The 'other' camp - 2007

It was just over two years since our last 'other' camp and almost four years to the day since we held a camp in the same place - Friday afternoon I met up with 22 of my adult students to convoy to Tuross for martial arts camp.

It was POURING.

The drive was a little slow but otherwise uneventful, arriving at the camp at about 8pm in time for dinner (where I continued my naughty carb intake). That night I ran them through two circuits and the exact same circuit I'd completed earlier that day at boot camp - perhaps thinking that they could exercise my guilt away, and by the time we got everyone settled it was close to midnight (exasperated by the fact that one of the room lights would not turn off and we needed to shift a room of girls).

Saturday started out a little cloudy but cleared up after the 6:30 session. The day was filled with lot of fitness work, teaching the newly graded students their new combinations and forms and also giving them more experience in partner work, take-downs and jo work, yet they still managed to fit in about 2 hours of ball sports of their own free will! We got to sleep just before midnight again and woke them up again just before 2am for a bit of meditation - nothing like a bit of a shock to the system to feel like you've got the full camp experience.

This morning (Sunday) they were up again before 6:30 for some meditation exercises and then down to the beach for tai chi. After breakfast we took them back down to the beach for 2 hours where it was my task to wear them out as much as possible - but some of them were STILL running around afterwards! We almost lost a few in the rip and a few of them learnt the valuable lesson about white martial arts pants in cold ocean water...

It was great to have almost all of the group together - only two students were unable to make it and they were both from the same strict family with four kids who normally aren't allowed to attend any camp (so it was fantastic to have at least two of them). It was good to do some of the more relaxed stuff where you work as a team or in the large group and lots of fun.

Apologies for this being a bit nonsensical - I think I'm a bit sun-affected and sleep-deprived, and promised to have the photo's up on Facebook for my students to check out (and it's reaaaally sloooooooow!).

Trained belief

I don't know if I'm smart enough for this at the moment (I'm eating terribly, it's late-ish and middle bro, youngest bro and I are off to Sydney tmr to see the Dalai Lama concert and the free talk on Saturday before the drive back).

Was talking to gf1 about her getting a new house mate - apparently the girl does three martial arts, is a 2nd dan in one and knows of me. I only found out the third point after I critiqued that any one who does/has done three different martial arts is more of a dabbler than a martial artist (because I'm a snob like that) but I should give her the benefit of the doubt before being a judger or a hater. She also doesn't know me as such, more that she trains in one of the halls we also train in and I have a sneaking suspicion she's from the school that would use all our gear until one of youngest bro's friends thanked him for leaving all our stuff out for them to use - we bought cupboards and licked that sh!t up quick smart.

Anyways, with martial arts and religion on my mind and without my direct boss in the office, I got to thinking about how easily I can believe or be a part of one thing, yet not another in a similar vein.

I've only trained in the one martial art and I've only ever believed it to be the right way. Like as much as it has evolved and changed over the years, I have always believed it was the only right. I understand that the energy originates from the one point, that the mind then the waist then the elbow then the fist makes the most power, that I can break a concrete block with my head.

I've also only been indoctrinated into one religion. And as much as the churches beliefs or systems have changed, I'm not really feeling it. I don't believe living together is wrong, I don't think contraception is wrong, I don't believe that homosexuality is wrong. On a more base level, I don't know if there is a heaven... I mean, I think I do, but I also think that I don't. I don't think all the things about burning bushes and ascension and parting rivers happened...

I've been to training roughly 3 times a week for more than 18 years now, and I've believed it all.

I've been indoctrinated into the church and would attend weekly on top of class lessons, but I've never really believed it all.

It could be to do with proof - the fact that I can try something out and see how it works. Or is it that I look for it and think it works because I want it to work...? Because then really that should work for religion too, right?

I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to get at - it did make more sense when I was supposed to be working.

Do your religious beliefs follow the same patters as your other beliefs?

(ALSO - Any ideas for post 400? QUICK!)

Hens Night

Last night was Magf's Hens Night.

