One way to the UK?

Well an interesting start to the week so far. Monday night I went along to my York Hall (normal) gym’s ‘thai kick boxing’ aerobics class – which turned out to be utter crap! The warm up was good, but the actual skills the guy was teaching the attendees were crap. I mean they weren’t even ‘twisting’ with a left hook or thai-elbow but the instructor pretty much said it’s because this is just a gym class, not a boxing gym… hmm anyway I learnt some thai-kb moves such as the elbow, knee and grapple knee… but also left the class with a L) shoulder injury! I’ve had such a good run with my kb and no injuries that it had to happen somwhere… I’m just annoyed I went to that crap class instead of using the treadmill cuz the way Paragon teaches kb is just brilliant.

Um so on Tuesday I had my normal Paragon kb level 3 class – just FIVE weeks to go and I get graded for my red belt — so excited! I’m really looking forward to that. My shoulder was still a little sore, and diffcult to chage out of my clothes!

Wednesday, last night some members of my team and I went out for a work dinner (in spirit of Beijing yah) at the Laureate Chinese restaurant. The restaurant wasn’t that bad, however the actual waiter was so flat! Sheesh! Sunni (said with a smile) was the one who I booked with  and each time he came up to check things were okay was, and is such a lovely man but big shame about his staff! Anyhow, after a really top taste 3-course meal and a few drinks (Tsingtao beer and some wine) most of us (22) headed for a pub… closeby one.. The Walkabout! What a laugh haha. So here is me and my work team, and we’re all in suits, standing in the Aussie Walkabout pub (and I’m the youngest at work by 7 years too if that’s an indication..) Anyhow quite a few people left to get the last tube home, but, for whatever reasons (I always wonder later, after the fact, when it’s too late!) Alex, Barry, James, Stephen, Nick and I headed up towards Oxford Street to go into some pubs… we got dragged into some place as ‘VIP people’… and it was because we were like the only people in there, so we left without even buying a drink (Stuff that!) and then we ended up walking past Moonlighters (Cheapskates) but the line was so long, anyhow, went into an Old English Pub until that closed, so midnight, then went up the road a bit further to a pub/club where we got all of us in for 20 Pounds instead of 5 each, so all good. The drinks weren’t bad and the music was pretty good too which was alright… we even had  bit of a dance at some point! Well, soon after leaving that place the ‘drama’ started… to put it in briefly, I have a black eye and a sore jaw and aren’t allowed to kickbox for an enture week!!! Luckily I’m going to Spain next week, so good timing if ever there is any to be injured, but still. I was the only girl out with my colleagues, and we all somehow got into a fight with some other guys, students I’m presuming, and one of my colleagues was on the ground getting punched, so I jumped in and grabbed a guy (the opposition shall we say) off him, and was shouting it’s not worth it, it’s not worth it just f*** ***, so there is me, the one trained to fight, being passive and not throwing any punches (as there were already 8 people fighting!) so I was trying to calm things down, and so I’ve got 1 hand in front of me pushing back on one guy, and my other hand behind me holding back my colleague, when the opposition’s mate came in over his shoulder (the should of guy I was holding in front) and punched me right in the eye! !!! ARGH! Punctuate the air with swear words here. Anyhow, I punched him back so hopefully my rings damaged him, but then I was slammed to the ground, bruising both knees – and I’d noticed, as I punched that my bracelet was broken (the one from Tys that never comes off!) so I was looking around for that, when all the boys, I think, noticed that my eye was bleeding and yes I’d been punched! So… I think that’s where it ended actually all of a sudden. Dunno if it was because they realised the bas**** had punched a girl who up until then had been restraining herself (3rd person speaking…) or because the Cops were turning up!? ARGH! So I woke up this morning in bed with a bag of frozen peas — thanks mom for that idea last night at 4am when I got home! I don’t recall being concussed, however, this morning was a bit dizzy and face sore to the touch, so I worked from home – gotta love the blackberry and laptop. And was thinking of going to Doctor, then A&E, but instead went to see Eddie the phsio/treatment guy from Paragon kickboxing. AAhh.. they coudln’t believe a guy punched me, in purpose, right in the eye either. And it was funny… whether to say yes good to be passive sometimes, or, in street fighting it’s get the punches in first! Hopefully won’t be a ‘next time’ so won’t have to worry about fighting outside of the ring!

Anyhow, all checked out with Eddie however I’m ‘banned for a few weeks’ to which Rob my trainer was like But she’s getting graded in 5 weeks! So Ed agreed that Spain next week would do me good AS LONG AS I DON’T GET HIT IN THE EYES BY TOMATOES!!! I was thinking of buying ski-goggles or a full-face visor haha. So anyhow had physio on my shoulder and my back, and my neck to ‘straighten out’ everything, as being hit like that is very similar to whiplash… the reason my jaw is saw must have been that when I got hit, my mouth was open (saying the words f*** ***) and so it ‘bounced’ when it flicked back. Aaah, the way you learn to not talk during a fight! I think that’s the last time I underestimate a fight situation, but I guess it’s always about using, hopefully good, judgement.

So yes, all good otherwise. And then when I got home, one of my flat mates Martin bought me some beautiful flowers.. Really I’m good, but I am worried about the colleague that had a cut and got punched a few times in the mouth! Hopefully he’s at work tomorrow too, otherwise we’ll have to take a drive to his house or something. God – luckily no one in central London knew/knows who we work for.

Well last weekend, 16 August, after doing kickboxing as normal on Saturday morning I had a quick shower then jumped on the bus to London Bridge station, where I met up with Sarah and Mara – we were off for a girls weekend with Emma (Sarah and Emma are part of our group that met in NZ 2006) at her house in Maidstone. As we were getting the 1318 train, we first headed over to Borough Markets and grabbed a felafel each for lunch! After a short trip on the National Rail Emma picked us up at Maidstone East, and drive us the 5 ? minutes to her house! It’s walking distance really, but she was feeling very generous! After a good catch up out in the garden (nice weather yes!) we walked in to town to look around the shops and scope out the pubs we would visit later! I had to buy a cheapie shirt from Primark for 1.50 as in my haste I’d forgotten to pack a spare shirt for the Sunday!  After shopping, we returned to Emma’s for a nice BBQ outside on the back patio – still nice weather – and lots of Pimms and also Vodka. The BBQ was really just for smell/effect, as we planned on pre-cooking the meat in the oven, but sorta of got distracted and forgot about it, so it was pretty much done! Luckily in a way too, as we were using charcoal bisquettes and ‘fire starter’ cubes, which had to be lit using a tea-light candle first lit on the gas hob… (no matches or lighter!) but we did actually end up wit a good hot fire in the end which we used to ‘crisp up’ the food to make it seem real! haha

After a lovely dinner and more drinks and loads of talking, oh, and watching my flatmate Russ on a film clip as the tennis coach (hehe) go onto Youtube.com and search for ‘You think I don’t care’ song. About 9pm we started getting ready and hit town just after 10pm (I’d forgotten my ID so we walked 1/2 way then back home and then all the ..way into town) … we started at The Society Rooms (Weatherspoons) with nice cheap drink and upgrades to double shots for an extra single pound, and then headed into Mu Mu which was more of a good club with music – danced for hours! I love how unpretentious the town scenes are in comparrison to London.

Sunday morning we woke up after a good sleep in, and had a fry-up for breakfast and then got in some sun-baking on the patio (once some Olympic Games had been watched). I didn’t want to leave as I was quite happy sunbaking, however we had work/study to do in various forms so headed back to London… where after a wander through Brick Lane markets I got home and it started to rain! Ahh luverly.

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