Month: January 2015

Stand down. Panic over.

After them telling me there was no work for me this week, and me therefore being all responsible and frugal and shit so not going to extra Karate classes on my days off, they called me in today, (Thursday) so that’s 2 shifts. They want me to go in tomorrow to do my store training then do a run for them. 3 shifts. Possibly do a shift on Saturday. 4 Shifts. The trainer guy saw me today and said they usually have a lull of about 3 weeks, then the new season stock starts kicking in and they pick up again.  Also, from tomorrow I’ll be store trained so that adds loads of extra work that I can do. The other driver who started the same time as me, but has somehow managed to get himself signed off as store trained, was on for 6 shifts this week! The long and short of which being, I can hang in here and wait for a proper job, I don’t have to go back to the thrice damned Hermes. Possibly still make some fairly good money while I’m waiting. 3 shifts a week would be enough to see us comfortably through. And if the lull is as short as the trainer said, I would be willing to take one for the team and put my feet up. I’m a giver. The downside for this week being that I didn’t go to extra Karate lessons, now I can’t make Friday’s and it’s doubtful I’ll get to Saturday’s. A week’s training wasted. Still, money is money. I can’t say no. And I’m off Sunday for sure, so I can go to that lesson and pick up my gi, gloves and training mitts. There will be pics. If I can get my girth into a single frame. So, as you were. Buck. PS, just found out how to nick GIF’s. This is hilarious.

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Bugger.

Another quick update. Everything was going swimmingly, paying the card off, gone from £5K down to £2K, paid for washer and dryer this month, paid £379 for the car repairs and still paid nearly £600 off it. We were hoping to pay it off by the end of February. I’ve joined a Karate club, (Still to pay the £60 for Gi, year’s insurance, membership) and ordered some MMA gloves and and pads (£59) plus there’s the £36 per month lessons fee. There was no work on Sunday for the last two weeks, but the first time I got an additional Friday shift to cover it. I only got a four day week last week. No Sunday again this week, I went in and did my Monday shift, at the end of which I asked for my start time for the next day as usual. Nothing for Tuesday. Oh. Or Wednesday. Thursday, Friday or Saturday! WHAT? A one day week is no use to me. The thing is the trunking work is dying off as it’s the slack period and I’ve not been trained for stores yet. It’s just a matter of signing me off on the tail lift operation, (which I’ve been using daily as part of my checks) and showing me how to use the scanner thing for checking out deliveries. I rang the office a few time on Tuesday, finally getting through. As luck would have it, it was the driver trainer who eventually picked up, I said I’d only got one shift due to not being store trained, so he’s going to show me and sign me off on Friday. I’m taking this week as a break then, which is to say, training like a bastard on my Karate and the stretching drills of that sadistic little girl from YouTube and getting back to the sax. Screw the neighbours, what have they ever done for me? I’ll see if I get more work next week with the store training. If not I’ll see if they are going to take me on. If that option fails as well, then I’m getting a new job. Hermes looks to still be recruiting. That would be a last resort, and as I’ve already left them twice they might not have me anyway. Yeah, I’ve just looked again. There are agency jobs “guaranteeing” a minimum of 4 shifts per week, or 5/6 shifts per fortnight (for Hermes.) We’ll not starve but I’m hopeful this could still work out. This is a foot in the door to a full time job, there’s not a whole lot of that about in this gig.   Oh, and I’m back on my diet. Which sucks big time. Meh. Later, Buck.

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Quick update

Not an awful lot has happened since last night, but I’m feeling good so I’ll make a note. First off, my toe. It was throbbing last night, I thought I might have got some crap into it, but it’s been OK today. As you can see, not pretty but not infected. I was practising some punches and kicks earlier and found that although I can still kick to the top of my head height to the front, my round kicks and side kicks were poor through lack of flexibility. I went online to see if there were any good stretching drills. Is stumbled across this on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=waxr-Ex5Zgw&x-yt-cl=84503534 “How to do middle splits in one day!” Yeah, that was happening. “I did it in one day when I was a six year old girl” You were six, love. And a girl. I’m a fat, stiff, 48 year old bloke. Anyway, that part aside, it is a real breakthrough in training. I’ve read that Russian gymnasts increase flexibility by tensing against the stretch then relaxing further into it. This technique is precisely that but in a simplified form. The girl/ young woman teaching it looks like a pleasant enough sort, if severely undernourished (5 stone, piss wet) but it turns out she is actually the spawn of Satan. MY LEGS! But I must have gained at least three inches on my stretch in one session. Even if I could carry on and stretch down to a full splits in one day I think I’d have to tear something in the process. I can’t see your tendons having an extra foot of ‘give’ in them. It think it will be a steady progression but I can really see it working. If I can loosen my hips up and stretch to full-on side splits my kicks will be awesome! After my initial lukewarm appraisal of this Karate class I am now properly excited (after the second class) and itching for my toe to heal so I can get back to it. This could be good. If I can just stick to it. My perennial problem of fading interest. And I’ve started meditating. Or tried. You’d think I’d have a head start when it comes to clearing your mind of thoughts, but no, bloody hard work. I’ve ordered a book on it. And a badge with the Chinese symbols for Serenity. That’s more to do with the film Serenity (and the series Firefly) than the meditation, but what the hey. Couldn’t find one that said “Serenity My Arse”.  Thought of that as martial arts version of the old thug knuckle tattoos: ‘love’ and ‘hate’. Have the Chinese symbols for “Serenity” on one foot, and ‘My Arse’ on the other. Filled with flaws as a plan. Having to take my shoes and socks off to intimidate people, then having to translate, it’s just a nightmare. Right, off again. Just setting a date for starting my stretching really. Arbitrarily going to say ‘this time next month, […]

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Fighting fit.

