Owner: Slidey's Training Log URL:http://www.slideyfoot.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 10:01:39 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Detailing (mainly) my Brazilian jiu jitsu training, which I began in Nov 2006 at the Roger Gracie Academy. To a much lesser degree, also includes my experiences in a few other martial arts, particularly Zhuan Shu Kuan. Site statistics:Click here
26/04/2007 - BJJ - Last class for a month 2007-04-26 23:54:00 Class #57Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 26/04/2007My last class
for a month focused on escapes from scarf hold, which I’d been hoping we’d go over, as I often find myself in that position when under side control. For the first variation, Person B twists away from Person A, aiming to free an elbow, also tucking their chin close to the chest. Having made space, Person B then hooks their outside leg around one of Person A’s (hooking with the leg nearest to Person A is no use, as that puts Person B in an even more awkward position). Next, Person B grips the back of Person A’s gi and pushes their head to the floor, trying to come up on their front as they do so. Basing out with their hands, Person B then drives forward to break Person A’s headlock, wraps an arm around Person A’s head, then rolls over in the other direction. Finally, Person B gets both their hooks in and applies the rear naked choke.For the second variation, Person B tries to bring their t
25/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-25 23:00:00 Class #56Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Brooks, London, UK - 25/04/2007I was still aching a bit from yesterday’s ZSK, having not used those kicking muscles in my legs for quite some time, but soon had a chance to loosen up. Apparently, the little room by the entrance at RGA is available for rolling, or at least according to Owen. Either way, we managed to fit in a bit of sparring before class started. Being a wuss, I was pretty much ready to stop after the first roll, but Owen managed to bully me into doing a few more – he’s probably right in that as I’m going off on holiday soon, I need all the training I can get! :icon_winkAs with the last time I rolled with Owen, I found myself stuck in his open guard, one arm often jammed into my bicep or armpit. After struggling for a few minutes, Owen took pity and gave me some handy hints. First of all, get one leg to the ground: instead of gripping by the ankle, as I keep finding myself doing, go down to the inside of the knee and dri
24/04/2007 - ZSK 2007-04-24 23:00:00 University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 24/04/2007Term has started up again, so I had the opportunity to go to ZSK for the first time in about 1.5 months, having had a PhD meeting about my Lowell chapter immediately before. There was a ZSK social at the weekend, though it effectively turned into a Warwick-Birmingham RockSoc social instead – mostly made up of Paddy’s metal mates. Despite lack of ZSK people, cool house party: instead of watching UFC 70, we went retro and relived Teila Tuli’s tooth flying past the Gold Gym sponsors at the inaugural event. Paddy’s friends all seemed pretty cool too, so hopefully we can do the house party thing again some time later in the term. Would be nice if ZSK people could make it this time, though!Paddy isn’t going to be able to make many Tuesdays, as his PhD is (finally!) coming to an end, so getting intensive. So, that meant I took the warm-up, doing the usual run around the room thing with forty press
19/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-20 00:25:00 Class #55Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK - 19/04/2007Another class with an instructor I’ve not experienced before, this time one of the brown belts, Nick Gregoriades. Instead of side control, his focus was on guard pass defence. The first one was slightly similar to what we’ve done before, but different set-up. Person A goes for the guard pass, and as they reach to grab the gi collar, Person B blocks their wrist, taking a firm hold of the fabric by Person A’s elbow at the same time. Person B then pushes that arm right down between their legs, comes up slightly on the same side elbow, then shrimps out. Having made space, Person B then brings their outside leg back in, swivelling into guard.I felt I wasn’t being quite tight enough with this, and also needed to shrimp more. Could probably do with pushing further on that arm as well, so as to better facilitate the sweep. Kourosh had done the technique on Tuesday, so was able to offer some helpful tips on po
18/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-18 22:56:00 Class #54Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Brooks, London, UK - 18/04/2007I’d forgotten that there are a few celebrities who train at the club: had a reminder before the beginners class started, as I saw one have a private from Maurição and Luciano. Always kinda cool to see famous people! For some reason it was a small class today – someone mentioned there was a football match on, which may have been the reason for the low attendance.Jude was present today, but wasn’t able to take class, so we were taught by a purple belt, Nick (I’m assuming Nick Brooks, as I’m not sure there is another purple belt Nick at RGA?), instead. He began with another route to move from side control to mount. Person A grips underneath Person B’s head and one of their arms, clasping their hands palm to palm. Keeping their weight right down, Person A digs their shoulder into Person B’s face, aiming to get them to turn their head to the side. This makes it difficult for Person B to turn their hips,
