Around Asia

The Last Post

2008-12-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Hello Boys and Girls

Well i am now officially back home, actually i have been back since the 3rd but had to keep it a secret (another story for another day). It's good to be back and see all my friends and family again even though it is bloody cold here. I thought i would finish up the blog with a sum up of my adventures in Asia.

Although my trip has felt ridiculously short I have really had a fantastic time while i have been traveling, i have made some good friends and really had a chance to get to know myself a bit more.
Although i didn't make any positive comments about China i did have a fantastic time while i was at the Academy, China itself is a place that really needs to be experienced by the individual as i would hate for my comments to put anyone else off visiting, I have heard some very good things about Hong Kong and know that if i was to ever visit China again i would go there.

My stay in Thailand was a fantastic experience, there is so much to see and do while your there and just a wonderful feeling of tranquility, the locals always have a big smile and everyone is really laid back (maybe a little too laid back sometimes). Chang Mai has such a wonderful vibe to it with there being a Buddhist temple on every corner and the locals are warm and friendly, the bars and clubs in the heart of the town are a good laugh and you can pick up some real bargains at the night bizarre for good prices.

I don't really know if i have changed in the way i think but i do feel like maybe i have learnt to appreciate the little moments in life a bit more and feel a lot more laid back, i just hope that the feeling stays with me when i start working again. I do feel that i have had an opportunity to do something that i have always dreamt about for years and feel privileged for the experience. I think that I have a greater understanding of what i am capable of doing in myself now and hope that these lessons will help to fill the holes in my life that i felt i was missing before my adventure.

I just want to thank everyone for reading my blog as i am really touched by the amount of people that kept up to date with my adventures and want to say a big thank you to everyone who posted comments and sent me emails as it was really nice to know i was missed back home.
So the only thing i have left is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and look forward to catching up with everyone.

Sorry for the Delay

2008-12-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Ello Boys and Girls

Sorry its been a while since my last post but as you can imagine I have been stressed out here trying to arrange alternative flights so i can get back home. I am still coming back on the 7th of Decemeber but will be flying directly from Chang Mai in to Amsterdam and then have a connecting flight from there to Heathrow. The last couple of weeks have been a nightmare with getting way to drunk most nights and also picking up a cold which has completely wiped me out and then having to deal with all the crap at Bangkok and sort out alternative flights with Thai airways who are bloody useless.
Other than that there hasnt been a great deal going on as i have spent most of my days sleeping as my cold has completely knackered me out, which means that i have been off training and been going out most nights as i have been sleeping to much and cant sleep at night................FUN FUN FUN!
I did have plans to go and visit a few places during my last week but until i shift my cold i wont be doing anything which is really getting me down. So i really dont have anything to write about as i havent done much......hmmmmmm nope thats about it for me.

Anyway i hope that everyone had a good couple of weeks back home and look forward to seeing you all next week

Doi Suthep

2008-11-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks

Sorry its been a while since the last post but i have been making sure i have been enjoying the time i have left out here which has basically involved too much drinking over the weekend and then being absolved of all my sins at Doi Suthep on Sunday. Training was a lot better last week as my stamina is back on track now and i even managed to do 3 rounds with JR who just gets you doing nothing but fast combinations on every round followed by continuous kicks at the end of the round so as you can imagine i was close to puking by the end of it all. I still can't seem to get my motivation back to train hard so I only trained up to Thursday and took Friday and Saturday off. Patrick was fighting on Friday and had a really good fight which ended with him knocking out his opponent in the 4th with a barrage of heavy punches, unfortunately all the Thai from the camp lost their fights either through points, injury or complete miss matches. After watching the fights i decided to have a few drinks back back at the camp which then led to more drinks at the cocktail van, which then lead to more drinks at Spices, which then lead to me waking up on Saturday still drunk and spending the rest of the day recovering to then go out and do it all again. There was a large group of us out on Saturday night which was really cool and we ended up at Bubbles which is a really good night club and always has a lot of tourists in there so its more mainstream dance and techno, I pretty much spent all night dancing so i didn't really get the hammered, we then headed on to another night club a bit further away which resulted in a large group of us being getting lost and when we did finally get there the place was completely empty and we all headed down to the cocktail van where we stayed for a couple more hours before heading back to the camp. Sunday was spent going to Doi Suthep which is the largest Buddhist temple in Chang Mia and probably the most famous outside of Bangkok, the journey up there was quite an adventure as its at the top of a bloody big mountain and Manoell's bike struggled to get both of us all the way up to the top, when we did finally get there i was a little upset to find it swimming with people selling everything from pray beads to traditional Thai swords and i just felt that he cheapened the whole experience.
The temple itself is an incredibaly beautiful place with statues of Buddha and various historical monks lining every wall with the Thai's offering up prays and burning incense, it was also really handy being there with Manoell as he had lived as a Buddhist monk for 7 months and knew a lot about the the blessings and we both went and got blessed by one of the monks which is supposed to give you good luck for as long as you wear the string bracelet they give you. I managed to get some really nice pictures of the temple plus the view at the top of the temple is pretty amazing as you can see all of Chang Mia and the surrounding areas.
Didn't really get up to much in the evening apart from going to the night market and picking up a few t-shirts and then went to the Sunday market just to experience it as its huge and goes on for miles.

I have uploaded all the photos from Doi Suthep so just follow the link under my profile. I hope everyone had a good weekend back home and that your all enjoying being back at work........or maybe not.

The journey home

2008-11-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

Ello all

Well as you can tell from the title my flights are now booked and i will be returning home in 3 weeks for the 7th of December. I cant believe just how quickly my journey has gone by as it doesn't feel like i have been away for nearly 7 months but i do feel like i have spent enough time in Thailand now and looking forward to moving on even if it is back to grey skies and cold weather :(

The weekend was pretty much a wash out as it was the anniversary of Princess Galyanai Vadhana death and all the bars and clubs where closed as a mark of respect, so we just sat around drinking on the balcony and chatting which was still a good laugh. Training has been getting better and my stamina has slowly returned and i feel like i might be able to do at least 3 rounds on the pads today, i have finally found out information about the meditation retreats out here and unluckily the only dates they have to offer aren't until the end of the month and i wont be able to do the course i wanted to which is a shitter but i intend of looking in to doing some meditation classes when i get back home and trying to keep practising what i learnt in China.

Although i feel like my time has gone by too quickly out here i still feel like i have learnt a lot about myself. I think that i have finally had a chance to really test myself both physically and mentally both in the ring and with the constant training as well, i realise now that its not a matter of just simply living your life blindly from one day to the next but taking time to appreciate the smaller moments more that anything else, its to easy to get caught up in the stresses of day to day life but unless you take time to appreciate the small things in life you miss out on experiences that make life that more enjoyable.

Anyway i hope that everyone is well back home and that you all have a good week at work.

Happy Loi Krathong

2008-11-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

Ello all

Well its been a busy couple of days here with it being Loi Krathong the festival of light. The weekend was filled with tons of fights, Rikards was on Friday and unfortunately he lost his fight on points but did a really good job going the whole distance and throwing some nice kicks and punches, we then had Anna fighting on Saturday at one of the festivals, unfortunately for us what was supposed to be a 20 min journey took an hour and a half with us getting lost whilst following Nook who is one of the trainers but we finally made it there in one piece. The festival was a good laugh with there being loads of food stalls and games tents and music, the ring was set up in the middle of the field and was surrounded with drunken Thais all standing around and betting on the fighters. Anna did really well on her fight and won on points although she almost knocked out her opponent a couple of times, after we all got back from the fight a few of us decided to go out clubbing and ended up going down in to town and getting very drunk, needless to say i was nursing a hangover all of Sunday and didn't get up to much. Monday was Rikards last days here so we all went out for lunch and came back and had a few drinks to say goodbye, i was planning on training but found it a more tempting offer to sit there and get pissed again, i was also planning to go and see Rodrigo fight but no one at the camp let anyone know that they would be leaving for the fight at 4:30 (we normal leave at 8PM) as it was a 2 hour drive down to the festival, anyway 4:30 comes round and Rodrigo hasn't turned up as no one told him what time he would be leaving, so after some calling around they managed to get hold of him and as soon as he turned up they headed off and i ended up missing the whole thing. Anyway after all the hassle of missing the fight some of the other guys turned up and we all went down to a pool bar where we continued to drink and met up with Adam and his Dad, we then headed off to couple more bars which resulted in me getting totally smashed and waking up with yet another hangover and missing another day of training. After spending the day recovering Tuesday and finally getting a good nights sleep i managed to make training for Wednesday and really wished i hadn't bothered, after 3 weeks off training and too much drinking i was back to square one with my training and couldnt even manage 2 rounds of pad work with out wanting to vomit. Which leads us up to last night was Loi Krathong which is the celebration of the harvest and making a fresh start, basically it just a reason to buy a shit load of fireworks and blow stuff up. A large group of us all went in to town to celebrate and watch the fireworks, it was all pretty cool with the lake being filled with floating lanterns and all the tress being decorated with lights plus loads of bangers and fireworks going off all over the place. I didn't really stick around that long as i was feeling pretty knackered after training but i did manage to get some pictures of the whole thing unfortunately they aren't that great. Not to sure what i am up to tonight as the celebrations are still going on tonight so i might go back in to town and watch some more fireworks.

Anyway i hope that everyone is having a good week back home and that your all well.

Dont panic im not dead!

2008-11-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Ello all

Sorry its been a while since that last post but was stuck in Lao doing my damn visa run. I can officially say that Vientiane in Lao is the most boring place i have every had the misfortune of visiting in my entire life!!! The whole journey was a complete nightmare, it started Friday night as i was told by the guys who had done the trip that i should take some Valium for the trip to knock myself out and sleep for the whole journey, so as soon as i was on the coach and in my seat I popped 2 Valium and after half an hour i don't feel any effect so i pop another 2, again i wait another 30min and still no effect so i thought feck it and popped another 2 pills, 1o min later i am complete spark out for the whole journey, unfortunately for me when i finally came round i was still completely out of it and felt like i was stoned or in a drug induced comma. As you can imagine the rest of the day is a complete blur but some how i managed to make it through the border and got myself booked in to a hotel and was soon fast asleep for another 4 hours. Unfortunately for me the visa office was closed all weekend and i was left trying to find something to do for Sunday and ended up watching the movie channel on the TV all day.
Anyway to keep this boring story short i finally got my visa handed in on Monday after 4 hours of queuing and picked it up on Tuesday and hoped on to a Tut Tut and was taken to the border. Finally got back to the camp at about 11ish on Wednesday morning but at least i don't have to worry about doing anymore visa runs now as i have a 3 month visa. Went out with the guys on Wednesday night to unwind from my journey and ended up getting completely tanked up and spent all of yesterday recovering from the mother of all hangovers and that leads me up today. Plan on training today as i have been off since my fight which was just over 2 weeks ago so i have a feeling that training is going to kill me today, this weekend should be good as my mate Rikard is fighting tonight and then Anna and Nico from the camp are fighting tomorrow night and then Rodrigo is fighting on Monday so all in all it should be a busy couple of days.

So thats pretty much it for me at the moment, i still working on finding more information on the meditation retreat as i still want to do the 4 day course. Thanks to everyone who has emailed and posted on the blog and i hope that everyone is well and having a good week at work.

When pranks get out of hand

2008-10-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ello all

I have been forgetting to mention all the fun at the camp the last couple of weeks with the fight and training. To keep the story Rob who has been here for 6 weeks has had the worst 2 weeks of his life, to start with he got his ribs cracked when he was doing the pads with one of the trainers so he has been off training for a while and while he as been off there has been some arguments between him and another guy named Ryan, so the guys decided they would wind Ryan up by padlocking him in his room over night, which resulted in him having to climb out on to his balcony and climbing in the next room and then having to get a pair of bolt cutters to get back in to his room. Needless to say Ryan was not impressed and automatically blamed Rob which resulted in more arguments. A couple of days after this Rob got drunk and fell asleep with the door open so Justine thought it would be a good laugh to shave off his eyebrows, so Rob ended waking up without any eyebrows and automatically thought it was Ryan that had done it so Rob decided that he would get his revenge and so Rob and a couple of the guys decided to buy a pigs head throw it on Ryans balcony, unfortunately it was left sitting there for about 3 days before the guys got bored one night and started throwing rotten bananas at Ryans window until he stormed out of his room to find a rotting pigs head waiting for him, obviously Ryan flipped out and wanted to know who had put it there but the guys all played dumb until Rob felt so bad that he went and confessed saying that he thought that Ryan had shaved off his eyebrows. Anyway couple nights after this Rob finally found out that Justine had shaved off his eyebrows and decided to get his revenge on Justine and got hold of the spare key for his room. So at 3 o'clock in the morning Rob thought it would be a great idea to sneak in to Justine bed room armed with clippers and a mobile phone for some light, unfortunately for Rob Justine woke up with a strange man standing over him with something sharp in his hand and a light being shone in his eyes and flipped out, he kicked Rob away from the bed and then layed in to him giving him 2 solid punches to the head before knocking him to the floor where Rob started managed tell him to stop. The end result was 10 stitches just below Robs left eye and Justines room being covered in blood. And when you think it couldn't get any worse for Rob someone stole the bike he had been renting out here and when he went to the police they told him he was obligated to pay the contractual fine of 25000 baht which is roughly400 pounds..................and you think you have bad weeks!

Apart from the above my days have been pretty boring at the moment as i havent been training since my fight as i am still aching a little bit and im being lazy, i also got my money for the fight which was just under 30 pounds which i dont think is to bad for 20 minutes work and a few bruises. Going to do the visa run to Lao tomorrow night which i am really not looking forward to but plan on buying a couple of Valium for the trip and sleeping most of it if i can.
I am still working on trying to get my fight on to the blog as its on DVD but all the computers are locked down here but i will get there eventually.
Thanks again for all the emails and comments on the blog, hope you all have a good Halloween weekend.

2008-10-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Just to let you know that i now have the movie of my fight but its on DVD and none of these computers will let me play it, I will try and get it up on the blog and stick it on facebook as well. Im still resting up at the moment as my right shin is still turning a nice purple colour and my thighs are still painful but other than that im good. Was out drinking last night so feeling groggy today and cant be arsed to write much on the blog at the moment. I also wanted to mention that my opperstion from the fight had over 100 fights under his belt so i feel quite happy that i made it to the 4th round without being knocked out.

Thanks for all the emails hope your having a good weekend.

Im still alive

2008-10-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see im still very much alive and in one piece after my fight last night, although i have got a good couple of lumps and bruises coming up on my right side.

Decided yesterday that i would have a nice relaxing day at the airport plaza shopping mall and take my mind off the fight by watching a film, i ended up watching May Payne which i thought was quite good, it looks and feels very much like the game if you have played it and although the plot line was a bit weak at points it was still entertaining. Anyway after killing time there i came back down to the camp and got my first rub down with the boxers oil, which is basically liquid napalm! I cant believe just how hot the stuff was and i was left standing there getting redder and redder with what felt like lava all over me much to everyones delight. Any after i finally cooled down i went and showed, ate and chilled waiting for my lift to the fight at 8, when we finally got there i found out that i was going to be the 3rd fight of the night which was fine by me as i just wanted to get it over and done with, anyway after killing time for what felt like and eternity i started getting ready and got my second rub down to warm me up which wasn't anywhere as bad as the one i had earlier. After waiting around for another couple of minutes i talked to Andy to find that my fight had been postponed so i was left waiting and waiting and waiting............ and waiting. Basically long story short the guy i was originally going to be fighting was moved to another fight and i got someone else and i was going to be the last fight, so as you can imagine i was seriously pissed off at this point as i just wanted to get it over and done with and i was left killing time covered in oil and Vaseline. Anyway the time finally came round and i got gloved up and had my box put on, at this point my heart was in my throat and my legs were shaking. I finally got in to the ring and did my bows to each side and all the other traditional bowing and waited for my opposition to finish his Ram Muay which is the traditional dance the boxers. We were then called to the middle of the ring and the ref told me the rules in Thai (not much help) and we went back to our corners, then that was it the bell sounded and we came out ready to fight. The first round was slow each of us paced ourselves and threw a few stray punches and kicks each trying to test the other and look for the opening, i felt clumsy and slow in the ring, i still felt nervous and unsure of myself, we both threw a few kick and his connected more than mine did. 2nd round was more intense as i tried to come out harder with more shots but i still felt unsure of myself and couldn't seem to find an inner rage to get out there and kill this guy, i kept it at a fairly slow pace but my kicks seems slow and although i connected with a few they didn't seem to do much damage, i was beginning to find myself tiring and although i knew i had to dig deep i didn't know where to find the energy and anger, i kept pushing forwards but the other guy seemed to be throwing more kicks than me, we both came in and clinched a few times but i couldn't seem to move my body round to throw any knees and elbows so threw my hands up so the ref would split us up, the round finished and i felt out of breath and tired already, Andy was great and told me that i was doing great and that i need to throw more kicks. The 3rd round started and i decided i needed to do more damage, i pushed forward although the guy teeped me away a few time i decided that i wasn't going to be pushed away by his kicks and kept driving forward and taking the punishment, the guy got some good kicks in to my rib cage and i could feel my intestines shake with each blow, i got a few good kicks in myself and they felt stronger than before as i came in closer to the guy he came in for the clinch and i before i knew what i was doing i drove an elbow in the top of the guys head which i think was an illegal move although i didn't seem to get a bollocking from the ref, i kept pushing forward but still couldn't seem to find the opportunity to land a solid kick or punch to knock him out, by the end of the round i was out of breath and my shin was killing me from blocking his kicks, i was tired and just wanted the fight to stop but knew i had to dig deep. The 4th started and i knew that i needed to get angry to beat this guy, i came storming in ignoring his kicks and was soon in a clinch and some how found i had my opponent in a head lock and was constantly smacking him in the head (looked more funny than dangerous) i dug down with each punch and kick trying to make them hurt but i felt knackered and everything was slowing down, i pushed forward and started catching him with my punches a few of them landed hard and rattled him a little although not enough to knock him out, as he moved back he threw a beautiful kick right in under my rib cage which winded me and i doubled over as the air was driven out of me, the Ref started counting as i desperately struggled to get my breath back and i sucked air like a fish out of water but couldn't get my breath back and then as i finally i got my breath back on the 9 count but the ref counted me out and the fight was called with a TKO (technical knock out). I have to say that my opposition was a great guy and came over and congratulated me on a great fight and said i was really good for my first fight, i went over to the other corner and bowed and took the sip of water as part of the custom. Andy and all the other guys were great they said i did a great job and thought i was the best fight of the night, Andy said that i did brilliantly for my first fight.
After the adrenaline has left my system i was left feeling sore, bruised and battered but happy that i had the balls to get in the ring and do the fight in the first place and to be honest it has taught me a few things about myself. The main thing is that i am not a fighter, i couldn't find the killer instinct when i was in the ring but i know when push comes to shove i can dig deep and find the determination to face my opponent and give him as best as i can.

