Finally, a change in the weather!
Isn’t it funny that all everyone seems to do in this country is moan about the sodding weather all the time, but what an influence it has on our lives. Yesterday was one of the nicest days we have seen since waaay before Christmas and even though it wasn’t entirely warm the sun was out, the sky was virtually cloudless and it just had that hint of summer that has been missing for what seems like an age. The best part was I had the day off and took great pleasure winging my way down to the beach with the windows open and the best of ACDC blaring out, only to be greeted with appalling surf but hey ho, nothing could change the fact that summer is rapidly approaching and soon I will be clad in shorts, feeling hot sand between my toes and eating ketchup drenched charcoal in a roll, get in!!
I think I have already been in the sea more times this year than I did for the whole of 2009 and as result I have had a huge resurgence with my surfing. It has been inspired by my girlfriends, sisters, boyfriend who is obsessed with keg farming and has led to several days off driving all over Cornwall searching for the absolute best surf location possible for the sea and wind conditions. Unfortunately it’s not really something I can dedicate huge amount of time to at the moment with my already busy schedule, but its great to have that part of me back again and hopefully now the evenings are starting to get lighter I will be able to go in after work soon.
I am also very aware that my guitar playing has virtually come to a complete stand still outside of work which is something I have been meaning to rectify. I know this must sound daft as I specialise in this instrument for my work and am generally good to be holding a guitar for most of my working day, but I cant remember the last time I actually sat down and tried to learn something new or just spent time trying to improve my technique. I had an hour or so to kill the other day when my boss had gone home and the shop was completely dead, so I thought I would go onto the guitar floor and have a good play but I was amazed at how bad I have got and how much better I used to be a year or two ago, so I am now very enthusiastic to get back to where I was and hopefully move forwards.
In general I have been going through some very bizarre musical phases over the past few months or so. Last year I came out of my massive Black Sabbath phase, replaced it with about half a year solely dedicated to Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, only to change literally over night and go through a Hip hop phase mainly listening to Mobb Deep (hence the recent Facebook profile picture) and then onto Johnny Cash… which I feel requires special mention. I had a Johnny Cash phase a year or so ago but never to the extent I have this time. I mainly refer to his last collection of studio albums commonly known as ‘The American Recordings’, the first of which was released in April 1994 and the sixth and final instalment came to me on the day of its release, 23rd February 2010. I don’t think I have ever taken so much interest in an artist and his life, and the impact it has had on me has been incredible. As the albums progress his life and health suffer dramatically, culminating with the loss of his wife and soul mate which led to his own death under four months later. It can be quite hard listening, is very sad and often morbid, and contains lots of references to death and religion but it is absolutely superb and well worth checking out. In fairness it is pretty much all covers of his own favourite songs, but he completely makes them his own. The best two albums in my opinion are ‘American IV’ and ‘American VI’ (his last ever studio album before his death). My other most played album at the moment is ‘Devils and Dust’ by Bruce Springsteen. Epic.
I was going to write a post purposely leaving out Tang Soo Do for a change but I couldn’t do it! The European Championships are now only 22 days away as I type this and I am starting to get very excited. I’m not quite sure why though as I think that this is the least likely of all the tournaments I have competed in so far that I will actually come away with anything other than bruises. It’s not a lack of confidence on my part, it’s just that at my current level the competition is going to be really, really hard this time and I can’t see myself getting an easier draw as I have done at previous competitions. Even so it feels like ages since we had a club outing and I cant wait to load up the cars and get the hell out of Cornwall for a few days. I have worked hard on my sparring over the last couple of months in the build up to the tournament and apart from the odd bout of injury and illness it has been quite steady going. It is the forms that are causing me the biggest headache at the moment as I am learning subtle, but dramatically important differences with my chosen forms at every senior class and it makes me wonder if I will ever get it sorted before the tournament. Very worrying, especially as I have had a couple of mind blanks when performing in front of the rest of the group recently, so I am praying I will be able to pull it together when it matters and it will be alright on the day.
It also wouldn’t be right if I didn’t completely cock up my application form, which I managed to do again this time. I sent off the form somehow forgetting to pay for and tick the banquet section, so I had to send a very late and grovelling letter to Master Kumar in the hope he would add me to the guest list. Fortunately for me he sent a really nice e-mail back and I am glad to say I will be dining with the rest of the British team afterwards! There is a grading this weekend which I have been told I will feature in, despite not being immediately involved, and it looks like myself and a fellow first gup will be demonstrating for the day which is a pretty nerve racking thought but I am relishing the challenge. It does feel like I have been shying away from my responsibilities at times, especially if I look at what my immediate seniors were doing when they were the same grade I am now so I guess it is about time I did something meaningful at a major club event. The trouble I have is that I get extremely nervous when put in the spotlight, so god knows how I will cope at the grading but we shall see. At least I wont be alone.
Well that’s about all for now. For some reason I can never get the whole embed/website-link thing to work on here so if you get a minute copy and paste this: Bruce Springsteen – Reno into a Youtube search browser and select the third entry down (should be a picture of the album cover) and enjoy… pay special attention to the lyrics 
More sun now please.