17/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-18 00:20:00 Class #53Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 17/04/2007Managed to get up to my 10,000 word count on the chapter (in fact, going slightly over by 500 words), writing the conclusion on the train down, so was able to make it to BJJ tonight. Class focused on side control, kicking off with armbar from side control. Person A traps Person B’s arm by pulling the arm into their head, then gripping their own collar. Person A’s other arm is on the opposite side, blocking Person B from pulling guard. Next, Person A moves round until Person B’s head is between their knees, pushing Person B’s free arm to the ground as they do so. Using the grip on their arm, Person A then moves Person B onto their side, still holding the other arm, placing one shin into Person B’s back – the other leg will already be around their head. Person A then leans backwards for the armbar, removing their grip from the other arm once they have the armbar in position (in case Person A needs to ad
11/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-11 22:28:00 Class #51Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 11/04/2007Interesting lesson today, as unusually it was all about the half guard. Jude showed us two escapes from half guard, which surprised me: I had thought half guard instruction was normally restricted to the advanced class. Very handy to see it demonstrated, as it’s a position us beginners often end up in during side control sparring, though normally in the "cling desperately to stop them getting mount" sense rather than anything constructive.For the first escape, Person A is in Person B’s half guard, with one arm behind Person B’s neck, the other on top of their arm. First, Person A thrusts their shoulder into Person B’s face, in order to loosen Person B’s grip on Person A’s waist, meaning that Person A can push on the shoulder and get an underhook. Person A’s free foot should be perpendicular to Person B’s body, to stop them rolling in that direction. Having got the underhook, Person A then brings th
04/04/2007 - BJJ 2007-04-04 22:52:00 Class #47Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 04/04/2007I had planned to make yesterday, but nobody was around to give me a lift, so as I’d got home earlier to bring a bike back rather than take the train straight down to London, couldn’t make training. However, that was more than made up for with Wednesday’s lesson. I’m a year closer to thirty today, and I got the rather excellent birthday present of what was almost a private lesson from Maurição. For some reason, only three of us turned up today (me, Owen and the Ben that isn’t from Bullshido) – its half term and there is apparently some football match on, but still that surprised me.The warm-up was a little tougher as usual with Maurição, going through the dive-bomber press-ups and the like, moving on to trips and throws. First groundwork technique of the day was a pass into mount – I’m not sure what the right name or categorisation would be, as its not quite like anything I’ve done so far
28/03/2007 - BJJ 2007-03-28 23:08:00 Class #45Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 28/03/2007I had a good idea of what Jude was going to run through due to Asriel's blog (for which you need to be a Supporting Member) of what happened on Monday, but still had to double-check when it came to getting mount from side control. Or rather, my partner checked, who today was a fairly new guy called Roberto. From side control (arm under the head, gripping hands under your partner’s arm), you first bring your hand from under your partner’s head and instead drive your elbow on the opposite side. Switch base – pushing one knee firmly into their side – then taking hold of their far leg, swing round into mount. Rowan Cunningham shows it like this. Jude then showed us the correct procedure for taking the back. With your partner in the turtle position (curled up tight on all fours, bottom down on their heels), your grab them by the neck of the gi and their belt. Pushing their head firmly to the floor, post the fo
13/03/2007 - BJJ 2007-03-14 00:14:00 Class #37Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 13/03/2007Long day today, as my gf and I got up at 06:30 in Spain, caught our transfer at 07:15, then a flight to Stansted at 10:15, Stansted Express at 12:00 and finally I arrived back in the office around 13:30. I wasn’t technically in work, I’d just locked up my laptop etc there, so I did a bit of PhD work in one of the hot desk rooms – need to get stuck into writing my Lowell chapter ready for the 24th April.This marks the first time I’ve ever made a Tuesday class, though should hopefully be making a few more now, as the second term of this academic year is about to finish. Felipe showed us a guard pass, which was pretty much the same as the basic standing pass, except that you didn’t stand up. Instead, the guard is broken from a kneeling position with one leg driven into the opponent’s tailbone, after which it was the same process of underhooking a leg and bringing it to the shoulder, sprawling, then stack
