orona_red's birthday do at a Brazilian restaurant in the former Millennium Dome, where waiters bring sizzling skewers laden with different sorts of meat until you beg for mercy. A restaurant where the salad bar features pork scratchings. By the end of the meal I was having difficulty breathing because my stomach was attempting to occupy the space normally reserved for my lungs. It was lucky, then, that last night was my first karate class of 2009. I started attending early in 2002, so I've been at it for seven long years now. Seven years is supposed to be how long it takes to reach black belt, but I am still three gradings away from that honour. This makes me slightly depressed, though I know that not everyone is equally skilled or dedicated and we all develop at our own pace. Black belt by 2012? Well, maybe.
I came away rather stoked that I had sparred with the notorious Sensei Nick and he only once swept my feet out from under me and got me on the floor, despite several attempts. I kid myself that I stood up to him well, though I am aware that he could pulverise me one-handed if he felt like it.
We trained so hard that when I got home and was having a shower I actually, for just a few seconds, ran the water cold.
