Pick me! Pick me!

So the awesome Po tagged me a few days ago in one of those '10-random things about me' posts. Here goes:

1. I hate fakeness. I hate mind games. I hate people manipulating other people. I hate people messing with my friends. As a result I spent many years with only close male friends. Girls are too higher grade.
2. I love stretching. Well no, I hate stretching, but I love the feeling afterwards when everything feels sort of relaxed and cared for. Even if Leia tends to push my feet in weird directions while I'm trying to hold on to my toes... And we stretch in the lab so my shrieks of pain are occasionally investigated by some mildly confused academics!
3. I'm addicted to Ninja Warrior and Takeshi's castle. I think airing them together is such a good plan - ninja warrior is awesome but makes me feel inadequate, while Takeshi's castle is full of people like me doing incredibly silly things! Like Karaoke? I mean who the heck thought that one up? It's awesome!
4. I'm easily amused.
5. Things are changing a lot faster than I'd expected. A lot of it is a result of me changing, but I'm sad to see the end of some things.
6. I am learning how to do some really confusing stats, but right now I think I might just understand it. This scares me.
7. I don't feel old enough for the responsibilities that people think I'm ready to take on. I had a mud-fight and got stuck in the mud a few years ago, had a sword fight in the middle of the night while running down the street less than a year ago, and climb trees from time to time. How on earth am I mature enough to lecture, supervise students and start thinking about getting a job (it has been suggested that I apply for two different ones, and I'm terrified of both of them!).
8. I think applying economic models to everything in the whole world is a great idea. And fun. Definitely breaks the ice at parties.
9. Lately I've changed from conflict-avoidance to getting-it-all-out-there-ance. I'm tired of tiptoeing around things. And things change when you meet them head-on (just wear a helmet).
10. If I don't stop this I'm going to be late for tai chi. And that would be sad.

Thanks Po!

I tag Candice, Leia and Luke for this one (if you think this might be you and you're not sure, just do it anyway!).

SHINEEEEEEE!

So Tai Chi last night was AWESOME! Not in the learning-a-lot sense necessarily, but in the all-out fun and awesomeness sense it was one of the best lessons I've ever had! I'm officially learning my first sword form and it's insanely difficult as I'm not really used to having a long sword in one hand.

Believe it or not it's amazingly easy to forget that you have a long shiny thing to hold on to and I ended up scraping the floor, hitting pillars, holding it at the wrong angle and so on. And there's SO much to remember!

It was also made slightly more difficult for two reasons: firstly my teacher (or his Dad at this stage) isn't going to be there on Thursday because my teacher is going in for surgery and the whole family is going to be staying with him, so we'll have the sub again. I like her, but I think he was slightly stressed at leaving us to do more than just practise. Also I seem to have acquired a reputation for earning amazingly quickly - which is OK for the hand forms - I generally understand the motivation behind things (because they're explained really well) and so I go home and practise so that my arms and legs can catch up with my brain. This was made slightly difficult by my not having too many swords lying around at home...

Either way he was pushing us to learn more and more and more last night and I was totally lost and confused! There's one step that I found particularly difficult until the guy I practise with told me to pretend I was spin-bowling a cricket ball with a sword in my hand. Then it was much better! And the teacher was getting frustrated that we couldn't learn half the form in an evening...

Secondly the guy I practise with got mildly.... sword-happy. I understand, it's very very cool to wave a sword around, but there were moments when I was convinced I was going to lose appendages by the end of the lesson (the swords aren't sharp, but they can probably inflict a nasty injury if wielded at speed...). He's also done wushu before and so knows some sword-wielding and so every now and then hes start windmilling the thing around without checking how far away I was... and I would screech and jump out of the way while the rest of the class watched and giggled (we were the only young ones last night and I think they all feel vaguely parental towards us and find us highly amusing! I think they have had bets running as to the time before first blood). It's also difficult because we're used to practising a certain distance from each other and now we have to readjust so we don't hit each other while still being able to see each other and the teacher properly...

After the milliont near-miss I did what any self-preserving individual would do - I stole his sword and ran off with it! And then I tried to point both at hm but it didn't work... I need to learn more!

All the while the advanced people were advancing from the other direction doing the more complicated form. And the beginners were practising their stuff in front of us. I'm getting good at backpedal-hopping without missing too many steps or losing posture! I think we need a bigger studio!