01/03/2007 - BJJ 2007-03-02 00:24:00 Class #34Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 01/03/2007I didn’t get the chance to drill the scissor and sit-up as I’d hoped today, but instead I was surprised to see Felipe go through the exact same sweep I’d unsuccessfully tried on Dominique yesterday. Not sure what it’s called, but I’ll refer to it as the standing guard sweep. When Person A stands up to pass, Person B hooks an arm around Person A’s leg, gripping their own collar (an important detail I missed yesterday). They then push up off their other arm, drive their hips into their opponent and attempt to knock Person A to the ground. Here's the Paulo Guillobel video I saw a few days ago, which starts with the same technique.It seems a difficult sweep to get, as in drilling the person standing generally had to let their partner knock them down rather than being forced to do so through technique. Then again, when drilling you’re expecting it, so I assume this sweep is one that needs the right timi
20/01/2007 - BJJ 2007-01-20 20:40:00 Class #23Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 20/01/2007Having done the warm-up and the ten hip throws, Jude went through the basic standing pass and counters again. Unlike last lesson, it was just the one counter this time rather than three, but still good to work them. As I was drilling with Param (not sure on the spelling: Iranian name), he gave me a very useful tip, which was to keep my legs closer together. This would serve me well later in sparring, which Jude interspersed throughout class (hasn’t done that for a while, unless its just Saturdays he likes to really knacker people out).As I’ve been telling myself repeatedly over the course of the past couple of weeks, I had to stand up to pass. So, forced myself to do so today, and it really paid off. For the first time, I was repeatedly passing during sparring, not just the odd lucky break. The way I kept getting it on Param (though he did have fingers strapped up, which might have made it easier), who I spa
11/01/2007 - BJJ 2007-01-12 00:35:00 Class #20Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 11/01/2007No Felipe again today, so he must still be on holiday, or perhaps just getting back into it slowly. That meant he missed the dubious pleasure of the Big Brother’s Big Mouth camera stalking around the Academy looking for potential interviewees. Olly popped his rib warming up for the advanced class, so as I came out of the changing rooms, I saw him preparing for his fifteen minutes of fame. The TV crew then looked over at Jan and I, asking if we watched Big Brother, to which we both responded with furious head-shaking: there was no way I was going in front of that camera voluntarily! Mungkorn Dam had no such qualms, doing pretty much exactly what he said he was going to do in his earlier post on Bullshido. I thought he came off as quite confident, sticking to his line of “I think Big Brother is lowest common denominator entertainment, like watching your neighbour’s through the curtains.” Also note Will's
10/01/2007 - BJJ 2007-01-10 22:37:00 Class #19Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 10/01/2007I wimped out of ZSK yesterday, deciding to give myself another day to shake off the cold (Paddy confirmed he’d be there to take the first part of class, so no worries there). Seemed to work, as I felt ok for tonight’s BJJ class. After the warm-up, which wasn’t quite so intense as usual for Jude, we went through ten hip throws each, but only on the left side (presumably because Jude reckoned most people neglect that in favour of the right). As normal, I was with someone a fair bit heavier than myself, which helps me concentrate more on technique, as I’ve got no chance of throwing just with strength.Jude moved on to a ‘self-defence’ drill, starting from the same manoeuvre Luciano showed us last week. Self defence isn’t something that especially interests me, as I treat BJJ purely as a sport, but Jude did say something useful about grips. When holding a sleeve, dig in your thumb and push through, aimi
20/12/2006 - BJJ 2006-12-20 22:54:00 Class #14Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 20/12/2006Session went pretty much as well as it possibly could have for me tonight, so I left class happy. Over the past month and a bit, I’ve been focusing my efforts on developing options for sweeps and passes, and its paid off.Jude didn’t run as fitness intensive a class today, perhaps because there were less people around due to it being near christmas. Unusually from my limited experience under him, he started off with technique drills, going through the basic standing pass and counter that I learned during my first session back in November. Its always useful going over the basics, particularly with a different instructor, as Jude added a few details I either missed or forgot from when Felipe showed the same techniques earlier. Firstly, when standing from the pass, Person A releases one of the collars they’re gripping with one hand, pulling up on the remaining collar instead, keeping their back straight. This
