9 posts from December 2008

Whatever plague has been gripping me for the last few weeks has managed to turn particularly nasty, we've all been there, sitting on the toilet at two AM because we don't know if we can get up and stagger back into bed only to have to run back to the porcelain torture throne. I'm lucky, since today i don't have to be at The Book Shop 'till four so i've had most of the day to sit in bed and recover.
By tonight i'll have missed aikido twice in a row, and thats just not on, but since i can barely stagger around at work i'll probably hurt myself more on the tatemi than learn anything, which is the really frustrating part.
Yesterday i had a treat, one of the traveling players formerly a part of the pan pipe group APU was performing near where i work, so i got to listen to him playing in my lunch break. I love the sound, though it makes me feel very nostalgic and not a little sad, seeing this short man wearing bright clothes playing beautiful music in a horrible gray dirty city full of chavs*. He should be home for christmas.
How sad? this sad:

Incidentally, i did enjoy Gears of War, and i'm rather behind the recent slough of game adverts that use rather good if relatively unknown artists to provide backing music.
oh, and you all need to read this:
http://www.thedevilspanties.com/
Its not satanic porn! its feminist, in a sensible way, which is the only sensible thing about it...
just read it a bit, if its your thing, then you'll read it all, if its not, then you don't have'ta 'kay?

Time to go get dosed up and brace myself for another four hours of retail hell.

CURAHEE!

*If you don't know what a chav is, you're lucky. CPS refers to them as 'nominals', that is, people who are normally commiting crimes and getting caught. drug and booze addled lowest denominator idiots who dress like they think harlem gangsters dress, despite being white and about as well armed as pound-land(tm)  kitchen utensils can make them.

www.screwattack.com  is a gaming website. its very good, honest.

In other news i've just been working my butt off and trying to learn new Aikido without much success. being tired doesn't help my lack of talent and any promise i showed with a bokken (wooden sword) was marred by the fact that at one point i could not get off the floor. Not so good, Sensei Paul was not amused at my lack of resolve. For the most part i blame the damn plague, whatever it is this particular pathogen is starting to get on my tits.
     There's not much in my life i can really say i regret but alot i would like to change. I wonder if i could have another trip around and be less of a sickly whelp. Ah well, this is my path and i must walk it, bare feet ashes and all.
    oh, in much better news, Sparahawk and her Partner in Crime are reopening a club in stockton-on-tees on the site of the former Angels lapdancing club, it is named Midian and looks to be bloody great, whatever you're into, if its on the alternative side you'll love Midian. Its frankly unbeleivable how much work has been put into getting the place off the ground and running well in the last couple of weeks.  With that kind of resolve i'd say its a dead cert to be a well established cavern of, well, anything they damn well want it to be and a little bit more.
   

first of all, the Sensei Alan Ruddock course was an absolutely amazing experience. i had to sacrifice a bit to be able to go and do the weekend (and i'm sorry to those people i had to say 'no' to, i'm honoured to have been invited to ALL your parties, functions and heavy metal concerts) but i felt it was something that i had to go and do. i think i am finding what tsunetomo referred to as a 'way'. My way might not  be Aikido, but its close. I'm very tired, sore, bruised, dehydrated and confused, but it was awesome. I have learned more than i can possibly put into one post but beleive me, this man has to be seen and heard to be truly appreciated. Friendly, approachable, willing to help, and so very very highly skilled.
          ""   ..."AAARGH!", this is not Aikido, if i was giving my grandma a piece of cake i wouldn't scream and throw it at her. the cake is in front of me, and I pass it forward. simple... ""
    As a vicious counterpoint to this flowing martial arts weekend extravaganza i just returned from nearly two hours of instruction in ground fighting that las left me bruised and twisted. This too in its way has been awesome, but don't think i'm too much of a wuss if i say 'oww'.  I think the last time i almost had my knee in my ear-hole  I was having altogether more fun.
 now is shower and sleep time. more to follow

