Sunday Beers

Here's me mate Jamos chillin with a home brew beer on a Sunday. I love Sundays.

Cats adjusting to the new kitten

These pics of our cats were taken 2 days after the arrival of our new kitten. They have been superb with Molly and not tried to harm her at all. Molly on the other hand has been on an all out attack once she realised how daft Smokey is (top pic) and he just takes it all its very funny.

More pics of the kitten to follow soon.

Luke's Goal

Luke has found a guitar he wants so badly its all he can talk about! The picture below shows the guitar in question. Its up for sale at £295 and comes with bag and amp. He loves the shape and the "hard rock" look and feel of it. Plus its a perfect size for him too. Below he is having a test drive of it in the shop while I was trading in my Electro-12 String (being tuned in the pic below) for a brand new Electro-6 string. More on this bad boy soon!

Its good for Luke to have a dream to aim for. Its not going to be something he gets quickly because 300 pounds is going to take him forever to save up. However, he is saving and he gets a lot of money at birthdays and Christmas so he can put this away and save for it.


I think this is a good lesson for Luke in 2 ways.

Firstly - if he does save enough and buy it he will have that sense of achievement and will look after the guitar with great care because of the hardship that went into getting it in the first place. If we just buy it for him it wont mean the same to him and if it breaks - oh well.

Secondly - if he doesn't manage to save up for it, it still teaches him that he can't have everything he wants and that some things take effort and hard saving and personal sacrifice to purchase.

We'll see what happens.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Helen has had her hair cut short! I really like it, we talked about it a lot before she got it done and I think it was the right thing to do. Helen seems really chuffed with it too. If she isn't, its only hair, it will grow back - so I'm told, I'm still trying to grow mine! !

What do you think?

Treacle and Lemon Tarts

Last Wednesday Helen came home with these two beauties. The hardest part was trying to decide which one to try first and whether to have a small scoop of ice cream or creme fraiche?

Scales, Solos and String Bends

I've been having an absolute blast this week with my latest homework from my guitar tutor. I've been learning the E Major scale which I've pretty much got now I just need to repeat it a few hundred times to pick up my speed. Plus my left thumb is in the wrong place on the back of the neck. Its not supposed to be poking over the top the whole time. I've obviously developed this habit since day one and now I need to break it before it sets in stone and hinders my technique as I develop.

Last week's lesson was about playing any notes in the E scale as I see fit to a backing track. I didn't know I was being recorded! I thought it sounded quite bad, but when we listened back to it I was rather impressed with myself. Considering I had no prior warning what was about to happen and I was having to improvise the whole bit I came home rather pleased.

This week my homework has been to develop the improv further and come up with a solo for this backing track. My tutor gave me some tips and he also said there was a particular hammer-on technique and string bend he wanted me to get into the solo somewhere!

I tell you - I've never had so much fun playing the guitar! I never thought I'd be able to make up tunes/melodies or solos because I'm not musical minded. But this is so simple! You're given a set of notes in a scale and any of them are fair game in any order. It just flows and if it sounds good I work with it, if it doesn't I learn and move on.

Who'd have thought 6 months ago I'd be able to make up some tunes!?

Ultralase - Lasik Eye Surgery - 5 years on

On Sunday Helen and I took a trip back to Chelmsford to go to Ultralase for my 5 year check-up.

I know its hard to believe that its been 5 years since I had my eyes treated. I am pleased to announce that the treatment is still effective and my vision is still better than 20/20.

I told the consultant that I have been experiencing "dry eyes" a lot. This is predominantly because I ride a motorcycle everywhere and get lots of air that circulates over the eyes even with a helmet on. Plus I work in an air conditioned office which doesn't help. Anyone who wears contact lenses in an air conditioned office will know what I mean.

The consultant gave me some eye drops and went into great detail as to how the tear ducts work, how to blink more effectively at work when I'm concentrating. When we are concentrating on the computer we tend to stare a lot and not blink properly so the lipids in our tears do not get to cover the eye properly thus leaving it dry and sore.