14/12/06 - BJJ 2006-12-15 00:15:00 Class #13Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 14/12/2006Unusual warm-up today, as Felipe went straight into drilling throws. First we did 10 hip throws, then 10 head throws, after which Felipe showed us the counter. This was basically to step to the side and then throw the other person – if they were going for a hip throw, you’d already have your arm in position for the head throw and vice versa. At least I think so: I’m especially terrible at throws.Something else I proved to be very bad as was side control. Felipe demonstrated how to counter side control, which I found very complex – understanding moves from the guard seemed somehow easier. Person B bridges, then shrimps out, gripping the far side of Person A’s gi as they transition to go for Person A’s legs. Raising their far leg, Person B grabs round the back of Person A’s near leg, putting their own head on the far side. Driving forward with the legs and pushing towards the near side with their he
13/12/06 - BJJ 2006-12-13 23:02:00 Class #12Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 13/12/2006By the way, would be good if some other people who train at Roger Gracie’s could add their thoughts to the Bullshido Dojo Review I put up a few weeks ago. I’ve only been at RGA a month, so not exactly got a great deal of experience to go on.I hadn’t expected to train today, as last night my gf and I went to the KPMG Christmas Ball, meaning that the day after was going to be spent at Madame Tussauds, museums etc. However, my gf has the misfortune to suffer from crippling hangovers, another of which smacked her in the stomach this morning. We finally got out of bed at around 2pm, her health quite clearly not up to wandering to much further than onto the train home. That left me with rather more time than I’d planned, so I decided to pop down to training.Jude ran his usual fitness intensive session, and I don’t think presented anything I hadn’t seen before, but he taught it in a slightly different way t
09/12/06 - Brighton Throwdown 2006-12-10 17:32:00 UK Brighton
Throwdown (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, Brighton, UK – 09/12/2006Not quite as many turned up as in Birmingham, but we still ended up with seven. In terms of Bullshido regulars, there was me (slideyfoot), Mungkorn Dam, RunningDog, Liffguard and Tcell. A friend of mine I first met about 3 years ago on the now defunct Tung-Fu also came along. He has posted on Bullshido as Jinksy, but only briefly. One of the blues from RunningDog’s club, Sam, also came along, though he left early.Found out as I arrived that the place had been double-booked with some aikido people, which meant we only had it until 17:00 rather than 18:00, which was a shame. Still, I managed to cover just about everything I wanted in those three hours. While Marcio bumped up the cost by a tenner each, he was extremely handy to have there to ask questions. Otherwise, I would probably have ended up drilling the technique wrong, or at least not as effectively as possible.After we all did a quick warm-up, I worked passes
02/12/06 - BJJ 2006-12-03 19:27:00 Class #9Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 02/12/2006Intense session today – Jude really worked the fitness today, with sit-ups well into three figures and sparring from early on in class. I’ve no idea how some of the three-stripes like Matt managed to do another session straight after!We worked the guard pass/sweep specific sparring as before, which I started off with a light-haired Australian (I think) guy called Michael. IIRC correctly, he had a few stripes on his belt, but I managed to hold him off for a short while a least. I tried to attempt standing passes too, but tended to get forced back onto my knees, and he also put me in an armbar at one point (is it a reverse armbar when he’s facing downwards? I assume not, but don’t know the terminology).As with last week, Jude interspersed rolling with drills, such as hip throws, double-legs and arm-bar from mount. He also totally knackered me out by doing sit-up with legs in the air, with half the class cou
30/11/06 - BJJ 2006-12-01 01:18:00 Class #8Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 30/11/2006Finally got this wireless thing working at my parent's house, so can geek out on the internet a little earlier. Didn’t go to ZSK due to preparing for the viva, which went well: both the interviewers said they would be recommending me for the upgrade, so hopefully I’ll be officially on a PhD rather than MPhil soon. I did check with Paddy on the Saturday beforehand, so I assume he took the class.After the warm-up (did wheelbarrows with Dava's friend, whose name is said 'Nemoy' but spelt something like 'Nimar', if I understood him correctly), we went through a throw similar to the reap (if that’s the right term) we did in previous lessons during in drills up and down the room, but this time picking up a leg before taking out the other. Person A, gripping Person B’s left collar and right arm, pushes forward on Person B’s left side, in order to get them to step back with their left leg. Person A then
