Storms, sabres, showers and sofas

I’m sat on the sofa enjoying a rather nice cup of cappuccino after yet another busy saturday.

I was up relatively early to take the dog out and I made a token attempt to rake some leaves off the grass. It’s a bit like cleaning the Aegean stables though – there’s still half a tree full poised just above the fence ready to drop at the first hint of a stiff breeze. It’s a bit too wet to be worth getting the leaf blower out just yet, I think.

The main business of the day was the fencing workshop – hoorah! The rapier section of the day was more of a mental challenge than a physical one – reviewing two years worth of material for our Adept’s assessments in December. I’m still not particularly confident in my ability to get low enough on some of the voids like the Passatta Sotto and the Demi Volte – I can’t manage the return to a guard position from being down with my left hand on the floor. Still, we shall see.

Sabres in the afternoon was a different kettle of the piscine variety. More work on the feints and different ways of selling them, followed by some extended free play where it all seemed to click into place. I scored some nice hits on Charles and Rachel, but I think that I need to work more on recovering in prime and back into guard to avoid double hits. Good fun though.

After packing the kit away, it was home and straight out with the dog despite the weather – six degrees, a strong wind and driving rain but at least I felt like I deserved the hot shower and coffee when I got back.