Long Weekend

Wow.

It's been one of the most physically tiring weekends that I can remember for a long time. Saturday was the xmas fencing workshop and in between nomming lots of festive food we managed to cover a lot of new material. The rapier and cape stuff was excellent fun, and it has a lot in common with some of the kobudo work I've been doing recently. A block against a fendente attack to the head using the mezzo of your blade and your arm with a cloak wrapped around it is exactly like the rising X block from sai and yawari. The sabre material is starting to make sense and all of the repetitive drills that we've been working on are finally coming to fruition with some practical applications.

I didn't sleep particularly well last night, with various anxiety dreams and then the usual early morning wake up call from Daisy the kitten. I did try and have another snooze in the afternoon but Frank the cat headbutted the door wide open and decided that he wanted to sleep on the bed as well and at 5+ kilos of hefty moggy he takes up a lot of room.

As it started getting dark we went for a walk in the woods where the Friends of Foxfield Spring had organised a festive event including the chance to make a holly wreath whilst listening to a brass band playing carols and drinking hot chocolate. It was a bit nippy and the corner of the field where the marquee was pitched was rapidly turning into a mini quagmire so we headed home.

Just time for a quick cup of tea, and then I headed out again to kobudo. The gradings were running a bit late with a lot of people being assessed, so we didn't get onto the mats until nearly seven o'clock. I was feeling a touch nervous, and it really did seem strange being at a grading without Rachel being present. I was eventually called forward by Sensei Elliot and ran through my material.

I fumbled the blade manipulation and dropped the sai, but the Sensei assured me that everybody does that at some point and at least I didn't stab myself in the foot. My inside block was a bit wonky too, but I corrected that and everything else went smoothly. In the end I managed a pass with credit ... phew! Sword work to look forward to next!