I just want to say thank you to everyone that emailed and posted wishing me good luck, I have uploaded some photos from my fight and Justine's fight on my album so just follow the link on the right hand side.

1day left

2008-10-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

Well here we are its Tuesday evening and the countdown to the fight has almost come to an end, sorry i removed the count down clock from the blog but it was out of sync. To be honest with you i just want to get the damn fight over and done with now as i am bored of people asking me how i am feeling and whether i think i am ready, i know everyone means well but i don't have any answers for the people and always feel stupid when i answer with "i guess so". I do feel nervous about the fight but the main things i am worried about are looking like a complete plank in the ring of being knocked out in the first round. At the end of the day I am just going to get in the ring and get on with it and see what happens but at least i have finally had a day off training today and plan on killing time in the airport plaza tomorrow and playing on the arcade games.
As i said before there were alot of fights on this weekend but didn't bother watching them apart from the fights on Sunday and my mate was fighting, the whole night was really good with the first fight being with one of the young thai lads from the camp, as soon as the round started the opposition came out really hard and fast which is almost unheard of with thai's and was throwing heavy punch and elbow combos, our guy got his eyebrow split fairly quickly and the fight was paused twice so the medic could wipe the blood off, the fight continued to be fast and furious with our boy coming back with some devastating kicks and punches, the final result was a win in the 3rd for our guy knocking the opposition out with a nice punch and kick combo.
The next couple of fight were just as aggressive with both ending in a knock out, Justines fight wasn't until about 10:45, he started well and was fairly laid back until the other guy landed a solid kick on his lef and he retaliated with a combination of heavy punches rocking the other guy back and continued to come in hard and fast, the second round was much of the same with Justine coming in hard and was able to throw him to the mat on the clinches, to be honest a few of us were beginning to worry abit at this point as Justine was using up to much energy and his guard was low, the third round was a little more even with the other guy coming in hard as well until Justine caught him with a devastating cross knocking the guy out. All in all the night was filled with some good fights, unfortunately the other Thai lad from the camp lost his fight on points.
Other than going to the fight on Sunday i didn't do anything with my weekend as i felt to tired, i am now looking forward to a couple of days off after my fight plus i still need to organise my visa trip to Lao, i know i should probably be looking in to seeing more of Asia but i am happy where i am at the moment and there is still alot to see and do in Thailand.

Anyway thats all for me tonight, that you to all the people who wished me luck. I will be sure to update my blog with picture and maybe video of the fight on Thursday.

5 days and counting.

2008-10-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

hello all

Another quiet in the camp, its all been about the training this week for me although i have only made it up for 1 morning session. Everything seems to be coming along nicely at the moment but i am getting sick and tired of people asking me if I am ready for my fight as I dont know what ready should feel like as this is my first fight. Training has been a little frustrating recently as i was originally training with Tai Win who has now become bored with him and i can no longer get on the pads with him, everyone agrees that the guy is a complete prick nut a good trainer and there isnt really much i can do. The gym as been getting alot more busy recently so its been getting harder and harder to get on the pads with the trainers, I have also been trying to train with Wang this week but he hurt his arm a while ago and say that i kick to hard for him to do pad work with me. Anyway i have managed to do some pad work with Andy and Doi this week which has been really helpful as Andy can give me clear instructions of where i am going wrong and Doi is a really good trainer as well and has shown me some really handy tips. As far as i can see my height, weight and strength are going to be my biggest advantages for the fight, i know if i can connect with a solid cross or kick i should be able to knock my opponent out or at least faze him long enough to get in and do some real damage. My biggest downfall at the moment is that i am heavy on my feet and my defence work isnt that strong, i will have to try really hard not to wind myself in the first come of rounds as i have a habit of being to tense when i fight.

Outside of training not a great deal has been going on, there was a bit of tension at the camp this week with someone playing a trick on Ryan who is an easy to wind up American training out here, someone decided they would padlock him in his room during the night so he couldnt actually get out of his room and had to climb on to his balcony and in to the next room. No one knows who put the padlock on his door but he has managed to wind up a lot of people whilst he has been out here so the list of suspects is quite high. We still have our usual list of piss heads here, Adam still hasnt got back in to training since he fight which was well over a month ago and Rob is still off nursing his ribs which got bruised about 3 weeks ago. There also seems to be a regular flow of people coming and going at the camp, i know i said that it could be quite daunting at the camp with people not really talking to you but i can now understand how easy it is when people only stay for a couple of weeks and then they are off.

I dont know what i am up to this weekend as i will have to make sure that i stay off the booze, i was thinking i might go to the cinema on Sunday and watch either body of lies or eagle eye, other than that its going to be fairly chilled out weekend and then training on Monday and then an easy one on Tuesday and then the fight on Wednesday.
There are few people from the camp fighting this weekend so i might go and see them as Sylvia is fighting as i have yet to see her fight as she is supposed to be very good and Wang will also be fighting on the same night and i also have a mate fighting on Sunday so i will have to go to that and give him my support.

I hope that everyone has had a good week at work and that your all looking forward to the weekend. Thank you to all the people who email and comment on the blog, i really appreciate it and always enjoy reading what you have to say.

Thai people sound like Ewoks

2008-10-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hello all
Sorry that the posts are getting less and less often but there really isn't much to write about these days. I am still training hard for my fight at the moment but still cant seem to drag my lazy ass out of bed for the morning sessions, so i am making do with the afternoon ones which are hard enough as it is. The training is going well although i did have a session yesterday which didn't go that well as i got in the ring and did some pad work with Den who completely kicked my ass and then did some clinch work with this huge German guy who wrenched my neck all over the place which was great fun, as Mr T once said "I predict pain sucker!" and to be honest i think its going to be me feeling most of it. I'm still feeling nervous about the fight and keep wondering why i have signed myself up for it but at the end of the day its only a bit of pain and its all character building stuff..................I think.
I'm am still at a complete loss at what i want to do next after Thailand as Australia is too expensive and all the surrounding areas like Cambodia and Indonesia are similar to Thailand, to be honest i am thinking about just doing the Visa run to Lao which is a 12 hour bus journey there, spend the night there and come back the next day which is a real crappy journey but at least that way i can go to the meditation retreat that i wanted to do here which is 10 days and then just chill out for the rest of the time or carry on training. If anyone has any suggestions then please let me know as it would be really helpful to me.

So that's about it for the moment, I hope everyone is having a good week at work and that you all have lots of fun stuff planned for the weekend. Also want to wish Tammy a Happy Birthday for Saturday and hope that she doesn't get to hammered.

Where does the time go?

2008-10-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all
I realised today that i only have a few months left of my trip, it feels weird really as it really doesn't feel like i have been away for nearly 5 months, the time has flown by so fast in Thailand and although i still have 3 weeks left it doesn't feel like i have had enough time to do all the things i wanted to do, the training for the fight is still going well although i am still having problems with dragging my arse out of bed for morning training. The evening training has been going a lot better, now that my cold is gone my stamina is back up and i am doing 3 to 4 rounds on the pads, i am still working with Tai Win (don't know how you spell his name) who was the moody one with the goatee, although the guy is complete twit he is a very good trainer and i feel like i am picking up good techniques and working well with him.
Didn't get up to anything at the weekend as the guys who normally go out and party having been doing it all week non stop and were knackered by the weekend, plus i was tired after Saturdays training. I did take my self down to the cinema on Sunday and watched Star Wars clone wars which i have to say is a big pile of crap, anyone who is a fan of the movies i would strongly advise not seeing it as you will only come away disappointed and frustrated that Lucas has buggered up yet another film.
I have also looked in to doing a surfing holiday in Australia and decided against it when i saw the prices, i cant believe just how expensive Australia is!!! I have now decided that i want to try and find a meditation retreat for a month as i wont get the chance to do one in Thailand so i am looking in to maybe going to Bali as there is supposed to be a good one there.
Other than that there isn't much going on other than training and chilling out, i hope everyone is well back home and that you all had a fun weekend.

Fight Night

2008-10-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Sorry there hasn't been a post for a couple of days but been feeling rough and had to do my visa run today which was long and boring. As you can tell from the title and the counter to the right i have the date of my fight now which will be the 22nd of October, its a pain in the ass that i am still feeling ropey at the moment as i really want to throw myself in to the training, but i am going to keep it fairly easy for the rest of this week and hopefully i will be okay by the beginning of next week. I know its not long before i go in for the fight but to be honest i don't have long left in Thailand and i want to make sure that I give myself some time after the fight before i fly off to my next destination. The main thing i have to work on is getting my stamina up so i can survive the 5 rounds, other than i don't think its going to make much difference what my technical skill is as i dare say it will all go out of the window from nerves. Other than that there isn't a great deal going on here, the weather has been really hot the last couple of days and cooling off at night which has been good and the rainy season is coming to an end. One of the guys from the camp has also just moved in to a new house so there will probably be a flat warming party this weekend which i will go to but wont be drinking, i am now off the booze until after my fight and will try and stay off the junk food as well.
I still haven't decided where i am going to in Australia yet and to be honest i need to get my arse in to gear as i need to leave Thailand by the 31st of October when my visa expires. Its funny but my time here has gone really quickly which i have found weird considering i do less here in the day than i did in China.
One last thing before i go, i know i have been going on about health scares and all the rest recently but i have just started reading a book about the healing properties of coconuts and i am completely amazed by how good they are for you, its been proven that they help reduce cholesterol, help you lose weight and reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases. If your interested then here is the link to the book i am reading which is very well written and full of very interesting facts http://www.piccadillybooks.com/coconut-oil-miracle.htm.

Anyway hope your all well and having a good week and thank you to everyone who posted comments. By i would like to point out that picking a fight in Crawley is never a good idea.

Lets get ready to rumbllllllllllllllllllllllle

2008-09-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all
Well its the end of the week and i have suffered from 2 massive hangovers and picked up a cold. Ended up going out on Wednesday night to say goodbye to one of the guys who was leaving and was out again last night as it was the weekend and everyone was going out for a drink. It was a good night last night as there was a large group of us out having a laugh and we all ended up at a club at the end of the night, not to sure what time i got back but i was told that some of the guys were still up drinking until 7AM.
Training has been really hard the last couple of days as i cant seem to shake this cold and doing the pads with the trainers has almost killed me, although saying that i think i am actually getting better as i am getting my legs up quicker to block and my kicks feel like they have a real snap to them now. I have also spoken to Andy and i have decided that i am going to fight while i am out here, i would imagine that my fight will end up being either the middle or end of October. Basically my first fight will probably be against someone who is at the end of the their career and just still fighting just to make money and i know that some of you are going to worry about me getting hurt but i would like to point out that i am twice the size of any Thai guy and a lot taller as well which should help my chances.
The rules of the fight are there will be 5 rounds of 3 minutes each, the fighters are allowed to punch, kick, elbow and knee the opponent and the fight will be scored for aggression and accuracy of strikes, a KO will be called if either fighter is knocked out or hurt to the point he cant continue. So now i have decided to sign myself up for the fight i am going to really have to push hard to get my stamina up and work hard in the gym, although saying that Andy has told me that everything goes out the window on your first fight as you don't know how to pace yourself and you get caught up with the adrenaline rush, so basically i will just have to wait and see how it goes.
Anyway i hope that everyone had a good weekend and looking forward to another great week at work.

Howdy boys and girls

2008-09-23T06:04:00.001-07:00

Ello all
Well its been back to full time training this week and i feel completely knackered already, i am trying to push myself a little harder at the moment to make up for the week i had off and to try and up my game and suffering for it big time. There also seems to be a load of new people turning up on a regular basis at the moment although most of them only seem to be staying for a week and then heading off to the next part of Thailand, i can now see why some of the guys that have been here a long time might not seem too friendly as people seem to be constantly moving on. Nothing much has been going on in the gym since i was away apart from the new faces, although there does seem to be a bad case of flu going around the camp and a few of the guys have been really ill recently, so i am trying very hard not to get ill myself.
As you can see from my last post that i am on a bit of a health kick at the moment as i have been reading a very interesting but scary book written by Elaine Hollingsworth called take control of your health and escape the sickness industry, the book itself goes on about all the poisons that we eat, drink and wash in on a daily basis and has a long list of scientifically proved documentation as well as a large resource list. The worst thing i found out is that sweeteners are pretty much the worse kind for poison you can ingest and can be found in dietary products, sugar free chewing gum and soft drinks and will turn in Formaldehyde when it enters your body, in case you need reminding they use that stuff to embalm dead people.......... makes you think doesnt it!
Anyway if your honestly intrested then please read her web page on this link http://www.doctorsaredangerous.com/illnesses/excitotoxins_illnesses.htm
Also just another thing to scare you witless is this report on Mecury fillings by the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/220366.stm

The next time you reach for a coke read this first

2008-09-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? It’s because it gets you high. They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago. You know why? It was redundant.

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Im back

2008-09-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hello all
Sorry its been a while since the last post but i have been too busy relaxing.
Had a really great time in Koh Samui and didn't really do anything apart from lay on a beach during the day and then eat good food and enjoy good company during the evening.
Some of the highlights where doing karaoke in the local bar and finding that i had picked the wrong song and then attempt to sing in tune with out knowing what the hell it was supposed to sound like. Also had fun meeting a very drunk Irish couple who spoke so fast we couldn't understand a word they said but were very good at karaoke.
The resort itself was really pretty, tucked away in to the side of the mountain with lots of greenery all around us. Unfortunately our apartment was at the top of a sodding great big hill which almost killed us the first night we were there as we were given a lift to the top by the stewards in a golf buggy but weren't told just how steep it was and almost fell off the back as i was left holding the bags in one hand and an orange juice in the other.
The beach itself was pretty quite with it being off season and the sea was warm but not as clear as i would have hoped.

Anyway now that the holiday is over its back to some hard training and trying to lose the weight i have put on from over eating on holiday, i am still thinking about fighting at the moment but will give it a couple more weeks before i sign myself up for anything.
I hope everyone has had a good week at work and spent the weekend getting horribly drunk.

2008-09-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know there wont be any updates for a week as i am on holiday.

1 month today

2008-09-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks
Sorry there hasn't been a post for a while but there really hasn't been much to write about. Training has been getting better, my pad work seems to be getting quicker and although i am feeling like crap by the end of three rounds i can keep going full pelt with all the combos they are throwing at me, i still haven't done any sparring yet as i don't have a mouth guard and i don't feel like having the crap kicked out of me at the moment.
Friday night was fight night for the gym with Adam fighting and one of the Thais going in for a title fight, the whole night itself was actually very good, the first 9 fights were all title fights for their weight divisions, Micheal from the camp won his tittle fight with an outstanding knockout in the 3rd round connecting with a solid knee and then pummeling the guy in to submission. Unfortunately Adams fight was the last one of the night so it didn't start until about midnight and although he came out swinging he lost the fight from points, we later found out that the guy he was facing at fought 200 fights!! which obviously Adam didn't know at the time and was more than a little miffed with and despite it being his first Thai fight i thought he did very well and came out with out a scratch on him.
To celebrate me being in Thailand for a month and commiserating Adams fight a few of us went out drinking on Saturday night and i ended up getting totally smashed on some pretty lethal cocktails before going clubbing, i ended up having a really good night but felt a little worse for ware on Sunday. Didn't really do much on Sunday apart from wonder around the big shopping center by the airport, i was going to go and watch Bangkok dangerous but felt too tired by this time and headed back for an early night and just ended up chilling out watching Hellboy 2.

Woop

2008-09-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Not much to report for the last couple of days, i had to do my Visa run yesterday which took up the whole day as the whole journey took 12 hours, which involved me taking a 4 hour coach journey to Burma, getting my visa stamped, coming back in to Thailand and then killing 3 hours while i waited for coach back. The whole journey was really dull but luckily i had James with me to keep me company who also trains at the camp, we didn't bother going in to Burma to look around (which i will do next time). Ended up getting back, getting food and then trying to get some sleep, unfortunately for me some ones air con unit was making such a racket it was vibrating through the whole bloody room, so even with my ear plugs in i didn't get much sleep. Woke up this morning with the broken air con unit still going and decided i was better off training rather than lying there with a headache wanting to kill someone. Didn't have any energy for training and my 5k run turned in to a 3 k run and a 2 k walk, got back to the camp and half heartily shadow boxed for another hour and finally gave up and went back to my room hoping to get some sleep. So as you can guess i got back to find that damn thing still buzzing away, i did look over my balcony to see if it was my neighbors unit was making the noise but couldn't really see as his washing was in the way. After breakfast i was so desperate with my predicament that i wondered across the road to the guest apartments to find out how much they would cost me for another month, the apartment was really nice with a kitchen, big double bed and really nice bathroom and the area was unbelievably quite but they were asking 8000 baht plus water and electricity and my room is only costing me 3500 including electricity and water for the month. So i thought better off it, i finally headed back to my room to find that the air con was finally dying and i managed to get a couple hours of sleep. I turned up to the the evening training feeling a lot better and made an effort to make up for my training this morning, I ended working the pads with one of the trainers called JR and thought i was going to die and he gets you doing so many combos in each round that you don't have enough time to suck in oxygen and your left sounding like an asthmatic by the end for the round while you try to suck in enough air to go another round.

