What’s on?
Bit of a cheating post that last one, copied it from my review on our ISK Tang Soo Do site (take a look on www.cornwalltangsoodo.co.uk, nothing like a bit of shameless advertising to start the day). So here’s a proper update on life since June.
The summer has passed as always, much quicker than I’d have liked. Lots of things I’d planned to do – like get ahead on dissertation work in preparation for third year – had just not happened and so I’m in a bit of catch up mode at the moment. However, plenty of beach trips in July and the trip to Florida with my better half and the rest of the EMTF more than made up for it. We spent two weeks in hot and sunny Florida, spending pretty much every day tramping around theme parks. Several of the rollercoasters like Manta and the Harry Potter ride were instant favourites but it has to be the lazy rivers at Aquatica and Wet n’ Wild which were the best. Nothing can beat slipping out of the boiling hot into cool water and a life jacket that just lets you float along without effort. That’s surely what holidays are all about? They really know how to do food and drink in America too. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that many hot dogs, burgers, MASSIVE STEAKS, chinese buffets or Cheesy cheeto crisps before, putting on at least half a stone in the process. Everything tasted different too – fanta being the most memorable one. It was literally bright orange, looking and tasting exactly like the fantas you get in Africa which was rather strange. I could go on about the edible side of Florida but I’d be here all day.
It was great to spend so much time lazing around in the sun, especially with the break in the middle to go off and compete in a business resort as it just made you appreciate the time outdoors in the heat that much more. The competition weekend was extremely tiring, with both days starting before 9am and not finishing till gone 8 o’clock at night. When you’re only competing for between 2 and ten minutes, that’s a long time to be waiting around. But having said that, it was still a massive eye opener being in a room filled with Martial artists from all over the world. There was something like twelve countries in attendance with over 400 competitors. That makes for one hell of an after party!
So it was a very subdued party that made their way back down to Cornwall once the fortnight was up. Returning to normal life was a little depressing but with a trip to South Africa planned for January with my folks and partner, I wasn’t down for too long 
The next five weeks saw me take a rather reluctant break from training in an attempt to get my hip back on track. I’ve been having problems with it since last November which really isn’t ideal at just 20 years old. However, the break seems to have done it some good and apart from one twinge it’s been absolutely fine. So fingers crossed that continues.
I had a brief break back at my parents for a couple of weeks too which was great. Sadly my dad was still hobbling around on crutches after yet another operation on his foot which meant I had to drive him to the station at 7am to get him to work…needless to say I simply added boots and a hoodie to my pjs for the trip into town. However, he’s back up and hit the ground running so to speak so hopefully that’ll be that and his feet will stay right this time! I’d been keeping little Brock the hamster at my parents’ for the time I was in Florida and then when I was home and although he’d had a few run ins with the cat nothing too untoward had happened. It should have been a warning to us but it wasn’t until we came home one night after going out for dinner with friends that we realised how stupid we’d all been. Poor Brock had somehow managed to get out of his cage (I suspect the cat had something to do with breaking the tunnel) and had been pounced on. It was a pretty sad day but we buried him out in the garden next to my dog which helped a little. I still wake up in the night wondering why I can’t hear his wheel squeaking like mad as he exercises but that’s the same with any animal that passes, you miss them and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Anyway, there’s lots to be doing, not least attempting to do well in my last year at university (how time flies!), so will be getting on with that. I’m afraid I don’t have much new music, will have to remedy that. However, if you have an android phone and not much else to do download Dragon, Fly! an awesomely addictive little game that drains your brain. I’m just getting into the Fast and Furious films which I can definitely recommend to anyone who’s not seen them – brilliant and the cars are to die for!
World Championships 2011
Wow what a trip! The first few days of heat, sunshine and water parks meant that none of us wanted anything to do with a competition, holiday mode had certainly set in in Villa 1! So it was reluctantly that we swapped swimming gear for team tracksuit and Dobok mid week and headed over to a conference centre for an EMTF team chat and bonding experience. This was just what we needed in fact to get us back into the Tang Soo Do mood. After a couple of hours of meditation, victory visualisation, a quick forms run through with the UK contingent and then a photo shoot (but of course I’ll sign your belt! 
), it was back to the pool though this time with heads fully back into the game.
