One more tiny step November 16, 2009
Posted by Michael in kendo.add a comment
The longer I practice Kendo the more I grow to understand and appreciate the fact that the art mimics life in many ways. I suspect it is probably true in other martial arts as well. However since I don’t have much experience in other arts I have to use what I know, even at the risk of sounding like a zealot.
I have to admit failing Nidan last year was a very difficult thing to overcome. I questioned my desire and drive to continue, and once I overcame that I still had to overcome why I had failed. While I did get good feedback on what I needed to improve, I struggled with getting it to fit and really understanding it. D Sensei talks about it like a puzzle, we are given pieces at a time and sometimes we don’t have a clear enough picture in order to fit the piece in. So we set it aside and then one day the picture comes into focus and we know where that piece now fits. I really can not say for sure if I had enough pieces put into place to pass yesterday or not. I can say however that while warming up for the tournament on Saturday K Sensei was giving me some instruction on continuing to move more from my hara. Something he has probably shown me and taught a hundred different times, I already had the piece he just clarified the picture and turned it to give me a different perspective! It was still rolling around in my head by the time the individual matches began. I had the luxury of K Sensei being one of the shimpan (judges) for my court. After losing a very tough match in the second round he was there to give me even more advise on being even more purposeful in moving from my hara as well as always moving forward and using seme. Again things I knew but I didn’t (and still don’t totally) grasp until that moment. It was truly an ah-ha! moment for me. I had the chance to apply and work on putting the new piece into place during the team matches with some success and felt very positive after the tournament. This carried over to the the test on Sunday. While I had some nervousness it was not near as bad in the past and I felt confident.
I will admit I would have had some disappointment had I not passed, however it was more important in the long term development of my Kendo to have that picture become just a bit more clear. Nidan while important for me is just another small step. Having that bit of clarity not only will help my Kendo grow today, but will seed further growth for the future, laying a foundation for more pieces to be given and placed in the tapestry of my Kendo path.
Passing was just icing on the cake.
I can’t begin to thank D Sensei and K Sensei for having the patience and willingness to give me the pieces and guiding me when I try to put them in upside down. Also to all the other Sempai and Kohai in the club as well for encouraging and pushing me. You are all like family.
Gambatte!
NiDan Part Deux November 13, 2009
Posted by Michael in kendo.2 comments
Off to Chicago today to go to the MWKF Taikai and Shinsa. 6 of us going to test this year. I will be taking some pictures and video. Will also be tweeting if you want to follow me http://twitter.com/Luxfan
Into the Highlands Day 2 September 30, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel.add a comment
We woke up early Sunday morning to go on a boat tour of Loch Ness and were greeted with our first real day of Scottish weather. It was blustery and cool with bits of spitting rain followed by brief sunshine. The boat ride was fun but very choppy due to the wind. Kara and I lucked out and were on the correct side of the boat when we hit a 3 foot “rogue” wave which splashed everybody on the starboard side with ice cold loch water. Lot’s of good information about how the loch formed, but I won’t bore you with those details. There was not a lot to see on the loch but being on the boat did give us some nice views of Urquhart Castle as well as a very pretty rainbow.
We then made our way into the Great Glen and made a stop at Fort Augustus which sits at the southern most point of Loch Ness. The weather continued to get cooler with more rain throughout the day. We also stopped at the Scottish Commando Memorial which was ok but by this time it was raining pretty good so we didn’t stay very long. Kara and I both agree the most picturesque part of our trip is when we entered into Glen Coe. It was still gray but was cool to see the clouds hanging across the tops of the mountains. This was our last stop in the highlands and we made our way back down into the lowlands. It was still beautiful country but the Highlands were everything I had imagined. We made a brief stop at Stirling Castle for some photos. It was then back into Edinburgh and a quick supper before heading to bed. It was a very exciting two days. Due to our 3 day tour being canceled we were able to pick up a one day tour for Monday to go back to Stirling Castle and tour a whiskey distillery, then on Tuesday we went on another day tour up to St. Andrews. I will post about those trips in a separate post. We really lucked out with the weather on the first day here, however until today it was rainy and cool, but we really expected that for this time of the year. The “rhythm” of the people here is one of the things I find amazing. It’s hard to describe in words but they are deeply proud of their heritage yet are very welcoming to strangers. If possible Kara and I have decided that we would like to retire here. Probably a pipe dream as it would be hard to be away from the family. Maybe just a summer home then after I make my first million HAHA!
