Rumours Of My Death…
…So erm, yeah. Hi everyone, hope you’re all OK? Nia, Shelley, Rose, Jax?
I haven’t really been motivated to blog much since the wifi finally got installed a couple of weeks ago; things have been manic with the flat and work. I just nearly got made redundant (again, this is like the 5th time in 3 years) and am currently re-training in a much worse role so that’s been kinda keeping me busy as well. I am lucky to still have a job though and be able to pay the bills, that’s the main thing!
I haven’t had much to say recently either, in the most part I guess because asides from the work thing everything else has been really great and I think when I’m happy I just tend to enjoy it and when I’m not then I get all introspective and analytical about it. As an aside, things are so much more awesome than this time last year, which is pretty much when I started Tumblr’ing properly. I’m trying to keep some self-analysis on going though, continually trying to look at my character and refine and try my best to be the man I want to be, not get complacent.
Anyways, after a couple of years of semi-hiatus and indifference I have fallen back in love with Aikido again and thrown myself headfirst back into training. I went through a few years after I got my shodan where all my peers and friends had gotten injured and then quit, I was also busy trying to establish a career in a busy, high-pressured law firm and I was living with someone and trying to run a home and maintain that relationship. I fell out of training and when I went back there was generally no one of a similar skill level for me to train with or to challenge me, so it got very limiting. I went back to it last September on a casual basis but this year I got to new the new students and I’m really happy to say that they are the best bunch we have had for a long time. They show up regularly, train enthusiastically and conscientiously, are lovely people and they socialise too. They’ve inspired me and accepted me as one of their peers and I’m really proud to call them my kohai (juniors) and my friends. In Japan there’s a hierachial system of Kohai/Sempai, the sempai is basically a sort of ‘big brother’ figure, which although I’m also an instructor is how I really feel and how I’m most comfortable being referred to. When my friend Tim comes back from Afghanistan (I worry about him so much every day) we’re going to go for our 2nd Dans together.
After they announced the redundancies at work I got to thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and the possibility of going to be an uchi-deshi (live in student) at a dojo somewhere was something that I got to thinking heavily about. I found one in Colorado ran by an amazing guy called Gaku Homma who is also a great humanitarian (I know virtually nothing about his technique but every time I read an article of interview of his I am impressed by his attitude and compassion towards everyone and everything) who does a lot of charity work and makes his students help out. I’d also love to train with Christian Tissier in Paris, he has the most amazing and dynamic movement I’ve ever seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJSHEyyKZg&feature=related
Then there’s also Robert Mustard, Chida and Takeno of the Yoshinkan. There’s a weekend long course with Robert Mustard down in Nottingham in October and I’m thinking about seeing if we can get a mini-bus and taking the students down there as a sort of field trip. He’s awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHG0Esuntk
Sorry to gush about something as specific and uncommon as aikido that I’m sure most people have no or little knowledge/experience of but it’s been a long time (4 years to be precise) since it’s been this big a part of my life. For comparison purposes, here’s a clip of my friend Steve and I doing a demo for Cancer Research UK a few weeks ago (I’m the guy in the blue trousers doing the throwing). Long way to go before I’ll be as good as the guys above but it’s always nice to have something to aim for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eixsxevvwgk
I kind of bastardise my aikido with a lot of Jujitsu and Judo and though I practise Aikikai (tradional style) I also like to try and use a lot of Yoshinkan (a harder style) movements and throws (like the leg sweep) so this is probably not representative of the art as a whole.
Moving on, the flat is going well. We got an awesome coffee table and my bed came, it’s really nice to have a proper bedroom again and a comfy mattress. We’re going to go get our dining room table and bookshelves and sort a fireplace out this weekend hopefully and then we’ll be pretty much done asides from getting some artwork etc up on the walls.
Neil and I went to see Neal and Jon a couple of weeks ago and it was an amazing gig. I’d really missed them since 2008 as I’d kinda gotten used to seeing the Cardinals every year. Neal was lovely and chatted to us in a very laid back way and Jon was so funny, he really cracked me up. Neil always had some sort of irrational dislike of Jon because of the way he dresses or something but after the first couple of jokes he turned to me and said ‘I was wrong, I love him.’ During the support act Jon came out of a side room and the door accidentally clanged shut behind him and he scampered off making a sort of ‘oops!’ face. It was pure physical comedy. The set-list was great too and they both played together amazingly. I’d only seen Jon play guitar once on Rescue Blues in 2007 but he is an amazing lead guitarist and his back up vocals were perfect. I think I would have won any sock war though as he had black and grey stripes on whereas I had gone for odd blue stripes, one sock light blues, the other sock dark blues. Punk rock baby. I got a few pictures but it was so intimate (crowd of maybe 80?) that I didn’t want to take too many and spoil it for people (I don’t use flash anyways but still…). It would have been nice to hear some Cardinals stuff but I can understand why they wouldn’t play any these days…I didn’t stick around to talk to them even though I wanted to, I get weirded out by talking to people in bands etc. I’d hate to hassle anyone. I once talked to Converge when they got off stage but only very briefly and they were lovely guys. Photos to come soon.
Love and hugs and weekend good times,
N x
