4 weeks to go!

So this is it. We got 4 weeks to go, we'll be doing a set of 2-3 songs and this song "Boo" will be the headline.



We've been working hard on it and having a lot of highs and lows trying to learn guitar and trying to learn to play in preparation for a live gig with 200 ish people at the KFest Charity Gig on 24th May.



Please let me know what you think of it if you can last through the 3 minutes of torture!! Actually, considering we only started playing a few months ago I'm really chuffed with this!

First Sunday Ride Out 2009

And what a glorious day for it. Sun was shining and it was just warm enough. By that I mean I wouldn't have wanted it to be any cooler, but it was warm enough not to be stifling and uncomfortable in the leathers.

I took this pic of our bash hats because if you click on the pic to enlarge it there is the biggest bug splat I've ever seen on Matt's visor! (The red/black one)

Cheap days out

Following on from the cheap days out theme, Helen and I went out for the day with a packup and flask of coffee and visited a few Garden Centres to get some stuff for our garden.

I was most pleased to buy rhubarb plant! I'm so easily pleased. I love rhubarb so I'm quite excited about growing my own and nuturing up from being a baby plant.

So here we are, sat in the garden centre car park, its raining so we stayed in the car and had a coffee and biscuit. It was fun and saved us a tenner or more that we would have spent in the cafeteria.


Let us know if you are planning any cheap days out. We're having fun with it. Too many times we dont go out anywhere because we feel that we can't afford it. This is only because we are guilty of going out to spend money. Niether of us go out drinking in pubs/clubs, but we do enjoy a meal out of course !

Cheap Days Out

With the credit crunch the way it is and the fact I keep buying more guitars we need to keep an eye on our finances while still making sure we spend quality time together.

Something we have been looking into is where we spend a lot of money with little reward. What I mean is, if Helen and I go out somewhere for a day trip or half day trip - we always buy coffee's out, and sometimes food and a cake each (to go with the coffee of course) and it ends up being quite an expensive day. You probably know you don't get a lot of change from a £10 note for 2 coffees and 2 cakes these days.

So with this in mind we set off with a packed lunch, flask of coffee and headed out to Whitlingham Country Park for an afternoon out. It is free to wander around the park so the day only cost us the petrol to Norwich and back.

We picked up some leaflets in the information desk on site for other great locations that are also free or minimal cost for future days out. I'm looking forward to it.

My new 12 String guitar

Last week a friend let me have a go on his 12 string guitar. The sound was great and it was fun to play so I had a quick look around and found this beauty for a bargain price!

The first thing I'm going to do though is change the scratch plate from that horrid brown colour to a black one. Then it will look sweeeeeeeeeeet.

Then.... I'll need to break the news to the missus as to why I need 3 guitars. Errrrrrm....

16 Years of Kuk Sool Won

Today I celebrate 16 years of Kuk Sool Won training! Happy Anniversary.

I started Kuk Sool Won on Wednesday 14th April 1993. I went along with a friend and few family members (yes I was that nervous I took a support group) and haven't looked back since.

I would like to pay homage to KJN's Martin and Alison Ducker for all their kind words of encouragement and unquestionable patience!! I said it best in my post about "Why I started Kuk Sool Won" dated 19th Sept 2007 to save repeating myself here.

In the last 16 years I have gained; health and fitness, self discipline, mental and physical development but the most important of all is confidence. It is confidence that I set out to gain and boy I got a whole lot more than I bargained for.

Even now, when I think back to the person I was as a 19 year old white belt I get a tear in my eye at how much I have achieved over the years. I am fitter, healthier and happier. I have friends that I trust with my life and I found a beautiful wife to share my life with. I didn't realise I would get all this from Kuk Sool!!

I have been pushed further than I thought I could go and as such I have grown. I am much better person that I ever thought I could be.

In the last 12 months I have become a much better instructor and more patient with students and have learned an awful lot more about how to run a school and all the things that go on behind the scenes. This is an area I would like to plug into over the next 12 months. I need to get much more involved with our school and offer my services as much as possible. I teach more classes now than I used to, and when I'm not teaching a class - I'm helping out with it when required.

I am also testing for my 4th degree this year with the hope that I will promote next June 2010!

If you are a Kuk Sool Won Student of any grade, I salute you. You are taking the best journey life has to offer. Thank your instructor, and keep turning up to class, imagine how you will feel in 16 years from now!

Gotta go, I need more practice.

Time Out Together

Its not very often Helen and I get time to spend together doing nice things with no schedule to tie us down or cause us to be in a rush. For a few months we've been feeling under the strain of work and other external pressures and needed a break.