The following day, during which we were treated to three seminars with KJNs Ferraro, Ah-Po and Khalid, exceeded all our expectations. It was very surprising that almost all of the EMTF representatives at the seminars were Cornish as they were of great interest and much of what was taught was a one-off. The Gups, Dans and Masters were all separated and each took a turn with each KJN. KJN Ferraro was easily the most charismatic and worked mainly on the different uses of the hip – defensive, offensive and reactionary, the third of which I’d not hear of before but turned out to be the one used in back stance (defensive and pulled right back). KJN Ah-Ph was as intimidating as all the stories say, demanding absolute attention and proper observation of etiquette. Not someone I’d like to cross! His seminar was based around how we learn and the five steps of learning –
- Look with the intent to Learn
- Listen with the intent to Learn
- Record
- Imitate
- Practice Practice Practice!!
I have a horrible feeling I’ve confused the first two but it amounts to the same thing…hopefully! The content of these seminars seems so basic when written down but in their essence worked on exactly the building blocks that needed the most attention. Having a greater understanding of the uses of the hip and what to look for andhow to process what your instructor tries to teach you has greatly helped my ability to improve.
The last seminar with KJN Khalid was certainly a rapid departure from the first two! He’s one of those characters who looks slightly crazy but is all the more awesome for it, with a bandana adding to the overall hippy image. His seminar was based around the stance in sparring – the “Lurve” stance as he called it, which was much shorter than the one we use with feet placed just wider than the shoulders with the front foot facing towards the opponent and the back foot at a right angle (forming an “L”). The shorter stance enabled much longer reaching kicks which was demonstrated by KJN Khalid’s son that Sunday during the Master’s sparring. After a very long day it was back to the villa for a relaxing session at the pool.
The tournament itself began at 9am with a two hour line up session with speeches and ceremonies which just never seemed to end! Twelve countries were in attendance including South Africa and Korea with over 400 competitors in total, with over 140 Masters alone! Both days of competition were incredibly long, gup grade forms were on last so I had to wait over 10 hours to compete! Luckily gups were on first with sparring so my part was over by midday. It was a fantastic experience taking part in the team competition which I’d been pretty nervous about beforehand. Sadly both UK Men’s teams got knocked out before the finals, perhaps when we’re on home turf in 2013 we may be slightly luckier. However the women’s first team went through to win the finals against the South Africans with all of us cheering them on – the EMTF raised the roof! The competition was brilliant, it felt so good to part of a worldwide community all fighting for the same thing. The banquet on the Saturday night and the after party with the Germans was just what was needed after a long couple of days. I’m still reeling from all that went on.
Hopefully we’ll be able to take a much larger contingent from Cornwall to the Worlds in 2013 as its never quite the same without our whole family. But thank you to all who made it the special trip it was, and a massive thank you to Master James and Mr Leonard for organising and coaching over the last year and taking the time to make it the incredible experience that it was.
Tang Soo!
Let the Good Times roll
Sorry, been a while since I was on here! Well, second year of university is over, with exam results coming out in the next two weeks or so…eek! However I’m not wasting time panicking, instead I’m busy working towards the Tang Soo Do Nationals and the Worlds as well as squeezing in some Dissertation work. It’s pretty scary that dissertation time has come around so quickly. It feels like only yesterday that I was starting university and spending all my available time and effort partying and consuming as much alcohol as physically possible. Fortunately for my liver and brain the desire to binge drink every day has lowered somewhat. I’d like to think this is because I’m on the road to becoming a Responsible Adult (for anyone who hasn’t already done so, visit Hyperbole and a Half and read the post ‘This is Why I’ll never be an Adult http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html), it really does describe my thought process to a T.
Anyway, dissertation has taken the form of a study of British Polar Exploration during the 19th and 20th centuries. I’ve never looked at this period of exploration before, having done Spanish and Portuguese exploration in 15th and 16th centuries (Cortes and Vasco da Gama and the like) at A-level and then touched on the scramble for Africa and imperialism these last couple of years at university, so examining polar exploration is something completely new to me. After a very heavy afternoon of research into exploration 1400-1900 I settled on the polar expeditions and turned up to my first meeting with my dissertation supervisor with not a clue in my head as to what angle to approach the topic from. As it stands now I’m looking at the portrayal of polar exploration in contemporary periodicals and newspapers although this may change further down the line. This may all sound a bit boring, but to spice it up I get to look at people like THIS!:
Now isn’t that a pretty face? That’s what happens when you get lost out on the ice and have to fight off hungry rabid polar bears and freezing cold temperatures and eventually succumb to cannibalism. Not particularly pleasant I have to say. But seriously, you’d love one of these in your living room if you could hey?
nawwwwww
So apart from looking at pictures of very cute fluffy killing machines, I’m still working my way towards an early hip replacement. The British Nationals are barely two weeks away and I am in serious need of forms practice if I hope to do the team justice. We’ve been going hell for leather, travelling up just about every month to Bedford for training with the rest of the EMTF as well as our own squad training down in Cornwall. A couple of weeks ago Master Kumar came down to Cornwall for a weekend of EMTF squad training which was brilliant. It’s very rare for such a senior ranking martial artist to actually teach and demonstrate high level forms so it was a great privilege.