Organising this party made me realise that I don't want to have a Hen's party - 32 people were invited, 13 people responded with yes, 13 responded with no and 6 people didn't even reply. So many people don't even bother to reply or even attend, and then there's always the other people who pike later on or whatever - more trouble than it's worth! Just another night that you have all these expectations on that will never be as good as you hoped... not that it was a totally sh!t night anyway!

I picked her up to take to the Pole Dancing class and we were expecting 3 people to watch and 9 people to dance... only to find one girl was sick and stayed home, one had pulled her neck muscle and one had had a mole removed so we ended up with 7 dancers and 5 watchers.

I knew that I wasn't going to enjoy the dancing and I was totally right - if there hadn't been so many people watching already, I woulda done the watching thing. I only knew Magf and one of our martial arts students, so I felt reaaaaaally self conscious - and I'm too self conscious at the 'best' of times. I stopped participating halfway through, because I couldn't get the whole spinning thing to work - I didn't shift my weight properly, didn't move my hips in the right way and gripped too hard or not hard enough (did you know that the poles actually spin in the ground?! Neither did I!). I just don't think I'm the type of person who is ever going to enjoy faux humping a pole while squatting, flicking my hair around (I always wear my hair up) or using my cellulite to hold my up as I wrap around a pole... Either way - Magf had a good time:

(yeah - they had costumes to wear over our normal clothes at one of the guests insistance!)

After that we headed out to Turkish (the same place we took Desci and Bob a fortnight ago!) and I ate soooo much. Mental note - explain that when you want falaffel and hummus for a main, you don't want TWO mains - I only ate 1.5 falaffel due to all that bread! Here's Magf, myself and another senior from the school:

(I didn't know I'd been outside enough to get tanlines and I MUST learn to tilt sideways in photos to shrink down those shoulders! )

Everyone was meant to wear pink, but I couldn't find anything pink at home so I headed out to the shop with my old boss on Thursday - that top I'm wearing is actually a dress - guess how much it cost?! I'll tell you! $29.95 for one, or $25 for two (in el-cheapo Sisco), so it was only $12.50! Bargain. Also - see that glass in front of me? Brown Brothers Moscato - GO AND GET SOME NOW!

At dinner there was a bit of downer that started to wind the whole night down - the girl that had pulled the neck muscle is a bit of a high stress drama and was sitting holding her chest during dinner. The girl next to her asked if she was ok and neckgirl replied that she was having heart palpitations - when the girl asked if this was normal, neckgirl replied that it was, but not usually for this long. Because neck girl was sitting with her eyes closed, one hand over her heard and one hand over her mouth (seemingly holding any spew back), conversation started to lull at the table and everyone watched on tentatively. This was proddly the worst thing to do as she started to get even worse and it started to get faster and stay longer, so another girl helped her to the bathroom - she kinda staggered and stumbled there with her friend supporting her. Next thing we new? An ambulance shows up. The staff had laid her down in the bathroom and then she had pains down her right arm, her fingers and hands wouldn't move as they had stiffened up and she was bawling. Anxiety attack. They moved her outside after about half an hour and she sat with the ambos outside for close to an hour - the mood died down a bit, obviously.

So, we fitted Magf out in the gear we picked up from Fyshwick the other week:

(The flashing penis is magentised onto a metal penis badge... all class)

It was at this point I starting feeling my internal monologue kick in - I'm too old for Civic. However, that would then mean that I'm also too old to eat soy ice cream for lunch or salty chips in bed at 2am just because The Hun is away, so it should maybe be that I was too sober for Civic (being dessi and all).

We headed out to the new Uni Pub (not to be confused with either of the Uni Bars in Canberra) and it wasn't too bad it - it has 4 levels open with one more to go - There's a clubby one on the ground floor, a grill house that was closed, a pool floor that was playing 'Roxanne' so we hightailed it) and then an 'executive' floor that requires collars and was hosting a private function. We sat in there for a few hours and the 3 girls (including Magf - isn't that poor?!) that made it to Civic sat on the couches and had a few drinks and only got hassled by a dood once (who was toooooooo drunk and got removed shortly after). I also got a 'nice stick on bear' by some old dood (all the people at dinner got bride beanie bears to pin on to their tops) but I told him it was a Hens Night and continued staring straight ahead.

