…leave with memories not regrets…
March 2020... I took the mini to London on a Sunday and basically put my office, including a chair, in the back seat. Everything felt surreal, the office closed, the dojo closed and it became a typical farewell to say..."see you online". Online, urgh! As someone who needs to be around real people this was … Continue reading Lockdown times
I remember growing up in Dublin with grandparents who survived the war. In fact they had stories about how they went towards the war in some cases. Sought out ways to help and in some ways thrived in the madness. A few weeks ago I was still thinking that this virus would disappear before I … Continue reading It all just got real
No rain to greet me this morning,but that said it was far from warm. I hear it's in the low single figures back in Blighty, so I guess I should be grateful for the +10C temperatures here, but the wind makes it bloody cold. In any case I only managed a few hours sleep so … Continue reading Day 4. Don’t feel guilty
The rain woke me at 07:00, OK, so that's a bit of a lie. I was dozing from about 04:00 and sound of the rain on a metal roof near the apartment lead me to believe that we were being invaded by a possy of badly trained ninjas. This wasn't normal rain, no this was … Continue reading Day 3. Don’t give up
There is a beautiful familiarity to being in Okinawa, I was so excited about self training in the dojo that I woke at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Ah jet lag. By the time I did make it to the dojo, I had dragged myself out for a quick run to get rid … Continue reading Day 2. Finding the rhythm…
I am so tired. I sit on the third flight of the ‘day’, a day which started more than 24 ago and didn’t even get to hear the flight safety briefing before I was out cold. In Osaka airport I had regained access to the world of Facebook and the many updates from friends told … Continue reading Making memories
Stay tuned for more from me shortly!!! (And possible overuse of exclamation marks!!)
Sitting on a train is where I do most of my writing. I should be composing the report from yesterdays assessment but trains make me feel nostalgic-back home as a child the whole idea of getting on a train was filled with curiosity and figity excitement. The reality was completely different, Iaronrod Eireann ( Irish … Continue reading Nostalgia…
We all know that life likes to throw all sorts of things at us, in my life, it’s never just one thing at a time, I can go for months perfectly fine then all hell breaks loose. I’m in one of those change periods at the moment and I thought it a good idea to … Continue reading Dojo for life…
This article could have started with a nod to the fact that no one ever said Karate was easy, in fact however, I have recently received an invitation to train in a local community hall with someone who had multiple senior grades and who professes that Karate is easy to learn and fun for all. … Continue reading Sysiphean Actions