Found out that the broken air con unit isn't my next door neighbours and that he had been woken up at 4Am by it and was unable to sleep as well, the unit looks like it belongs to his next door neighbour so i can only imagine how bad it must of been for him if my walls where shaking from it. So with any luck i will get a decent nights sleep tonight (i hope so anyway) and have more energy for training tomorrow morning.
Haven't really planned much for my day off this Sunday but was thinking about getting a massage and then going shopping and maybe watching another film.

Also i just want you to know that all the troubles happening in Bangkok aren't effecting me here and that i am fine.Anyway i hope that everyone is well back home and would like to thank all the people who have posted on the blog and emailed me.

No i havent become a Hippy!

2008-09-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Calm down dear its only a blog page!!

Oy you lot just because i decide to write a deep and meaningful post you all seem to think that i have finally lost my mind or joined some weird cult. Actually i have deep and meaningful thoughts all the time but spend to much of my time swearing at idiots or people who get on my nerves to do anything with them, so since i am actually chilled out here i thought i would actually do something about them this time.
I just hope that at least a few of you read the post and thought about it before you started taking the piss.

Other than that i hope your all well and having fun with work back home. Also wanted to wish Metal Dave a Happy Birthday for Thursday and hope he has a great time, just make sure you get horribly drunk and turn up to work with a hangover the next day as they are always fun for everyone else to witness.

2008-08-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Why?

Do you remember being young? How you used to ask questions all the time, how we wanted to know why we eat, why do we breath, why is the sky blue? Learning was fun, we enjoyed learning about things around us and about what we were doing and why we were doing it. Then we get older and go to school, where we are taught why things happen, what causes the chemical and social events that cause things to happen and we stop questioning things so much, we grow older still and from school we go to college, then maybe University and then finally we start working. The first couple of years of work are always hard for everyone, you rebel against being told what to do and having someone bossing you around, you kick and buck against the system by taking sick days and going out drinking with friends, but slowly you stop rebelling, you learn how to work in the system and follow the adult rules of life stepping in line with the rest of your co workers.
Life starts to move faster, you find you spend more time with your girlfriend, nights out with friends slowly get less and less frequent, you move in with your girlfriend and nights out turn to meals at friends, you get married, have children, meals with friends only happens once in a while. You start to worry about your family more and more worrying about the money coming in so you start working more over time, you feel so tired by the time you get home you spend less and less time with your family and you start to miss them growing up, time speeds up and you don't notice the little things around you anymore, you become obsessed with providing nice things for the family. Finally one day it hits you that your life has slipped past without you noticing, your children have long since moved away, your either estranged from your wife or divorced, you feel old and tried and not long off your retirement, you haven't planned on what you want to do and all you have been doing for so long is your work.
Would this have happened if we still asked questions? Have you ever just stopped in your tracks and asked yourself these 3 questions, Am i happy? Is this what i want to do for the rest of my life? Do i enjoy my life?
I see so many of us turning grey sat behind our desks, the days slipping in to weeks and the weeks slipping in to months, we lose track of time and one day merges in to the next with out us even realizing. Some of us don't even fill the evenings with anything, we just simply live and breath to get up each day and do our job.

Ok look at it another way, if today was truly the last day on earth and you were going to die tomorrow would you be able to say to yourself that you had lived a fulfilling life? Did you accomplish your wildest dreams or at least attempt to? Did you accomplish any of your dreams?

You may read this and think "Oh great Steve's in a happy mood today" but what i really hope is that you read this and start asking yourself questions, you don't have to make dramatic changes to start things rolling but doing small things can put a smile on your face. You could even organize doing a parachute jump these days without having to leave your desk as all the charities want you do to them. You could start training to run a marathon or enter a competition, or you could even just join a gym today.
Just do me a favour and do at least one thing each day that puts a smile on your face no matter how big or small it is.

As for me i still don't have any answers to my questions but i am looking and even if i don't find them at my end of the journey i can say to myself that i tried.

I will leave you with a few quotes that i liked

Albert Einstein:

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

Abraham Lincoln:

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard:

Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.

Lao Tzu

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Da Zoo init

2008-08-31T06:29:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks

Well i have finally managed to get my first really good nights sleep last night with my new ear plugs and feel much better for it this morning. I finally managed to get up for the Saturday morning session although i didn't go for a run as after kicking the pads wrong with my left foot a couple of days a go i have done something funny to it. Also made it to the afternoon session, i have forgotten to mention that it looks like the guy i was telling you about with the long goatee who acts like a moody kid has decided that he is going to train me, although the guy is a perv and a twit he is actually a very good trainer and i feel like i am picking up some good techniques from his training. I am actually beginning to feel a lot better in training now as my kicks have a crisp snap to them and i seem to be getting better at the combos, Andy even mentioned the other day that i was looking a lot better with my shadow boxing which i was really chuffed about. Also decided that i would keep myself entertained during the evenings by buying some cheap DVDs (yes they are copies but are actually good quality) so i picked up Wanted, He was a quite man and Hellboy 2 for a 100 Baht each which is roughly just over 1 pound 50, so i am thinking that i might actually pick up a box set of something and catch up on a few series that i am missing out here.
I decided that i was going to have a look around Chang Mia Zoo today which is only 30 minutes walk up the road, the zoo itself is huge at 212 acres and built in to the forest with 7000 animals, i was there for about 3 hours and felt completely knackered by the time i had walked around the whole place, I managed to get some really nice pictures but my camera battery died half way around walking around. Although i am not a big fan of zoo's as i feel animals should be kept in their natural habitat or a least in a wildlife sanctuary the zoo was well designed as most of the animals had a lot of room, the thing i was most impressed with was the walk through bird Avery which was bloody huge with its own little waterfall and 100 different species of birds, they also had this tame little baby deer that came up to me as was licking my hand (yes i know it sounds soft but it was cool i tell you!!!) even though i spent at least 3 hours there i didn't managed to see everything and will have to go back another couple of times as i missed the pandas, the aquarium and a few other things. I have posted all my pictures on the my photo album which you can find from the link at the bottom of the page.
Its back to training tomorrow and i feel like i really should start doing some sparring now, so i will pick up a mouth guard from Andy and get stuck in...... i think.

http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

Hope you all had a really good weekend and would also like to wish Andy a Happy Birthday from Saturday and hope that you all had fun.

Ugg

2008-08-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

Ello
Thought i would leave it a couple of days to write another post as i feel like i might have out done myself with my shooting post. My only bit of decoration in my room now is one of the targets from the range, that and the constant ants wondering around the place.
Training has pretty much been the same the last couple of days although i do feel like i am beginning to pick it up and the combinations are getting easier and i am actually blocking properly with my shins which is always helpful. I have to admit i have been lazy the last couple of days and haven't been arsed to get up for the morning training, i am planning on making more of an effort the next couple of days and make sure i get up but to be honest it isn't looking that promising.
Although the days are fairly short here they can be pretty boring, as there really isn't anything to do and most of the guys at the training gym can be a little tricky to talk too as they come across as either having a big ego or a chip on their shoulder, i am sure if i made the effort i would find them nice people to talk to but i can be a little daunting as they all look hard.
My day at the moment consists of training from 6:30 till 9 (if i get up) then coming back showering and having breakfast, then sleeping for an hour, getting lunch at 1, checking on the internet for a couple of hours, training from 4:30 till 7 then showering, eating and then going on the internet again until 10 and then bed. Not the most amazing of daily schedules but the day flys past, plus it gives me time to plan what i am going to do for my day off, thinking i might go to the zoo this weekend as its supposed to be really nice and have lots there.
That's about it for me today, i hope you all had a nice bank holiday weekend and that the week feel really short for you all. Thanks to everyone who has posted or emailed and i hope your all well.
PS there were a couple more videos to go on the blog but they are to big to post but i am working on ways to get them one here.

Woohoooo i got to play with guns

2008-08-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

as you can tell from the title i am still a little hyped from my day at the shooting range, well when i say day i actually mean my hour and a bit. The prices werent to bad i think it was about 25 pounds for 30 rounds on any weapon so i did 30 rounds on pistols and then another 30 rounds on shotguns (you only live once it was good fun) i really dont know anything about guns so i cant tell you which ones i used other than i used an automatic and colt i think on the pistols and then a pump action shotgun and automatic shotgun. The shooting instructors were all really nice guys and very helpful, i dont know if you can see it but the guy i was with was using the bullet shells for ear plugs. I think i actually did quite well as my grouping was quit close with the pistols and i hit the target every time and when i used the shotgun on the skeets (clay pigeons) i hit everyone of them but you can see it very clearly from the video. Anyway after i had spent my money there i thought i would go down to the other big shopping mall by the airport and do some shopping, the mall itself was pretty big (not as big as Bangkoks) and i managed to find a English bookshop which what i was looking for, so after window shopping for a while and getting some food i found an amusment arcade and found that they had the rock star arcade game, unfortunatly they didnt have any of the instruments to play with but i still gave it a go with the coloured pads and thought it was bloddy brilliant so i now know what i will be buying myself when i get home. After mucking around for a bit i decided that i would see what was playing at the cinema and went and saw Death race, i would like to point out that this is definatly a blokes film with fast cars, hot women, a shit load of swearing and violence but was actually really good fun to watch, so for all the boys who want to watch a no brainer with chicks, cars and guns i highly recommend this.
And thats about it for today, its back to trainining again tomorrow and i am on my own for the week as Andy is off at the intesive training camp with some of the other guys so i am dreading the fact that Wang might want to do the group sparring thing again (must make sure to get a mouth gaurd if that does happen)
Hope you all had a good weekend and have finally got over your hangovers, below are some videos of me at the shooting range and the link to the pictures.

You will have to keep checking this page for more videos as its taking a while to upload them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

Fight Night

2008-08-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well its finally the end of the week for me and i get to have a day off, thank god for that as i still feel bruised and battered, although today's training session was a lot better as i got to work with Andy who is always tons better than working with the Thai guys as he can explain where i am doing wrong and takes the time to explain things to you, i am also getting slightly better at taking the head shots now, well when i say head shots i mean being slapped in the head with a focus mitt.
Went down to see some Muai Thai fights last night as one of the Thai kids and 2 of the foreign boxers were fighting, the venue itself was basic with just one ring in the centre of a large area with a load of plastic seats around. The fights themselves were all pretty boring and not much happened with the exception of a few good rounds when one kid got his eyebrows cut from a few good elbows. The Thai kid from the Lana gym won his fight and looked very confident and strong in his fight, it was a little slow and there was alot of clinch work but he did well. The foreigners fights were alot more fast paced with them coming out hard and fast from the first round, the first guy (Chris i think) won his fight on points and was the more aggressive of the fighters almost knocking the guy out twice, the other guy from the gym ended up losing his fight on points which seemed strange as he seemed to be the more aggressive fighter and got alot of good blows in, it turned out that the other fighter was landing alot of kicks to the mid section which where being caught and countered but because he didn't block them the other guy got the points.
To be honest with you the fights themselves really weren't that interesting to watch as there was no real great display of skill, it was more to do with being able to take the punishment and give it back while trying not to wind yourself (meaning not knackering yourself out).

I know that i am only at the end of my second week here but i am beginning to feel like Muai Thai isn't for me, i just cant get used to the whole being pummeled thing for starters as i am too used to avoiding and countering. Also the more i think about getting in to the ring i am realising that i don't have the killer instinct, i just don't like hurting people and the idea of having to pummel another guy in to submission just doesn't really sound that appealing to me.
I am sticking with the training until the end of the month so i will just have to wait and see if something changes my mind but at least the training is hard work and getting me in good shape.

I am planning on going to the shooting range tomorrow so hopefully i should get some photos of me missing horribly with a few big guns to play with (yeah yeah boys and their toys) other than that there isn't anything else to report. Hope your all having fun for your weekends and thank you to everyone who posted about keeping my teeth.
Here are some photos from the fights enjoy http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

How to get tough

2008-08-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

Ok yesterdays evening training was not a fun experience, got put in the ring with no mouth guard and told to spar but just boxing, no one really explained what the hell we were supposed to be doing and how hard we were supposed to be going at it. Basically the whole thing involved going from one person to the next round after round and getting the shit knocked out of me. To be honest with you i think the whole point of the exercise was to toughen up the new people up but i just cant seem to get past standing there while someone punches you in the face, yes i know your supposed to duck and weave and get out of the way but i have only been doing this for a week and a half and don't really know what i am doing. Also had the delight of turning up for morning training today to find that myself and a new guy were the only ones there and when the trainers finally turned up and started training i got repeatedly pummeled in my left leg until it went dead. The problem that i am having at the moment is that i know that i need to toughen up and that the only way by doing it is to get more ring experience but it fecking hurts like a bitch and can be hard to take when your physically and emotional drained all the time. Well like it or hate it i am defiantly here for the month so i will just have to man up and take the punishment.

Not much else to talk about at the moment and seriously considering skipping my next training session.

2008-08-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

Howdy
Training as normal here although i didn't make it for the morning training this morning as i had a shit nights sleep :( which is a shame as i was looking forward to doing the hill run this morning.

Morning training was interesting yesterday as i went for the run around the lake again and then when i was back doing some of the pad work with nook who is one of the older trainers i got told to do a thrust kick and then he swept me off my supporting leg which i promptly came thundering down on my arse and bit my tongue luckily he did explain how to get around that situation afterwards so at least i learnt something. Evening training was ok but was left lacking energy and got stuck with one of the trainers who spends most of his time hitting on any new women entering the gym and the rest of his time getting pissy at the new guys who cant understand what the hell he is saying which as frustrating as it was didn't really put me off as it was like dealing with a moody teenager who just kept groaning and rolling his eyes. Also went out last night as it was Liz's last night here and ended back at the Chang Mia Saloon where we have spent the last 4 nights, i think i am going to find it tricky here making friendships as most people only stay a month and all the guys who i have got friendly with are all leaving this week.
I am also beginning to learn that the most hardest thing about being in training is the boredom factor, although Muay Thai is a very effective and powerful Martial art the training can sometimes be long as repetitive with having to practise the same moves over again and again, the main 4 moves for the boxing are jab, cross, hook and uppercut and then you throw in 3 different elbows, kicks and knees and your pretty much done with the exception of blocking. There are more techniques to be learnt but you need to get good with the basics before you start throwing in the difficult stuff, plus if you are taking the healthy route like i am trying to to at the moment you end up having to watch what your eating the whole time and not really wanting to go to bars as you cant drink.
I also wanted to mention a really good book that i am reading at the moment called "A fighters heart" by Sam Sheridan which is about his journey through the martial arts and in to the world of MMA, it gives a really good understanding of why people fight and the thrill of the ring and the hardships of training.

Thats about if for me today, thanks again for all the people that have posted, i have replied to a few of you but i dont know if they are getting through.

everything still hurts

2008-08-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

So here i am in week 2 and in to the full swing of things, was up this morning for an 8K run around the university campas and then back to the camp for more training.
I cant really say much about the training as its the same thing each session with running, shadow boxing, working the pads with the trainers and bag work. The people training here seem to fall in to two groups which are the party boys who came out here to train but get easily distracted and end up going out most nights drinking to much and missing the morning training and then you have the people who take it seriously and have their game faces on when they are training and don't really take time out to be social with anyone. There are about 4 trainers here as well as Andy, most of them will push you as hard as they think you can take it and then push more until you feel like you want to drop, they are all really nice guys and have a laugh and a joke in between rounds. Chang Mia is a pretty strange place, its a sleepy little town with small shops dotted around all over the place and plenty of street markets and vendors down roads, there are regular taxis that you can hope on at anytime and will take you all over the place for 20 baht as well as the Tut tut drivers who will rip you off at any given chance. Like i said in my last post there really isn't much to do during the day in between training and all i seem to do at the moment is train, eat and sleep even the other guys say there really isn't anything else to do other than go to some of the bigger restaurants in the evening and eat there and play pool..............it looks like it might be a very long 3 months!!
I have heard there is a shooting range near by so i may give that a go at some point and there is also the zoo and elephant reserve, so other than the range, zoo and elephants there isn't anything to do, oh yeah and there is a cinema and bigger shopping mall closer to the airport.

My stamina seems to be improving quickly already and don't seem to be struggling on the runs but i have yet to do the mountain run which is on Wednesday mornings and is supposed to be a real killer. Anyway i hope that everyone is well back home and that your all looking forward to another fun filled week at work.

End of the week finally!

2008-08-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

well i have finally made it through to the end of the week, well sort of as the gym is open 7 days a week but i have decided i need at least one day off to relax. Had a shit night sleep Friday so i didnt train Saturday morning but made the evening training. Andy has given me some traditonal herbal medcine to help with the brusing on my shins and feet and its working a real treat as i can barely feel them now. Not really a whole lot to report i didnt go out last night as i was still feeling knackered and stayed in for an early night, woke up this morning and thought i would try one of the shopping malls that the guys had suggested, it was only about a 15 minute ride and in the middle of no where, the place itself wasnt really that big with lots of little stores in it, although i did manage to find a KFC. I am finding Chang Mia quite a strange place to stay as nothing really seems to be grouped together and there are lots of little shops all over the place which i am not to sure what to make off, i am also finding it hard to find things to do during the evening without going out with the others in to the town centre and clubbing as i want to have enough energy to do the morning training and the guys that party dont really train that much which i find odd as it just seems like a waste of money. I am going to check a map of Chang mia and ask around a bit more as i am sure i am missing something.

Anway that all for me today as there isnt much to report, I hope your all having a good weekend back home.

No rest for the wicked.

