Where have I been?

Well so much for starting to keep a blog. I have done a fantastic job so far in just wasting space on the internet, and so begins a concerted effort to start keeping this blog more up-to-date.

So what has happened since I last posted. Well...we have been in out new house now for 7 months, and have so far done hardly anything to the house. We finally brought a dinning room table to tranform the dinning room from a box storage room into somewhere to eat comfortably. Although we will only probably ever use it when we entertain.

I have been running around all over the country swinging swords around, the taking part in the BKA Iaido and Jodo national competitions. Yes I also took up Jodo. This last weekend also saw my first opportunity to train with the soke of the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ru, Iwami soke, the weekend was very tiring, but excellent.

Im hoping for the rest of the year to try and spend some more time in the new house with Frankie, and try and see some more of our friends and family.

Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu UK Seminar

This weekend saw the first Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu seminar to be held in the UK with Iwami Toshio soke, the 11th Headmaster of the ryu. I was lucky enough to attend. It has taken a few days for my body to reach some sort of normality, and for my brain to process what went on. It was the first time the UK has had the privilege of hosting such a seminar, with France and Finland previously being the venue for Europe in recent years. I think it shows how far the level practice has come in the UK in recent years, and that is down to the dedication of 2 or 3 of the main guys over here maintaining regular practice with Imai and subsequently Iwami soke whenever the opportunity has arose.

The 3 days were fantastic; there was a real buzz around the dojo. The seminar was led by Iwami soke, along with Nagaoka sensei and Thierry Comont sensei, and was attended by students from across the UK and Europe. The level and intensity of practice was really high, it was great to see some of the more experienced guys from both here in the UK and in Europe doing their thing, as, well as whole bunch of quite new guys, and witnessing the enthusiasm of the teachers to pass on their knowledge to us.

The weekend was a fantastic success; everyone got a whole lot out of the practice, and I think we did ourselves and Iwami soke proud. Talking to him on the nights out made you realise how down to earth he is, although I’m not sure the other tables in the restaurant realised what they had let themselves in for that night; 60 tired and hungry martial artists shouting “sassen” and the alike in unison were met with a few interesting giggles and looks. The first two days were so intense, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the third day; I think Nagaoka sensei’s enthusiasm and encouragement pulled me through.

Now a few days after the event, my body still aches, but I cannot wait for our next keiko and dosokai practices, should be a jolly good scrap.

Its almost Christmas...no training!

So its almost christmas, am I ready for it? Of course not. The good news, certainly for me, is that we finally moved into our house on Sunday. One problem though was we didn't manage to get the fire working until last night, and its f-ing freezing.

And of course christmas break means no training for at least 2 weeks. No football, no Iai or Kenjutsu. On the plus side, last week we got an early christmas present from Scott, and learnt some koryu, Tsuke Komi from Shoden and Iwanami from Chuden. And also got some nito work in before the end of the year.

End of the Year

Well, I’ve only just set up this thing and it’s already the end of the year. Hopefully at the start of next week we’ll be in our new house, after over 6 months of house hunting, meeting mortgage advisers and speaking to impossibly boring estate agents.

But what about the rest of the year, and the rest of my life…

Well, it has been a good year all in all. Frankie has got a job back at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, making our lives an enormous amount easier. The 140mile round trip each day was starting to become a little bit of a pain to say the least.

The discovery of facebook has meant that I have been able to make contact with an enormous amount of friends that I haven’t seen for years, old school friends, and other people I have lost contact with.

I have managed to loose around three and a half stone over the past 9 months, mainly by cutting out bread from my diet (oh yeah and 90% of the beer). Apparently this has made me more confident, although I don’t think so, although I am happy now that I can go into a regular high street shop and buy a pair of jeans that fit me, without having to ask if they go up to extra fat size!!!

After a full year of training (without breaks for...well breaks, in bones) I managed to pass my Ik-kyu (Iaido) on November at the Darlington Seminar, and are now really looking forward to a fun packed 2008, when I'll hopefully be taking Shodan, and hopefully training with Iwami Toshio sensei, the 11th Soke of Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu. (And hopefully learning some Koryu)

The begining of the end!

Well I thought it was about time I joined another of the staples of internet life. Not that I think that anyone will, in anyway be interested in the crappola that enters, and leaves my mouth and mind through this blog, but its good to vent.

Anyway. I hope someone, somewhere finds some nugget, in amongst the inane ramblings, if you do, please let me know, cause I'll be damned if I know of any.