Warped Christmas Curry
Went for a curry with Warped on Monday night, although turnout was fairly poor with only Lucy, Justine and Graham managing to make it – the other students seem to have gone home for Christmas already. We ended up going to Hanaan at Justine’s bequest (I had arranged for us to go to Lal Haweli, but couldn’t be bothered arguing). It wasn’t much better or worse than the restaurants I usually visit, although the naan breads were particularly tasty – demonstrated by the fact that out of the three we ordered initially, I managed to eat nearly two of them.
We ended up in Kro afterwards, though didn’t stay all that long. Justine was being far too organised about her upcoming birthday party (upcoming being a loose definition – she isn’t 22 until February!) and trying to think of places to book – apparently I’m barred from requesting any music though. Jon also kept grinning at me in his usual way but I never know whether he’s making a point or just trying to get me paranoid! (to be fair, it doesn’t take much :).
Aikido
There’s no aikido this week as most people have gone home for Christmas, which suits me quite well as it means I don’t have to come all the way into Manchester just for a couple of hours at the gym. It’s just as well that I don’t desperately need to keep fit, because I’m being taken out for curry instead tonight (the first time I’ve eaten out with my parents and one of my sisters in goodness knows how long).
I also sent off the form for membership of the British Aikido Association yesterday, so hopefully that should arrive by the end of the week and be sorted early in the new year. There’s a competition coming up in February that I think Terry wants me to enter, which means I have to be both a BAA member and graded before then. I honestly have no confidence that I’ll get through the grading or be good enough to compete against other people – I was falling all over the place at Saturday’s session and had no idea what I was doing most of the time. I think it’s more a problem of not being able to relax – if I’m just doing the moves without anyone watching or commenting then I can usually manage without too many problems, but as soon as Terry (or anyone else for that matter) comes over I end up fluffing them and crashing down on my back or something.
Cybergoth Paul
Nick, one of my friends from college, commented on how he could see me being a Cybergoth at Jilly’s, providing Justine with much amusement on the train home when I texted her about it. For anyone who doesn’t know what a cybergoth is, it’s basically wearing PVC stuff, dog collars and other black clothing whilst swaying to the likes of Combichrist (whose music isn’t too bad, although the lyrics are a bit poor and mainly seem to involve just swearing a lot). You can sort of see what it looks like in Cyber Goth Me on Justine’s LiveJournal, although I honestly can’t see me wearing anything like that. 🙂
In regard to your comment about Aikido, I was curious about the competitive aspect. The aikido practiced here (Victoria, BC), is in the traditional Aikikai style, and the non-competitive aspect is stressed. In fact, there are no competitions whatsoever, although, there is grading (we refer to it as testing), for the various Kyu and Dan levels. I’d be interested to know more about the stryle you practice, and the competitive aspect you refer to.
M.
I haven’t been going to Aikido for very long, so I can’t really say what style we practise – although it seems to be a mixture based on what our sensei believes is best.
As for the competitions, they seem to be more a way for people to demonstrate their Aikido rather than try to beat other. There’s not the same kind of competitive edge as there would be in most sports because there’s not as much adversial action – you’re rarely trying to bring down someone other than your partner. It’s hard to explain though, especially as I’ve only been to one competition and I didn’t actually take part.
Unfortunately, there’s no web site for our club (Manchester Aikido Club (Shodokan)) so I can’t point you at any further information there.
"You can sort of see what [Cybergoth Paul] looks like … on Justine’s LiveJournal, although I honestly can’t see me wearing anything like that."
I dunno, you might look lovely in a little black PVC number! 😉
LOL @ cybergoth 😀
Paul you could have said you were going to talk about my comments on your other websites!!
It just means i have to come and find the comments and remind you that you were good friends with a fellow student of ours who did drag so I definatly could see you as a cybergoth!
I thought the comment would provide some amusement, which is why I posted it here.
Just because Nash dressed up in women’s clothing it doesn’t mean that I want to put on a PVC outfit! 🙂