2008-08-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks

Sorry there wasn't a blog entry yesterday but i was too knackered to write anything.
I was talking to some of the guys after Wednesdays afternoon session and found that out that they were all going out to celebrate of the guys 18th and was going in to town for food, drinks and fun. I managed to invite myself along to the events and we all headed in to town after training. There was about 5 or 6 of us in total and one of the guys invited Kem along who is one of the trainers at the gym and a national champion (I found out the guy has been fighting since he was 15 and had fought 150 fights). I would like to point out that i stuck to my word and didn't drink, we all had a lovely big meal at one of the western style restaurants and then sat around chatting and playing Jenga which was a good laugh. We ended up leaving there at about 11ish as they were showing UFC on the big screen, at this point i decided that i was probably going to miss morning training and went out clubbing with the guys. First place we headed to was Bubbles, Kem got us all in for free as there is normally a 100 baht door fee. We stayed there until 2 and then headed on to another club that i cant remember the name of, the place was a complete meat market and very busy. I think that the Thai women see all western guys as walking cash bags and spend most of the nights out on the prowl looking for any drunk unsuspecting guy to grab hold of and start getting drinks out of. The funniest thing was that most of them were ropey looking, there was one girl there who i couldn't help but notice who had an amazing body and pretty face but when she smiled she was missing most of her front teeth which i found hilarious as she looked like she had just escaped from a spoof western movie.
I pretty much danced the whole night while the rest of the guys got hammered and eventually stumbled out in to the night, i headed back at about 4:30 Am and needless to say didn't get up for morning training. I made afternoon training and was finally introduced to Andy who runs the training gym, really nice Scottish guy with a a few missing teeth making a little hard to understand him sometimes. Went for a run with some of the other guys again and did what they called the "boy scout run" which consisted of a jog up to a boy scout hut which is on top of a fairly steep short hill, the idea is to sprint up it as many times as you can and do 10 push ups at the top then walk down, i managed to do 10 sprints with the other guys and walked back to the camp for more training although i felt totally fecked by this point.
I made a point of having an early night last night so i would feel better for the morning training today and the few who made it to training on time were driven out to the local lake, the run itself is about 3k and the view is really stunning as you run around, there is hardly anyone about and the there is no traffic, the guy i was running with did 2 laps while i opted for just the one (still only my first week) the other guys run from the lake back to the camp which is about a 10k run.
Once we did the run Andy drove us back to the camp and we carried on training, morning training seemed to feel alot better today and i didn't feel so bad afterwards, plus i have made the point of getting breakfast after training today.
One of the main questions most people ask you when you first start is how long you are here for and are you going to fight?
Now originally i hadnt even thought about fighting out here but now everyone has asked me about it i am seriously considering it. Basically i have spent a very large part of myself training in martial arts and never once been truly tested in the sense of being in a fight and really testing my skills. It just seems like such a waste to train so hard for this amount of time and never get the chance to test myself so i am seriously going to think about it but wont fight unless i feel confident in myself and without getting the go ahead from the trainers.
Not much else to report other than my groovy new counter (yes its sad i know) so i can see just how many of you lovely people are keeping up to date with my blog.
Thank you for all the people who posted and i apologise if i haven't responded to your comments. Hope your all happy and well back home and that you enjoy your weekend.
PS i only get 1 day off a week here which sucks.

Please remind me why i am doing this again?

2008-08-13T01:10:00.000-07:00

Feeling a little better today but still a little stiff, again only 3 or 4 people turned up for training this morning but at least i could go for a run with a couple of the guys today.
I made sure that i got a milk shake and some energy drink down my throat this morning and it helped alot plus i didn't push myself as hard today as i think it works better to save it for the evening sessions and then i can collapse afterwards.
I forgot to mention that the last couple of days have been a bank holiday for the Thai queen birthday, its quite surprising just how patriotic the Thais are even to the point that they play the nation anthem in the cinema which everyone is expected to stand to. I don't know much about the Thai king but he seems like quite and extraordinary person and even did a couple of years as a monk in a Buddhist monastery.
Although there are a few Baptist or Christan churches out here the majority of the population seems to be Buddhist, which makes for a really nice environment to live in as no one seems to get judged as they seem to except everything in life from prostitution to homosexuality and don't seem to put a label on it as well they just accept it for what it is and let people make their own choices.
Although i am still struggling with everyone's name out here i am getting along well with the other guys, one of the guys out here is this big Japanese guy who lives in Hawaii and seems to be out here forgetting what sounds like a messy divorce, we both went and grabbed something to eat after training yesterday and then sat around outside the apartments having a couple of drinks, well they were all drinking whiskey and beer while i stuck to my water and soft drinks as i am trying to be a good boy at the moment. We all had a good laugh but it looks like a few of them will be suffering bug time this morning.

Anyway i have to go and get myself ready for training in 30 minutes. Hope everyone is well back home and thanks to everyone who has posted comments and emailed.
I have posted some photos of the training camp so follow the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

Ding Ding day 2

2008-08-12T00:10:00.000-07:00

Well its day 2 for me in Chang Mia and already i have had 2 training sessions.
I decided yesterday that i would join in with the training session as i was going to be bored stupid sat on my arse for 3 hours, anyway i soon introduced myself to as many people as possible and found them all really friendly. All i have to say is fuck me they train hard, by the end of the 3 hours i was sweating buckets and ready to drop, basically you move from 1 post to another and do 5 minute rounds and the end of each round you drop and do 10 push ups. You skip, shadow box, do bag work and do a couple of rounds with the trainer in the ring where he gets you doing pad work, i am working on the basics at the moment. At the end of the session i showered, ate and then collapsed in to bed. Was up for the morning session this morning to find the place empty, i thought that maybe i had got the time wrong but after doing 30 minutes of skipping and shadow boxing some of the other guys turned up, i found out that only a quarter for the class turns up for the morning and the guys were late this morning as one of the students was fighting last night and they didn't get back until late. Anyway i did the full 3 hours again and was ready to vomit by the end of it, doing 3 hours with nothing inside you is a complete killer, plus with less people there they push you even harder.
From what i have gathered so far most students turn up for only a month on holidays so there is a really high turn around here, the trainers are nice hear but they don't really speak that much english and i am struggling at points to understand what they are asking me to do. But its only been a couple of days so i dare say i will pick things up after a while.
Also had fun yesterday spending a small fortune calling the bank to get my card sorted, after getting put on hold 3 or 4 times and cut off i finally got through to the fraud department who wanted to confirm that i was in Thailand and how long i was staying there for, it confused the crap out of me that they have done this now when i have already spent 3 months in China, anyway i finally got everything sorted and my card is now working ok.
Haven't really done much today other than sleep, train, sleep and wonder around, although i have found out there is a zoo about 30 minutes walk away so i am thinking i will give that a visit and i am yet to head in to the main town as you have to get a bus and i want to check on where it stops.

Sorry about yesterdays narky post was a little on the tired side and thank you to the people who have posted and emailed me to tell me to stop throwing my toys about :-P

Chang Mia

2008-08-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

Ello all Sorry it has been a while since my last update but by the lack of interest from you all i don't think anyone is reading my blog page anymore :-P

Didn't really get up to much in my last couple of days in Bangkok apart from going to the cinema every day, i ended up seeing Batman, the Mummy, Hellboy 2 and Hancock all of which were really good films except the Mummy which was a bit weak.

Anyway i decided that i would save some money on my trip to Chang Mia and get the coach down, although the journey was 10 hours over a 1 hour flight it was a quarter of the price and i was told that all the buses where VIP and air conditioned. So Sunday evening i got a taxi down to the bus station which is bloody huge and a complete pain in the ass to find any of the stops, i managed to finally find my stop and waited patiently for my coach to turn up. Unfortunately for me no one seemed to speak English and my coach was running late, it finally turned up 30 minutes late and i found that i was sitting at the very front of the coach up against the top window with bugger all legs space (yay!). So as you can imagine i was well chuffed with my situation, by the time i the coach turned up i was busting for the toilet but decided to wait a bit longer until the coach got moving. Anyway when i finally got down stairs i was told that the toilet was locked and that they couldn't find the key at the moment, to which at this point i lost my patience and swore at then asking them what the hell i was supposed to do for a 10 hour journey! Anyway this seemed to motivate them in to finding the key and was then shown in to a tiny stinking toilet with piss all over the seat and no running water. As you can imagine i was kicking myself for not paying the extra cash and getting a damn flight. Anyway after a long and uncomfortable journey we arrived at Chang Mia at about 6AM where i got off and got a taxi down to the training camp. I have to say that this place is not what i expected, its in the middle of nowhere down a side street and the place looks very rustic (if that is the right word) the accommodation itself is okay with a bed, bathroom,TV, DVD player and air con but looks a little run down with a door that sticks and some holes in the front door where it looks like someone has put their fist. I have told myself that i will give this place a month and then see how i feel but currently feeling like i am in a scene from Rocky 3. I also had the great delight of finding out this morning that the Bank has frozen my card as it wasn't working in any of the bloody ATM machines, according to one of the guys i was chatting to here they will freeze your account as soon as you use your card 4 times in Thailand for some strange reason. Luckily i still have my travelers cheques and cashed some in and i am now praying that i can get the whole thing sorted out as quickly as possible. So there you have it, not the greatest start to the second part of my journey and i have also yet to see what kind of punishment awaits me for training (really wondering why the hell i am doing this at the moment).

Hope everyone is well back home even if you have lost the use of your emailing skills, i do try and reply to your emails but i don't know if they come through or not, probably easier to email me direct if you want to say hello.

There are some more photos on my album now so follow the link and have a look. PS yes i am grumpy and tired (toys have come out of the pram)

http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

Bankok

2008-08-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well i know it has only been a couple of days but i have to say that i really beginning to love it here. The Thais are a bunch of friendly and helpful people and even if they dont understand you they will still grin and shrug, i dont even feel so bad about being ripped off here as they do it with a smile.
Yesterday i decided that i would get the touristy stuff done and talked to the guy running the guest house about the best way to get to the temples and was told that the sky train runs pretty much all the way there and that i just needed to get a river boat up to the temples. So i headed over to the sky train station and was surprised at just how easy it was to get around, basically it's an easier version of our tubes that runs over ove the roof tops and is a lot cleaner, with air con and alot easier to use. Anyway i got down to the main pier in about 30 min and then had the trouble of finding the river boat that would go up river, i managed to bump in to some other english people trying to find the same thing and jumped in al ong board with them that took us up to where the Grand Palace was. The Palace itself was huge and you had to be dressed in trousers and long sleeve tshirt to get in, but they were handing out clothing to everyone for deposits which was handy. So after getting dressed for the part i wondered around the palace for a couple of hours, the place was amazing with these huge gold domes and amazing murals on the walls depicting great battles of kings, after seeing that and the palace museums i came outside and wondered around. Unfortunately i got talking to a tout standing outside the palace and before i knew i was in a Tut Tut and being driven around the city, first stop was the lucky Buddha which is one of the oldest know Buddha statues in Thailand. After this i was taken to a local tailor where they tried to sell a suit, it was kind of refreshing as it wasnt the hard sale i expected and the guy just basically asked me if i would like to buy a suit as they were alot cheaper than back home. Next stop was the travel agents as i wanted to get some more information on buses and trains up to Chang Mia. After that the driver took me up Wat Saket which is this bloody big hill with a huge gold monument on top off, the view from the top was pretty cool as you could see right across Beijing. After this i got back down stairs to find my Tut Tut driver had disappeared which was petty stupid as i hadnt paid him yet, anyway i decided that i was feeling pretty knackered after a day of sight seeing and got a Tut Tut back to the station. Dear god these guys drive like nutters, he was weaving in and out of traffic like a mad man and it felt like he was going to tip the thing at times, which despite everything i thought was pretty cool. Anyway by the time i got back i had some food and decided to have an early night as i felt like i been sucking on an exhaust pipe for the day and i was tired from trekking around.
Today i decided i was going to head to Siam and go to the cinema. Again the sky train was nice and easy and i was there in 20 minutes, the Mall itself was fecking huge with 5 floors spreading out for miles and pretty much had everything you could possibly think off in one place, the cinema itself was huge with 13 screens,1 3d screen and 1 Imax screen which was showing batman!!!! So obviously i paid out the extra money to watch batman on the ultra huge screen and had to kill 2 hours before it started, believe it or not i window shopped for an hour and a half and anyone who knows me knows i wouldnt normally do that but the place had so much interesting stuff to see including a huge bok shop selling english books.... unfortunately it was missing the one book i was looking for but they did have an entire section devoted to comic books!!! WOOHOOO!!! In the end i didnt buy anything but spent ages browsing.
Anyway i finally got in to the IMazx screen which is huge and found that they had comfy reclining chairs that which was a really cool or at least i thought so until i had someone in front of mean lean back and knee cap me. Anyway regardless of the chairs the movie was amazing and for anyone who hasnt seen it yet if you liked batman begins then you will love this one. So after that i headed back to the guest house and that leads me up to know, dont know what i am going to do tonight as i feel tired but tempted to see what the local bar and clubs are like.

Anyway i have uploaded some of my pictures which can be found on the link below and will be uploading more soon.
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/Thailand

Hope everyone is well and having fun at work HA HA!! if you have any sugestions on where to visit while i am in Bangkok then please let me know.

what a strange end to china

2008-08-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

its strange that i have managed to have 3 months in China with out any problems and in the last 2 nights all hell breaks loose.
Saturday night a large group of us go out for a meal and clubbing, we are all having a really good time with me getting drunk on Vodka and everyone getting up on stage dancing the night away in the night club. The night goes well until we head to the last night club at the end of the night when we are not even in there 10 minutes and i see James jumping in to a large group of guys who are kicking the crap out of someone on the floor. As me and the rest of the group jump in we find its about 15 guys kicking and punching a girl on the floor. They soon back off and the girl runs outside, so thinking we have saved the day we all wonder back in and continue drinking, 2 minutes later we hear shouting and James goes running back outside to find the same group of guys kicking the crap out of the girl again, as we run in to help again this time the lot of them all pull out knives and start waving them in our faces and screaming. Unfortunately i am very drunk at this point and dont seem to notice the knives and James seems to think he is stab proof as he goes running in screaming and shouting. Finally someone manages to get the girl out in to a taxi and we decide that now is a good time to get the hello out of dodge. Its at this point i notice that i have managed to catch my hand on someones knife and have blood dripping down my hand, also James Dunn also notices that all of his arm and shirt are covered in blood, this actually turns out to be the blood of the girl as he was helping her in to the taxi. Anyway after all the excitement we go back to the Gin Li hou and get some sleep.
I wake up in the morning to find that my battle wound is nothing more than a scratch and that none us were any the wiser on what the hell had gone on all night. After that i was left to kill a day in Si Ping before heading to the train station at 11 where Joey and myself got an over night train down to Beijing. When we finally got to the youth hostel we both walked around the forbidden city, which i have to say that after you get over the sheer size of the place its pretty boring. Anyway after dicking about for a while in Beijing, (which i would like to add is a dump and all the volunteers they have for the Olympics dont speak English, dont know where anything is and are very unfriendly and unhelpful) i head down to the airport get booked in and wait for my flight, which is delayed by about and hour. I finally get to Bangkok and find that none of the ATM machines will accept my card, i eventually find a exchange place and get some money changed up (for some strange reason they would exchange Chinese to Baht in Beijing airport) and head down to the guest house for about 3AM.
I havent really done much today apart from sleep and chill out, i have yet to chat to anyone here but i did take a walk around the area and only a few of the locals speak english so it looks like i will have to start learning Thai.
Other than that there isnt much else to report, will have more for you when i start doing some sight seeing.

Beware of the Russian

2008-08-02T01:10:00.000-07:00

well it was officially my last day at the academy today and i am now in Si Ping killing time before i go out and get very drunk.

A few of us went to Brenda's last night for a drink and a laugh, i was pretty tired by the end and headed back at about 11:30. I was woken up at about 3 in the morning by Andre the crazy Russian banging on my door, when i opened it he was looking for Neil (to beat the shit out of him by the looks of it) so i told him to go away as i was sleeping, an hour later Andre was back banging on the door again and was told to fuck off as i was tired. Anyway i woke up early so i could pack my bags in the morning as while i was wondering back and forth got chatting to some of the others guys about what had happened when i left last night. It turns out that Neil has gotten drunk and was mouthing off to Andre about talking to much and that he couldn't understand what the hell he was talking about, apparently Andre took this as a personal insult and tried to rip Neils head off and the rest of the guys where forced to pull him off and everyone got chucked out of the pub, anyway as the guys where filling me in on what happened i noticed Andre come out of his room holding something in his hand with a towel over it and headed straight in to my room and closed the door. Obviously i panicked at this point as the guy is a complete psycho and ran to the door to find it locked, after kicking the crap out of the door and yelling Andre finally unlocked it and i found him standing there with a hammer in his hand and Neil telling me that he had woken up to find Andre standing over him ready to take a swing. At this point i opened the door and told Andre to fuck off, both of them then carried on arguing out in to the corridor where Andre continued to rant and rave half in Russian and half in broken English.
After following Andre in to his room i managed to calm him down and was trying to get the full story out of him which was more hard work than i had intended. I finally found out that Neil had been shooting his mouth off 2 weeks earlier and Andre had warned him to leave him alone, so when Neil took the piss out of him again last night Andre was going to teach him a lesson by burying the hammer in his head........what a nice chap!
To be honest i don't think anything would have happened and that Andre was just tyring to scare the shit out of Neil but i cant be too sure as like i said Andre is a crazy bastard.
To be honest i don't know how this was resolved as when i was talking to John about the whole thing he said he would talk to Andre about it and that Neil should not tell the administration staff about it as "this is a school of warriors and that he shouldn't be a pussy and resolve the problem himself" personally i think he was talking shit as i would have had Andre arrested for the whole thing.

