Keeping Fit

That is the look of the realization of how stiff I was going to be the next day.

We've been focused on life and health, because too often we take these for granted.

Part of not taking things for granted we've been doing things outside our comfort zone: as in outside of our regular routine. We'd met John Burns, aikido sensei, when we were on holiday in Provence and had been invited to attend a seminar he was holding at his dojo: Chishin Dojo.

So last Saturday saw us bright and early to drive to Coventry.

I used to be a very keen aikidoka, a practitioner of aikido, and I was once a sempai, senior student, to Tom & Maria Helsby of Brighton Airenjuko. After I went to London, I then practiced with Sue Smith and Chris Reid of Airenjuku Dojo.

However, I haven't practiced aikido for at least fourteen years. The last time I was on the mat was to go to a course led by the late Mr. Smith.

Therefore, it's fair to point out it's an understatement when I say, it was a bit of a thing to step back into a dojo and practice again. I have to admit that I did step off the mat on a couple of occasions to catch my breath and take a drink of water, because it was just a little bit demanding, and I'm older now and out of condition.

Otherwise I think I did OK. I don't think I did anything to embarrass myself.

We drove back late on Saturday and got up on Sunday to shoot in a short metric championship. Yes, that was a thing. We were both stiff as a board, and the weather was abysmal. Needless to say neither of us shot our best. I even recorded a personal worse score.

However, last week I did write words. My records show 2,744 words.

New words. Words so fresh that no-one has seen them apart from me. I've also worked through what was blocking my progress on the next installment of my The World of Drei series. So double yay!