I’m grading for my Red belt this Sunday which is more scary than my second year exams. I’ve been training three to four times a week for the last few months so I’m up to speed on all the syllabus stuff I need but there really is no way to prepare for the ten/fifteen minutes of jack knives, press-ups, sit ups and whatever else the board decide to give us. And as long as they don’t give us spinning inside to outside kicks (which is pretty likely) then I should just about cope with the basics. So all in all…I should survive!
And of course the big thing is FLORIDA in just less than 9 weeks!!! Jeez and I’ll be 20…will have to gulp down lots of martinis to cope with not being a teenager any more! Doesn’t sound like too bad a prospect 
Final thing: Music. Try Feel Good Inc, On Melancholy Hill and Fire Coming out of the Monkey’s Head by the Gorillaz, The Real Slim Shady, Not Afraid and Superman by Eminem and the Glee Cast version of Teenage Dream and Hey Soul Sister. Oh and if you’re in need of some good films to watch I’ve recently seen Repo Man and Shutter Island - both are fantastic psychological dramas and good action as well, plus everyone loves a bit of Leo de Caprio and Jude Law!
Hello gorgeous Cornwall :)
It’s finally getting into the exciting part of the year with competitions, holidays and uni work all hitting you at once. The stress of attempting to keep up with everything always begins to tell right around now, especially with exams just around the corner. Hopefully though, this is the penultimate year of that – from next summer I will finally be free from the chains of education! *cheers and waves arms about enthusiastically* Of course, exams usually require revision but as has happened every year for the last what…10 years (?!)…that’s kind of gone out the window. When the sun is shining and the beach is beckoning, what is one to do except grab a bottle of ice cold cider (hello mr rattler ), throw on a sarong and head off for a long day of tanning, or in my case, burning. Strangely enough I have stuck by my mother’s ministrations of suncream, hat and sensible periods of time in the sun and every now and again still wish I was being forced into wearing an oversized t-shirt over my swimming costume, if only because I have succumbed to the body-consciousness that is practically a requirement of western society. Talking of beaches, tomorrow evening is my first proper beach party of the season, though hopefully it will be slightly better weather than the one we had this time last year. In the event that it is, I shall just have to resort to the old coping mechanism of consuming vast amounts of Amarula and cider…not too bad a prospect I think.
I only recently returned to the green and pleasant lands of Cornwall having spent three weeks at home in Wiltshire. I usually return home with very mixed feelings, down on the one hand that I’ll be away from my wonderful friends including awesome boyfriend ( ) and also won’t be training for a while, but on the other I always look forward to being with family and taking time out from Life in Cornwall and being able to reset. I’ve had a recurring injury in my left hip which extended to the right one as well in the last couple of months and so was able to take a trip to the chiropractor and have a break from training to try and rest it while I was at home. Unfortunately it seems the injury is a little more serious than I’d like and I will have to take a 4-6 week break at some point in the near future. The lovely doctor said it was a judgement call on whether I continue training till the Worlds are over in August and then take the break or do it now. I figure, after all the effort I’ve put in up till now, there’s no point in stopping till the Worlds are over…provided I don’t actually permanently damage myself that is! All a bit depressing really…I seem to be following in the footsteps of one of my aunts who had to have a hip replacement before she was 40 due to copious amounts of exercise. Oops. Guess I should start saving up for a bionic one now.
In other news… Rob and I are spending as much time together and on the beach as possible, it was certainly a very good surprise to come back to Cornwall to find he’d booked the week off from work Sadly this may have impacted on my revision just a touch but I think it’s worth it. Long days on the beach and evening spent with a glass of wine curled up in front of Coupling, Game On and a variety of films is a pretty good way to spend your time if you ask me Also, we’re in the process of booking a holiday with my parents to South Africa in January next year so very exciting! It’s definitely a good plan to have a guaranteed two week block of sunshine and heat during the depths of English winter (which will no doubt be, like all previous winters of the last ten years, be the ABSOLUTE WORST WE HAVE EVER SEEN).
One last thing, music. I’m having a girly month: The Flood by Cheryl Cole and I Got You by Leona Lewis. Oh and a bit of Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys, definitely worth a listen!
