A new begining.

Well, all, welcome to the new home for my collection of rants and recollections. Whilst the CLAWsWiki has served faithfully for years, the era when the majority of people who I wanted to keep in contact with were members of that list is long since gone and with the recent almost two months of down-time on the site (and counting) I felt now was time for a change. So with that I will get on with the account of my recent travels:

While I was a fool to think that all my stress would end with my job, the Jitsu summer school was still a fantastic break from it all. The drive from London was very long and slightly infuriating for the fact that I would have been able to help if my driver’s licence hadn’t been stolen along with half my life in my bag a few weeks earlier. I’ve missed driving, and being unable to contribute just left me feeling anxious and frustrated. Also the available radio stations were kak, and the third passenger Dan was lifting had an aversion to The Cure.

We arrived in good time though, pitying the poor sods yet to leave from London. Had a bit of quiet time, then joined the mad rush up one hill carrying branches, back down it and then up another hill (now in the dark) due to a misunderstanding on where the ‘permitted’ firepits were. I had failed to bring a torch and resorted to having to use my mobile to find my way up and down that evening. In fact at points there were a horde of us stumbling backwards and forwards accompanied by the merry glow of our phones – a fairyland scene accomplished with modern technology and broken by the occasional “Shit, owh!” as feet managed to find what the phones didn’t

It was a great evening getting to know, in majority, the girls and boys from the jujitsu forum I frequent who were along for the weekend. I was exhausted however and after waiting past the point of dignity for someone else to be the first to go to bed I eventually caved. As is the case with these things I’d hardly got down the hill before a substantial portion of the crowd followed, since now they weren’t the official fader. It’s fine, since I believe how to “party all night with the knowledge that you have to get up and face Jitsu in the morning” is something only taught at green belt level (or in varsity clubs.)

The morning dawned far too early for those of us un-used to communal sleeping conditions. Those ‘poor sods’ who left so late from London had decided to make up for lost time on the partying – and not so silently too. On top of that the order of the hour was to get into our bathing costumes and take a plunge into the plunge pool. It was cold. So very very very cold. You became so very very very awake as a result. We’ll call it an ‘experience’.

The jitsu session itself was really interesting, but by that time the combination of the prior few weeks spent in constant stress and my lack of sleep caught up with me and caused a complete sense of humour failure. So after realising for the first time in well, ever, I wasn’t going through a jitsu session with a mad grin plastered to my face and turning my ankle while landing for the third time in ten minutes I decided to sit the last quarter of the session out.

In the afternoon the goal was to climb a mountain. A foolish one for someone with a damaged ankle, but I was in good company what with one of the forum lasses who’d damaged her knee. I never intended to go all the way to the summit, but we’d climb a distance, take a break, with me puffing, panting and eventually declaring “Okay, I’ll go up one more section, just one more, but no further.” Each time.

Eventually I gave up, but after five minutes of admiring the view on my own I noticed that I’d actually done 95% of the climb and it would be pathetic not to finish. It was fantastic to get to the top – although as always, we realised that there was a hell of a lot more mountain off in the distance yet to be climbed (explaining all the seemingly over-kitted people we’d passed going the other way.)

The rest of the weekend was great; I won’t be so quick to join in a game of “I have never…” again, broomstick contortions are still a skill I possess, while dips in ice-cold water may be excruciating, they do do wonders for your bruises and the Lake District is magnificent!

And so shall I end “Holiday Journal Part 1”. Meanwhile in present reality I’m back in Cape Town at home with the family with the intent of getting my CV and portfolio organised and buying a car.

It’s really nice to be home. I get fed, driven around, generally catered to. It’s wonderful. However, the down side is this case of lethargy I get every time I come home. I don’t know what causes it, but one of it’s side effects is it makes me somewhat anti-social. I’ve been here for almost a week and I’ve hardly seen anyone. Admittedly for most of last week I was, as my brother charmingly puts it “The International Plague Monkey” having come down with a case of flu I must have picked up in my last weekend in London which I’m still not entirely over.

I have found a Ju-jitsu class down here, but the sensei is away this week so no session.

On the CV and portfolio side nothing has happened. On the car side, we’re coming along merrily despite the fact that I can’t get a job without a car, I can’t get a car without finance and I can’t get finance without a job…