Queen Anne (by divorcing her), Henry married Katherine in secret and he was soon showing off his attractive young wife at court. Henry had never been happier. Katherine appeared to love every moment of her new life with her infatuated husband, who was far more generous than he had been with his previous wives, buying her diamonds, pearls, and furs with rubies. But the honeymoon period lasted only until the following summer, when she came face to face with someone from her past. Francis Dereham, who had been her lover when she was 13 or 14, came to court and asked Katherine for work. Perhaps in order to buy his silence she employed him as her secretary. This was a fatal mistake. In September, while the King was away, a man came to see Archbishop Cranmer, the Kings adviser, saying that he knew things about the Queens past and suggesting that she

had had several sexual partners before she married the King. Cranmer started to investigate, and soon discovered that the boy now working as her secretary had previously been her lover. While King Henry was in church giving thanks to God for his new young wife, Archbishop Cranmer left a letter for him to read, in which he accused Katherine of immoral behaviour before her marriage. The King was devastated, and didn't want to believe the accusations about his wife, but told Cranmer to arrest Katherine and to investigate further. She was at the Royal palace dancing when the Kings guards arrived to arrest her. It is not the time for dancing any more, said one of the guards. Katherine was taken away and locked in her room. Although she didn't know it then, she would never see Henry again. Katherine spent the following days in hysterics, neither eating nor drinking and crying uncontrollably. At one point she tried to run past the guards to try to talk to her husband to beg his forgiveness, but she was dragged back screaming to her room. If Katherine had only been guilty of having had a relationship before her marriage Henry might have forgiven her. But she had been hiding another, even worse, secret. Katherine had been having secret meetings with a boy called Thomas Culpeper, one of the handsome young men at court. One of her ladies-in-waiting betrayed her. Thomas Culpepers room was immediately searched and a passionate love letter from Katherine was found.

It makes my heart die when I think that I cannot always be in your company I have never wished for anything so muc as to see you. Yours as long as life endures Katherine The evidence was conclusive. Katherine had been having an affair right under King Henrys nose. Katherine and her lovers were doomed. Dereham and Culpeper were both tortured and executed, and Katherine was taken to the tower of London. Resigned to her own destiny, Katherines only wish now was to make a good impression at her execution. She asked for the executioners block to be brought to her room and spent her last night practising putting her head on it. The next day, on 13th February 1542, almost too weak to walk, she was taken to Tower Hill and beheaded. She was buried next to her cousin Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London.