P.S If my neighbour accidentally falls on his own shears in the next couple of days it definitely wasn’t because of his atrocious singing which is incredibly loud and irritating and has been filtering through my window pretty much at every hour of the day. Grrr….;D
KJN Giacobbe in Cornwall!
This last weekend was spent entertaining a very important guest who had come all the way from New Jersey to see us in Cornwall Last October four of us from ISK travelled up to Bedford to attend a seminar taught by Grandmaster Giacobbe which we greatly enjoyed and I’m sure is mentioned in more detail somewhere in this blog. We must have made an impression for the KJN offered to come and teach us down in Cornwall and although it was a bit of a nerve-wracking week trying to organise everything so it was all perfect for the Grandmaster’s visit, it turned out to be a fantastic success.
KJN arrived from Wales on Friday night and the next morning a small group of us took him around Falmouth, visiting Pendennis Castle (which was new for me as well) and then going for a quick lunch on the harbour. Luckily it was the most beautiful day so we got to show off Cornwall at its best! After lunch we whizzed over to the Dojang for our three hour seminar which was both hard work and a great lesson in the history and spirituality of Tang Soo Do. After a little work on basic line work and a loose warm up and stretch we worked on the Pyung Ahn forms which was great for me as my next grading form will be Pyung Ahn Sa Dan and I’ll possibly be competing with the 5th one in America so it was very good to get the opinion of an 8th dan on them! We then worked on Bassai Sho, one of the hidden forms that he had taught at the last seminar, which I’d been practising occasionally so still vaguely remembered. The form is a lesser relation of Bassai Dai, and is not widely known outside of Korea so it was a great honour to be taught it by the KJN. After splitting off and practising the form for a bit we then came back together to work on something called Ti Ji Ne bo (excuse spelling please!) which are a set of nine military yoga forms which were taught to soldiers in…oh dear it was either Korea or China, memory fails me!! Will have to check back on that 
Anyway, these forms are only 8 or 9 moves in each direction, moving on a single line with the focus on perfecting each stance and moving fluently between each one. The forms revolve around the philosophy of Um and Yang. Tang Soo Do is essentially an aggressive art – we learn how to kick, punch, etc etc and sometimes neglect the softer and more passive side of learning a martial art. These yoga-style forms aim to counterbalance this aggression and allow the mind and body to relax. Having said that, the forms were incredibly tiring! Holding very low stances for ten or fifteen seconds is exhausting and builds up a serious amount of lactic acid in the thigh muscles. The seminar was absolutely brilliant and the KJN will hopefully come and visit us again later in the year.
That evening after a quick rush home for a shower and change we were off out again, this time for dinner in Truro at a little Chinese restaurant which none of us had been to before. This was something of a mistake as the service was pretty awful and the waitress didn’t seem to know that there was more to wine than red or white. However the food was good and the company was awesome Grandmaster Giacobbe was full of interesting anecdotes and was eager to recount stories from his journey in Tang Soo Do. Like the first time we met him, he again came across as a very energetic and honourable person who I have been very honoured to meet and learn from.
Tang Soo!
General Moaning
Hmm been a while since I updated, oops!
Lots of things going round and round my head at the moment, I seem to be juggling a few too many things all at once. I finally know what it feels like for one of those stress balls – pressure coming in from every flipping direction. Okay so…here’s a list of the stuff:
1. Tang Soo Do – training four times a week plus trips to Bedford for 4 hours training and a 700 mile round trip every 4 weeks.
2. Boyfriend – wonderful happy happy times don’t get me wrong here, having a proper working relationship isn’t a bad thing, its just the pressure it puts on other things e.g. my friendships, that I never thought would happen. Shows what I know about serious relationships!
3. Uni – degree work really really takes a hit when I’m exhausted from so much training which usually leads on to illness – according to my journal I’ve been ill once every two weeks for the past couple of months, wtf?! Unfortunately lecturers have started to notice my absences so will have to step it up a bit. Or just not get sick. Obviously its possible to tell your immune system not to fail, mine has a bit of a temperamental nature though so I doubt it’ll listen.
I’m pretty sure there was a no. 4 but I’ve totally forgotten…I think I’m getting old. In fact I’m pretty sure I’m getting old – clubbing is no more and I only occasionally get drunk. Having said that our recent trip to Bedford resulted in a good old party with the EMTF during which I had an unfortunate incident with the drinking game Buffalo. Just how hard can only drinking using your left hand be?! Very…apparently.