I’m back! Back to Karate. Of sorts. The first lesson I was hugely disappointed. I chose this club because it’s run on 6 nights out of 7, so I can fit it in around my shifts. Originally I was looking for Lau Gar Kung Fu, it’s one of the original Shaolin temple styles of Kung Fu. Massively impractical but *so* cool! There are no classes in Warrington, nor any in the North West that run often enough for my hit and miss days off. I think Wing Chun Kung Fu is probably the most practical, but that needs constant practice with a skilled partner. So I went back to Karate. Set drills (kata) proper gym (dojo) discipline, rigid learning routines. Perfect for me as that is how I learn, constant repetition of the same moves and being able to practice them at home. I went to the first lesson and one of the instructors (sensei) gave me one-on-one instruction for the whole hour, giving me a taste of what’s involved in this school of Karate. First off, it’s not kata based. That is something you learn but only as a sideline. Secondly, they have taken on the modern trend towards Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). There was a section on stand up wrestling, some drills doing kick-boxing’s ‘flying knee’ and some boxing punches! So not impressed. One thing in particular, the knee drills, we were stood inches apart, hand around each other’s head, straining against the other’s grip. This gave you great purchase so you could pull down and knee up that same time. My concern was if you do that the other person is just going to butt you down. I consoled myself by thinking that it’s the only game in town for me (that fits my shifts at the minute), and by thinking of the adage “There are no bad martial arts, just bad martial artists.” Any black belt martial artist should be able to knock the shit out of a street brawler. I wasn’t best pleased though. I went again today and it was ‘all change’. The club is a family affair. The black belt sons took the first lesson I attended, the 8th Dan black belt dad took today’s. More like it! The lesson was all about putting your hip into different punches, smacking the punch out and instantly returning your hands to nearly touching either side of your head. Then on to kicks to pads and the knee again. This time, in a more natural scenario the drill from yesterday made sense. You are not standing face to face, as you do the move in a proper environment you’re grabbing their head and pulling it down, they have no chance to butt you. That was reassuring, I’ve been put on my arse, fight over, twice by sneaky headbutts, I didn’t want to train in a way that would leave me open to it again. The last time I did Karate I think the sensei had been […]

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Restraint.

I’ve just managed to drag myself away from a German website devoted to cafe racer-ing W650’s. Now that tax discs are no longer being issued you can buy vintage ones for decoration if you want. I’ve bought a May ‘66 one, registered in Hinckley (home of Triumph Bonneville, hehehehe), which got me thinking. You can buy very cheap (£12) custom pre 1973 black and silver number plates. Not road legal, of course. Just for *cough* ‘show’. *cough* I’ve bought one! When I replace the seat there will only be the tank badges (which apparently will pull off) left conspicuously saying Kawasaki. I’m going to run it like a 650 Bonneville cafe racer. I don’t care that it’s not, you have to trade authenticity for reliability. It’s going to be very hard to tell it apart from the real thing, so hopefully the coppers will let the ‘plate slide. Should I forget and ride it with old style ‘plate on. M’lud. So after buying the plate and the tax disc I wanted to ditch the long mudguard and replace the seat. With a tail tidy I could transform it in one hit. It just means instead of the seat and back end looking like this: they look like this: The shape and the general tidiness, not necessarily the colour or that exact seat. In fact, that seems to be a BMW engine (curse you, Google images!), so not like that at all. But that’s what a tail tidy and cafe racer seat (with a black and silver number plate by coincidence) can look like. Anyway, I was looking. And window shopping. And tracking down different styles. I found that German site again (all my saved links were lost when I had to reinstall Windows form scratch). It’s all to fit the W650 on that site, so no fannying around trying to make it fit. Short mudguard €130 Seat €290 Nice new (louder) exhaust system €469 Progressive fork springs and oil (which is next on my list even thought it won’t alter the look. It will sharpen up the handling so no bouncing around on rough corners, less chance of crashing.)  € 150 Stiffer rear shocks € 240 Plus postage and package from Germany.. There’s £976 before P&P.   I want it all, and I want it now! In the end I closed the site down and set to blogging instead. We’ve just bought a washing machine, tumble dryer and soundbar for the telly, we still have £2.5K outstanding on the card, the car is having work done for the MOT, and we are fast approaching February, when work is supposed to drop off. So I resisted. Reluctantly and begrudgingly. I hate being a grown up. *sigh*   Work has had an event, as well. The procedure when coupling up to a trailer, by the book, is to reverse to just before the trailer, stop, get out, check the trailer brake is on (it always is) check the unit is level with […]

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