Despite all this, there's something amazing about learning to use a sword. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. It feels almost... right... in a way to have it while you do stuff. And a lot of the steps involve standing up with one knee brought us and leg bent at an angle while you hold it horizontally over your head like this:

image from here


and it feels amazing! I can't describe it! It's so much fun!

Anyway i stopped on my way in to the lab this morning and got my very own shiny sword! And I can't wait to get home and practise! I'm not ever that sore from the TOD (as long as I don't move my arms too much...)

the joy of all things shiny!

So it's been a pretty good 24 hours! Leia finished teaching so we OD-ed on sugar to celebrate, Candice came for tea (not in a semi-comatose state this time) and the stretching really really helped with my soreness, there was a mega thunderstorm which was really exciting and I had to get home early to do something for my mom so I got to take a nap!

The nap plus a generous dose of painkillers meant that I managed to almost walk into my tai chi class! Sadly enough the people I usually chat to weren't there, but it was actually quite nice to get to know the others - they were all really awesome! And once we'd done a few warm-ups and group activities (while dodging the pools of sweat from the aerobics class) we split off and I went with the advanced group to practise the form I've been working on (there is beginner; me and advanced at the moment...).

Once we were done, instead of the group giving me feedback and the teacher leading me off to work on things he said "So you're happy?" and I said that I know some of it needs work, but it's in my head now and it's just a case of needing arms and legs to catch up and I can do that at home. So he asked me (get this!!!!!) if I wanted to start on sword work!!!!!!!

I got the biggest smile on my face and bounced around in total excitement (so much so that most of the group started grinning) and about three different people started showing me warm-ups while I tried to avoid stabbing anyone all the while babbling about the shiny-ness! The teacher (the father of the usual teacher this time) just laughed at the whole situation and said that we're a class of many teachers. They didn't seem to mind.

And so I got to stumble through the form a few times and end up with my word the wrong way or hitting people or whatever (they had been very kind and made sure I had someone to watch at all times - it's hard to follow something when you're turning all the time) and the amazing thing is that even though I had no idea WHAT I was doing it felt really really cool!

After all that the substitute teacher from last week, who has been helping out since the mom and the usual teacher aren't around at the moment took me aside and taught me the first couple of steps, how to hold the sword and that sort of thing. It was SO much fun!

So of course when I finished to find that TOD had come to find me to schedule training for today I was not impressed at all. On the plus side even though I will be in a lot of pain tomorrow, I'm mostly ok today (gotta love arnica!) and he's got me a pair of boxing gloves so I get to hit him! Which is awesome considering the amount of pain he has been inflicting on me over the last week!

Must go and finish running now, wish me luck!

Tales of doom (or it it Boom?)

vs


(Yes, more LOLcats. So sue me.)

I'm kind of fluttering between attitudes at the moment. On the one hand I am in severe pain - after the two hour-long torture session yesterday morning, followed by an hour of tai chi (with extra stretching - ouch!) last night (it was AWESOME! They let me play with a sword and I only hit myself in the head with it once!) I was pretty much unable to move this morning.

Of course I had a 9am session with the trainer of doom (from now I will call him TOD) so I managed to sort of fall out of bed (I'm ok as long as I don't bend my knees, so getting up from sitting, or sitting from standing hurts. A lot. Walking up stairs is slow but ok, downstairs not ok at all...), eat breakfast (not wanting to risk a repeat of yesterday's lunch-inhale), play with my dogs (slowly) and get myself there.

I met the TOD who was WAY too chirpy and I told him that I was in pain and it was all his fault. He laughed, lead me to a treadmill and blamed the tai chi. And then he made me run.

Here I must mention something. I have "one of those faces." you know, the face that says "I care! I love to listen. Tell me all your troubles oh random stranger and I will listen and sympathise and agree with everything you say." And generally I like the way that I meet very interesting people through their tendency to meet me and spill out their troubles. Of course trying to pass my drivers test while the examiner went on about her divorce and subsequent relationships was a bonus (I don't think she watched me too closely), while working at a vet, it is generally a bad thing (where you end up listening to things like: "And then he stroked the dog and it vomited and he just knew... and that was my fifteenth pet. My sixteenth was a kitten named Fluffy..."

Once people get to know me they tend to notice my total lack of tact and ability to give usable advice and then they can confide in me and I will not repeat what they tell me and I will sympathise because I actually do care.