11/11/2006 - BJJ 2006-11-12 17:32:00 Class #3Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza & Jude Samuel, London, UK – 11/11/2006Once again, I’m glad my father drilled punctuality into me from a young age, as it means I tend to leave loads of time when heading anywhere. The line from Amersham to Marylebone was down, so I had to get to Beaconsfield instead. Fortunately, I’d left at about 11:20, so that gave me loads of time to make it to Marylebone. Next thing that went wrong is that the Edgware Road entrance I used last time is closed on Saturdays: again, I was lucky, as the main entrance isn’t too far off, round the corner.Eventually made it to class with about 30 mins to spare, the very loud kids session in progress. Presumably due to said loud kids, that class ran over, so the adult beginners started (I think) about 10 minutes late. Not that this mattered, as I was totally knackered by the end of the session as usual: could be that a few extra minutes were added on, but I forgot to check (yeah, I’m the kind of per
08/11/2006 - BJJ 2006-11-09 00:00:00 Class #1Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 08/11/2006There was no way I was going to miss tonight’s class, having skipped ZSK earlier in the week to make sure the illness had a chance to lift. I was still feeling a bit sniffly this morning, and I could feel the vestiges of a fever as I slept on the way down to Marylebone, but seems ok at the moment.I got to Westbourne Park far too early, as I’d been worried sod’s law would fuck me up by delaying the train down from Birmingham or something like that. Eventually got to the Academy itself at about 17:45, which gave me a chance to hear the children’s class. There weren’t seats available to actually watch it, so I went into my usual introvert mode of sitting quietly out of the way. I had thought Ben would be along again this session, but presumably he’s either come down with something or couldn’t make it this time round.Class started with running round the mats. At various points, Felipe threw in some exe
26/10/2006 - BJJ 2006-10-27 10:09:00 Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Olly, London, UK – 26/10/2006After much dithering, I found myself walking through the hallowed doors of a Gracie Barra gym. Of course, I managed to walk straight past them the first time, not realising that the entrance was a small door set in a building with formidably barred windows. However, backtracking once I realised I’d got lost (very regular occurrence with me indeed), I soon saw the big ‘Roger Gracie Academy’ sign. Takes roughly 20 minutes by foot from Westbourne Park (on the Hammersmith and City line), though should be faster if unlike me you know where you’re going and aren’t checking a map every few minutes.I introduced myself to Pippa (I think that was her name), the secretary, who gave me a waiver (first time I can remember signing one of those, although Paragon Kickboxing Gym might have made me sign one too back in 2004). My intro session was to be taken by Olly, a friendly looking blue belt, who directed me to the changing rooms s
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Glossary 2006-10-25 12:01:00 [started 04/03/2007, last update 19/04/2007]Brazilian
jiu jitsu terminology is an irritating problem, as due to a lack of standardisation, the same technique will often have numerous names. So, for my own reference and anyone reading this, I thought it would be worth developing some kind of glossary, which I'll update as I learn more. Please feel free to add a comment if you have any suggestions - could do with help (especially with the judo terms), as this is likely to be a long-running work-in-progress. Not to mention I'm only a white belt!I'm mainly concerned about whether or not the terms are commonly used as opposed to if they're actually accurate (e.g., the Japanese words may well be used incorrectly: for example, I've heard that 'gi' is technically not quite the right word, but nevertheless has become the accepted term), but would be useful if people know which is more 'correct'.For each term, I'll put in a link to the relevant label on my blog, depending on if I've b Read more:Glossary
RTW 04: Cambodia 2004-05-18 02:33:00 Cambodia - 13th May to 17th May The flight out of Kathmandu was delayed for about 24 hours - Royal Nepal Airlines are really pants, 2 planes, 1 was grounded, and the other one @#%$ up. Still, they did put us up in a five star hotel, which was nice. Before Bangkok, there was a brief stop over in Mumbai at a somewhat pants hotel that sold us a marvellous 12 hour city tour...which was entirely in Hindi...We then arrived in Thailand, and decided to fly straight out to Cambodia rather than try the much more complex, if cheaper, overland route.Day 1: The Outlying Temples – 14/05/04 (Angkor)Having arrived the previous day via Mumbai (04:50) and Bangkok (14:30), due to our semi-impulse, but impressively cheap (£191 each) returns to Siem Reap and Luang Prabang (£66 off!), we set off in a tuk-tuk for our first destination, Banteay Srei, at around 07:00. ‘Terry’, our driver, began the day full of enthusiasm (this was to gradually wane as our itinerary became ever more extensive) Read more:Cambodia
