Still thinking...........but now posting

I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of days on what is coming up for me next year. I will be one very busy little bee and will have to be organised and up to speed with everything, otherwise the whole house of cards that represents my life will collapse.

As mentioned earlier in this blog I have enrolled to complete my library qualifications so I can be a librarian on paper as well as in real life! That is expected to take two years and is only part time so the load shouldn't be too onerous.

Another phase of my life is with Karate, I am currently studying and training toward being a black belt in my style of Martial Arts, and am approximately at the 1/2 way mark. Naturally it's getting harder as I progress up the scale and proving to be more challenging. We started sparring last night with gloves and mouthgards - we had previously been doing Tan Gan Ho - which is a modified form of sparring where the top of the head is gently tapped to signify a contact.

Last night we were instructed in kumite sparring, which is the real thing, still very strictly non contact ie you hit the ghi not the person (pulling your punch demonstrating your control) definitely no contact hitting to the face. But of course, yours truly, ducked her head in the wrong direction and got fairly smacked in the left eye, just a little puffiness around the eye the next morning to show for it (I don't bruise very easily). But very mortifying for myself and my partner who hit me, as it is deeply frowned upon to seriously hit your partner.

However I doubt it will be the last time I get whopped in sparring, for when I was dancing, whenever we were learning new techniques, out of the whole class, I was the one reliably guaranteed to go A over T in the most inelegant way possible every time, but I would just get up and dust myself off and repair my dignity and go on with the class.

I think the sign of a successful person is not in their material wealth but in their determination to get up every single time they get knocked down and keep trying!

Quote for the day

You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney (1920 - )