But when I am trying to run on rather achy legs and not die, I am not particularly sympathetic about anything other than my own unhappiness. so when TOD decided to tell me about his girl-troubles I was most bemused. I mean I'm all for small-talk as long as I can breathe, but when you refer to your sex life as "doing the Boom-Boom" and discuss all four girlfriends in detail... I just want to fall off the treadmill. On the plus side my gasping at the effort stopped my natural response which would be to giggle uncontrollably and leave the room with tears streaming down my face.

And now I hurt. Leia and I were doing our twice-daily stretches in the lab (I will beat these silly short hamstrings of mine!) and I couldn't even get into the stretching poses without using my arms to push my legs into position. I had my legs crossed earlier and I only managed that by literally picking up one leg and pushing it over the other...

And poor Leia has had to put up with me. Because guess what:

And I whine. A lot. Now more than ever. And the poor girl has had to put up with my random ramblings on the awesomeness of tai chi, the pain of whatever TOD has made me do this time, the fact that the guy I really have a thing for went to her high school and a great deal of whining about the pain...

Yesterday she finally caved and told me to suck it up and shut up.

Sorry Leia, you rock. And thanks for knowing all the weird muscle groups and stretches that stop it hurting quite so much... And for listening to all my rubbish!

And of course I apologise in advance for my attitude tomorrow after I go and finish off this morning's exercises this evening and then have another session with TOD tomorrow!

If I ever get around to getting a sword I'll let you try it out!

If we were supposed to kick our own ears we would have been born with spaghetti-bones!

So lately I've been having an ugly few days. You know when you wake up in the morning and your skin is bleeeuh and your hair stands on end and you have that LOVELY pillow-crease down one cheek? This was all exacerbated by the fact that I've been feeling a bit sick for the past few days. Why?

Well lately I've been getting healthier and healthier. Without realising it I'd stopped eating junk food, exercised more and yadda yadda yadda... And so when having an ugly day I did what every other girl (I hope) does. I got chocolate. Which quickly turned into me eating more junk food in 3 days than I have in the last month. Stomach ache much? And of course trying to use said stomach muscles to support me in tai chi... not so much.

Tuesday was awesome, I kind of just ignored the nausea brought on by having bought lunch instead of packing it in the morning, as well as having ice-cream with someone I'd rather forget... and it was so much fun! So much so when the class ended we thanked the teacher and ran back to our spot to carry on practising! Then having had a mega-bucket of popcorn on Wednesday (and skipping gym in order to go to a girl's night movie evening) and going through a lot of chocolate and biltong-flavoured crackers (which rock) yesterday, I went off to tai chi to find out that they expected me to do this:

And this:

This morning I kind of hobbled in to the lab with legs of jelly... (the jelly flavoured like pain) and resolved to eat properly, stop skipping gym to eat popcorn and try and find someone who will sell me an IV filled with coffee. And start pilates again so that I can build up some kind of core strength. Mine is gone (I had some! I promise!).

On a happier note four of the searches that have found my bog lately are (drum roll...)

horst kleinschmidt
parents and pocket money uk
how to make shoelace don't drop off when running
lizards eat beef

Which I think is far funnier than the previous ones (of which my favourite was "If something happens to me, I got people" or "What do you do if a lizard on head while sleeping")

Makes me want to start an advice column...

Pass the pink

It's freezing! It's been raining all day (apparently it started around 3am) and I'm totally unable to get warm. I went for a run on Wednesday and pushed myself a bit hard and now my ankle is punishing me - partly for overexertion and partly for not moving to the Sahara or Mexico or something. I swear I'm going to be one of those 90-year-olds who can predict the weather based on ankle-twinges.

I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster lately. I guess there was some truth in what that person said when they said that my wearing pink signified that I was looking for change. Thigns ARE changing, but it's not a pleasant experience. Wednesday was one of the worst days I've had in a long time, although I was rescued by a friend who didn't quite know how to handle me and so talked about other stuff. I felt better after that.

Thursday was one of the hardest days I've ever had - mostly a result of Wednesday. I won't go into details, but there were some things that needed doing, and I did them. I spent a lot of time inwardly cursing Hollywood as well. It's all their fault! They make it look so easy and then you realise that while ripping off the bandaid (so to speak) may be the least painful method, it doesn't mean it's pain free, particularly when you're a slow healer...

