UCL Lost Boys

Less than 2 weeks actually, until the Euro Kendo Champs….

Life is a balancing act at the moment. Kendo, work and family. Work just happens, it has to for the others, but it’s invading more and more into the other two at the moment and I’m not happy about it, particularly considering the total fucking peanuts I get paid to deal with assholes and shitty situations (and having a fucking balls commission system given to me as rhetorical justification for being paid shite……oh, did I mention that there is probably no fucking chance of a pay rise this year as well….maybe time to look for something else methinks. I’m actually starting to feel insulted by all this…..)

Family is good. The wee fella is starting to walk now (usually waving whatever he has in his hands above his head while doing so, before falling forwards, usually, and alarmingly, forehead-first into my balls. He’s got the fight in him.) but more importantly, he shit himself with such veracity today that some of it got out of his nappy, and his little romper thing and into his trousers, ready for an unsuspecting me to drop it on the rug when I thought about changing him. Nice.

That leaves kendo. I’m still getting the good hours in , averaging 3 on a bad week, and good quality too, actually. The power station in particular has actually been pretty dam awesome recently, with plenty of newer younger faces (though last week I watched old men who couldn’t do kendo trying to teach each other how to kendo….it was frightening….)

If you read this rubbish regularly you will know that I am going to Hungary for the EKC next week, leaving Japan on Wednesday for a week. My focus has been pretty good of late, and although I’m not getting the 5 or 6 a week that I was before, I feel that I am probably getting more out of my practise because of the mental approach, especially at the moment. Admittedly, I’ve binned working on my crap techniques for now, so just concentrating on doing what I can already do better is definitely easier, but I’ve managed to put some positive pressure on myself and also identify areas of my mentality to shiai that can be improved, which is paying me back big dividends at the moment. These are mainly an over-riding desire to win (in that it over rides common sense and my own understanding) so making sure that I keep that in check, and essentially detach my mental state from the situation. I obvioulsy have to understand what is required at the time, but the focus is back to the kendo I can do as opposed to the result.

This leads nicely in to the other mental point, which is the kendo that I can do. Having thrown away everything that is only half done for the moment, and going back to my nuts and bolts, my confidence is definitely at a high right now, because shit just works. I’m moving well, I’m controlling and dominating well, and I’m forcing myself onto situations pretty dam well too. It’s all there.

As always there is stuff that I need to improve or keep in check (such as my kamae when I think too much about winning, and using seme to put the other guy under pressure instead of just exploding, to create a more decisive ippon) but this is all very much under control right now. I’m feeling good!

Just jet lag and results after this!

Oh, and I got the new armour, so pics when I can be arsed. I sold my soul and got an iPhone too, so I’ll do something gay with that to put pics up, when I understand it properly and don’t accidentally send my whole phone book to someone I don’t like.

I was thinking, on my way to work (it happens every now and then) about what TopGun would have been like if, instead of the call signs the pilots have in the film, they have comedy ones instead:

“Ass Hat, you’ve got a bogey on your 69″

“Roger that Sea Biscuit”

“Clown Shoe is down!”

“Mother fuckers! Leave him, Ball Bag, he’s mine!”

Way more interesting. I’m in for the remake, TopGun 2, assholes in the air.

It’s got legs.

The boy has been getting bigger and bigger recently, and doing things like learning to stand on his own,  eating more and more different things, pooping all over himself and the high chair, and breaking the wireless mouse on the computer by lobbing it across the living room. Seriously, he just grabs stuff and throws it over his shoulder.

Cheeky little blighter.

And this little sculpture too, one of my greatest works:

On the way home from the dojo at the weekend I was extolling the virtues of baby breaking my shit to one of the teachers, as we walked back to the station after practise. He relayed a great story of his where, after spending 200,000 yen on a nice big comuter for his home, he got back one day and tried to turn the computer on, with no joy. Looking down at the machine he saw that the disk drive had 2 knives sticking out if which had cookies strategically inserted next to them as well. Unsurprisingly, when he took it for repair he was advised to bin the thing and buy a new one.

Tidying up a few days ago I picked up an empty DVD case that was missing both discs. The wife had no clue where they were, not in the player and they weren’t in the immediate vicinity either. After some serious searching I managed to find both discs, rammed under the carpet with bits of chewed up biscuit stuck to the bottom. I daren’t put them in the player…..I don’t think technology and biscuits mix well….

Little bugger.

What the fuck is up with people here? Eh?

My contact with one of my clients has gone totally fucking snooker loopy recently, and has decided that making unreasonable demands of me and my staff is the order of the day, whether that is criticising the work I do despite not giving me the info to do it (including refusing when asked DIRECTLY) or telling someone that they have to predict the birth of their child to book their due holiday in good time, I just can’t get my head around it.

Some people need “lacks common sense and people skills” branding clearly on their forehead as a warning to anyone talking to them that they are about to enter the fucking twilight zone!