It probably hasn’t gone unnoticed that I’ve been a bit slack on the posting front for the last couple of weeks. In all honesty, most of the posts would read “Stayed up late, watched rubbish, ate and drank too much”, but I figured I could do with a rest mentally as well as physically. There have been some things of note happening, so here’s a quick run-down.
Christmas itself was good. We did the obligatory Christmas social events (meals with parents, seeing friends) which were great as always, and on the big day it was nice and relaxed. I had a lot of nice presents including some games I’d been after, music, films and books. And naturally socks and smellies :). We took the pup out for a run in the woods in the afternoon and came across loads of people with the same idea, it was so quiet and peaceful, the total opposite of how Christmas is for many I think.
Since then I’ve not been up to much at all really, except yesterday which saw our Tang Soo Do club meet up with the local Tae Kwon Do clubs for the annual “Blow out the cobwebs” event on one of the beaches at Newquay. Last year was my first time, and I was really looking forward to going down again for a spot of training and a dip in the sea. It didn’t disappoint. We started off with a warm-up run around part of the headland, which meant running through the sea, which in itself was a good indicator of the tempeartures we could expect at the end of the hour. Then it was on to the usuals; basics in lines, self-defence, one-step sparring and lots of forms (patterns for TKD guys). It felt good to give Pyung Ahn Sa Dan an airing, I think it’s finally starting to get there, there’s a long way to go yet though. At the end of the lesson we’re asked to remove our belts and approach the edge of the water, then we perform basics whilst marching forwards into the Atlantic. There were a few bemused looking surfers, wrapped from head to foot in neoprene, watching as we kept going further in, until we were given the signal to go for it. Like some kind of giant, hairy, dobok-clad salmon in I went, and it was just the most refreshing thing you can imagine. After weeks of drinking, eating rubbish and messing my body clock about no end, it’s exactly the wake-up I needed.
Now all that remains really is New Years Eve, which by the sounds of it I’m going to be spending in the company of my old friends, which suits me perfectly. I hope you all had fantastic Christmasses, and here’s looking forward to the multitude of good intentions and broken resolutions for 2008 ;).