Last weekend we had a long weekend booked off work to do just that. To take time out and spend some quality time together. We were also blessed with some gorgeous weather. So we went for a walk along the sea front, had a great time, watching all the people enjoying the day. We had a very long walk as it happens!

Then we wandered back, had a coffee and headed home once the sun started to go down.


It was brilliant to spend some time together without a schedule to worry about so we could just enjoy day - minute by minute - without a care in the world.

We loved it and both needed the time out together.

Take time out with your loved one - its good for you both!

Homebrew experiment results

Following on from the last post about my homebrewing experiment - I've had lots of people over to give it a try and the results are as follows:

1. I personally prefer the Amber Ale kit in its natural state without the use of the spray malt.
2. 3 friends agree
3. 1 friend prefers it with the spraymalt.

The actual results are interesting. I haven't noticed a difference in the flavour of the beer, but the spraymalt has made it a lot smoother. I preferred the slightly zingy drink it was before with the tiniest bit of gas to make it nice. Now the spraymalt has been added it has taken that zing away. The flavour is still great but its not as gassy.

The beer is still delicious and we managed to get through an awful lot at the weekend between us!! So much so that Ive started the next kit already. This time I'm doing a 2 can kit that requires no sugar. Its by Milestone, and its called Lions Pride.

I tried a sample of it in the homebrew shop and I was extremely impressed with it so I'm looking forward to having that when its ready. However, I've not added any spraymalt to it at all, I'm going to make it as is.

We've got friends coming over this weekend to get started on making their own wine which is really exciting and the bug is spreading :o)

Maybe in the current financial situation, brewing at home is the right way to go to save money but still have some quality drink in the house. Its certainly taken off in our house having done 4 beer kits and 2 wine kits in 2 months. A lot of it we share with friends and give as gifts, and so far all have been pleasantly received and praise offered when asked how it was.

My 1st Homebrew Experiment

I'm having some most excellent results with the home brewing, but there is one thing that is niggling me at the back of my mind. I feel that what I'm doing isn't really home-brewing, but more like "just add water and sugar and wait".

You can see from the pic above that the can holds the beer kit. It has the thick treacle like beer mix, the yeast and the instructions enclosed. When making this beer all you do is add 21 litres of water, make sure its the right temperature for fermentation, add the yeast, stick a lid on it and wait 5 days. After 5 days swap it over into a pressure barrel (in the pic) or bottles with a bit more sugar and wait 10 days for it to clear.

Dont get me wrong, its brilliant and the flavour is amazing. This is coming from a bloke who never really liked beer of any description and never drank more than 20 pints in a year.

I recently went out with my best man for a drink and he bought me a pint of carling premier. Previously this is one of my favourite drinks - it tasted foul compared to the stuff I'm making at home. It tasted like I was drinking strong chemicals, meths like almost. I finished it out of politeness (and extortionate price) and advised Harvey to come back to my place for a "proper beer" which he really enjoyed.

I've gotten really confident with the beer making now that everyone who tries it says its really nice. Its really funny watching people take their first sip. There is still this image and perception that people's homebrew is going to be shit and put hairs on your tongue or something. I love watching people go through the mental tourment of taking their first sip, only to realise that its one of the best flavours of beer they've ever had.

Even our female friends like it and one who hates all beer brilliantly described it as "the least foul beer I've ever tasted" which is high praise indeed! Thanks Rachel!

So, what I wanted to do this time around (and you'll have to scroll back up to the pic now) is try adding in some malt or something to see if I can play with the flavour and actually make it my own home brew. I can't be bothered with making the mixture from scratch, I think I'll leave that to the experts, but I did want to have a go at adding in something.

So I spoke to Paul the owner of Sylken Homebrew www.norfolkhomebrew.co.uk for some advice. He sold me a packet of Spraymalt (pictured above) and gave me 3 options of how to use it.

1. add the malt 50/50 with the sugar. so replace half of the sugar with the malt. This gives a full body and much improved flavour.

2. add 2 packets of malt and no sugar for extremely good flavour and full body, but I needed to purchase some really expensive yeast to make this work and buy 2 packets of malt. So I gave this one a miss.

3. Add all of the malt and all of the sugar which will improve body and flavour of the beer and increase its strength by 20%.

Now I know what you're thinking which one I went for! But in my personal experience I have yet to taste a strong beer that tastes nice. So I decided to create my own 4th option:

4. I added all of the malt (500g) and 3/4 of the sugar (750g) and it is my assumption that this will produce a full body, better flavour and 10% stronger beer.

I'll let you know how it goes.