Well, unfortunately although yesterday went really well my 'mild' head cold has laid me out. I'm dosing up on probiotic and other meds to try and shift it by tomorrow. I think it was standing in the cold yesterday waiting for my bus. Ah well, it all balances out. The rough weather meant not too many people turned up for the book release and the ravening horde was really only the usual afternoon rush of Christmas shoppers. So a not-so-hellish day for me yesterday and a not so grand one for me today. Karma and all that.
    Certainly I'm better than i was at this time last year, I think I managed to be Ill through christmas and into the new year. Touch wood i don't have swollen glands and joint pain so this is just a bout of me being a wuss about my sinuses and I'll be ready to rock tomorrow and try to learn some cool stuff from Sensei Ruddock.   
    I called one of my teammates yesterday, Trooper1975, and I'm glad his mob are doing ok. They live in the Cheshire area where this measles epidemic is going on, so my thoughts go to them and all the other families in that area. its kind of frightening, icy weather and a measles epidemic are two things that light up the board on the 'worst case combination' monitor so I'll be keeping an eye on things and praying my paranoia is just that. The mass vaccinations being rolled out by the NHS prove that the specter of British Health-care can still be dragged out of its golden chains to do some good though, and its reminded me that just occasionally i can be proud of something my country does.
     No doubt the picture of me wielding what appears to be a firearm AND a bottle of liquor, however satirical, has piqued the interest of at least some robot at the home office, for reference, its an RIF (Replica Imitation Firearm), and I am a member of the UKARA (United Kingdom Airsoft Retailers Association), but since you're looking;
   
                                        Dear government,
                                           Don't bugger things up.
                                                              Thank you.

My god its cold, the electric fan is going like the clappers I wish i was. *badum tish* tomorrow is my journey unto the rainbow bridge. Wish me luck, and if i die in battle, fear not, I will clear the way to Valhalla before you.

A blog, this 'blogosphere'. I don't know, a diary of sorts that everyone reads for the gratification of the author and the readers. I wonder what Tsunetomo would make of it, i doubt approval would be forthcoming. So, with that in mind i'll press on regardless.
    I'm English, so lets start with the weather. Its cold, wet, and entirely disappointing. I have learned over the years that when the news promises us epic apocalyptic snowfall we get half an inch of the damp stuff that makes getting to work a bit iffy 'till you make it to the major roads. Kudos to Nothernshore though, she grasped driving on ice very quickly and managed to stop the car on a rare patch of the shiny stuff without incident. I feel yelling 'pump the brakes!' was totally superfluous on my part, and nobody needed a change of underpants. 
     As you might have guessed, the major crush on my freedom to sit on my bum and do nothing particularly spectacular is that I work in a book shop that we will hither to refer to as 'the book shop' because I might want to complain a bit and slander it, and I'm vulnerable to a good kicking from the faceless corporate owners of said book shop if they read my blog.
                                  Hmm, 'read my blog', i'm getting ahead of myself.  *tap tap* is thing thing on...
Anyway.  Tomorrow is the UK release of the new J.K Rowling book and its probably going to make my little store look like the vikings turned up... if vikings were rabid fans of an uppity teenage wizard with serious sociopathic  tendencies and emotional attachment issues stemming from the death of his parents. Its not that i don't like Harry Potter, its that raving fans unnerve me a bit and having to tell a million of them 'no, we are sold out' might result in either the fans or myself exploding into some kind of paroxysm of apoplectic rage. Perhaps i'll just make a sign ready to hang around my neck when the stock disappears simply saying 'NO'  and weakly point to it while sipping tea to calm my shattered composure.
     Speaking of shattered composure, I get to meet Sensei Alan Ruddock this weekend. He is one of the few people left who trained with O sensi (the founder of Aikido). Theres a short interview with him here : http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/6550/alrud.htm
 and I recommend even non fans of the ArsMartial to have a read. He seems a very honest man, and highly versed in his chosen discipline. I expect to lapse into some kind of self conscious coma and forget even the basic five pins.  Still, looking forward to it with a mixture of boyish excitement and trepidation.