Cheers for now!
Into the Highlands Day 1 September 28, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel.add a comment
Yes I went all the way to Scotland to go to a gaming store.
Well as promised I have a bit of time tonight to update with more details about our trip thus far. We saw so much and our guide was so informative I am not sure that I will be able to fully remember everything. We took around 900 pictures on Saturday and Sunday. We got into our hotel late Friday night went right to sleep, then it was up early to pack. We were only staying in that hotel for one night, so we caught a cab to our new hotel early. We dropped off our large bag so they could hold it until we checked in Sunday night and then walked a short distance to the tour office got checked in and grabbed a snack and some much needed caffeine at a nearby Starbucks. I also had to take a moment to fulfill my geekness by posing for this photo
There were a group of around 15 of us for the tour. The bus was small but fairly comfortable and our tour guide Kevin was very nice. We started out by heading north out of Edinburgh and our first stop was the Firth Bridge. If you are into bridges it was fairly impressive. We then went for some time through the Kindom of Fife, which if not for the huge hills would look a lot like home, lots of lush farmland and trees.
Our next stop was at a place called The Hermitage. This was the first stop where you really started to get a sense for the beauty that this country has to offer. It’s very secluded with lots of Scot’s Pines. The path ends in a beautiful stream and waterfall. We were a bit late in the season but just a few weeks ago the Salmon were jumping the falls. Wish we could have seen that. Lots of good photos from that stop and as always we have posted some of them on Kara’s facebook.
That's one way to cut a holiday short.
We thought about just staying the rest of the time in this camper in the parking lot. According to our guide it had been sitting there for several weeks.
It was then on to Pitlochry for lunch at McKays. I had the haggis stuffed chicken which was very good. Kara tried some of the haggis and said it “wasn’t bad” followed up by a quick drink of her soda! After lunch we were back in the bus and continuing north. We really started to see the landscape change, with more large cliffs and forests. We made a stop at the Highland Folk Museum. This stop had a reconstruction of a typical Highland Village around the 1700′s. There were several buildings that you could walk into. They were made of sod and had thatched roof’s, much like a typical homesteader home in the midwest, although the buildings seemed shorter with more sloping roofs, I assume this is due to the higher snow fall and winds.
Highland "Coo's"
We then made our way to Ruthven Barracks which was built around 1719 and burned during the last Jacobite uprising. While we were here I convinced Kara that she needed to play the role of the diplomat and make nice with the locals. We were able to explore the ruins of the barracks for a bit and take photos.
It was then off to Aviemore which during the winter is a very popular Ski resort. We were really in the highlands now. We saw lots of people on hiking and bike tours using the town as a jump off point. One interesting thing we learned about Scotland and really loved is that there are no trespassing laws. They work off the premise that the land belongs to no one and should be accessible to all. You are welcome to cross fences, set up camp etc anywhere you want. The only rules are you can’t camp in the same location for more than 2 days, and you can’t set up camp within 50 yards of a residence. I think it would be excellent to come back one of these days and take a hiking, camping, climbing tour! We stopped in Aviemore for afternoon tea and a bit of shopping. Kara got her a nice new hat which you will see her in for most of the following pictures. Our guide also recommended a Scotland soft drink called Irn Bru so we thought we would try some while we were here. It was not all that good. It has as much sugar as a Mt. Dew I would guess, is orange in color and has a slight bubble gum flavor. Our guide’s contention was that we didn’t like it because we bought it in a bottle instead of a can although I am not so sure that would have helped much, plus we kept the bottle label for Kara’s Scotland scrapbook project.