So there you go an interesting end to my stay at the Academy. I have also taken loads more pictures so you can see me and some of the other guys posing here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China

Chang Chuan

2008-07-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend was certainly an interesting experience, i dont think that i have a more surreal experience in my life.
Friday night was spent at the academy with a few of us playing poker which has now turned in to a weekly event, we normally get about 5 of us playing with 50 qui in the pot and winner takes all. Normally i suck at poker but i actually won on Friday night with having major drunk luck as i got 3 full houses in a row and then 2 pairs Kings high, we ended up playing until about 3 in the morning. So Saturday morning i woke up at 9Am so we could get down to Si Ping train station nice and early, needless to say my head was still spinning and i was probably still drunk. After some mucking around we finally got our tickets for Chang Chuan and got to the station on time, unfortunately the train was rammed with no seating room and we were left standing for the full hour on a sweaty hot train with a bunch of rude smelly chinese people who couldnt stand still for anything longer than 2 minutes, so as you can imagine i wasnt in the greatest of moods by the time we reached our destination. As soon as we were out of the station we decided to find a hotel so we could ditch our stuff and explore the town, so we headed to the first hotel we saw that looked good and went inside, everything seemed to be going well as Neil was using his chinese and the woman behind the desk understood him and we were shown one of the rooms to see what they were like, anyway we went back down stairs to book 3 rooms and after some dicking about we were told that they wouldnt give us rooms as we were foreigners. Now this was the first time that i have had some thing denied due to my race and i can tell you i was not impressed and neither was any of the other guys who couldnt believe it was happening, after a few hot words were exchanged we left to find another hotel. We got turned away from another 3 hotels in town due to being foreigners with 2 of them saying there was no room whilst booking out rooms to some chinese people. After about an hour and half of trekking around town we finally managed to find a hotel for foreigners and got 2 triple rooms. So after chilling out for a bit we headed off for something to eat, we had heard that they had a pizza hut out there and managed to find it straight away. It made me laugh as in China pizza hut is considered a classy restaurant with soft piano music playing in the background and very polite waitress to take your order, what we hadnt taken in to consideration was that they were also selling the pizzas at western prices!!!!! the whole meal came to about 10 pounds per head which out in China is some serious cash and to be honest i really wish i hadnt bothered and i realised that i hadnt missed it that much.
Anyway we headed back to the hotel had showers and got ready for a booze filled night out, Neil asked the hotel staff for some good bars to go to and we headed off in our taxis. Now i thought the drivers were insane in Si Ping but jeeeeezzzzzzz these guys drove like nutters, we had about 5 of 6 near misses in a 15 minute journey with our driver going at ridiculous speeds. After arriving at our destination and needing a change of underwear we sat there in our taxi with a guy who spoke no english and 3 foreigners who spoke bugger all chinese not knowing where the other taxi had got to, this went on for about 10 minutes with us trying to use a mixture of broken chinese and english to trying to figure out where the other taxi was with none of us having a phone to call the others. Finally the others turned up and we headed to our first bar, which was a nice little place with a live band and fairly cheap beer, everything was going well with us having a laugh and listening to the music until this drunk chinese guy decided he would start trouble with the foreigners, nothing really happened apart from this guy giving me (i just make friends everywhere i go!) evils, sticking his fingers up and then coming over and attempting to stare me out which was made very amusing when Neil told the guy in chinese that i had shit myself. After our drink we headed off to our next bar which was alot nicer with an english speaking girl getting us drinks and more live music (just want to point out that all chinese people can sing and do it at every opportunity) so we had another drink there and moved on. We headed to a few other bars before we found out that another one of the guys from the academy was in Chang Chaun and gave him a call, we got the name of the club he was in and attempted to find the place ourselves with Neil asking the locals where it was, we ended up walking for about an hour before we finally gave up and got a taxi. When we arrived we found that the place was quite a large bar with chinese drag queens on stage miming to chinese opera........Yup i couldnt figure out why either. Anyway we didnt stay as the place was rammed and there was no where to sit unless we wanted to pay 200 qui for a private booth upstairs. So we decided we would try one of the clubs next to the bar, so we went to the first one called the Kira Kira club. James was the first person through the door and stopped abruptly with the rest of us pileing in to him and then quickly backing out the door as James was shouting "its a fucking brothel!!", so we then tried the next "club" to find yet another brothel and finally we tried door number 3 to be greeted by this stunning chinese girl speaking perfect english, we decided that we would give it a try as we all wanted a drink as she was telling us that we could come in and just relax..............hmmmm brothel?
So we were ushered over to this private booth and before we knew it all these very pretty waitress were piling fruit on to the table and we were told that it was free food, we then learned that she wanted to charge us 100 qui each for staying here to which point we were all ready to leave so she panicked and told us that we could stay for free. So we all stayed and had a beer whilst chatting to our hostess who informed us that if we wanted to have some girls come over and play games with us it would cost 100 qui, being typical guys we all assumed that she meant hookers and nicely turned down the offer. After a few beers and some karaoke a few of the guys decided they wanted to find out exactly what she meant by playing "games", unfortunately at this point she didnt seem to understand our questions and we where left trying to get Neil to ask her if she was a hooker in chinese but in a polite way, after some heated debate he decided that they only nice way was to ask her what games she had and she disappeared off and came back with connect 4!!! lets just say that a few of the guys faces were an absolute picture.
So eventually we asked our hostess if she could recommend a good night club and we all headed down to the Mayflower, the place was absolutely packed so we decided to try the club next door. We got in there to find the place packed with foreigners and about 5 very gay Brazilian guys dancing on stage, the funniest thing was that all of us had become used to just being surrounded by Chinese people and the introduction of more foreigners we didn't know made us all feel really uncomfortable especially with them being on stage and grabbing each others arses. Most of us got over our stage fright and were eventually up on stage with our shirts off and dancing away, by the end of the night James had ended up with some random chinese guys number, some of the other foreigners who were at another table came over with drinks for us said cheers and then disappeared and Joey who had been sitting outside had managed to get the number of this amazingly hot chinese girl.
This morning was spent just wondering around Chang Chuan and eventually heading back to Si Ping making sure that we bought better seats this time.

Next week is my last week in China so i thought i would sum up my adventure so far. My time at the Academy has been a really good experience with all the students and the staff being very friendly but i have found the training to be really repetitive as we only learn forms here and practise them all day everyday with the exception of the evening session where you get free reign and do pretty much what you want with the Shifus there to give you the help if you want it. The Academy itself is poorly managed as the vice head master never seems to know what the hell is going on and the admin staff try to be helpful but aren't really that motivated and you have to ask for something to 3 or 4 times before it gets done. My opinion of China itself is not a particularly good one as i would describe it as a nation of arrogant racists, who despite living in an evolving culture refuse to move with the times and have no concept of caring for the environment. Another sad point is the disgusting sights you see of animals being sold on the street where they are stuffed in to tiny cages and sold to owners who have no interest of caring for them. The academy itself has 2 dogs who are never walked and fed on rice scraps. I can honestly say that i have no intention of ever coming back to China but wouldn't want to push my view on to anyone else as i always think people should experience a culture them selves and also i have only been to small towns so i can only judge my views on farmers and inbred hicks.

Ummmmm if anyone for the chinese goverment is reading this im joking your all lovely people really.......

Anyway thats my rant over, i hope everyone is well back home and i hope you all have a good week at work next week.

9 days and counting

2008-07-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

Hello all
Sorry its been a while since the last update but the net has been on the fritz again. Well as you can tell from the title i dont have long left until i fly out to Thailand, the flights are now booked and i will leave for Beijing on Monday the 4th August, im still a little nervous as every time someone new turns up at the academy they have had friends who have been out there training and keep going on about how hardcore the training is. I'm still planning on having a weeks holiday in Bangkok at the moment but may go to one of the nice beaches if i get to bored, not really sure what i am going to do while i am out there at the moment.
Well its been training as normal here, we have had 3 new students arrive in the last couple of days, 2 guys from England and a 9 year old kid from the Netherlands who is here with his dad. I think that the headmaster was having a bad day on Tuesday as a few people were late lining up for morning training and we got this big lecture that we are here to train and that no one had been getting up for the morning runs and that we were all a bunch of lazy foreigners and if we didnt want to train we should go back to our own countries (bet he wouldnt be saying that if we all asked for a refund). Anyway after his massive rant i decided to get up for the morning run today as i was getting very lazy and wished that i hadn't, i think John Shifu decided to break the new guys in with an intense training session which left me feeling like i wanted to vomit, i tried to do the Chi gong afterwards and couldnt hold any of the positions without feeling dizzy so i eventually gave up. I'm still working on my Tai Chi form at the moment as well and for some strange reason i am struggling with the movements as they all have to flow seamlessly from one to the other, Shifu also had some of the other students performing the forms the other day and i found out that i am not even a quarter of the way through the form, so i dont think i will get to learn the whole thing before i leave but it has certainly made me look diffrently at Tai Chi and will be looking to carry on back home as its alot more strenuous than you might think.

As we are half way through the week we are already organising our next weekend out and have decided to head off to Chang Chuan as its a bigger city than Si Ping and we had heard that there was alot more there to see, so far i think there are 6 people going so it looks like it will be another messy night (yes photos will be provided).
There is a large group of people all leaving around the same time, myself and Fabio are leaving the weekend of the 2nd and then Josh, Nate and errrrr someone else is leaving after that, which is pretty much most of the senior students gone.

Umm thats about is this week, just wanted to say well done to Caroline, Kevin, Gemma and anyone else that completed the Bupa 10K run and hope that your all well and not suffering from blisters. Other than that i hope everyone is enjoying their week and a reminder to EMAIL ME!!! as i get bored

Woman and booze is the true way of the warrior

2008-07-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see from the tittle we all had a lot of fun last night and a fair amount of alcohol was consumed as well. The start of the evening unfortunately was a complete disaster with us going down to another restaurant that serves western food, the end result was 2 people not getting what they ordered and the food not being very nice and the whole thing was not helped by Lily who tagged along and was a complete pain in the ass. Anyway after grabbing a shower and changing at the Gin Li Hou we met up with everyone and headed down to the 2008 club, the only way to describe this place is to get an imagine of your local night club in your head and then add live singers up on stage and pyro techniques exploding all over the place. Luckily we only had the singers on stage for about half an hour before the rave music came on and scantily clad dancers came out and started gyrating around poles, after a few drinks we were all up and dancing on the floor and then eventually on the stage, it was all a good laugh and the locals all seemed to find the dancing laowai entertaining (i think they compare us to dancing monkeys). So we stayed there until about 12 and then headed down the road to another night club where we stayed until about 1:30ish and then on to another club where we stayed until about 2:30, needless to say by this point most of the guys where looking a little worse for ware, i wasnt feeling to bad as i had just stuck to beer all night. The main highlights for the night where Mark getting chatted up twice in one night by some very pretty lady's and getting their numbers both times and Josh dancing like a complete nutter on the podium for hours completely hammered. After all the fun and drink we ended back at the Gin Li Hou and crashed out. I have uploaded some photos from the night and you can find the link at the bottom of the blog.
I think we are all planning to head back to the Academy tonight for a quite one and a movie as a few of the guys spent to much last night.
I know i haven't really put in alot of detail about the night out but most of it is very hazy and the pictures do more to describe the night than any of my words so enjoy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China

Thundercats Hooooooooooooo!

2008-07-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all
Sorry about the lack of blog this week but the Internet has been crap and there hasn't been a huge amount to write about.
We have had 2 new students arrive this week but i cant remember their names and havent really chatted to them since they started (yeah yeah mr social i know!) other than that its been training as usual. I have now finished learning "mother and son" form this week and now working on a tai chi form. The weather has been a real mixed bag here with it being bright sunshine one minute and then torrential rain the next, we even had continues rain for 24 hours the other day. The morning run has not gone well this week as i only made it up on Monday morning, i know its bad but i cant find the motivation to get up at 5:20 in the morning and go for a run when its been raining.

Its only 3 weeks now before i fly out to Thailand and i still havent booked my flights or train ticket, will hopefully book my flight in the Internet cafe this weekend and will have to get a train ticket for Beijing a couple of days before i am due to leave.

Hmmmm thats about it really, i am heading out to Si Ping tomorrow for a drinks and karaoke this weekend so i will hopefully have some interesting stories to tell you.
Anyway i hope work and life is all good for you all and that you have big smile on your face.....or not.

(insert title here)

2008-07-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

Monday morning and its back to training as normal, i finally made it up for the morning run today which is a good start to the week and will make sure that i keep it up all week.

This weekend was a good laugh with 7 of us playing poker on Friday night at Brenda's, we all put in 50 Qui which works out at about 3 pound each and winner took all. We were playing Texas hold'em (don't know if that is spelt right) The game went on for bloody hours and i was out fairly quickly so i just sat around drinking more beer before heading to bed at about 12:00, James won in the end much to everyone annoyance but i think this is going to become a regular thing on Fridays as everyone wants a chance to win their money back.
Saturday night Josh, James, Nate, Neil, Steve and myself headed down to the karaoke bar and stayed there until 12 singing badly, luckily the place was empty this time so we didn't have to worry about upsetting the locals. After that we headed back to the Gin Li Hou and crashed out until Sunday morning. Sunday was just spent mainly chilling out and doing a bit of shopping in Si Ping, James and Josh decided that they were going to buy BB guns as a few of the other guys at the academy had some and they wanted to run around shooting each other. Both of them ended up buying a pistol and a rifle each and as soon as they were back at the academy the guns were out and they were taking great delight at shooting each other at point blank range and then shooting everyone else, each gun gave a nasty little sting with the bullets and i ended up getting shot in the neck and the ankle before i took the gun of them and shot them as many times as possible in the back.

So other than that there isn't much to report other than it is ridiculously hot out here. Thanks for the emails and comments and i will try to get back to you ASAP but the Internet is crap here and everything is very slow.

Chinese people cheat!

2008-07-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Friday and Exam day, everyone was dressed in their uniforms again and we even had the head master present to watch. I was the 5th person in line for performing today and already 2 people had cocked up their forms, my first form wasnt too bad but i did make a few silly mistakes as well as forgetting a few moves which really pissed me off as i do it perfectly 3 times a day, my 2nd form went alot smoother mainly as its so short. I didnt feel to bad about it all as alot of other students managed to forget huge chunks of theirs forms or have to restart it a few times plus the heat was a killer with it being really humid as well.

The 2nd morning session was for sparring and i was still without a partner as no one looking to volunteer. first up was Josh and Eric, Josh had a good height advantage over Eric as well as being very skilled with his legs, Eric came in strong at the start and despite taking a good pounding he took he managed to land a few blows on Josh before punching himself out and being to knackered to carry on, the fight carried on for another few seconds with Eric being to tired to do anything and Josh not wanting to hit him anymore. Next up was James and Neil, James had the height advantage on this one by at least a foot, Neil came in hard and fast taking a few hard kicks to the mid section but kept swinging for James landing a few solid hits, the fight was fairly one sided with Neil taking a real pounding but he kept going and eventually the gong was rung and Neil came off brusied, battered and bleeding.
They then got Josh and Eric back up for their second round, i think somone must have given Eric some pointers during the break as he came out swinging hard and fast and landing a really solid hook on Josh sending him reeling, unfortunately Eric pushed himself to hard to fast and was left exhausted very quickly, throwing clumsy swings at Josh who side stepped and came in with some vicious crosses that looked like they really hurt, despite it all Eric kept fighting until the end and showed alot of heart.
Next up was round 2 of James and Neil, i suggested at the start of the fight that James shoudl try using a few combinations of punches which he completely misunderstood as both of them went toe to toe for about a minute throwing wild punches at each other with no real finesse or skill, James finally started moving out of Neils reach and kept his distance while landing some solid blows. By the end of the match Neil was a bloody mess with his nose bleeding and a nice welt on his right eye.
The next fight was some of the younger female chinese students, the fight was really tame and there isnt anything worth mentioning.
So after all this i was still left with no one to fight and was ready to give up until James thought it would be a really good idea to ask Shao Shifu (one of the shaolin teachers for the kids) if he would like to spar me and the worst thing was he agreed!!! So at this point i am seriously bricking it thinking that i was about to get a serious ass whooping and not being to back down as i had been maoning about not sparring all this time. So i get kitted out and step on to the mat to find shifu wearing the full body guard which made me feel better. The round starts and i make sure i take a strong defensive position using my legs to keep him at bay, now without sounding too big headed i was kicking this guys ass as he kept sign posting every kick he was doing and missing most of his punches. I made sure i stayed nice as close on him making sure he couldnt use his kicks and countering with a cross to the face or a nice roundhouse to his rib cage ervery time he tried, everything was going fine until i caught him glancing down at my legs again and again, thinking he was about to come in with a sweep or a thigh kick i kept my leg ready to block and then with a loud thwack he kicked me square in the nuts!!!! Needless to say this hurt a tad but i made sure i didnt drop to the ground in a fetal position but I did go a nice shade of green as i thought i was about to throw up. Lin Shifu and a few others came rushing over to check if i was okay whilst i struggled to get my gloves off and get my mouth guard out before i vomited, to make matters worse i had the other shifu (the one who kicked me) trying to pick me up and drop me on my toes thinking it would help.
So with me clutching my bruised man parts and hobbling around they thought it might be a good idea to stop the fight and that was pretty much the end of the exam day, it really pisses me off as i was doing really well against the Shifu and i think he delibratly landed that low blow to save face. Anyway after the initial shock had faded i felt alot better and was fine by the next training session, it did make me feel a lot better to see my opponent hobbling around as i was told i caught him a good couple of times in the chest and the thigh.

I have now finished uploading all the photos from exam day, follow the link bellow. Sorry the post took a couple of days to do but i wanted to get everything down, its now Saturday and I am just chilling out in Si Ping today and i think we are all heading out tonight for a few drinks and karaoke (not my idea) so i will be sure to post again tomorrow and let you know how my night was as long as i am not to hungover.
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China

2 months tomorrow.

2008-07-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

Blimey it has been 2 months already .....i think.
The time has flown by so fast here, it's a scary prospect that i am only here for another 3 weeks and will be heading to Thailand for the 4th August. I am actually beginning to worry about what waits for me there as i have heard some brutal horror stories about friends of friends who have been out there training but i wont really know tough it will be until i get there.
I have been told that Bangkok is a really nice area to visit so i am thinking about taking a weeks holiday before heading to Chiang Mia and start training.

Anyway as its the 11th tomorrow and we have exam day, i will be doing Baji Chuan and my double stick form and maybe some sparring (yes i have brought a mouth guard now!) so i will hopefully get lots of good photos to keep you entertained. It only seems to be the new guys who will be sparring this time round and everyone seems to have a partner so if i do spar i will be a last minute person or one of the chinese guys. To be honest i have been trying to get some of the guys who wind me up to spar with me as i wouldn't feel so bad about hurting them and would be less inclined to hold back.
Other than that there isn't much else to report, i don't really have alot planned for the weekend other than trying to track down a pizza restaurant that i have been told about in Si Ping and maybe going for a drink with some of the guys but it all really depends how bruised and knackered i am on Friday.

Anyway i hope your all well and would like to thank everyone who has posted and emailed. I promise to get some more photos for you tomorrow and hope you all enjoy your day.

its a fair cop guvner!

