Regrets..

Wow!!

Two post in one day!

Anyway, I was having a discussion with N the Pirate and I expressed some regret in the way my martial arts journey has gone to date.

The lapse over the last 4-5 years, although in my mind being justified, makes me wonder where I would be if I had continued training and juggled the other aspects of life at the same time. Knowing my tendency to be deeply absorbed in my training and train as often as possible, it was probably a good idea for me to focus on studies instead of allowing myself to be distracted by training, but if I had continued training in anything be it being more serious with my Kung-Fu, or continuing in Iaido I would have somewhere in the range of 8-9 years of training under my belt. Even had I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at that time, I would have had 4 or 5 years under my belt there too.

I could be really progressing along reasonably well… I could maybe be monstering people on the mat… *sigh*

To quote Brando, “I coulda had class… I coulda been a contender, instead of a bum, which is what I am – let’s face it.”

Well, maybe that’s a little melodramatic.. hehehe…

Anyway, I wonder if I have wasted the time and opportunity. Maybe I should have continued and just had the mental fortitude to know where to draw the line between study and training?

I guess we’ll never know, unless Amph builds that damn time machine.

Almost half way..

Well we’re coming to the half way point in 2009 and what has happened and what have I achieved?

My plans for improving my Chinese language skills have not come to fruition, but I do have another 6 mths to remedy that.

Wedding plans are progressing slowly with a venue and Cheazles’ dress sorted and now invites, photographer and perhaps cars to come.

My health and fitness regime has been promising and my big paunch is now a little paunch.

I am now a white belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and my boxing skills are improving.

Work is picking up speed and is beginning to consume all of my time and towards the end of the year I’ll be looking to get my professional qualification which is a little scary!

The Lakers are one win away from winning the NBA Championship for this season!

Rubinho is home and keeping me entertained!

The second half of 2009, what is to come and what do I hope to achieve?

I hope to improve my Chinese (fingers crossed that I get off my lazy buttocks).

Cheazles, myself and our wedding team organise and lock in all the rest of the wedding details.

My exercise regime yields the following result:

My BJJ mongness progresses to less mongness and that I can jump in the ring and spar at boxing.

I get my professional qualification.

The Lakers win the Championship!

and

I eagerly await the return of Amph!!!  Woot!!!

I hope 2009 has been treating everyone well and that things are progressing as you desire and the remainder of the year yields the fruit of all the good things you have been working towards.

Beware!

Don’t mess with turtles…

The Force!!

I’m training hard in preparation of joining this awesome new gym.

Awesomes..

A little gem that Gorbz brought to my attention… ENJOY…

“I just ate a grape…”

ROFL

Inspired..

I think my watching Hong Kong Movies this weekend with all the martial arts has inspired me to reorganise my time to do some traditional training amongst my boxing sessions each week. It’s nice just being out in the backyard and whirling my kwan do, or doing some pole work and maybe I’ll even pull out my swords and do some cutting. I am not looking forward to pulling the swords out though, I have a feeling my neglect has left a couple of little patches of rust! I know, I’m a terrible swordsman who has not looked after my tools of the trade! On the other hand, my new Kukris should do a fine job paring down my 8 foot pole into a 7 foot 2 inch spear which is what Sifu had told me to do many, many, many moons ago.

Speaking of moons, man have the moons been on the move! We are half way through February already! Two out of the twelve months already gone!

It seems wedding planning is to take up my weekends for the foreseeable future, as Cheazles and I have our big day next year. It will be reception inspections, then working out catering, invitations, photography etc. etc. etc. There just seems to be so much that needs to be organised for a one day event! Although, I’m more concerned with the honeymoon and picking a good destination!

The three leading options are Mongolia for an adventure trip through the steppes to meet the horsemen and experience the nomadic life, another option is Patagonia and a trip to the Grey Glacier and Perito Moreno, or perhaps Europe which Cheazles has wanted for a long time (plus I wouldn’t mind doing a summit climb of Mont Blanc!). The only other option I’ve toyed with is a trip to Northern India to go to Ladakh and Zanskar and doing multiple high pass treks, but having done Nepal just recently I think maybe we could postpone that one a little since it’ll be nice to experience a different environment.

Anyway, that’s just me dreaming. The piggy bank is being tipped into the wedding at this stage, so my holiday adventures are just a distant dream in the meantime.

Oh well… time for bed soon. Work week is starting and the weekly grind begins again. Lets see if I can motivate myself to get up early and do some hei gong in the morning.

**** Edit ****

Oh, just a finally addition. It’s been a sad week here with the bushfires burning. So best wishes to all who have been touched by the bushfires. It’s so sad to think that there has been so much devastation to the people and the landscape. That beautiful Mt Everard Circuit up in Kinglake is likely to have been wiped out too.