It was then on to the Clava Cairns of Balnuaran. These are believed to be ancient burial grounds constructed by the same people who built Stonehenge. Having been to Stonehenge what I found amazing about Clava Cairns is that you can actually walk right up to them and touch them! This was amazing and Kara said it was a bit creepy. We were both impressed simply by the age of the structures, which are believed to date back to the Bronze Age (3000 BC)
Mass grave and burial markers
We then went on to one of the highlights of the day which was Culloden Battlefield this was the last major land battle in the UK. This was the last battle of the third Jacobite war. Some 2000 Jacobites were killed, and buried in mass graves on the site with markers showing the various clans they were members of. The wiki page has lot’s of good information which I won’t go into here. It is rather fascinating if you are into that stuff (which I am) but I won’t bore you with it here.
It was then on to Iverness and our stop for the evening on the banks of Loch Ness. A friend of our recommended a book to read before we left to put us in the mood. It was called The Loch and was a work of fiction but did give lots of flavor for this area. We were suprised to find out we were going to be staying in the same town that the main character grew up in. A little town right on the banks called Drumnadrochit.
We were very excited to be there but were exhausted. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to bed. It’s getting late here so I will post day 2 tomorrow, which will take us on a boat ride of Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Glencoe, Stirling Castle and more! Then Wednesday I will post about our trip to St. Andrews. Our guide was as I said excellent and was full of great local information and personal experience. He also was very helpful on the Scottish Gaelic language and where all the names of places came from.
Hope everyone is still enjoying the posts and feel free to comment or ask questions as we look forward to them. In case you missed it all the best pictures from the trip are posted on Kara’s facebook page.
Cheers!
Yes, I’ve heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he’d consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse. September 27, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel, Uncategorized.1 comment so far
We are back in Edinburgh from 2 days in the highlands. We have posted the pictures and had an excellent time. It’s 1:00 am here and we have to be up early again tomorrow for another trip. Will caption some of the photos and post a longer blog tomorrow evening. We are having a great time and the highlands are everything we expected and more. I am not a believer in the Loch Ness stories, however as Kara and I were sorting through the pictures, something interesting showed up. I won’t influence your viewpoint by giving a description of what it looks like to me but will let you decide for yourself. Enjoy for now it’s of to bed.
Day 3 In London/Train Fun September 25, 2009
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Just a short post tonight. I am actually posting this from the train just outside of Edinburgh. Nice free wifi and power for the laptop. Kara and I slept in today and gathered up our stuff for the trip. We had time to take in a couple more sites in London before our train left at 4:00. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral and Tower of London. Lot’s of pictures to upload but that will probably be tomorrow night. We caught rush hour in the tube station coming back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station. We actually missed our first train by less than a minute. This caused us some panic and we had to end up paying more for tickets on a later train so we lost a couple of hours. We spent the time at a Starbucks near the train station using their wifi to sort out the other issue we were having. We booked a 3 day tour in Scotland for tomorrow through Monday. The tour company was having problems getting the tour filled…actually Kara and I were the only two who booked and they needed a minimum of 5 people. They were dragging their feet waiting till the last minute to let us know it was canceled. This caused some stress as they were providing lodging arrangements for those three days. We ended up sorting it out and get a different 2 day tour and I was able to reserve Sunday night back in Edinburgh at the same hotel. We are leaving at 9:00 am for our tour so not likely to have any posts until we get back on Sunday. We should have lots of info and pictures to post then.
Day 2 in London September 24, 2009
Posted by Michael in Uncategorized.2 comments
Well I think I jinxed myself yesterday when I said I had mastered the tubes. I managed to get myself lost twice today. Thank goodness that they have a great transit system. I started out my morning heading to the “Changing of the Guards”. My first tube ride this morning I got off on the wrong exit and was all the way across St. James Park. By the time I got to Buckingham Palace I caught the tail end as they were walking out. I was able to get some good pictures of them walking back to their quarters. Once that was done I started off to Princess Diana’s memorial fountain. I took my time working my way back to it since it was on the far side of another park. I sat in the rose garden and ate a muffin. The garden was beautiful and the smell was amazing! Very relaxing. After my breakfast I took off walking again and found lots of memorials and statues. I was taking my time for two reasons. First and foremost is the fact that my legs are SUPER sore. I have done more walking in the last two days than I think I have all year. 
