Eye of the Liger!

It's less than a month to exams - I have an accounting assignment due shortly and I have done NONE of it.

I've been at work after 7pm twice this week and past 5 for the other day (Monday was a public holiday) and I also expect to be there late tomorrow (tho I have a Dr appt @5 tmr re: b12 and folate - eep!) as I launch the project we've been working on since last year - alone. NORMALLY I feel bad putting in for overtime - only putting it in when pretty much told to (I tend to put it in as flex) but this week I'm all 'tears in bucket etc' and putting in for EVERY MINUTE - I'm on HD atm - hooray for time and a half at my bosses pay, thankyou very much!

And the Dan Camp, Seminars and Tournament are getting close now... VEEEERY close.

So, with all this tournament stuff getting closer, I deemed last Friday to be a good time to practice sparring as I hadn't done any yet. I msg'd youngest bro to come to the hall early with me, and I was getting my butt KICKED when I got a hit into my shin that caned through my shinpad - you know the type of hit that makes you hobble around, grasp at your leg, mutter and feel a lil nauseous?

No?

I'm sure you know, Adam.

Anyways, I accidentally kicked him in the 'boybits' a little later, so we rested until class started.

The class itself was fairly informal - we had two rings going and rotated through so that everyone got a few fights in, and somewhere in there I copped TWO MORE kicks thru the shinpads on the same leg, one right on top the previous bump from youngest bro!

(In a kind of sentimental note, he was one of the ones that hit me in the same place but then saw I really WAS hurt and asked if I was ok in that tone of voice that you very rarely hear from a bro)

The night carries on and I jump in for another fight (against the lovely gup who's 18th I got hammered at not that time ago) and I managed to cop a knee to the OTHER shin! I was cursing and limping, couldn't put weight on it, almost teared up and felt a terrible rising in my stomach... "It's fine, keep going" the Dan running the ring says... "Easy for you to say, it's not on your frickin leg!" I wail around my mouthguard - I pull up my pants leg and it was bleeding! The friction of this guys (heave) knee thru his canvas pants and my canvas pants into my poor shin cut up the shin and bruised it blue straight away!!! I've NEVER seen that happen before - the poor guy was so apologetic!

After class I had to go with Magf to look at a few bridesmaids dresses (still not finalised on one) and then onto her house for another 5 hours of paperwork (this Friday will be the third in a row, not to mention the weekend time we've been putting in) and sit with my shins covered in an icepack and a bag of brussel sprouts. It hurt to walk on the Saturday, and I still can't lean down on my shins. Luckily they're now a palish yellow (plus the grazey scab) as opposed to the black-purple-blue they were, but it ain't gonna be pretty at the races, believe you me.

ANYWAY, the real point of my story is that I was FURIOUS at myself for getting hit so poorly and letting it affect me so much. I was whining at Magf (who copped a swollen engagement finger knuckle (of all the fingers to hit in!)) about how much it hurt and pointing at them and she asked why my shinpads weren't covering all my shins...
"...they should go all the way up to your knee!"
"Really? Mine only go about halfway up...?"
"How long have you had them for?"

Good point - I've only ever had one pair, meaning since I was 12 I've had the one pair. Ignoring the 'ew' factor, I've grown some over the last 12 years, so they proddly ARE a lil on the bitsy side:

(They don't go up this far, nor are they that well padded OR that white!)

So during my uni break on Wednesday I went into the city to have lunch with The Hun and check out the martial arts store for some new shinpads - I showed the dude my bruises, and came out with THESE BAD BOYS:

BOO-YAH!

"These are the only ones I'll use - the only ones you'll ever need - With these, you'll feel invincible! It will do wonders for your confidence!"

They are ROCK hard but toally legit - they cover my entire food and my entire front and sides of my shins - I jus gotta wear them around the house a bit so they loosen up - and now I'm kinda looking forward to it! This has also been helped by the fact that the only people in my sparring division now (excluding the team sparring) are Magf and I!

Wanna come see me get my ass kicked kick some ass*? Email me and I'll send on the deets!

*(I'm expecting 3 second places for my 3 2 person divisions, and unsure about the rest...)