Bubble And Squeak

It’s time for ‘Random Round-Up Tuesday’, where things that might have happened over the last few days make their way into the annuls of obscurity forever, courtesy of my blog.

I had a massage on Sunday, the first of my life so far, It was a present from my better half. We’ve been to the hotel and spa where it was before on a cheap deal out of season, so I knew the place was nice and was really looking forward to it. Originally it was booked as a sports massage, but ideally these are to work on specific injuries as I understand it, so instead I had a deep-tissue massage on my back and legs. It was awesome, there’s no other word to describe it. Parts were actually very painful as she dug her elbows into knots on my back, but as much as they made me want to shout ‘aaahhhh!’, at the same time it just made me grin like an idiot. That might also have been due to my face being contorted with it squished down the hole in the table. When it was over she told me to take my time and get dressed when I was ready, and I just lay there for what felt like half an hour but was in all actuality just a few minutes. It left me feeling warm and a bit vague for the rest of the day – I’ll be going back for more.

I see that as of today HD-DVD is officially dead, thank goodness. Not that I had anything against it, far from it, it was the only format with a finalised design and format, but what I didn’t like was the choice and not knowing which format would ‘do a Betamax’. For once it wasn’t the Sony format. From now on if you want HD films, you’ll be either downloading them or buying them on Blu-Ray. Personally, I’m going to wait for the ‘profile’ nonsense to die down before investing in a player.

Tonight sees the last training session before our visitation from the Masters from the EMTF. I’m starting to get quite nervy about it now, but excited at the same time. Nervous because we represent our club and county, and more than that our teacher. How we perform (or perhaps more worryingly, act) reflects directly on our Sa Bom Nim. But giving some Um to that Yang (I like that way of thinking at the moment, you’ll have to excuse me repeating it) is… well, exactly the same thing actually. As much as it’s a possibility (however remote) that it could show us up, it’s perhaps more accurately a chance for us to show just how good we are. How hard we train, how hard we strive for as close to perfection as we’re going to get, how seriously we take our training, and how dedicated we are to the continuation and growth of our art. Whether or not it comes over like that is another matter.

I’ve also had confirmation of success in the Great North Run ballot. So it’s official, I’ll be running, walking and crawling the 13 miles around Newcastle this October.

This afternoon I have an interview with the head of Personnel at the company I work for. Hopefully by the end of the day I’ll have a firm understanding of what lies in wait for me at the end of this contract, and how long I’ll be able to keep going before I need a regular income again. My employment buffer.