Secondly, Tony was working again today so I was taking my time to get back around the same time as him. There is not ALOT of “sites” to my pictures today, more just alot of pretties. Aside from my date with my husband (which I will get to in a minute) I think the highlight of my day was the Princess Diana memorial fountain. Not exactly what I thought it would be but it was defiantly a moment to sit back and relax. It is a wading fountain that flows from two different directions to the bottom where the pools to symbolize Diana’s openness. Link to pictures on Facebook. After spending some time reflecting, I was off to find Kensington Palace. I don’t know if I missed something but I really thought it would be bigger than what it was, but was still really cool. I was pretty exhausted by this time so worked my way though the back of the park to look for the nearest Underground. I managed to work my way to a whole other tube so once again I was lost. I am thankful that people are so nice around here. It took 3 people to get me on the right track but managed to make it back at almost the exact same time as Tony. I was in the elevator on my way down because my card didn’t work in the door. He had taken the stairs because the lifts were slow. When I walked out, he was already in line as his key card didnt work either. Once we were back in our room, we took a quick 30 minute nap and off to our date. We went for dinner but was short on time so we had some fish and chips across the street from the theater. Tony had managed to get us tickets to Wicked. I know I said this yesterday, but that was most likely the coolest thing ever. I teared up from overwhelming emotion several times. Tony had told me about it from one of his first trips to London and had brought back a program but words and pictures cannot describe it. Once we got done with buying me a new T-shirt we stopped by a little shop to get a quick snack. OH…btw…they had chocolate ice cream at the theater. Im happy to tell you all that either Im getting used to it or they might have come close to getting it right! It was really good! So I have decided that I will drink only Coke and eat fish and chips and eat chocolate ice cream for the rest of the trip! I will weigh 500 lbs but hey…I will be able to say we found a way to survive. Its now 2 am and we are wearing down pretty quickly. We leave for Scotland tomorrow at around 4 pm. However on a sour note…we received and email from our tour company that they have not been able to fill the trip and it is about be canceled. Tony looked around tonight on the internet to try to find another tour company that would work into our schedule with no luck. Tony scribed a very nice (but nasty) email, much nicer than I would be, to let them know how irritated (HA) we are and we hope they make it right. We will keep you posted on that drama. Other than that we are headed for Edinborogh tomorrow with hopes that we will have good news when we arrive back in internet land.
Day 1 in London all by myself! September 23, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel.add a comment
Yes, I ventured out by myself in London while Tony worked in the office all day and didn’t get lost! I was quite proud of myself. Tony and I got up early and went to the tube station to buy my oyster card, then rode to Tony’s to work. Once I got the idea of how it works, I came back to move our stuff to our new room. For some reason (because they are retarded) put us in two single beds and the room was made for munchkins. The door didnt open all the way even! It had the ironing board behind the door and it only opened about 3/4ths of the way. Looking back, I have to laugh at when I first came through the door and about walked into it…well…actually I did. Our suitcases barely fit through the door. The shower head was about shoulder height on me and the sink was about thigh level. It was quite humorous to see Tony practically do the splits to brush his teeth. Anyway…I packed our stuff and they said they would move our bags for us while I was gone. So off I went to venture out on my own. I first went to breakfast and I have made the decision that I am going to fork over the cash for a bagel from now on. Their food here really needs help. Then on to the tube…stand on the right/left (yes the right/left), drive on the left, walk on the left…man…they are so weird! I sat back and did the people watch thing today. NO ONE speaks on the tubes. From the moment you are on the tube, they have their ipods in their ears and/or a book or newspaper in their face. They are packed in like sardines and people actually move out of the way for each other. They are not rude but no one goes out of their way to be friendly either. Our culture is so much different and amazing to see first hand. They have signs on every corner so it was