There was another hens night in there as well - and their Hen handcuffed herself to some guy from the private function and took him into the lift and disappeared for like 20 minutes. Now that is so totally wrong - I don't understand these people who are about to get married and decided that all of a sudden hooking up with someone isn't cheating... it makes me so mad! She was yucky anyways... mebbe hence the handcuffs? It also shocked me how nonplussed her gaggle of hens was about it - I knew that one of them there was to be the sister in law - I'd be SPEWING!

Anyways, we looked for somewhere to dance but the buzz still hadn't come back from dinner (not so much out of worry, I think that ppl were just pissed she done the drama act) and we headed to the convenience shop for something for the drive home (I wanted caffeine and salty chips, Magf a sausage roll). In there another oldish dude said to me "I've never seen a pink dress look so good". Can I say - I thought that was lovely. Not in a "OMG LETS PASH" lovely, but in that I'd felt totally awkward on the poles, stayed sober for the drinking (after the wine at dinner) and watched one of the other two girls talk to about 20 guys that night - it was nice to hear someone say something like that (it didn't sound like a come on that was actually meant to go anywhere, so I took it as a compliment).

Anyways - that was the Hens Night! I'd biasedly say it was the most successful of the three I've been to, but I still don't think I ever want one of my own.

Welcome back, me?

Hullo - she has returned.

I'm back from my three nights away - rising at 5:45, spending 9 hours a day at the hall, and keeping an eye on five 18 - 22 year olds (and one 40-something).

It was suprisingly tiring for what it was - I didn't do any training and when I wasn't teaching I was wandering around and correcting, not sweating it out. We had an hour and a half for lunch for two days and I managed to nap during both. We were up at 5:45 each morning but were asleep by 11, but still suprisingly tired!

The candidates did a fantastic job - protocol started to lapse towards the end, but Magf and myself were just as much to blame and I'm not that stressed by that sorta stuff. It was good to see them bonding and getting friendly and it was also good to see youngest bro step up as the senior of the group.

There was an amazing amount of rain last night - 12 hours of rain! Something I haven't seen or heard for a long time, and something that definitely made it easy to get to sleep when sharing a bunk bed room with another person.

We also found two tiny baby sparrows! I headed out to the bathroom and heard something fall behind me - it was a tiny little baby bird - I ran into the hall and fetched the 40-something lady to come fetch it as she has done a lot of wildlife caring and would know what to do - she picked the little fellow up (who was amazingly uninjured) and put him into a tissue box. Not two hours later there was some chirping in the hall (louder than the rest of it) and there was another tiny fellow sitting in of the sheet nets that were hanging from the roof! The hall was over 100 years old and had all these nests in between the walls and roof and the birds were falling out (I think the nets were put there to cushion the fall from all the babies) so we were lucky there weren't more. She has taken both of them home to look after and will release them near her mothers house - her neighbour has sparrows everywhere, apparantly. They were so cute (so tiny!) and I wanted to take them home, but knew that it wouldn't be a good idea with The Hun's dislike for animals and the whole rental agreement with the not having of the pets (including goldfish!).

I think I'm off the blues train again - I think that having some time away from everything was helpful (thanks Adam and Mick for your talking me through, I really appreciate it!). I think that being in the camp situation (which is such an all-consuming environment) helped to put a full stop it in all - like when you slap down on a mosquito bite to stop the itch. I just needed an 'out' to catch my breath.

What was also helpful was reading more of my Buddhism for Dummies book that I bought a little while ago. Whilst it may seem that I'm jumping onto D'jen's bandwagon, it's something that also I've been thinking about for quite some time, more actively since my vegan transition - and with the Dalai Llama and our Rinpoche making visits/tours this year, I'd like to make sure I have at least some idea of what's going on! I've read less than 30 pages of the book so far, but I've already read something that struck a chord with me:

"...suffering and disatisfaction originate in the way your mind responds and reacts to lifes circumstances - not in the raw facts of life."

It might'n't sound like much, but it was a bit of a !ping! moment when I realised that things aren't just the way they are, they are how I perceive them - and I have the ability to control that.