2008-07-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

Ok i don't think i caught anyone out with the picture as you seemed to all spot that it wasn't me straight away but regardless it was still funny!
I did actually get new tattoos done on Saturday which where 2 new tribal bands done on my arms, i have always meant to get them straightened out as they were at different heights. I basically got the tribal bands mirrored on each arm but put a Kanji symbol in the middle of each band which says Zen. I will get a picture of them soon but they are healing at the moment and scabbed up, the rest of the details i didn't lie about, i was actually in there for 5 hours as the guy is a real perfectionist and wanted to get them just right.

Anyway training this week has been interesting with one of the guys took a bad fall yesterday when running and landed on gravel chin first with no shirt, the poor guy had to get 4 stitches in his chin and is chest is red raw.
The heat has really picked up here this week as well and is sucking the energy out of everyone, i had planned on training this afternoon but fell asleep over lunch time and was so wiped out that i slept through afternoon training and meditation.
1 good thing to happen this week is that Johnathan has restarted the meditation group again, we don't have anyone leading the group but sit together in the same room and do our own thing, it was quite surprising just how much heat we all generated last night as everyone was sweating really heavily by the end of the session plus we are going to experiment on our sitting positions this week to seem if it amplifies the energy in the room.

Anyway that's all for me as i have to go and get some dinner. Good luck to everyone running in Hyde park this week, i would sponsor you but im tight :)

A weekend of pain

2008-07-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well i don't know why but i must of come to the conclusion that i just hadn't had enough pain this weekend so i decided to go and get my tattoo done on Saturday, the whole thing took about 5 hours but i am happy with the end result, although it is a little on the large size it was worth the money.

What do you think?

Friday night was a good laugh, i met up with Eric and Waldon at the Internet cafe and then with Jarred we headed for a couple of drinks in the student area in the university, the first place we went in to was a small bar with a couple of booths and a few guys singing karaoke, as we were sitting down a couple of chinese guys invited us over and bought a round of drinks. At first i thought that Jarred knew them and later found out that none of us knew who they were and they just kept plying us with alcohol and didn't want anything for it. So we eventually left that place after a couple of hours and more than a few beers and headed down to the student bar i had been to a couple of weeks ago, we had 1 beer in there and Eric got us all up and singing, in a space of 4 songs we managed to clear out the entire bar and felt so guilty we left with our heads hung low. We then headed to the chinese equivalent of a bikers bar, where the bar maids where gorgeous and scantily clad, the odd thing was the owner of the place got up with the bass guitarist and started playing this song while his gay friend was up on stage hugging his boyfriend. I can honestly say i found the whole thing very bizarre as men are not allowed to be openly gay in china, anyway we stayed there until they kicked us out.

After that we wondered about for a bit looking for some more open bars before giving up and heading to the Jin Li Hao(spa). Managed to get a good nights sleep there and then headed in to town for food and then the the tattooist.

Cant really figure out if my stomach is any better yet as i had a weekend of beer and KFC plus there wasn't enough food for everyone at lunch today as they miss calculated the numbers and so i feel quite hungry. Steve has some tablets for a bad stomach so i am going try those and see how i do during training tomorrow.

Anyway i hope you all had a booze filled or productive weekend and look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Americans and fireworks!!!

2008-07-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

Ok the tittle pretty much sums up yesterdays activities. John decided that as the weekend starts Friday and the Shifus go home early he would have celebrate the 4th of July last night (yes he is American). The BBQ kicked off last night at about 6ish and finger food was served up before the burgers started cooking. The food was very nice although it was coated in chili sauce which didnt really sit very well with my stomach, the burgers took ages to cook and John decided that all the locals could jump the queue as many times as they wanted for food, so i was left waiting for nearly an hour for 1 burger! grrrrr. Although alcohol was provided i decided to give it a miss, it was all a good laugh with everyone laughing and joking. All the guys had gone out and brought nearly 20 boxes of fireworks yesterday to celebrate so once everyone had their showers John started letting them off. Now what we consider to be a firework is basically a sparkler compared to the Chinese ones which are plastic explosives in paper rockets, the display went on for nearly an hour with earth shattering explosion after the other and blinding lights all over the place. Anyway we were all enjoying the display until one of the boxes got knocked over from the force of the rockets coming out of it and started shooting fireworks at us (not fun) anyway everyone went screaming for cover and luckily no one was hurt.
After the fireworks where done i decided to head off to bed as the food had caught up with my stomach and wasnt feeling to great.

Didnt make the morning run today as i was still feeling rough. Had to come in to Si Ping early today as i had to sort out my Visa, which is now done and will pick it up next week.

Managed to finally get around to having a massage today as i have been meaning to do it for the last couple of weekends and really wish i hadn't! I dont think i have ever experienced anything as painful before in my life, the guy who was giving me the massage could probably break solid granite with his finger tips, the whole thing lasted well over and hour with having my muscles tenderised and massaged until they where jelly and then having suction cups added to my body.I am now covered in big round bruises and suffering big time, i just hope it will be worth it and sort out my problems with my knees and shoulders.

Anyway that's about it and i am to bruised to keep writing. Hope your all well

Other than that there isn't much to report, didn't think to get any pictures of the fireworks but Neil my roommate did so i might as if i could use them.

Looks like i am staying

2008-07-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

ok thought about it long and hard last night and decided that i dont actually have enough time to organise flights and rails tickets with out being rushed as my visa will expire on the 9th July. I am going to get my visa extended this Friday and pay for the extra month here, unfortunately i think its going to cost me more for flights in August due to the Olympics but i dont mind to much as it just adds to the adventure.
Not really loving the chinese government at the moment as they making all foreigners lives as difficult as possible, with raising the price of visas, making it nearly impossible to get hotel rooms and generally pissing people off. I dont understand why any country hosting the games would be so bloody stupid about the whole thing, then again they could be afraid of a possible terrorist attack.

Any hoo not much to report today, not been feeling to great as my stomach is bad again and i have felt exhausted all day. Slept most of this morning until lunch and feel better for it but still feel a little light headed. We got 2 new students today, 1 from Australia and cant remember where the the other is from. Kevin is leaving this weekend as is James i think, so over the next couple of months most of the students who have been here the longest will have left.

Oh another thing to report is that our evening meditation classes have been stopped, not much was given for the reason other than the student who taught Nate has asked for the classes to be stopped. Its a real pain in the ass as i was really getting in to it, i intend to keep practising at the same time each night as the room should be empty but dont feel like it will be the same as the group was giving off a really good vibe.

Thanks for everyone who commented on yesterdays blog i appreciate the help, i know losing the extra week is a pain in the ass but its not that bad, i might try and make a deal where i only pay for the three weeks here if i can and see what happens.

Hope your all enjoying your week and work isn't to bad at the moment, is England still going through the recession at the moment?

Should i stay or should i go

2008-07-01T02:43:00.000-07:00

Been informed today that i will need to renew my visa if i want to stay longer which i knew was coming but i have been told that it has to be done this Friday and it will only give me 1 month from when i buy the new visa meaning it will end on 4th August. I have also been told that i will have to pay 1 month for the tuition here and cant get a refund for the week i will loose.
The Visa is going to cost me roughly 20 pounds and the cost of training will be another 416 pounds, or if i book my flight now i can get flights to Bangkok for 123 pounds and then another 50 pound for the flight to Chiang Mia, I know its cheaper to cut my loses and go to Thailand sooner rather than later but not sure if i want to saty and learn more here, plus i am enjoying myself here...... I think i am going to have to think about this over night.

Didnt make morning training today as i didnt set my alarm and the school alarm was late so i only had 5 minutes to get up and go running, which worked out well for me as it started raining heavily 5 minutes in to their run. The double sticks form is going well and i am really enjoying it as there is a lot more to the form than that daggers and its more flashy. Other than that its been training as normal today, apart from watching Rambo after lunch in James and Joshes room.

Vicky's Birthday was a laugh last night, we all had toasted marsh mellows from the fire and just sat around and had a chat and a laugh.
And to Answer Sue's question we decided to grill Vicky, someone did suggest spit roast but i dont think i need to make that kind of joke :)
Alot of the guys are leaving this week with Neil (not my room mate) going today, Ron yesterday, James next week and Kevin next week. We had 1 new student arrive today who is from Korea and his English isnt that great but it looks like he has got friendly with the other Koreans here and seems to be doing his own thing.

Just to let you know Beijing has already doubled all its prices out here for the Olympics so if you are coming out to watch them its going to be almost as expensive as back home.

Anyway hope your all well, thanks for the emails and look forward to hearing from you all. If anyone has any suggestions about staying or going it would be greatly appreciated

Its ALIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

2008-06-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo we have the internet again!!

Its Monday and another week of training, decided that i would make the effort today and got out of bed to do an early morning run even though we didnt have too. I also managed to make it all the way up the hill today with out stopping so i just hope i can keep it going all week. Decided as well today that i didnt really want to learn another fist form in Baji and I am now being taught double short staff form, it all seems to be going ok as Shifu can remember the form and i have already learnt a few moves already :)

Apart from getting very drunk on Friday and suffering most of Saturday (sorry about the blog) the weekend was quite. Its Ron's last day today and we will all be sad to see him go as he is a top bloke (and he might also end up reading my blog so i have to be nice), other than that its Vicky's Birthday today and there was mention of a fire later.

Not much else to report unfortunately, if you guys would like to hear about anything in particular then let me know, other than that i hope you enjoy your Mondays at work.

Fecking Internet!!!! Grrrrrr

2008-06-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

As you can see from my title the Internet at the academy has been down all week in an attempt to get a better and faster service, currently we only 1 working pc in the academy that is on all day but everyone wants to use it and its the luck of the draw who gets there first.

Here is a quick run down of the week:
Monday was just training as normal with nothing special, some of the guys at the academy had picked up a stomach bug and were suffering a fair bit.
Tuesday i got up for morning training feeling a little rough, did the run and then when it came to do the rest of the exercises started feeling worse to the point that i had to sit the last 10min out, i then tried to do the Chi gong but felt even worse and eventually gave up, which was a good thing as by the time i got to the top of the stairs i had to make a mad rush for the toilet and threw up. So that was me pretty much written off for the rest of the day with stomach cramps and feeling rough.
Wednesday i decided to miss the morning training and just kept it at a steady pace with the training as i was still feeling rough.
Thursday now felt a lot better and was back in the swing of things but decided against the morning run and just cracked on with training.
Friday was the usual short day with finishing at 2:45 so the shifus can go home early to see their families for the weekend. Shifu decided to get us all up demonstrating our forms in front of the class, unfortunately i had a few mental blocks when doing Baji Chuan and was told that i need to practise more which made me laugh since i do it 3 times a day everyday. Last night we decided to say goodbye to Ron who will be leaving this Monday and got really really drunk, ended up staying at Brendas until about 5Am drinking and having a good laugh, awoke this morning feeling more than a little rough.......

As for the whole double dagger fiasco i have spoken to Shifu at great length about 3 or 4 times now trying to explain that i want to learn more to do with the daggers but told each time that the daggers where meant for self defence and that there was only a few basic movements to learn that should be performed at great speed and should be learnt so that it should became instinct when using them. Personally i still think he is talking out his ass but didnt tell him that. During the evening training i have been using making up basic self defence moves and applying the daggers to them, i am currently looking online for videos of forms so i can ask the shaolin Shifu to show me how to use them.
I have decided that i am going to stay the extra month here after all as i am having fun and enjoy the training as well as all the students are a good laugh. I have also decided i need to push myself a bit more with the training as i have become a bit to relaxed with missing morning training quite alot.

Other than that there isnt much to report and to be honest i am still feeling hung over and dehydrated so i will sign off. I dont know when my next update will be as there seems to be no clear answer to how long the computers will be down at the academy but will attempt to pick up emails and comments from the blogs.
Thanks to everyone who has emailed asking about the Blog and i hope this gives you a fix for the moment.

No dagger no cry

2008-06-21T03:10:00.000-07:00

Ello Geezer

So its finally the weekend and thank god for that! This week has been a real killer with training so hard and really high humidity. This week has involved carrying people and small boulders up flights of stairs (will try and get a picture of the stairs this weekend) and bear crawling down stairs as well as other stupid activities. So i am looking forward to just relaxing with a few drinks tonight and maybe clubbing later.

Training has also hit a large snag here with my dagger form, i have been doing the same 8 moves all week and was getting pissed off with the whole thing so i asked Shifu if he would show me the whole form so i could see if i was doing anything wrong. So he takes the daggers in his hands and freezes, he then turns around and tries to do another move and freezes, this continues for another 2 minutes until he turns around and tells me he has forgotten the form. When i then get Eric to question him about the form he tells me that there are only 8 moves and that i already know them (can you smell the bull shit as well?) so as you can imagine i was standing there with my arms crossed and steam coming out of my ears. I honestly think that the stupid old git has completely forgotten the whole thing and has been dicking me about and making up moves!!!!

But i calmed myself and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and will ask again on Monday (there may have been a chance he was drunk) I have to admit i was really gutted about the whole thing as i really want to learn the dagger form or if not then learn how to use them.

The whole experience has left me kind of jaded towards the Academy as i feel like they are showing us the forms as quickly as possible and moving on to the next one but at the same time i am only here for a short amount of time so if i want to learn the forms i have to stuff as many in as possible........ Hmmmm don't know how i feel about it really.

As everyone has requested to see these blasted daggers here they are

Anyway that it for me as i am now going to get some food and then probably get drunk!!
Hope your weekend is fun and i will have an update for you on Monday

Why am i doing this again?

2008-06-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Managed to make it to morning training this morning and was rewarded by having to bunny up hop up a flight of steps and then bear crawl back down them (means coming down face first on your hands and legs like a spider) 3 or 4 times as well as other activities.

Today was also group training day which was moved from yesterday as it was raining so hard. Today's torture was to either pick up the heaviest rock you could find or find the lightest body you could find and give them a piggy back up the 360 stairs by the lake. I made sure i found the smallest guy i could and volunteered Voitek, managed to make it up about 40 stairs before i had to stop and wheeze like an asthmatic, we each took it in turn taking each other up the stairs with me resorting to using a fireman's lift as it was quicker and easier to get him on me. Made it up the stairs and had a couple of minutes rest before we were told to go back down and do it again, this time i opted for a large rock and unfortunately could on find massive rock and again had to lug it up the stairs wanting to vomit by the time we got to the top. A few of the guys did it a couple of times more taking the rocks down and then back up the stairs, after this we walked back to the academy. For the second morning a few of the higher ranking soldiers from the army barracks turned up at the academy and were given a demonstration which we sat around and watched.
After lunch i normally sleep for an hour but decided to sit in Steve's room and watch 2 episodes of Dexter on DVD before training which was cool and now i feel completely drained so this is why i am doing my blog now so i can have a sleep after dinner.

That pretty much it, for all the people asking for photos of my daggers i will do this tonight and post them tomorrow. I am still learning the dagger form but finding it difficult as it has to be done very fast and should flow but as they say practise makes perfect so i will keep practising until i get it right.

Hope your all well and thank you for your comments, i don't know if i told you but i am unable to post comments on the blog page as its being blocked again but i love reading them so keep posting.

Lord of the flies

2008-06-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

Ni Hao

Its Tuesday and the weather here has been gradually getting hotter and hotter over the weekend and Monday, its been a little cooler today thank god!

One of the draw backs to the heat has been that all the bitting insects have come out in force and taken great delight in chomping on my legs, I now have about 15 bites on my leg from spending about an hour out in the garden on Saturday helping with the BBQ.
I am now covered in large red blotches up and down my legs and for some strange reason they decided that my right leg was more tasty than the left.
Although training in the sun has been really enjoyable it has also been a real killer i dont think i have ever sweated this much in my life it got the the point yesterday where i actually had to ring out my t-shirt because it weighed to much from all the sweat (yes i know that is disgusting).

I have now finished learning Baji Chuan form yesterday and moved on to my double dagger from. I forgot to mention that i finally picked up my double daggers last week from the flee market, they arent the greatest but they will do for learning the form. I managed to haggle the seller down from 180 rmb per dagger to 60 rmb per dagger which i thought was really good until i got back and was told that by one of the translators that i should have paid 60 for the 2 of them, saying that they are still dirt cheap so i didnt feel that bad.

Not really much else to tell you as all the days seem to blend in to one here. If there is anything you guys would like to hear about or see on the blog then please let me know.
Also you guys are getting lazy with not leaving any comments on my blog and emailing me, anyone would think you are busy at work!!!!
I hope that you are all well and stress free and hope to hear from you soon.

Its HOT damn HOT!!

2008-06-15T02:49:00.000-07:00

Hello

Well i think summer has officially hit China because the temperatures have gone through the roof here. According to the web the weather was 31c today in Si Ping and i don't think that has been the hottest day of the week so far.
I have neglected to tell you a few things about China which are, most toilets are holes in the ground with a flush and for some strange reason none of the locals seem to know how to use the flush system. Now with that lovely image in your head and the fact you cant flush toilet paper you can get a rough idea of the smell that is an everyday occurance in China, now take the smell and put it in a oven for a couple of hours and your left with the over powering stench that greets you at most public places you go to.
The second thing i neglected to tell you was that a lot of the locals just chuck their litter and scraps of unfinished food on the ground where every they go or you get a lot of over flowing drains when it rains here....... you can see where i am going with this.
It really is a bizarre sensation just to be walking down the street and suddenly get hit by this over whelming stink of rotting fetal matter and trash in mid day heat (one thing i wont miss about china).....
Anyway enough ranting about China and its trash problems, training has been good this week with the exam on Wednesday and the stupid ice cream contest on Thursday (was a stupid idea but fun) Friday was training as normal and finished at 3 as the Shifus leave early on Fridays. We also has some new students arrive just as class finished (more Brits) 2 guys from London and we also said goodbye to Kenny who had been here for about 4 months. As part of his leaving do we went over to Brendas and got hammered (yes i know its bad im drunk again).
I wasnt to bad this time and only had 5 or 6 beers, unfortunatly the beer in China really does give you a stonking headache the next morning no matter how much water you drink the night before.
Didnt do much on Saturday and just relaxed and went and wondered around Si Ping today.