easy to find my way to Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben and Parliament. I had decided on that venture since they were all fairly close together. I posted more pics on Facebook so here is the link. Once again, the architecture is by far the coolest things I have ever seen. I was going to go into Westminster but it was like 60 bucks to get in. Im still trying to decide if I want to spend that kind of money. I think besides the beauty of the church, the Parliament building was the best. I took LOTS of pictures from every angle. When Tony mentioned that he could tell I liked it best, I decided not to post ALL the pictures. I headed back to the hotel around 2:30 and took my time getting back. Stopped for lunch and decided to try a cheeseburger. What was I thinking!? After trying to hide the taste in the ketchup, I gave up and decided to get a caramel chocolate bar…homemade…mmmm…NOT! I stopped at the store next door to the restaurant to buy a Twix. Ok…what is up with the chocolate here! Note to self…bring your own chocolate when you come. Even the Twix are different. Don’t get me started on the soda’s. For anyone that knows me I really like Orange Fanta soda. I don’t think they should be allowed to put the name on the bottle if its not even close. Very wrong to take a swig and its not what you think it is. I got back to the hotel and had some time to kill so hung out here till Tony got back from work. We decide get some food since Tony hadn’t eaten all day. Thank goodness he knew of a good place to eat. I am about to give up on eating altogether. We went to a little Italian diner a couple of blocks down. Once we were full we came back down to the hotel. Nice and snug in our double bed and normal bathroom. I am not sure where all I am going tomorrow, but one for sure will be Princess Diana memorial. More pictures tomorrow! Well the kids are on the phone (thanks Damon) so going to go. Man we sure miss them! Oh…found another funny pic…
Im glad it was only half mile! Not sure I could take a whole mile!
Day 3…still in Manchester September 21, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel.2 comments
I have decided to blog a bit as well so I apologize now if I get a bit windy. 
I will try to keep them short and sweet.
Today was our “long day”. Tony was in his conference all day from 8 this morning and just returned around 11:30pm. I on the other hand worked hard and sitting on my butt reading and watching TV. At one point I was going to go sit in the hot tub to relax my worn out muscles but got side tracked chatting on the computer and eating cheesecake. Tony had a good time at the dinner and touring the Manchester Old Trafford soccer stadium. They were allowed to go through the locker rooms and on the walk way around the pitch (field) and even got to have their pictures taken with all of the trophy’s, including the Premier League Trophy. Which if your a soccer fan, that’s pretty big. They also got to sit in the player boxes on the field and was up in the “suite seats” to have dinner. Tony didn’t take the camera because he didn’t want to have to lug it around all night but regretted it once he ran into a sign that would have made it worth it. Since he didn’t take a photo, we found one for your enjoyment.
Just what does a humped zebra look like??
Tomorrow will be more conference for Tony and my job will be to pack up our bags and get us checked out by noon. It will be rough, but I’m sure I can swing it. Once they are done around 4pm we will catch a 2 hour train ride into London and get settled in for another 2 days in the office, but I will be out doing stuff during the day. I am posing pictures on Facebook so keep an eye out on there for pics. They only let you upload so many on here. Here’s the link if you don’t have it.
Manchester Day 2 September 20, 2009
Posted by Michael in Travel.2 comments
Not very much exciting to post today. Kara and I slept in and both are doing a bit better on the jet lag front. We had a late lunch here in the hotel after wandering around looking for a different place to eat. The hotel and airport are outside of the city so we would have had to take the train in for anything different. I had my work meeting and reception tonight. It was fun to mingle and meet some of our customers. My throat is a bit sore from talking. Kara had fish and chips again for dinner….for someone who doesn’t like fish much she seems to be enjoying it here. Tomorrow I will be at the conference all day and then going to Old Trafford for a tour and dinner for the conference. Unfortunately because it’s business Kara can’t go along. I am taking the camera and will take what pictures I can. It will be late when I get back so not sure if I will get in a post tomorrow or not. It’s more conference on Tuesday then a train ride to London Tuesday evening.
