Weekend update

I just came from the pub where we (my karate club) held our fall meeting. One more person attended, compared to last meeting - this time we were the board members plus two people, whereas last time we were the exact same group minus one. I wish I knew what to do to get people activated... But except for that, I'm pretty happy with the meeting, it was good to talk things thru, and sometimes more effective to discuss eye-to-eye than only over the internet. Also, there were some good, creative ideas and suggestions.

I just now finished and printed my essay for tomorrow. This will be a heavy weekend, tomorrow I'll have both a lecture (10-16s) to attend and my regular job. There goes the weekend. I'm taking a course called Academic English, I believe it's for the third time now. At least this time attendance shouldn't be too big a problem as there will only be two actual sessions - tomorrow and then one more in December, when we are to give presentations.

I heard some great news today, turns out there's a black&brown-course in Tallinn, Estonia this October. I was very happy to learn this, as there (I might have mentioned this before?) are  nothing but two Black-belt courses left on the Finnish course calendar for the rest of this fall. I had planned to go back to my routine of last fall, of one weekend free every month, but thanks to this it looks like I'll have two weekends off again in October... Not that I would normally mind weekends off (who would?), but for me it means unpaid vacation. I really want a new job.

Been listening to today: Animals as Leaders.

Tuesday is the new Monday

I've crashed right back into reality after having been spoiled rotten for days. I think I mentioned earlier that I would have a friend visit me last week? Well, it was all very nice, I've enjoyed dinners, movies, visit to the art museum as well as pub or five, and I didn't have to wash any dishes for days! It's been very boring to return to reality and sit myself down in front of the computer again. On the other hand I am, as also mentioned earlier, a great procrastinator! Tonight, whilst sending emails, I've also done things as important as updating my twitter profile as well as stumbleupon account, and posting the same funny pic on both google+ and facebook...

Oh, and speaking about movies I will now give you one of my so far very rare movie recommendations: Moonrise Kingdom! I'm not going to write any deep descriptions or summaries on the plot, but just let you know that it was a lovely movie that made me very happy, and quite possibly also one of the best I've seen this year. Also: Wes Anderson.

And what might the odds be of me getting anything "important" done any more tonight? Oh well, it's quite late anyway. I'll get myself some sleep and try again tomorrow. Good night!

Monday post, on karate

Invisible cat is invisible.

I'm quite tired after a weekend of very little rest. The karate course was demanding but good, I did learn and that's the most important thing. The foot wasn't too much of a problem, it bothered me the most while we did kata, and we didn't do that a lot. It will be interesting to see what we'll be doing here in Turku on regular practice after this. Of course, in a couple of weeks we'll have the beginners course, but until that.

At the moment, I'm trying to get things together for the Fresher's fair this Thursday. We'll have a table there just as every year, with info on the beginners course, pics and videos, and I've asked the organisers about demo space too. They didn't promise anything, but would see if they could find us some floorspace for doing demos, which would be very cool. It's quite hard to explain karate using only you own words and the occasional picture. I'm not sure yet whether I'll be attending myself, but hope to know soon. Anyway, it's usually lots of fun, and has been mentioned often when new members have been asked where or how they heard about us.

And how does the picture above (yes, it's my cat Mirjam.) relate to all of this, you ask? That was how I felt on Sunday when retuning home after a  full and intensive weekend of training.

Waiting for Friday

So tired. Been running around like a madwoman for the last two days, trying to finish things before the weekend. It's always the same before a weekend course, knowing that you can't possibly finish anything more between this day and Monday... Well, at least I've felt effective today. I've done everything from preparing a meeting, finishing yesterday's workload, enrolling myself in two different courses (to be started next week) to sending out even more propaganda about our beginner's course, and finally finding someone who agreed to feed Mirjam while I'm gone. You could also put it like this: pretty much everything but studied. I'm good.
I somehow managed to lose my quite impressive Things To Do-list by mid-day, so I'm a bit worried about what I might have forgotten, but I think most things should be done that should have been. And it feels good! Just have to remember to finosh packing tonight, as there will be an early start tomorrow. The plan is to leave Turku by 05.30 in the morning. This so that we can attend morning practice at 10.

I'm excited about the weekend, it seems I've been waiting for the next karate course ever since I came home from Summer School. And this will be the first Finnish course (for me) since... April? So many people I haven't seen in far too long! So I'll be looking forward to reuniting with everyone, as well as the actual karate practice.

Ok, I should be heading home now (still at uni) to finish packing and then - finally! - get some sleep.

Weekend update

Lots of things going on right now! Mostly good things, luckily. This weekend I've had a good old friend visit Turku - one thing I wish would happen more often! The visit included a tasty homemade dinner, whiskey tasting, a good beer or five and photography. And for next weekend I can look forward to a karate course (with Sensei!) in Vasa, and the week after that I will have another friend from home visiting me. Of course there's also the stress that comes with every start of a new season. I've been trying to get my university studies to at least look like they are following some kind of plan (and failing at this), and it's also the time of year for advertising our karate club. And I love being involved in that, even though I know there are other things I should be focusing on right now.

I still don't know what was/is wrong with my stomach, as I haven't been able to get in touch with the lab. It's much better but not good. Looks like I 'll have to visit the hospital again. Hope it's nothing too serious. The foot still bothers me a bit too, the pain comes and goes.

The following couple of days will probably include more than a little photography, as the friendly visit included a very nice used compact camera. Loving it so far!

a post mentioning cryptonite

It's been a rough week. Spent most of it sick at home, and the end of it trying to finish what I should have done during the week... Guess I must have been exhausted after the Summer school week. Just as I was going to get my foot checked by a doctor ( I had hurt it during the last session at Summer school, thanks to a badly timed kick), I fell ill with a stomach flu/ food poisoning on top of that... First time I've had anything like that since I was a kid, I'm used to my stomach being the one part of me that always works. Someone must have given me cryptonite.

I should be fine now. And this helped me cope with the post-Summerschool gloominess - I was simply too broken to be bothered by anything.Will be getting the test results next week. They couldn't find anything wrong with the foot, but gave me a support bandage. Hope it gets better soon, I miss jogging and have another course coming up soon...

Summer School was absolutely awesome this year! I got much more out of practising this year and liked the changes they had done to/on the instructing side, this way having more different people involved in instructing. Also, I was ridiculously happy about the focus on kicks this year! Weeee! And I managed to keep writing my course journal all thru the week, which was more than I had hoped for.

Hoping not to brake myself next week. So much to do after all of this.

Now listening to: Sheryl Crow.