On a more positive note, training is going pretty well I think. I’m deep into preparing for the World Championships which are in Florida this year with squad training sessions once or twice a month plus normal training. We’re having issues adapting to the rules coming out of the USA and the fact that we can only now do one Hyung rather than both Chil Sung and Traditional is a bit of a sting, particularly as you have to pay a set entry fee rather than the cost based on however many categories you enter. However, its fun training for such a massive event, though to be perfectly honest I’m more looking forward to going out to America with all my friends and spending a good couple of weeks in the sun with Boyfriend I’ve been picked to possibly represent Great Britain in the women’s team sparring – I’ll know for sure soon hopefully though I believe I have to fight it out with anyone else who wishes to be in the team. I’m in two minds about it really. On the one hand it would be a real honour to represent GB and I think it would help boost my confidence in sparring a lot, but on the other its a big responsibility that I really don’t believe I could live up to. Sparring in front of so many of my seniors in a foreign country would be a pretty huge thing to screw up! So I’m going along to Viper Squad every Sunday to try and improve my fighting technique.
The next Gup grading is this Sunday when I’ll be going for my 4th Gup (10th Gup is white belt, 1st Gup is the step below Dan grade/Black belt). I’m pretty confident as I do know the stuff though there are quite a few butterflies appearing, hopefully they won’t paralyse me on the day though I’m sure that as always, as soon as the physical starts all nerves and awareness of anything but the pain will vanish. I’ve been feeling pretty run down recently and am still recovering from yet another fluey type thing but hopefully that won’t impact too much on my grading performance. One of the guys going for his 3rd Gup is doing it with two cracked ribs so I don’t know what I have to complain about!
After this grading it’ll be just one more in June till the British Nationals and then on to the Worlds, so lots of martial artsy things to prepare for!
One last thing before Music – I’ve just received season 4 of 24 in the post so will be starting that asap, can’t wait!!
So hmm…listen to Black, Last Kiss and Even Flow by Pearl Jam, Feeling a Moment, Forget about Tomorrow and Love Pollution by Feeder and Numb/Encore remix by Jay-Z and Linkin Park.
Jelly Tots Are Awesome*
*There is absolutely no mention of Jelly Tots in this post. Apologies for any inconvenience or stress caused by misleading title. I accept no liability for your consequent actions of suicide or laptop damage induced by Jelly Tot-denied frustration.
For some reason I always look forward to “blog update” time even though, lets be honest, most people don’t really want to read a massive pile of junk that is someone’s feeble life. However, I say these people are probably so scornful and dismissive because they’re secretly appalled and hurt because their lives are actually more pathetic than that which they’re reading about. This is totally not the start of the post I had envisioned. But I’m having fun with it so *shrugs*.
Starting a post is so much easier than starting a book. I’ve attempted to do what English teachers patronisingly call “creative writing” in the past and apart from a few pieces of a couple of thousand words which seem to work quite well, I’ve never had much success at book-writing. Developing characters, plot twists and the landscape in which your story is situated is all very well and dandy, and I’m pretty handy at blabbing on with interesting adjectives for a while( how else do you think I get history essays up to the required word count? you didn’t think I actually knew what I was talking about did you? silly person.) but what I find most difficult is figuring out how to fill in plot holes. These little bastards crop up more often that you’d think, and any person who picks up a book, even in the fantasy section, will admit that a small thing like “the main dude is a magical unicorn who only speaks unicornian and his best friend is a tortoise (or possibly a turtle, its never really made clear)” will eventually become a larger issue, as obviously the Testudine will not speak unicornian which will most likely lead to problems in their relationship. Probably ending with a messy divorce, a lot of tears and having to share custody of their pet goldfish. It’s a bummer. However, I’ve totally lost track of what I was saying so I will simply finish this rather rambling and windy paragraph by saying you really should know the difference between a Tortoise and a Turtle. It could save your life.
This is a fucking tortoise.
And this is a turtle. Please take note.
And this is a tortoise and a raspberry which I just thought should be included because its fucking funny.
So…now that that’s taken care of….onto the main part of the post…
It’s now been 24 days since I officially gave up smoking which I think is a pretty respectable period of time so I now feel ready to start again. Hehe, just kidding I promise I have had a couple of slip ups – mostly when I’m drunk, as for some reason, as I’m sure most people are aware, lung cancer and atherosclerosis become so much more attractive when consuming vast quantities of alcohol. Nevertheless, I am remaining strong when sober and am clutching my bag of raisins which my mother assures me will take the bite off the craving. Like most silly and illogical things my mother comes out with, this one turned out to be quite right. Raisins really do work. They also give you a sickly feeling in your stomach. It is inadvisable to consume more than 300g in under half an hour.