So again im afraid that there wasnt much to tell you but i hope you all enjoyed the exam day post, i have now finished uploading all the photos so you can see the shots of me sparring with Kevin and i would also like to point out that the one where he is sprawled out on the matt was a piss take before we had our "sparing" contest.

http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China

Thursday Training

2008-06-12T02:34:00.000-07:00

Ok this is for todays training as it took so long to write yesterdays post.

As we missed group training day yesterday with the exam and sparring taking up most of the morning it was decided it would be moved today.Unfortunatly yesterday Martin thought it would be a laugh to suggest we have an ice cream eating contest with Shaolin vs Baji and I honestly thought that no one would take him seriously but we were informed this morning that we would be doing a run down to the stairs and back up to be followed by the ice cream contest.

So everyone sprinted off with me limping behind with a few other injured or lazy persons, the walk up the stairs actually helped losen up my foot which was handy. We eventually finished and everyone was dived in to 2 groups, the next thing i know 2 large boxes of ice lolleys were brought out and put on each table. We were told that that the first group to eat all the ice creams would be the winner and the loosers would have to pay for it all. Now i dont know about you but the idea of eating ice cream at 9AM in the morning is not that appealing and the prospect of eating more than 1 wasnt making me feel to happy.
Anyway we all started at the same time with each person taking 2 lolleys each (chocolate flavour) and woofing them down as fast as they can, i managed to eat 3 before feeling sick with a frozen tongue, Dan on the other hand managed to eat 10!!! pretty much winning it for the Baji team. Although there was some disagrement between the teams the losing team finally coughed up the money although the whole lot only cost about 80p each.

I am now starting to get worried as the time here seems to be going faster and faster and im begining to feel frustrated when we have silly days like this as i feel like i am missing out on training and i still havent started my double dagger form!! Grrrrr

The weather here has been really really hot and im trying not to get burnt anymore and work on my tan at the same time.

Here is the link for the photos, i am still uploading the pictures of the exam day and will eventually get around to tagging them with the names of the students.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/questit/China

Even Rocky had a montage!!

2008-06-11T02:33:00.000-07:00

Didnt make it for the run this morning and it was the easy one today, i cant seem to drag myself out of bed to run up and down a hill at 5:30AM for some odd reason but i will try harder next week i promise.
Sorry for the delay on the update for yesterday but i have been uploading the photos from the exam day and it kills the internet speed.
(this is from yesterday so excuse the time refrences)

Anway it was exam day today so everyone dressed up in the finest suits or uniform and displayed the martial skills in front of the shifus, there were about 20 students doing their forms today either with weapons or just empty hand, I had a fair wait before my turn as the Shaolin group went first, I finally got my turn and did the best i could making a few silly mistakes and was rewarded a score of 7.9 from the shifus (have no idea what that actually means) and came 2nd place out of the new students (4 new students performed). Everyone else did their thing but there isnt much to talk about so i shall just move on to the sparing.

For the second morning lesson people were allowed to "spar" and i use the word loosly as what followed was a full contact blood bath (a little exaggeration there)
There where about 10 fights in total and most people didnt bother with protective equipment apart from gum shields and gloves.
First up was Waldon and James, the fight started with James unleashing a flying cross to Waldons head and then a combo punches all knocking the crap out of Waldon. The fight pretty muched continued that way with James unleashing kick and punch combos and dancing around Waldon who was the bigger man. Waldon did manage to get few solid punches in but couldnt seem to slow James. The fight eventually stopped after 4 minutes and as it was sparring there was no winner but i guess it would be James as Waldon ate matt about 6 times.

Next up was Nate and Danny, this fight was a lot more sedate with Danny sporting a bad knee and Nate perfering to dance around Danny punishing him with well aimed kicks and a nice selection of punch combos, although Danny was injuried he still stood his ground and managed to get in a few nice punches.

Next fight was Mark and Ron and all control was thrown out of the window on this one. Mark started the fight with a large yell and a flurish of haymakers, one found its target sending Ron to the matt but he was straight up on his feet (looking a little dazzed), markers were taken again and the fight continued with Ron fast making the attack with a few nice kicks to the mid section and then landing with a series of heavy blows to the head. The fight continued this way for about 3 minutes each fighter taking heavy blows to the head and each taking turns to eat matt. Ron must have taken 1 too as at one point he stagged forward veering off the mat and landing in to a group of spectators, at this point the fight was stopped.

There were a few other fights after this with the chinese students being thrown in with our guys but they werent much fun to watch.

Now after watching all this violence and wincing at the whole thing you would think that i would be clever enough not to join in.............WRONG!

For some odd reason both Kevin and myslef decided that we would give it a go and got in the ring, unfortunatley neither of us had mouth gaurds and opted out of the chest protector and head gaurds (yes stupid i know). I did suggest at the begining that we should try and take it easy on face shots as neither of us was wearing a gum shield but you will read this didnt really happen.

The fight started with me taking the defensive to see how hard he would come in, his first shot hit my gaurd while the second hit went straight through hitting me square in the nose, rattling my teeth. At this point i got the whole fight or flight sensation and all i wanted to do was throw in the towel as it really really hurt but for some stupid reason i got back in the ring and made sure i kept my gaurd up. I cant actually remember that much about the "sparring" but i manged to evade most of his hits, Kevin was very quick on his feet and danced circles around but i kept my cool and just used my distance and reach to get in some solid shots. I manged to connect with some nice kicks and a few hard crosses and jabs sending him to the matt a few times, I finally then got myself in to a good posistion and threw a hard roundhouse to his rib cage, unfortunatly for Kevin he decided to bob and weave at this point and brought his head down straight in to my kick which sent him flying hard to the matt seeing stars. He got back up with a bit of hesitation and i did look around to see if anyone was going to call time but no one stepped in and we continued for another minute until time was called.
For all my efforts in the ring i was awarded with a swollen right foot, a bruised left foot and a bloody nose. After soaking my feet in icy water for about 20min i was feeling a lot better and now only suffering from a slightly pain limp from my left foot.
The shifus seemed to enjoy the sparing and even the headmaster (who turned up to see blood) congratulated us all on a very good sparring session.

The rest of the day most people took it easy as they got over their mild concusions and bruises.
And i spent the rest of the day limping around and doing as much as i could with a sore foot. The funny thing was most people that i wouldnt normally chat to came and congratulated me on a good fight and it felt like i had become a blooded fighter.

Exam day looms

2008-06-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

Ni Hao
Another beautiful day here and been running around in my shorts working on my tan today (whilst training hard). The day hasnt exactly started well as we had a massive thunder storm last night that kept me awake pretty much all night and thus felt like road kill this morning missing the early morning run and chi gong. Then for our first morning sessions we were told to deweed the training ground....... "we are not amused" I was not happy about this news i can tell you! but im not about to argue with the Shifus and spent 10min pulling weeds before heading in the garden and doing Baji chi qong. Other than that the rest of the day has been ok.

Many things have crossed my mind since i have been here like consiplating the meaning of life and other great mysteries but i am currently stuck on 1 great question .............. should i cut my hair or leave it to grow over the 6 months i am out here, what do you all think?

Anyway as the title says we all have exam day tomorrow, which basically means dressing up in our uniforms and performing our forms in front of both Shifus and the headmaster. I will be doing my Shoja (how ever you spell it!) form so i will make sure to get lots of practise in tonight and tomorrow morning. Also i am still trying to get the pictures of me training sorted but each time i bring my camera out i get tied up with other stuff or everyone is busy but like i keep saying i will try again later.

Anyway thats about if for today, keep mailing and leaving comments as i always enjoy reading them even if i dont get around to replying.

I aint getting on no plane sucker!

2008-06-09T03:03:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Another day and again not much to tell you today, been having fantastic weather today and been working on my tan whilst i have been training. Nothing much has happened today really as it has been training as normal, got one last training session in about 30min and then after that its a shower, then meditation and off to bed.

The only thing of intrest yesterday was one of the chinese guys splitting his head open with a bulll whip and being taken down to the local hopsital, have to admit he was a tuff bastard as he had opened the skin up to the bone and just grunted and beared it!! Hardcore.

Other than that not much else going on, again thanks for your posts and i will attempt to find something more intresting to write about tomorrow.
Also pushed for time now as the risrt pc i was using broke when i was half way through writing the first version of this blog.

1 Month today

2008-06-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Ello all

Yep as the title says its offically been 1 month today since i arrived at the academy, the time is just flying by here but i am still enjoying it.
Not really done alot this weekend, it was the chinese dragon boat festivel today so Si Ping has been packed over the weekend. Went in on Friday evening for the normal kentugy (chinese for KFC) and did a couple of hours in the internet cafe, we were planning on staying in a hotel room this weekend but everything was packed out or reserved for chinese guests, so i just headed back to the academy with the rest of the guys and went for a drink in the local restaurant. Got up earlyish on Saturday and headed in to Si Ping again with Steve for a look around the shops and picked up a few bits and peices, still havent found my double daggers but i have got someone looking in to it for me. After a couple of hours we headed back and ended up having a big argument with the taxi driver who tried to rip us off by driving in to Yur Hur stopping the taxi and demanding more money for taking us the rest of the journey to the academy, we ended up just paying him the money up to that point and was straight in another taxi to go the rest of the distance. Tell you what its hard to have an argument with someone when neither side knows what the hell is being said :)
Anyway after dinner a few of us decided we would have a few drinks in the restaurant and watch one of the DVD's that Steve had picked up. For some strange reason we decided we would drink the bajio juice with coke and although the smell was still over powering it didnt taste to bad. So what was supposed to be a few drinks turned in to a major drinking session with us going through 4 bottles of the stuff (there was only 4 of us drinking) i think we started drinking at about 8ish and i dont actually remember getting in to my room. I have been infromed by one of the guys who wasnt drinking that he left at about 1am and i was still there.... whoops!
Anyway we did manage to watch the new Jet Li & Jacky Chan movie called forbiden Kingdom which was quite good, the story sucked a little but the action is amazing.
Awoke at about 10:30 today and headed down for lunch at 11:30 still feeling groggy (might have still been drunk) and have spent the rest of the day relaxing and snoozing.

Some good news is that the block on my blog page has now been lifted and i can now read all your comments and reply to them on line.
Other than that there isnt anything else to report, its training as normal tomorrow and will make an extra effort to sweat out all the alcohol consumed over the weekend.

Hope everyone is well and hope to hear from you all soon.

I pity the fool!!!!

2008-06-05T02:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Going to be a short one today as there isnt much to report, its been training as normal today and just been working hard at learning the new form and trying to keep practising the first one, the forms are called "Baji xiao jia" and "Baji quan". The weather here has been up and down through the day but only rained for an hour or so.
I also realised today that i will have been here 1 month this Sunday, which feels weird as the time has flown by and only feels like yesterday that i was sitting in the office.

Anyway way i though i would leave you the Mantra we use in our evening meditation class, enjoy!

Watch your thoughts

They become words

Watch your words

They become actions

Watch your actions

They become habbits

Watch your habbits

They become character

Watch your character

For it becomes your destiny

2008-06-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

Ni Hao
Another day and another early start, feeling alot better today and made the early morning run and chi gong session, was a tad annoying today as Shifu told us to run up the hill and down the stairs twice today, so we all did it thinking that it would be a one off. We later found out that because wednesdays are special training todays we would have to do it again but this time run to the stairs and then run up them and back around. The idea was to do this 3 times and although it doesnt sound like much there are 365 stairs up a vertical slope, obviously i wasnt one of the hardcore that ran up the stairs but plodded up each one slowly and that still killed me. Anyway i managed to make it round the 3 times walking on the last one, after this we had a half hour break and was chatting to Summer who is the translator who left last week and has now come back (i dont know the story on that one yet) and was also talking to Lin Shifu (Baji teacher) who told me that i had a lot of power in my forms and needed to work on my breathing (always nice to get a complement). The second lot of morning training was just doing the form again and again but i am now learning my second form (think i missed that out on yesterdays blog) which is going really well. I am still trying to get one of the girls to either go in to Si Ping for me and see where they sell the double daggers or come in with me at the weekend.
Training after lunch was orginally going really well and we were all in the woods behind the temple when in a space of 5 min it clouded over and we got completely soaked to the bone.

As you may have noticed i am now spelling sifu as shifu as i was told that sifu was chinese for wife, so i will have to look that one up on the net and make sure he isnt winding me up.

Anyway gotta go, hope you enjoyed the pictures yesterday and hope your all well.

Anything made in china is rubbish!

2008-06-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hello all i am finally back on line after the net being down since Saturday!!

So where to start..... hmm ok Friday night was a good laugh we all met up at the internet cafe and then went down to a restaurant quite close to Lin Sifus home, nearly everyone turned up and we pretty much took over the restaurant. We all chipped in some money for the food and got a set amount of dishes served up, like marinated port, pigs ears with chilli, ice cold noodles and other traditonal dishes which were all very tasty. As well as the food we had plenty of beer flowing with a bottle of Baji juice on each table, the Baji stuff was absolutely rank and tasted like paint stripper and probably more alcholic. So after lots of beer and baji juice we headed out to a night club, there was no entry fee and i eneded up drinking plum cider (tastes better than it sounds) The club its self was quite intresting as the dance floor was almost like a trampoline, i think it was sprung wood and obviously your average westerner is a lot heavier than their chinese counterparts so we took great delight in jolting everyone all over the place. There were also 4 podium poles in the middle of dance floor and the guys were up there straight away with their t-shirts off (all the chinese guys were bare chested already) giving it some. Upstairs where indvidual booths where the girls and the rest of the guys had gone, each one with a balcony over the dance floor. A good night was had by all and at the end we headed to the spa to crash out.
Saturday morning i headed back in to town (with a headache) and wondered around the supermarket before heading back to the academy with the girls. We finally said our goodbyes about midday and I headed to the garden to help with the concreting of the patio.
Saturday night was quite as it started raining and no one was up for anything.
Sunday morning we had 2 new students arrive, both of them brits. A couple of us went down to the restarunt for a few drinks after lunch and stayed there for a couple of hours watching DVD's.
Monday was traing as normalwith nothing much going on and that leads us to Tuesday.
Didnt feel that great this morning as i have picked up the cold that seems to be going around the academy and tried to sleep it off missing the early run and the first morning session.
Now feeling alot better which is cool and hoping i should be able to get back in the morning run tomorrow as i seem to be missing alot of them.
I have finally got my new suits on Monday and have taken a few photos for you all, the short sleeve one was going to be in red but Sifu told the tailor the wrong colour and the orange suit is the school uniform that you are given when you start here.
There are also a few photos of the restarunt but they looked a bit dark and i cant tell if it is the shit pc i am using or the photos themselves.
http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China

Sorry for the short blog entry but i am pushed for time and still a little groggy from the cold. Hope your all well and thank you to everyone who has emailed. Could someone please let me know if my emails are coming up as comments on the blog?

Ni Hao (hello)

2008-05-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of a blog entry yesterday but i got involved in a pool game after dinner and ran out of time to go to the internet room. Things are going well here, Neil (new room mate) is nice bloke and is suffering a little from his first day of training which makes feel much better to see someone else in pain on their first week. Didnt really get up to much yesterday other than train all day (as per usual) but i have finally finished learning my first Baji form and can now do it all the way through with out a pause. We also have a new girl at the Academy by the name of Vicky who is from London. I havent really had the chance to chat to her yet but seems nice enough.

Anyway its Friday and aparantly a chinese holiday "childrens day", im not sure what this means but for us it meant being up at 5Am and on a coach for 5:30 to head in to Si Ping. After arriving we headed in to the park to find it pretty much empty with the exception of a few people starting their tai chi sessions and weapons forms. And although it was an early start we found this guy (see video above) in the park that made it all worth while. Now the guy looks fairly old, i would have him pegged for maybe 60's but must be a master!! The weapon you can see him use above is the chain whip. Unfrotunatly he drops it a few times in the videos but i must have cursed him with my camera as he didnt drop it once when i was watching. The guy has about 7 weapons propped up against the tree and and a bag with more in them, he starts off using a 3 section pole, then moves on to double nunchucks, then a rope with a spear head attached, then on to the chain whip and finally a bull whip. Unfortunatley i had to leave for some food at this point but could have quite happily sat there and watched him all day, i have added some photos so follow the link below. It was a real joy to watch this guy at work at it goes to prove that you dont need youth on your side to do these things. i am going to add some more videos of the chain whip at the bottom of the page.

http://picasaweb.google.com/questit/China - Link to pictures (also has pictures of my room)

Anyway while me and the guys (Nate, Steve, Roy, Neil and Voitek) were standing there watching this guy some chinese girl comes up to Nate and starts chatting away (Nate has been learning chinese since he has been here) next thing i know we have acuired a translater and guide and she leads off to a nice chinese restarunt for some breakfast, which was a bowl of warm sweet milk, dumplings and a buffet of weird chinese meat and veg. It was all very nice with excpetion of some veg Nate picked up which is the stonger equivilent of horse raddish (yuck!) and all it cost up was 5 qui each (72p!!!!), after that we wondered around the shops for a bit and she was very helpful in helping me look for my fighting daggers.

Unfortunatley we only found 1 place that sold the fighting knives but they only had 1 of them in so i decided to give up in the end as I am in no rush to buy them. So after all the fun and frolecks of the morning we have ended up in the internet cafe and here is sit updating my blog.

The rest of the evening will invlove more surfing on the net and then heading for some food and later we are saying goodbye to Cindy and Kelly by getting royaly shit faced which should be good fun and after all that i think we are heading to the spa to sleep.

So I dare say i will be updating my blog tomorrow with a stinking hangover.Hope all of you enjoy your Friday at work and have fun tonight.

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on the blog but can you please let me know if my replies are coming through by email or are they being posted as comments?

Peace out

WACKA WAVE!!

2008-05-28T02:40:00.000-07:00

I think i might be slipping further in to madness with these titles. The question is can you name the childrens TV program it was from?

