(no subject)
I haven't felt I've had much to write about here for a while, but looking back there are a few things to catch up on.
The highlight of the past few weeks was my sister (scamp) and her husband coming down to visit us for a weekend. On the Friday night we went out to a new night of Ed's called Supersonic - all 90's indie stuff, and although I have slightly mixed feeling about nostalgia nights, it really was a lot of fun and packed with great music. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed (deliberately, as we'd overdone it last time they visited!), but included lots of PS3 gaming and a trip to The Dove St. Inn.
I was having a frustrating time at work for a while. I was trying to get started on a new project, creating a prototype of a new network test tool, but stuff just keep getting in the way - about a week's worth of mandatory corporate training got dumped on me with no warning, then a series of full- or half-day meetings to do with re-organisation, and then a support for a project I thought I was done with some time ago. Anyway, I did eventually manage to get to work on it, and a sudden burst of activity got it done just in time for my deadline. Phew!
There's been lots of karate, as ever.
The Sunday (higher-grades) classes have got longer, as we've added a sparring session afterwards, which my instructor joins in with. Left to my own devices, I tend to pick other options rather than sparring in our normal classes, so I'm finding this tough but I think it'll do me a lot of good.
Our club had its most recent grading last weekend, so over the past month there was lots of teaching and helping people to get ready for that, and then I was part of the panel for the grading too. I'm glad to say everyone passed!
And then today I went to the Academy for a technical course - the first I've been to since getting my black belt. The class was taken by our most senior instructors (Mick Blackwell 8th Dan and Billy Brennan 7th Dan), and was all about kata - we went in detail through sa jang and pal jang, including what the moves are actually for, and then went through two katas from other (Japanese) styles, jion and seienchin. It was good, and I learned a lot, but it was hard to take it all in.
Several months after stormy weather finally truly knackered our garden fence, we've had it replaced! Between people not returning our calls, declining the job, etc. we'd almost given up hope of it ever getting done - but three months of persistence by M finally paid off, and last week we got someone to come round, rip out the old fence and all the leilandii trees, and build a new solid fence for us. On a whim, we also got them to cut down the previous owners' spiky tree that was quickly growing out of control (it was nearly as tall as the house, and the guy told us those trees can grow to two hundred feet! What were they thinking!?). It's made a huge difference, and the garden feels like a much bigger space now ... albeit a slightly unfinished-feeling one. Hopefully, we'll sort that out next weekend!
The highlight of the past few weeks was my sister (scamp) and her husband coming down to visit us for a weekend. On the Friday night we went out to a new night of Ed's called Supersonic - all 90's indie stuff, and although I have slightly mixed feeling about nostalgia nights, it really was a lot of fun and packed with great music. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed (deliberately, as we'd overdone it last time they visited!), but included lots of PS3 gaming and a trip to The Dove St. Inn.
I was having a frustrating time at work for a while. I was trying to get started on a new project, creating a prototype of a new network test tool, but stuff just keep getting in the way - about a week's worth of mandatory corporate training got dumped on me with no warning, then a series of full- or half-day meetings to do with re-organisation, and then a support for a project I thought I was done with some time ago. Anyway, I did eventually manage to get to work on it, and a sudden burst of activity got it done just in time for my deadline. Phew!
There's been lots of karate, as ever.
The Sunday (higher-grades) classes have got longer, as we've added a sparring session afterwards, which my instructor joins in with. Left to my own devices, I tend to pick other options rather than sparring in our normal classes, so I'm finding this tough but I think it'll do me a lot of good.
Our club had its most recent grading last weekend, so over the past month there was lots of teaching and helping people to get ready for that, and then I was part of the panel for the grading too. I'm glad to say everyone passed!
And then today I went to the Academy for a technical course - the first I've been to since getting my black belt. The class was taken by our most senior instructors (Mick Blackwell 8th Dan and Billy Brennan 7th Dan), and was all about kata - we went in detail through sa jang and pal jang, including what the moves are actually for, and then went through two katas from other (Japanese) styles, jion and seienchin. It was good, and I learned a lot, but it was hard to take it all in.
Several months after stormy weather finally truly knackered our garden fence, we've had it replaced! Between people not returning our calls, declining the job, etc. we'd almost given up hope of it ever getting done - but three months of persistence by M finally paid off, and last week we got someone to come round, rip out the old fence and all the leilandii trees, and build a new solid fence for us. On a whim, we also got them to cut down the previous owners' spiky tree that was quickly growing out of control (it was nearly as tall as the house, and the guy told us those trees can grow to two hundred feet! What were they thinking!?). It's made a huge difference, and the garden feels like a much bigger space now ... albeit a slightly unfinished-feeling one. Hopefully, we'll sort that out next weekend!