One way to the UK?

Quite a while ago, after attending services for years in Alice Springs, I decided I really wanted to attend the ANZAC Day memorial this year, in Gallipoli (Galibolu), Turkey. After searching through TNT Magazine Mara and I decided on OnTheGo tours and their 5 day ‘Digger’ Silver package. It was a holiday to look forward to, but not just in a ‘happy holiday’ type but rather as something respectful towards the soldiers who have given their lives over the years, and those still fighting what seem to be ‘other people’s battles’ today.

So, on Sunday 21 April Mara and I caught the latest tube from our East End (Bromley-by-Bow) to Heathrow, arriving just after midnight and settled in for a few hours sleep, at the airport (very uncomfortable), with a heap of other people also waiting for check in to open about 0400 hours. Once it opened and we checked in, we then had to wait around inside the security area for our flight to board. And, being Swiss Airlines it all left on time, like clockwork! The flight was lovely - so much better than the cheapies RyanAir and EasyJet that we usually use. I mean we even got fed on the Swiss flight without having to pay extra haha (such little luxuries). We changed over in Zurich and arrived in Istanbul about 1330 where we were met by the OnTheGo staff and put onto their bus into Istanbul city. Well, after telling people THREE TIMES where we were booked into (pre-booked by OnTheGo remember) after being in the bus for about 2.5 hours and arriving at the Fez Travel head quarters (turns out FezTravel, OnTheGo and The Fanatics are all sorta one company for ANZAC Day), that they had forgotten to drop us off, and our damn hotel was THE SECOND ONE FROM THE AIRPORT! So yes, we could have been there two hours ago… Grrr not happy! So we got put into a ‘luxury’ smaller minivan thing and fiinnaally dropped at our hotel. We checked in and a worker carried our bags to the room, which oops, we read later we were supposed to tip him for! Shame we didn’t even have any Lira on us yet and hadn’t read the guidebook completely yet either.

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Okay so a while ago I was feeling a bit down on London and meeting new people (lack of etc) so my friend Ali suggested I join a ‘team sport’ instead of just going to gym… so after much research and looking around I decided on Kickboxing! Not exactly the ‘team sport’ he had in mind but hey - it’s proved enjoyable so far! I was chatting about it at work one day too, so Mandi, my colleague (and temp HR manager) decided to join me on the 8 week beginners level 1 course. I went down ‘for a look’ the night before the classes started and was laughing on first impressions - you walk down concrete stairs and the door says ‘gym’ in graffiti writing, and then once inside it’s a desk in a ‘wire cage’ and then the gym is all exposed brick walls in the basement (hence The Basement Gym) but once you stop and take a look around, you realise the Dojo is quite nice with padded floors and pillars, a ‘ballet’ bar along mirrors for stretching and people always training or sparring in the boxing ring.

The first class was great, our trainer Rob is a lovely guy and always has a smile on his face.. most likely because he’s thinking up new moves to try out and new painful or funny ways of warming us up. Lots of people turned up for the first class at the beginning of April… now we’ve settled into our actual committed group of about 11 people! Always an odd number for some reason as I think one or two cannot make some classes etc. Anyhow it has been great so far, and also a great addition to my normal gym reigime. I’ve been going for one month now, so one more month of Level 1 before the 8 week Level 2 course starts. I’m not sure if Mandi will keep coming after this Level as she said two nights a week of exercise is a bit much (argh). Umm what else? Oh yeah I have my own ‘bindings’ now for my wrists and I don’t know why but I’m the only one in the class with white ones!? That’s just what the gym gave me - good for keeping clean I guess as they can be napisanned/bleached. So yes.. next to purchase is my gloves… still deciding on Black or Green perhaps?

We’ve learnt some pretty good moves so far, round-house kicks, front kicks, side kicks, cross and jab, left hook and right uppercut and an axis kick, duck and slip.. what else? Loads of useful things! So look out anyone who gets in my way when I’m next shopping on Oxford Street! Or walking home for that matter…

Oh so if you want to check out my ‘basement’ gym or the trainers etc, view the website www.paragongym.co.uk

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