Anyway its another day and this morning i actually made it out for the morning run and chi gong session (shock horror!!) and was rewarded by pain and climbing up stupid amount of steps, but its all supposed to be character bulidng stuff. As it turns out Wednesday is going to be special training day every week now, which translates as "the teachers cant be arsed today so go and find some useful to do day". I opted out of the 1hr and 40 treck in to Yur hur and settled for buming around looking for somethig to do. Luckily i managed to corner Sifu Lin and got him to teach me more of the form, he seems to think that i should be finshed on that form by tomorrow or friday. He still hasnt told me which form i will learn next and i am hoping it is the weapons form as i am getting bored doing the same thing for 4 hours a day everyday.
My time here is flying past faster than i thought it would and i am coming to the end of my 3rd week already, i am thinking that i may have to apply for a longer visa and do another month here before i head to Thailand. Been working on the garden today at the back of the academy where we have our bonfires, as John has decided he wants to build a BBQ and ended up having to order tons of bricks (smallest order he could do was 1400!) so he has decided to pave the floor and build the BBQ on top, so i have been helping out when i can.
Oh and i have more exciting news today (steady yourself!) i have a new room mate, he is an American guy named Brian and seems pretty cool at the moment, so give him a week of living together and my snoring and then we shall see if he is still as layed back.

Anyway folks thats all for today, hope your all well. Keep up with the emails and comments as i love hearing from you all.

SPLOSH!

2008-05-27T02:55:00.000-07:00

Yep couldnt think of anything to write as a tittle today and inserted giberish.

Again not much to say today, think this may cause a problem with updating the blog......
Ok last night was the opening of a restaurant and one of the guys birthdays, sound inoccent enough doesnt it? Now take in the fact that as part of its opening the restaurant is giving away free beer.....Yep that equals alot of very pissed up students. So after a heavy day of training everyone decends upon the restaurant to get seriously tanked up. Turns out we werent the first people to get in there as the academy driver got majorly hammered before driving down to the airport to pick up the new students and Sifu Lin was pissed as well (obviously he can hide slightly better as i didnt notice)
Anyway i decided to head down there after meditation to wish Andrew a happy birthday and get in a few beers before bed. Walking in there was like a scene out of one of those american frat house parties, everyone was tanked up and the air was thick with smoke, loud music playing on the DVD player and everyone cheering and laughing, with a few stray men arm wrestling in the corner for good meassure. Andrew and a few of the other guys were already cross eyed from the booze and staggering around. I stayed in there for a couple of beers and had a laugh and chat with the guys before heading to bed for 10ish. Oddly enough i crashed out straight away to soon then be awoken by an almighty clap of thunder as the heavens opened and we were hit by the mother of thunder storms, needless to say i didnt really get a good nights sleep.
Missed morning training again today (yes i know this is begining to sound like an reoccuring thing) as i felt like crap from lack of sleep.
Started to feel a bit more awake after breakfast and the rest of the day has been ok.
Not had the chance to take any pictures of me training yet but still working on a way to get this sorted.

So i hope you all enjoyed your bank holiday and are now back at work bored out of your brains :)
Thanks again for everyone who has emailed me but i want more comments and emails sent.

Monday and there is no catchy title

2008-05-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

Its monday and i get a blessed lay in as no morning run YAY!
Sunday was pretty quite towards the end of the day, most people get a bit bored in the evening and just sit in each others rooms and watch DVD's, havent quite worked my way in to a group yet so i make do with just chilling out reading my books and listening to music. Although that has caused a bit of a problem as i have already gone through 2 books in the 2 weeks and only have 1 left to read, so i will have to try and figure out if amazon deliver to china.
Still havent sorted out any photos yet, but might try this evening in my last training session.

Training is still going well and i am making steady progress, although some of the other students picked up that i was missing 2 small points in my form today that Sifu hadnt noticed and that is strange since he has watched me do it a stupid amount of times now.
Other than that there isnt much else to tell you as its a constant flow of training, eating and sleeping here.

Anyway i hope all of you are getting bright sunshine for your bank holiday Monday and enjoying every minute.
Peace!!!

Nothing Fecking Works!!!!

2008-05-25T02:59:00.000-07:00

So here we are on Sunday, its now been 2 weeks of training and things are going well. I feel like my stamina has improved and i am not feeling as sore as i did orginally.
The only down side is that China is a nation of SHIT computers and poor internet capcity!! I have now been trying since Friday to upload my video on to the blog or facebook and it wont ruddy work...(deep breaths).....
So unofrtunatly i dont have anything for you at the moment, i will have another play with the camera this week and see if i can reduce the size of the video or maybe get some one to take some photos of me training.
Anyway havent really done much this weekend, Friday i went in to town with Sifu Lin (baji instructor) who took me in to town to his tailor who is getting 2 suits made up for me in dark blue and red silk material which will cost me 23 pounds, the dark blue one is a tradtional tai chi style suit and the red one is the same but with no sleeves (for summer training and posing :) ) After that went in to town and met up with some of the other students and sat in the internet cafe for a couple of hours before heading to the spa, didnt get the scrub this time as i feel burnt and didnt fancy having sandpaper rubbed across my shoulders. Slept a little better this time around and headed in town in the morning and picked up some speakers for my Ipod (2.91 pounds) and went and looked for some daggers. Unfortunatley i couldnt find any daggers but found, broad swords, nunchuckers, tai chi sword and flick knives, oh and some throwing stars. After that i followed the girls to their hair dressers as there is a tatoo parlour above and went and looked through designs for nearly and an hour, but couldnt find the one i wanted (big picture of me with thumbs up to go on my back)
Anyway after all that sat in the internet cafe for a couple of hours before heading back to the academy. Havent really done much today apart from go for a run and do a work out in the gym, thinking i may head back there after i finish here and do some more weights.

So thats about it, hope everyone is well and if you want to see anything else on the blog drop me an email or post a comment.

Thursday

2008-05-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

Another day another early rise, felt like road kill today as i over did it in the gym yesterday so didnt make morning training (most people miss it anyway)
After breakfast i was expecting a group bollocking about the morning training as hardly anyone turned up today but nothing was said. Spent the first lesson today just playing frisby in the sun which was cool, played the group game version which is a bit like american footable when you have to score at either end and without the violence. After our 30min break between lessons sifu Lin (Baji teacher) suggested that we have a basketball game with the Baji group versus the Shaolin group. Was a good game and was seriously knackered by the end of it.
After lunch we headed in to the forest and did more traning, i think sifu is happy with the progress i am making and wants me trained up on 3 Baji forms, 1 tai chi form and 1 weapons form by the end of the 2 months. I had a chance to think about which weapon i wanted to learn and asked sifu to teach me a dagger form, so hopefully that will be really good.

Other than that not much has happened, just wanted to say thanks to everyone for posting on the blog and hope everyone is enjoying it.
If you have any questions then drop me a mail.

Hmmmm a Video

2008-05-21T02:36:00.000-07:00

Its midweek and training is going well, although i got pissed off at the translater walking out yesterday it doesnt seem to have effected the training (as in i still have no idea what sifu says and i need a translater for the translater)
Aparantly Wednesday means we get to do special training which in this case was walking 1 Hour 30min in to Yur Hur (not spelt right) which is the local town, why you ask? well the answer to that is i have no bloody idea!

To some up the surroundings of the local village and the roads, the whole place is covered in trash and shit!, the locals just dont seem to care about their enviroment and where ever you look you see boots, strips of cloth and just general rubbish lining the streets and we are not talking about a few odd bits we are talking about every inch of the sides of the road being covered. The locals all drive around in old tractors or 3 wheel truck things that bilge out thick black smoke from their exhausts. Seriously the place is unbelivably polluted and this is the country side. The academy is lucky being out in the middle of no where and up a mountain.
The locals you see walking around are either dressed in camoflage boiler suits or navy blue boiler suits (what can i say it must be the fashion) and look like extras from old kung fu films with bad buck teeth, wrinkled faces and stooped posture.

Anyway after that i came back slept for a bit and thought that i would dazzle you all with a video of some of Baji form but the video is 34mb and its taken nearly 40min to upload 11mb. I shall attempt to upload it when i am in the internet cafe in Si Ping at the weekend.

Anyway that is enough for today, take care

There is such a thing as to much damn running!

2008-05-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

Yet another day of training, its all going well here and I am really getting in to the Baji training. Sifu seems to be happy with the progress i am making, well at least i think he is as i cant bloody understand a word he is saying.
Got to admit it wasnt a great start to the morning as the shit really hit fan today, one of the translaters had a massive barney with the headmaster nice and early today and has now quit.
So we are now down to 2 translaters who also do the office work and so far this week have only been out with the sifus once. I think i am getting to the point that if she isnt replaced then i am going to complain to the headmaster, as the website promised 9 masters and another one on its way and translates for all the teachers.
Other than that not much else has happened, just been making the most of the sun durning the breaks.
So i will keep this one short and hope everyone is well back home.

Baji

2008-05-19T02:50:00.000-07:00

Well its Monday again and back to another hard week of training, the weekend was spent just relaxing at the academy, the high light was creating a bonfire at the back of the academy at the garden and sitting around with a beer and just chatting with the rest of the guys. Was up until about 11:30 on Saturday night.
Sunday was really chilled and didnt really do much apart from spend an hour in the gym and read my book.
Mondays are a nice start to the morning as there isnt any running in the morning (now learnt that all though they expect you to go for a run in the morning they wont give you a bollocking if you dont make it) Went down for breakfast and after another sleep went to morning training.
I have started learning Baji this morning which i am already liking more than the shaolin style, the system is based around forms again but the Sifu explains which each movment is for and there aren't any bloody head flips involved. Sifu is also getting me to do Iron Palm technique, this involves deading the nerves in your hands and increasing the strength in your fingers and punches, when this has been practised for years you can drive your fingers through your oppenents belly and rip out his intestines where he stands, didnt think it would be a good idea to ask Sifu to demonstrate.
We also had a minute of silence today for the victims of the earthquake, which i found very odd as there wasnt any silence involved and they blasted their car horns for a full minute. They have also started taking donations for the victims as well, and although i am a heartless bastard i did actually give money this time. Other than that there is not much to report, the weather has turned cold and wet again today but its all good.
Anyway hope your all well, take care

Below are some links with more information on Baji and Iron Palm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C4%81j%C3%ADqu%C3%A1n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Palm

Si Ping

2008-05-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

Well my weekend has been an intresting experience, after the internet cafe and a bit of shopping me and a couple of other people went to the Spa.
Ok first major culture shock was the fact that you pay after the spa and not before and the second is you wonder around naked (NO its wasnt mixed)
Its funny but i thought that i would actually have a problem with this but it didnt really phase me, even with all these local chinese guys giving me odd looks. The spa itself is really nice you have the suna, cold tub, medium tub, hot tub and you can get a body scrub and massage. There are 2 TV's going all the time, you also can stay the night in lazy boy seats and get free toothbrush, pajamas, razor, etc.
Soooo anyway, i had a nice long steam in the suna and then went and sat in the medium tub for a while watching the TV. I then decided to get a body scrub and massage, now normally the idea of lying naked on a table while a man in a pair of wirefronts scrubs you down from head to toe would really freak me out, but i thought hey why not just experience it!
So the body scrub involves a man wearing a sandpaper like glove and scrapping about 2 or 3 layers of skin off your body, which was initially quite painfull but you get used to it very quickly. They then oil your body and then give you a massage, now when i say massage they basically treat you like a slab of meat and tenderise your muscles in submission and after all that they cover you in a green kind of mud.
After all that i went and sat in the sunaer for a while before a shower and heading off to bed. The chinese pyjamas are actually quite cool in a kind of boxer short and loose top kind of way. Trying to sleep in the chairs didnt turn out to be that comfortable but despite that and the snoring i eventually driffted of to sleep, to be awoken at about 3AM by some guys on his mobile phone that kept going off every 5min for about an hour...... OH well. Anyway the whole thing set me back about 113 qui which works out at 8 pound 30.
After that i headed back to the acdamey and have been chilling out today and playing a bit of frissby with the other students.

1 week down WOHOOO!!!!

2008-05-16T00:40:00.000-07:00

So here i am its the end of week 1 and im still in one peice which considering how sore i felt yesterday is damn amazing!!
As its fridays most people take a half day from training and come in to Si Ping to unwind. So here i am sitting in a huge internet cafe chilling out, it costs 20 qui (quid) which is bugger all when you convert it to sterling.
In a better mood today and i dont feel sore which can only mean that either my body is getting used to the training or i have lost all feeling below the neck.
The weather here as been amazing, been training in the sun and working on my tan at the same time so all is good.

Found out the reason why i cant view my blog site today and it turns out the chinese goverment have cracked down on the google information sites and as such i wont be able to read any of your comments on the site (this doesnt mean you can write nasty stuff)

Hmmmmm so what can i tell you about my training so far.......
Ok for starters the uniform look pretty stupid, we have to wear these huge orange trousers that remind me of Mc Hammer pants but with a state prison look, we dont wear our tops unless we have a test or we do something formal.
Majority of the students are male, we have 4 female students. The nations are pretty mixed ranging from English, American, Russia, Polland, Holland, France, Korea.
There are two diffrent styles being taught here which are Shaolin and Baji. Shaolin style is more for display and acrobatics, it ueses a lot of the weapons. Baji is a fighting style taught in various forms, with all the moves meant to disarm and destroy your oppenent as quickly and as painfully as possible.
The teachers are fairly laid back here and only expect you to train as hard as you can, the shaolin teacher is a cocky 23 year old who spends most of his time on his phone. Although he is a complete sadist he pushes you as hard as possible but takes the piss out of you when you get things wrong. The Baji instructor looks about 40ish and seems alot more laid back, i havent had the chance to train with him just yet as he suggested i start with the shaolin style to get to grips with the stances.
Other than that there isnt much else to tell you, the training is hard we normally do 3 runs per day and we are always having to practise our forms.
So thats about it today, i now plan to kick back and relax and do a bit of shopping.

Day 4

2008-05-15T01:39:00.000-07:00

I am in hell and the Devil is a chinese man shouting instructions at me in a language i dont understand!!!
As you can imagine i am a little sore today and not getting much sleep as the beds are so bloody hard. I have come to the conclusion that i must have ofended my Sifu at some point as he constanly wants my horse stance to be lower and my stances more stretched out. I dont know if he thinks i am doing well or is just a sadist and enjoys seeing me in pain. But hey ho what can you do........
So its another day of training and another day of pain. So far today I have had my morning run and then an hour of contstant horse stance (look it up) and then a solid lesson of running up shit loads of stairs and back round to do it again. I can barley walk at the moment and when i sit down everything seases up. I currently finding it hard to figure out why i am paying for this.
Going to keep it nice and short today as I am knackered and sore.

Hope everyone is well, the internet here is still shit so if you want to say hello drop me an email

Day 3 Wednesday (i think)

2008-05-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

So here we are at day 3, i have now completely lost track of what day it is and what time it is.
The Chinese dont seem to stick to the clock and you always have to add 30min to anything when you ask them to do something (but im the foreigner so i will stay quite)
The only thing they are strick on is the training times. Just so you know how hard i am having to work here is my daily training schedule:

5:30 AM to 6:30Am Run and Chi Gong
7:30 to 7:50 Breakfast
8:30 to 9:30 Training
10:30 to 11:30 Training
11:30 to 2:30 Lunch
2:30 to 3:30 Training
3:30 to 4:30 Meditation or free time
4:30 to 4:50 Dinner
6:30 to 7:30 Training
7:30 to 8:00 Meditation or free time
then lights out for 10 but by this point i am knackerd and a sleep at 9:30

So as you can imagine im bloody knackerd most of the time but working really hard trying to get to grips with all the stances they are making me do. The food here is good stuff they normaly serve chicken, vegitables, rice, fruit and chinese tea.
All though the Sifus (teachers) here work you bloody hard they do have a good sense of humour and do like to joke around with the class.
Other than that there isnt much more to report today.
Below is a link to my pictures for China, i am trying to put more on Daily.
Also unfortuantley i am unable to read any Comments posted on the my blog as they are blocked at the school. If you do want to say hello drop me an email, other than that i will hopefully be going to an internet cafe at the weekend and will try and read them then.

China

Day 2 of training

2008-05-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

The journey so far......
Flew out from Heathrow Airport at about 4:00 PM on Saturday to Paris, was met as soon as i left the plane and was driven to my next flight, then flew in to Beijing. This has got to be the biggest airport i have ever seen!!! the place is huge and is spread across 4 terminals and each one is bigger then Heathrow and Gatiwck.....Anyway after killing time at Beijing i then flew in to Chang Chuan and was picked up by the acedemy driver. I have now been informed there is only one way to drive in China and that is with your foot flat to the floor and make sure you honk at everyone on the road and blind them with full beams. Anyay i made it to the acedmy in one peice by about 9Pm on Sunday and was knackered.
The Acadmey itself is pretty run down and basic. The rooms are a single bed and storage space, you have to supply your own toilet roll, water and anything else you might want. I am sharing with a guy from Holland, who is really chilled and been here for about a month already. The students here are really freindy and helpful. Its a mixed group with ages from about 25 to 45 so im not the oldest one here (yay for me!!)
The training starts from 5:30AM and keeps going through the day with 1 hour lessons and then a break and then more training. The day ends at about 7:30PM with an option for meditation. Everything is pretty hardcore out here and basic, all the local towns are run down shit holes and and the main big town is an hours drive from here. Its Day 2 for me at the moment and i am writing this before dinner, i am already knackered and sore from 2 days worth of training so please excuse any spelling mistakes.
Although i am enjoying myself its not what i expected and i am little disapointed with there only being 2 instructors (there were orginally 9 but they got fired) and only 2 translaters which also do all the office work as well. The place is really really baisc but feels good in a strange way as i feel its getting back to the roots of training with no distractions.

The only problems so far is the office want your money as soon as your through the front door, the banks will only let you draw 2500 yen in a day and wont let you use your card in bank.

That and when you use the toilet you cant flush the paper away and the bins dont get emptied very regualrly.

The area is pretty run down like i said and the problem with that is that the locals are always looking to ripe you off and get money out of you. You just have to make sure you haggle when they tell you a price.

The area i am staying was not hit by the earth quake and i am fine (just in case you were worried)

Last Day at work

2008-04-18T03:20:00.000-07:00

Last day at work

Its my last day at work today and i just wanted to add some of the pictures on my blog since the guys and girls had done such a great job. Going to miss everyone loads thank you guys