The eye drops are ok, I've had them before - Hypromellose drops - but they leave the eyes a bit gunky as they contain the lipid oil our eyes produce. I've also been given some saline solution in individual doses so I can use those when I dont want the oily drops.

All in all - we had a great day out, the appointment was only 30 minutes or so, so that left us the rest of the day to go shopping in Chelmford. Helen had a great time and bought lots of new tops and shoes!

Pictures that made me laugh - a lot!

I was sent these pictures a while ago via email and I kept them because they cheer me up when I'm feeling down. Laughter truely is the best medicine. I apologise for the language in the first picture but I don't have the means to amend it here, but when I first saw it I was laughing for over 24 hours!! Even in the night in bed as Psbn Helen will testify!

Wednesday's are tough!

Helen's bakery course has been going really well! Every Wednesday evening Helen is off to the college to learn from a master chef how to make delicious desserts.

What do you think ?



Above is a French Fruit Tart.

These are blurry Chelsea Buns

Chocolate Eclairs and Profiteroles.

And I can't remember what these were called but they had cream and jam in them and went perfectly with the coffee I had :o)

So why am I over my target weight? Any ideas because I'm stumped! If you like the look of this lot then you should come over on Wednesday evenings !

Meet Molly - Our New Kitten...

New Master Titles

If you are like me and finding it difficult to remember the new Master Titles for Kuk Sool Won then here they are for your reference:

1. Masters - 5th Degree Black Belt - Pyung Kwahn Jahng Nim
2. Head Masters - 6th Degree Black Belt - Joo Im Kwahn Jahng Nim
3. Senior Masters - 7th Degree Black Belt - Ji Do Kwahn Jahng Nim
4. Executive Masters - 8th Degree Black Belt - Suhn Im Kwahn Jahng Nim
5. Senior Executive Masters - 9th Degree Black Belt - Su Suhk Kwahn Jahng Nim

Its all go at Kuk Sool Won!

Ahhh - the Kuk Sool Week is over. I don't mean that in a negative sense at all. Just my body being grateful for making it through a tough week!

Last week the Grand Master and Senior Masters came to the UK for our annual testing, Seminars and of course the European Championships.

Seminar

The seminar was as excellent as always with Master Sung Jin Suh guiding us all through the Dahn Bong Hyung 18 moves (4 directional). It was brilliant to finally get this right. Personally I really struggle with the dahn bong. Its a really hard weapon to master and even harder to make it look pretty while performing the Hyung.

For me, this was the highlight of the seminar to finally learn exactly how the movements should be performed. And you can't get better tuition than from the Grandmasters eldest son (except from the Grandmaster himself of course).

4th Degree Testing

Dare I say it....? I thought the testing was easy. There, I said it. Considering our black belt testings have been up to 6 hours historically, having a testing that only lasted 2 hours was a breeze. The sun was shining and we were out on the field on lovely soft grass. What more could you ask for?

I worked hard during the testing and it was brilliant to be testing along side my wife again. We've finally reached that stage where we will be grading together again. Psbn Helen has just started testing for 4th degree whereas I only have 1 year to go.

The testing was over really quickly and the only real challenge was the heat. But there was a gorgeous breeze to keep us cool and the sweat under control, so in my opinion, it was a brilliant day.

European Championship & Masters Demonstration

We missed a lot of the championships this year owing to the fact that we offered to travel home and take all the regular classes back in Lowestoft on the Friday evening and Saturday morning.

However, we did make it back in time to participate in the Masters Demonstration. We got to do the staff sparring routine which is always a favourite of ours as we perform it a lot as a husband and wife team, and we often practice/teach it together in class time too.

It was great to have such a short part in the demo this year because then we could kick back and sit and watch the excellent display from the other black belts and masters.

Finally

Its great to get back into training. All the new Jyo Kyo Nims in class beaming with big smiles and shiny new uniforms waiting with anticipation to find out what that next level of training is going to be like.

We'll see if they are still smiling by Christmas!!

Me - I'm loving it. I always find the Kuk Sool Week very inspiring and motivating. The way the masters speak to you during seminars and the way they train us is brilliant. It was just - awesome and inspiring.

Can't wait for the next lesson! KUK SOOL !