BJJ Technique Summary 2006-10-25 12:46:00 [started 21/05/2007, last update 23/05/2007]My descriptions tend to be rather sprawling, so as I’ve got some time off training at the moment, I’m going to try and summarise them more succinctly here. Hopefully over time this will become a useful resource I can refer to when reviewing technique at home. Also, the process of going through everything I've learned so far and consolidating that information should be a handy way of revising the past six months or so.I’ll follow the same list as in my main Technique links: will put in label links later. Like the glossary, any comments would be much appreciated - I'm merely a white belt, so no doubt there will be plenty of detail I've missed, or got completely wrong. ;DAmericanaFrom Mount• Grip their wrist with your opposite hand• Grip their elbow with your other hand• Keep both of your arms straight• Use your weight to drive their arm to the ground• Remove your grip from the elbow• Slip your arm underneath their elbow• Read more:Summary
26/05/2007 - Birmingham Throwdown 2 2007-05-26 17:17:00 Birmingham Throwdown 2 (Bullshido), Birmingham, UK – 26/05/2007The Caribbean was pretty cool, except for my gf having her bag snatched just as we were leaving Barbados, which was distinctly not cool. Most annoying thing about that is we no longer have a camera, which is a real pain as I love taking photos. But hey, Dominica was still great: lots of “ooo, that was in Pirates of the Caribbean! So was that! And that!” action.Getting on to the point: sweaty men sitting on me. Like last year, the throwdown was held at Stevie B’s Gym in Birmingham, which unless they change the prices, is probably where we’ll have keep holding it. Good enough for Gracie Barra Birmingham is definitely good enough for us. As I got stuck in Brum earlier this week, rather than going down to Bucks as usual, I didn't have my gi or rash guard with me. So, grappling in thin ZSK gi trousers and a t-shirt, which wasn't ideal, but better than nothing - probably good for me to get accustomed to no-gi anyway. Read more:Birmingham
12/08/2006 - UK Midlands Throwdown (Bullshido) 2006-08-12 10:49:00 UK Midlands Throwdown (Various), Bullshido, Birmingham, UK – 12/08/2006 I first started planning this back in December 2005, since which numerous people have said ‘yeah, definitely’, others have got injured, responsibility has been passed around, but it finally all came together this Saturday on the 12th August. Out of all those who said they’d show, it ended up as just the eleven of us: me, Paddy, Jawdy, Nate, Vikki (faith_departed), Riggs, Joe (PsychoMongoose), WCJudoGuy (plus guest), Jawdy’s girlfriend Helen (she didn’t get involved in the sparring, but looking forward to her videos!) and Paul (P A Smith). As seems to be the way with internet meet-ups for sparring, there was a lot of chatting. This was absolutely fine by me, as one of the main reasons I enjoy going to these things is to meet the people behind the words on a screen; hence why going drinking afterwards is always essential! However, there was also plenty of sparring. Joe and Jawdy were particularl
May 4th-18th 2007: Caribbean Trip 2007-05-19 04:25:00 I won’t write much about Barbados, as that part of the holiday was rather spoiled by some bastard snatching my girlfriend’s bag (also meant we lost our photos, so had to buy a crappy single-use camera for Dominica. Hence why the pics aren't great quality). However, I would recommend two places. Firstly, the gorgeous Andromeda Gardens in Bathsheba on the East Coast. To get there, take a bus from the main terminal in Bridgetown (though be prepared for a long wait). Secondly, the walk along the West Coast from Speightstown down towards Holetown is great – the beaches continue on for a fair distance before you can’t go any further.We felt much better in Dominica, thanks in part to two people: the grandmotherly Ma Bass, who runs the Ma Bass Guesthouse in Roseau, and a dependable taxi driver, Frank. You can reach Frank on 2358307: judging by my experience, he’ll give you a fair price and reliable service. Roaming with F-Orange, I found I didn’t need to enter the country code – Read more:Caribbean
RTW 04: India 2004-04-30 19:26:00 India - 23th April to 30th AprilI didn't write much on this at the time, so I'll give a brief summary. India is rich in culture and an economic powerhouse of the future. Perhaps understandably given the continuing poverty, it has also developed ripping off tourists into a fine art. From the special ‘foreigner’ prices at all attractions (where they add a few extra zeroes onto the ‘local’ entry fee) to the taxis that chase you along the pavement, it seems everyone is looking to get at your wallet.Of course, that isn’t entirely unexpected when you pick the hyper-touristy option of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, India’s so-called ‘Golden Triangle’. On top of that, we travelled most of that route in an air-conditioned chauffeur driven car, which unsurprisingly makes you a target. One especially fun episode came when the driver had to leave the car for a moment in order to pay at a toll booth. Two men with ‘dancing bears’ decided that the old methods are the best – to get wh Read more:India
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