Training is also going well. We have our first ISK squad training of the year this coming sunday so it would probably be a bad idea to get too hammered the night before I’ve now settled into a routine of training four times a week which has meant I’m already starting to feel the effects in my sparring certainly as Viper Squad sessions continue. I am a little worried I’m going to burn out or my university work will take a definite dip but we shall see. I may have to review my training programme in a couple of months. I’ve also taken up swimming once a week and after getting off to a brilliant start of 32 lengths last week (that’s half a mile of avoiding fat people and screaming kids I’ll have you know), we slowed to a crawl of about 10 lengths in an hour in yesterdays session – treading water and attempting to drown each other is just so much more fun.
Things in my personal life (jeez that sounds like I’m actually structuring this thing!) seem to be pootling along really well. Rob and I have made it a resolution to explore as much of Cornwall as possible and we started out this last weekend visiting Hell’s Mouth and walking along the cliffs there although unfortunately the cafe was shut so no cream tea for us *sad face*. We then went for a quick walk along Portreath beach, exploring the caves as we went and returning home for a much needed chicken curry after a long day in the outdoors I’m planning a trip to St Michael’s Mount at some point and I’ve also been told about something called treasure trails which take you all over the countryside (and hopefully point the way to a few good pubs ) so should be worth a try. So all in all life is feeling pretty awesome at the moment
Music of the month? Has to be Rammstein – if you haven’t heard them before look them up, I only discovered them recently but they blow your mind! Try Bestrafe Mich, Du Hast, Ich Tu Dir Weh and Du Reichst So Gut. Oh and if you’re looking for something a bit lighter I’d go with Rihanna’s Only Girl, it’ll make you feel like a whole new woman
Bye for now.
Howdy 2011 :)
Although I’m currently supposed to be helping a friend with her essay I feel that my brain cannot cope with sexuality and gender issues at this time so I am taking the time to update my blog instead…first post of 2011!
So…Happy New Year!! *fireworks, sparklers and champagne* and all that jazz As possibly mentioned in previous post I spent NYE in Cornwall with a few friends and lots of alcohol, which resulted in my first ever experience of bringing a traffic cone back to someone’s house. Pointless but invigorating. However I think the costumes deserve a mention too – myself and one other were dressed relatively normally whilst the three boys (I’m hesitating over the word “men” here) were booted and spurred as Star Wars Stormtroopers and Biker Scouts. Needless to say walking through town was accompanied by every single passersby feeling the need to scream ”OH MY GOD STAR WARS, AAAWESOME!!”, yes, well done, you chav. One shout in particular made me giggle a bit “Aw they’re definitely gonna get beaten up but at least they look cool”…luckily no one felt the need to swing a punch. I doubt even awesome martial artists dressed head to foot in white plastic would have the flexibility to defend themselves from over-enthusiastic revellers.
So yes, NYE was a great night and it felt very special to be seeing in the new year with my wonderful other half. Resolutions for this year are mainly based around improving in Tang Soo Do as much as possible (yep, still addicted), concentrating a little more on my degree (….) and quiting smoking. This last is actually going quite well so far – it’s already almost two weeks since my last cigarette, although there are days when I feel like screaming, crying or hitting something really hard. Kinda makes me feel bad for boyfriend having to be around me but I have to say I’d find it a lot harder if he wasn’t there to help.
TSD has had a huge kickstart this year as I’ve been training almost every night for the last week and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change much. Saturday was national squad training up in Bedford with Master Kumar Snr, Master Anesh Kumar and of course Master James. We concentrated on sparring for the first couple of hours, introducing a number of drills into general sparring which I think with a little practise could work for me. My main problem in sparring as highlighted in the Viper Squad session on sunday is that I find it hard to commit to full on attacks like blitzes and so on…will need to rectify that soon if I’m to be any use in the World’s this summer! After sparring we had a very enjoyable hour of Chil Sung with Master Kumar Snr during which myself and the other green belt who had travelled up from Cornwall were given the chance to practise Chil Sung Sam Roh alongside the other dans and Masters. Was a little daunting but was interesting to experience the changes to the form as they were being introduced. The seminar ended with a recap of all the sessions still to come in the months leading up to the Worlds and also with the news that Grandmaster Giacobbe will be travelling back over to the UK to give a seminar sometime in February. After the success of the last seminar he held I am keen to get back up to Bedford to hopefully learn more from such a respected and well liked practioner of TSD.