I've also organised my valentines and anniversary gifts for The Hun for Wednesday and the Wednesday after - after finding out there would be no going out for dinner on either of those days, and then wondering why to bother at all, I've picked myself back up again (at Adam's insistence) and put that effort back in there. Because it IS something that makes me feel specialer. The Hun also mentioned that he read the last post and comments and does love me, and will forever and was sorry to hear I've been down in the dumps and please don't leave to rediscover my youth with some slutty 19 year old boy in a nightclub. Which was never going to happen (of course!) but was good to know.

Anyways, I'm gonna catch up on my LonelyGirl and get back into my reading - nigh nigh!

Blarh

Sorry there's been a bit of lack of post atm - I'm off to the coast for three nights tmr.

Sounds nice, eh?

No. It's not.

Magf and I are running a Dan Camp for four of our students (including youngest bro) who are grading to 1st Dan/2nd Dan in another two weekends time. So, we adapted the timetable from the last 3rd Dan Camp we went on in Qld (one of those weekends away where I whine about training 12 hours a day and sleeping only four each night) which means we'll be running them ragged and trying to exhaust them. Shall be interesting.

Anyways, I'm kinda riding the blues train at the moment. I've been mopey for about two weeks, feeling narky at The Hun for nothings (or almost nothings) - I think the whole Japan holiday plan has been canned, work is building up, uni's going to start again, I have bridesmaids stuff to do, I'm getting tired of always being told what to do (being "given advice"), seeing other people happy is making me jaded and twisted and I'm about to turn 25.

25.

I hate it.

It's not even/just the whole thing about where I planned to be at 25 - but I have this terrible feeling of time running out. But for what? Lawd knows what I even want to do/be/see.

Gah.

Back Sun/Mon.

Pope-a-rooOOOoooooney!

I'm guessing there are a lot of other ppl out there concerned about new Pope (as announced this morning)...

Personally, I'm not much of a Catholic - On one hand I still say my prayers before I go to sleep (a mental bundle I've collected over the years of Catholic schooling that are repeated in order for fear of judging who deserve to be prayed for and who don't...) but on the other, I don't think that living with The Hun is a sin that'll send me down, Down, DOWN! Martial Arts training has given me a broader sense of what should be considered right or wrong - as long as I do what's right for others, then I'm doing right for myself- but that can all wait for some other discussion...

As I woke up this morning I was woken by the news that the new Pope is an ultra-conservative, german man - Josepeh Ratzinger. My concerns?

Ultra Conservative: That does NOT sound like it's going to help the millions and squillions that could do with a little help from their good friend The Church. I read an interesting opinion piece at SMH the other week - did you know in Kenya senior church officials burnt condoms and safe-sex literature and released a pamphlet claiming that condoms cause AIDS?! - have a squiz - I was hoping for someone who would put more bums on seats by making some changes for the better of the whole, y'know, human race thing (just as I'm sure tonnes of others were)...

German: Having the nickname 'God's Rottweiler'?! Whats WITH that?!

Ratzinger: RatZinger?! Is anyone else getting an image of His Holiness burninating a rat with a laser beam? Kicking Bunnies, Shooting Kittens, Stomping Sparrows...? No?.. No one? Oh-keeee...


Please Note: My Pa has boots that were used only for stomping sparrows. Needless to say, there will be no Pope Penny the 13th any time soon - especially as he's at 95 yo...

A possible positive is that we've got like 10 years before he 'moves along' -which could potentially be enough time for the masses to open their eyes and spend that decade trying to prep a decent pope-to-be (who doesn't have a name that sounds like an extermination company).

I guess we'll just have to wait it out... Grab a coffee and the paper, I think there's gonna be a bit of a wait...

*Later in the day when I finally got this working*

It now seems that his son was one of Hitlers dudes (tho I may have misheard that one?!) and that his brother has basically said he's too old tobe Pope-ing around town and not even all that nice a person...

P.S - Hint for the (not so) wise - if you're going to iron your work clothes on your spiffy new birthday ironing board, please make sure you're fully awake and not in low slung jammie pants to avoid burning yourself on the stomach - not that I found this out by experience *cringe*