I’m absolutely knackered today.
I wish I could say it’s because I had this wild weekend and am still recuperating, but it’s nothing as glamorous or hedonistic as that. After training on Friday I was all geared up and ready for the local Rock Night, which is my favourite night out and I hadn’t been for the previous three months. Well, now we can make that four months. I had a frantic call as I finished training to tell me that the taps in the new bathroom had broken and that water was basically pissing out behind the bath, through the floor and down into the kitchen. Water was running off the light fittings (eek!), out of the extractor fan, and there were huge damp marks on the ceiling where the joists meet the plasterboard. That little disaster put paid to any thoughts of going out, so instead I got an early night.
It was a good idea on the face of it, the kickboxing class on Friday night had been pretty hard and even today I’m still feeling the ill effects of trying to lift someones bodyweight with my shoulders in a sit-up stylee. I got asked at late notice to help with a grading on Saturday afternoon – a second Dan grading at that. It’s very rare to get a chance to see what happens at a Dan grading, so I took the opportunity to help out and to have some of it treated as pre-grading tests for my own Dan grading in the winter. It was a bit of an eye-opener and I can’t say it’s made me want my turn to come any faster. It was reasonably tiring even for me for various reasons, but mostly for a lot of no-pads sparring. There wasn’t anything in the way of pulled punches that afternoon.
I only had a few hours to get my dobok washed, dried and ironed again before I was back at the dojang at Sunday lunchtime, this time for the Gup gradings. It was relatively small compared to previous events, but all of the tension and nervousness was still present. Everyone did admirably well, but with all of the sparring, the big lesson after and then teaching the kids’ class afterwards I’m feeling shattered today. I’d have given just about anything for another hour in bed this morning.
Tonight’s not going to help me much, as Mondays are by far the busiest and most hectic with dog agility and BJJ almost straight after work, and then getting home at 10pm. I am looking forward to dog agility though. Although there’s quite a bit of running about and the chance I’ll land on my ass in the middle of a cold field again, it makes Murph so happy it’s worth it. He gets all happy and squeaky when we get near the place, and the fact that I have a big bag of cheese in my pocket tends to do the trick too. I’m thankful this is only a four-day week for me this week, as I’m off to London to watch the Prizefighter tournament on Friday. I can’t wait to watch the bouts and to sit down and do nothing for a few hours. Sprott’s pulled out, but I still hope I get to see Williams and Harrison knock lumps out of one another.
What I’d do for forty winks about now…