The next grading is set for the 13th March so that gives me about 8 weeks to nail down all the stuff I need which I already sort of know but they just need TONNES of practise. The Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun is disgustingly awful. Is a pretty cool mix of kicks but because of my horrific co-ordination and lack of grace I end up looking like I’m actually drunk when attempting the kicks. The Ho Sin Sool has always been my preferred syllabus stuff and I’ve found that practising them whilst in a swimming pool is so much more fun than normal. Mainly because you get to dunk your partner’s head under the water on the final move. When experienced on the other end its not quite so fun however…especially when you open your mouth to yell ‘OW’ before being forced underwater. Mouthful of public swimming pool water…ridiculously yum. Then there are two new forms to learn for the grading – the next Pyung Ahn form (no. 3) and the first Bo Staff form. Staff has never been my strong point, basically don’t trust me with a big stick especially when I’m required to whirl it round my head. Luckily the first form isn’t too swirly so I shouldn’t hurt myself or others too badly. The Pyung Ahn form is interesting as it is mainly made up of movements that are quite difficult to perform gracefully and effectively. It is obvious that this form can look very ugly indeed if performed robotically or with too much tension. It’s good as it provides more of a challenge than previous forms though I can’t say I particularly like the form. So lots of things to learn and practise over the next couple of months, starting with training this evening which I should probably get dressed for. Lying in bed in pjs is just too much fun really, I know you’re jealous right now
Last thing - Music. Try Halestorm’s I’m Not an Angel, Offspring’s Why Don’t you Get a Job?, Incubus I Miss You, R.E.M Perfect Circle and Feeder’s Oxygen.
Sunshine in the Dead Days
In the past I’ve always seen the days between Christmas and New Year as the ‘dead days’ in which nothing much happens except you get fatter and more lazy as a result of too much left over turkey and a need to read all the books or watch all the crap you were given for Christmas, leading to one spending endless hours on the sofa. The ever-present desire to return to ‘normal’ life, i.e. anywhere that isn’t at home with family, bites particularly hard this year as I’m struggling to deal with a decided lack of boyfriend as he sits at home in Cornwall, as well as the obvious absence of clubbing, drinking and general student life.
However, aside from these occasional (correction: constant) pangs of loneliness and irritation at the stifling presence of over-bearing parents, this Christmas holiday has been going quite well. This is down to a few main things:
- Enormous amounts of rich food provided by, and cooked by, Mother who is without doubt the Best Cook this world has ever produced, a title earned by her simple addition of fresh vegetables to every meal, something which as a child you loathe with a passion and later as a poor student living solely on pizza and chili burgers you begin to crave with gut-wrenching longing.
- Copious volumes of Mince Pies, made by the wonder of Mother and eaten for breakfast, lunch and an accompaniment to supper (and often in between) with custard and/or double cream.
- Family. I hate to admit it but sometimes you really secretly enjoy it when you’re shouted at for not making the bed or smothered by a flour-streaked mother, things you really can’t find anywhere but Home.
- Alcohol. Or more accurately, Expensive alcohol. This is linked to No. 3 as it is only under the warm umbrella of the Family Home that you are given a wine glass or crystal tumbler which is every so often refilled with wine (or champagne if you’ve been particularly good that day and done your fair share of the washing up)with labels suggesting it comes from a far-distant fairy land filled with castles and nymphs where the grapes are tended all year round by centaurs who wear cute pink uniforms and are then crushed individually beneath the gentle feet of millions of tiny elephants. Needless to say, this is welcomed with open arms by even the most deprived student who nevertheless has the ability to recognise good alcohol when they see it.
- Retail therapy. Now this comes in two parts. First of all, of course, is Christmas Day, when you are given curiously shaped and beautifully wrapped and beribboned parcels which contain, for instance, the much-coveted pink abercrombie & fitch hoodie which you’ve been dreaming about since you were old enough to appreciate the difference between filth like jack wills and the incredible coolness associated with A&F. Occasionally you do get to open gold wrapped presents which when opened produce tears of happiness which so startles your keenly observing grandmother and you are forced to hold up wordlessly a copy of a martial arts book which means absolutely nothing to her but still means a lot to you on account of the person who had given it to you. Who of course, is that most wonderful and special person, the aforementioned Boyfriend. The second part of this great consequence of Western Capitalism is the dash to the Post-Christmas Sale shopping to engage in the wonders of finding utter bargains, which are still far more expensive than you would dream of buying under any other circumstances, but still, the bright pink sign in the sky did say UP TO 75% OFF!! which gives itchy fingers on the credit card to even the most deprived young mother of 16 living in a council house and sucking up the welfare state. Not that this is a Bad Thing of course.