And then there was Tai Chi. I know, I've had complaints that I talk about it too much. It's my blog and I will discuss the art of looking graceful (or trying to) while kicking someone (imaginary) in the shins if I want to. So THERE!

Anyway Tai Chi was my saviour. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, I had my ankle strapped to the point of non-mobility and I wanted to crawl into bed and cry rather than be sociable with the Tai Chi crowd (who are actually pretty awesome people, even if most of them are 20 years older than me and far more flexible that I ever will be). There were two beginner-beginners and me, and the advanced folks, so the other two were given some stuff to start on while the teacher (well the temporary teacher anyway) basically taught me a ton of new stuff! Bearing in mind it took me 3 1/2 weeks to learn the first form which only had 13 steps, I think I learned 11 this week of the new form! And one of them is the coolest thing EVER! It's called 'single whip' and it's SO much fun! I bounced out of there feeling so much better about life!

For the record the teacher totally thinks I'm crazy now! I think he noticed that I wasn't really myself and he was super-nice to me, while he fixed a lot of stuff I think he let more slide than usual because he knows I love learning new steps. His son (the real teacher) said he'd take over us newbies next week, which makes me quite nervous. I know the basics but there's a lot of polishing up I need to do to get it perfect.

I was on the Tai Chi high pretty much until halfway through labwork, when exhaustion set in and by the time I left (after 10 grueling hours in the lab) I was barely able to walk, and I had to go home and make dinner which woke me up somewhat.

So now I'm stuck with the dilemma- I'm freezing and I've got aches and pains. Is this punishment for the last week? Or is it the start of Swine Flu? I really wish I knew because right now I'm shivering with a blanket around me and I'd quite like to get to the gym and warm up, but obviously if I'm going to get a fever or something that's a bad idea. I tried practising tai chi but my house is too full of furniture and WAY too cold!

So for the record: "what's your problem?" is not something I want to be asked. In whatever code. It's nasty.

6 weeks to catching lizards and being able to breathe again! Just 6 weeks! 42 days and counting! I want to get away right now. Maybe I need more pink?

Lazy eye... lazy tongue... lazy leg?

So Tai Chi was totally awesome as usual again last night! I may have scared the teacher a bit because he asked me after class if I was enjoying Tai Chi and I think my enthusiasm may have scared him slightly...

Anyway after making walking a little bit more complicated we finally learned some new steps because one of the beginner guys did something I can't pronounce that included aspects of Tai Chi and so he was getting bored and asked the teacher and i joined in. I can't remember past the first two steps but it was fun after doing the same 5 or so for a week...

The other interesting part was watching the teacher prioritising students. Prioritising is a bad word for it, but basically he would ignore the people who were there for the first time (I sidestepped this issue during my first lesson by asking questions ALL the time!) or the people who weren't trying too hard. So basically the people next to me were doing things upside down or backwards or missing steps entirely and he let it slide, and just told them to make sure they were expressing themselves and to try and 'feel the energy' and other abstract concepts.

The new guy who is totally better than me was picked on for not making his stance stable enough (I was picked on for that as well, but not as much) and I was corrected for the tiniest things like how I held my head or if my hands were too far apart or if my toes pointed in or not. This suited me well because I'm really loving the way that it's slow enough for me to really concentrate on getting each step right.

Anyway the whole point was, when we were walking I was stopped because whenever I balanced on y left leg and then stepped out with my right, he could hear my right foot landing. One a wooden floor! bearing in mind that the stance is something like this: (you start on the back foot and step out transferring your weight to the front foot once it's in position)Do you see why he might hear something when i put my foot down (and said foot is wearing running shoes with thick soles which doesn't help I don't think).

As it happens when I start on my right foot there's no problem, so basically my left leg isn't strong enough to control my entire body, complete with shifting centre of gravity until I'm ready to stand on my right leg. Weird.

So now I spend many hours doing this:

But just on my left leg :)

As long as I dont end up like this guy from Lady in the Water...

On the plus side I wore my new black and pink boots today and everyone has loved them! And according to one of the masters students I was speaking to this smorning, gravitating to pink things is a sign of change. And I think change is a good thing!

Here's a photo from my phone because I'm too lazy to find a real camera and I know that if I dont post a picture I may be lynched!