Kudos to all the fire fighters out there and to all who have helped in their own way.

No Yeti…

Cheazles and I are back from our little trip to the Himalayas and unfortunately we did not manage to see any Yeti. Maybe it was because we were over on the Annapurna side of things and not toward Everest. We saw one zany lycra clad man in the snow, but no Yeti.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

There were numerous highlight moments, but enjoying my birthday in the mountains was fantastic. It snowed that day so we got to trudge through the white stuff, did a bit of a ridge walk and we lunched in a beautiful snow filled valley. It was pretty damn awesome!

Another major highlight was waking up above the clouds. I crawled out of my tent one morning to be greeted by this…

We were surrounded by a sea of clouds… and then the sun rose, giving us this…

The size of the mountains was staggering, we had trudged our way off the beaten track up to an altitude of 4,225 metres above sea level and were fairly pooped, however that was only to the snow line of that particular mountain! We were probably only just over half way up and oxygen was at 60%! Kudos to all the folk that go up higher (especially the Sherpas/Guides/Porters) because it is hard going and I can only imagine how hard it must be when the oxygen level drops further!

As for enormous mountains, we could not go all the way to the Himalayas and not see the big daddy of them all! So we took a scenic flight of Everest, and that is one big bit of rock!

Sagarmatha (Mount Everest)

So Cheazles and I have agreed that we would like to go back and trek to Everest Base Camp some time, however we have a few different options we would like to explore first and I think Cheazles would like a warmer climate for our next holiday. So maybe South America might be a winner! I can’t wait to go on another trip into the wilderness!

I must say though, when the trip ended with a walk through one of the developing villages at the end of the main tourist trail we all felt a little sad. The mountains had been so magical, but progress can not be stopped and there were roads being built and the pristine nature of the hills were changing. I can only imagine what the place would be like in 20 years time. They mountains are huge and immovable and have stood there for so many years, but although we are minuscule in comparison we leave a mighty big impact on the environment, not even the mountains can remain unscathed over time. It would be wrong to deny anyone the opportunity to improve their standard of living, but I sincerely hope that we all manage to protect and keep the magic alive.

AHahaha…

Genius..

and 2 weeks to go, then the holiday of a lifetime begins!

Oh.. and graduation before that too… LOL… about bloody time.

and charter fishing with work on Monday and charter fishing on the 21st before we fly out!

Life is hard in December… hehehe…

AHh… to be young again…

How awesome is <THIS>!!!

This brings me back to my formative years of high school! So awesome!

and we’ve got tickets lined up for Bond this Friday!! Woot!!

Also… only one month left to go before the big walk!

Time to ramp up the training!

This weekend past we did the 1k steps twice! Finally! Without the pack on though, so maybe we’ll bust the packs out and go twice next time. Perhaps without the 10kg weights though!

We have a day hike planned again this Sunday and also a camping trip the following weekend!

Let the fun and shenanigans begin!

and a big welcome home to Nuffies! YAY!!!

***EDIT***

Wow, I used a lot of exclamation marks.

The long walk.

Saturday saw myself and Spicy head up to Kinglake National Park to attempt the Mount Everard Circuit walk. There are differing records as to the length of the circuit, varying from 18.8km to 19.6km to 22km, so I am not sure exactly how far we walked. Assuming the maps along the trail are accurate then 22km should be the total length with a recommended completion time of between 6-7hrs.

The main trail and my pack

Unfortunately for Spicy, he failed to ask me how far we were walking when he agreed to come on this trek and the poor sod had not slept much before hand.

Lunch break

So upon our arrival at 11:30 we set off from the car park and took the trek along a small trail through the lush green forest along the Shelley Harris Track, which I should have taken a photo of!

Unfortunately when we reached the Mount Jerusalem track, which is the start of the main circuit trail, we did not pay attention to the arrows indicating the recommended direction we take around the track. So we started off going the opposite way and found out the hard way why the other direction was recommended. In fact when we reached the peak of Mount Everard, we had thought we were further along the trail than we were. When we realised where we were, the mountain did indeed live up to it’s previous name Mount Misery.

Mt Misery

Anyway, we drank some cement and hardened up and continued on our way and finally made it back to the car just under 5 and a half hours.

Spent and ready to go home

If we had traveled in the right direction our trip would have been much easier and quicker! So, the next time we head out on a trail we’ll know to pay more attention.

Oh and here is a tree that stood out a little amongst the gums, it amused me.

The Odd Tree

That wasn’t the end of my trekking for the weekend however, because I turned up to the 1k steps on Sunday morning too! I did however leave my backpack with the weights at home. If I had gone with my pack I think I would have suffered terribly at boxing tonight. Hmm, maybe I will just be a slob the rest of this week… mmm… hamburgers…