- Lastly, Church. Anyone who knows me will know that I am not religious at all and will thus be very confused by this ‘Church’ business. Anyone who knows me a bit better will know that actually, I harbor secret religious tendencies which every so often propel me gently out the door and into the cold and draughty House of God which always seems to be filled with old people in various stages of decay and sickness. Such is the Will of God. So yes, midnight mass on Christmas Eve was an enjoyable experience and I have no hesitation in abandoning my usual cynical composure and saying that I left filled with the Joys of Christ. Or the spirit of Christ at least
So here I am with only a couple more days in the bosom of my family before I head off back down to Cornwall, University, Tang Soo Do and Love. I’d say that was a pretty good immediate future
Ding Dong Merrily on Hiiiigh!
Christmas is approaching! 12 days to go Is quite scary actually how quickly it’s come around. This time last year I’d only just begun university and was still adjusting to the change of living in Cornwall away from everyone I knew, in Halls up on campus, and had only recently begun my TSD obsession. How very strange to think how much has happened in just 12 short months.
Training is going through a rest period at the moment. I recently graded up to 5th Gup so am not stressing about upcoming TSD events thankfully. I’ve managed to pick up quite a few injuries over the last couple of months so am looking forward to resting for a few weeks at home. Though no doubt after the first week away I’ll be desperate to get back into the Dojang! Sadly my parents have never been very forthcoming about letting me practice self-defense on them so I shall be running through forms in the back garden on my own for a few weeks. Coming back in January I’ll be back into squad training sessions as well as the odd session up in Bedford to train with the rest of the UK team. Last month’s session when Master Kumar travelled down to Cornwall was a serious work out so hopefully with a few of those I should work off the Christmas Turkey flabbiness in no time A topic under discussion at the moment at the Club is ‘personal progression’ and how much effort each of us puts in to developing areas we think are not as strong as they should be. For my part I’ve always known that I have a much stronger right side so I tend to prefer kicking off my right leg, kind of bit like shooting myself in the foot really. Kick combinations I often find difficult, especially if it involves spinning or jumping, though I think that’s more to do with self-consciousness than anything else. It’s irritating actually, I thought I’d kicked the self-consciousness over the past year but apparently I still worry about looking/feeling stupid in front of everyone. Bit vain really. I think also that sparring is a weak area for me. I like the technical aspect of learning self-defense and forms and so tend to neglect sparring as I (please don’t jump on me) do not think it is as important as the traditional side of the art. However, it’s exciting and means I can support the team better if I’m stronger in this area. It’s also a challenge – if I know I’ve got something to work on that I don’t necessarily feel particularly attached to, it’s interesting to see if I can raise the will power to succeed at it. Next stop…quiting smoking! haha So yes, lots of things to work on after the Christmas period
Holidays are coming at a good time too, I’ve recently come down with yet another bug so nights spent coughing my lungs out are leaving me worn out and exhausted. Work is also piling up with research project due in next week, and with very little sleep my energy levels are feeling pretty depleted. The fact that I have to spend my last few days in Cornwall working my ass off isn’t ideal and I’m a little down that I can’t spend the time with either my boyfriend or my friends who are sure to be out partying this last week. Ah well, just means I’ll have to make up for lost time in the New Year hmm will have to think up some good resolutions for next year, ‘put more effort into degree work’ should probably be in there somewhere. I’m finding priorities are real bitches some times. Sadly you can’t spend all day in the Dojang and all night in a club…apparently.
On a brighter note, I recently went to my first ever live concert in Plymouth with my other half to see Taste of Chaos where four bands were playing – best of all was Disturbed and Papa Roach and their music is pretty much constantly playing in the background these days. The first band, Halestorm, managed to surprise both of us, turning out to be pretty good. Their song ‘Familiar Taste of Poison’ is also on repeat at the moment. It was an amazing experience to go to a live concert, can’t understand why I’ve not been to one before! Was a great night out with a lovely person
Music of the Month? Try Disturbed’s ‘Asylum’, ‘Inside the Fire’ and ‘Another Way to Die’; Papa Roach ‘Last Resort’ and Halestorm’s ‘I Get Off’ and ‘Familiar Taste of Poison’…oo and ‘Love the Way You Lie by Eminem & Rihanna. Cheryl Cole’s ‘Promise This’ is on the black list I know but is always fun to dip into girly stuff
