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It may have come to your attention that I’ve not been very good about updating this site. This is due to several reasons:

1. I’m lazy. There is a huge psychological barrier to logging into wordpress, finding the Add New tab, composing a post, previewing it, realising it looks shit, editing it and then hitting publish. Far easier to write 140 characters on Twitter instead.
2. I don’t really have so much to say these days. The way I’m using the internet and connecting with other people has changed drastically. I’m sharing far less personal stuff. This blog served the purpose well when the kids were at home, I had limited adult company during the day and I lived mainly in my own head. Now, maintaining a blog is just another chore.
3. I’m trying to channel my writing fu into, you know, actual writing – 4581 words into my current writing project for the win!

Anyway, I’m trying an experiment and moving over to soup.io. I’ve been playing with it and it’s so much simpler and quicker to link to something interesting, write a quick note, share what you’re doing in other places on the web.

So if you’re interested, come on over to pewari’s soup. If you’re not then thank you for a great six years, it’s been fun!

So, rather embarrassingly I have reached the age of 35 (and 17 years of driving) without being able to reverse park a car.

I don’t know why this is. I am not thick. While not a terribly confident driver, I am competent (mostly). I also have issues copying techniques as a mirror image during my martial arts class, so potentially there’s maybe a co-ordination issue going on in my brain.

Anyway, since selling the folding camper, there is now a space in front of our garage. The driveway is narrow and involves reversing round from a weird angle and squeezing between the wall of the house and a large hedge.

Last night, I finally managed to park it (okay, I did about a 10 point turn to get it in, but let’s not get picky), so I send Akra a triumphant text in which it appears my typing is as bad as my driving: “YAY! I managed to park the cat!”

WTF?

Some trips you plan meticulously, others you get promised home-made marshmallows and hammock space if you can only get on a plane to southern Spain with two days notice.

Of course, said people don’t always warn you that the marshmallows explode…

… and then other people steal your hammock!

But with plenty of good company, sun, and copious alcohol, you can’t really complain too much, can you?

• Do Interesting Things
  “Do something.
  Do something interesting.
  Be a part of the conversation, and say something remarkable. Create something unique, new, beautiful. Build upon the works of others and transform it into your own.”
  (tags: zenhabits zen creativity life motivation inspiration)
• “How to read articles about health” – by Dr Alicia White – Bad Science
  “If you’ve just read a health-related headline that’s caused you to spit out your morning coffee (“Coffee causes cancer” usually does the trick) it’s always best to follow the Blitz slogan: “Keep Calm and Carry On”. On reading further you’ll often find the headline has left out something important, like “Injecting five rats with really highly concentrated coffee solution caused some changes in cells that might lead to tumours eventually. (Study funded by The Association of Tea Marketing)”.
  The most important rule to remember: “Don’t automatically believe the headline”. It is there to draw you into buying the paper and reading the story. Would you read an article called “Coffee pretty unlikely to cause cancer, but you never know”? Probably not.”
  (tags: health science headlines news)

I’ve got a lot of things bombing around my head at the moment, all vying for equal attention. As I’ve mentioned in the previous post, I may (or may not) be coming up for grading soon in the martial art I’m learning. I’ve been doing some extra training to try and gain some focus and get me up to speed.

At the same time, I’ve just started an awesome creative writing class called The Discovery Wonkshop led by Lani Diane Rich over at StoryWonk. It’s all geared around the pre-writing discovery process of writing a novel and even after only one class has kicked my brain into creative mode.

Our first assignment is to create a soundtrack for our story, so I have been spending the last couple of evenings with Spotify, Last.fm and a bottle of wine (as Lani says, “Best Homework EVER!”). I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on iTunes and somehow seem to have ended up with 6 hours of music in my soundtrack. I might need to prune a little.

All good, and all very exciting. Except I’ve just realised that it’s my martial arts class tonight so I need to flip back out of ‘daydreamy plot mode’ back into ‘fighting mode’ and in between find my ‘competent parent mojo’. I think my lead character is going to end up with a split-personality disorder.

Send help. Send chocolate.

… not quite got the “fast as lightning” bit down yet, though!

I’ve now been going to kung fu for coming up to four months. If anything, I’m coming home after class even more psyched and enthusiastic that I was when I started. I am making clear progress (though every week I find new challenges and my understanding of just how much I don’t know/can’t do expands exponentially the more I learn). I haven’t come home as bruised since that one time, but ice packs are still the best invention ever.

What’s interesting, though, is how much martial arts are permeating other aspects of my life. Some, are not totally unexpected. I’ve been working hard on my upper body strength training just to keep up in class; when I started out I could only manage about 2 push-ups, I can now get up to around 12 before my form goes a bit awry and regularly do around 50 in sets of 10. I bought a chin-up bar and couldn’t even get an inch off the ground, I can now do 7 with a minute’s rest in between. The subtle benefits in life of being that little bit stronger and fitter are definitely a major perk.

I’m becoming quite nicely toned and my body confidence and self-esteem are probably at the highest they’ve ever been. I’m walking taller, sitting straighter and have had far less back problems as a result. I’m particularly interested to see how well I cope with the winter blues this year – will the extra adrenaline and endorphins help combat SAD?

An unexpected bonus has been the way I’m starting to deal with irrational fears. I’ve found that “oh fgs, if you can do kung fu then you can cope with… a spider/the dark/awkward social event/looking like a twunt” is a fine motto, suitable for all sorts of circumstances. Still working on the less irrational fears though: I’ve got another grading coming up, but I’m bottling it on one aspect of the test – still not quite certain whether I should feel the fear and get on with it, or just see it as a sign that I’m not ready yet.

Not bad for something I pretty much started on a whim.

I am having a Hungry Caterpillar day (the kind where you keep wandering in and out the kitchen, snack on stuff, but are STILL HUNGRY!).

This is being slightly hampered by the fact that we’re down to the last rotting banana and random stuff in the fridge that looks as if it might walk out by itself soon, as next week’s grocery shopping is due to be delivered this evening.

I have also completely run out of Plumathon remains now (well, except for the stuff that still has another 7 weeks to mature, and I’m not convinced that partaking of the plum liqueur in the middle of the day is really going to help anything). This is a shame, as a piece of plum cake would go down a treat right now.

I might have to resort to raiding the kids’ Milky Way stash.

This was said to me this morning in a mock-exasperated voice by an elderly gentleman. He wasn’t cross, and I hadn’t just mown him over – on the contrary, I was patiently standing out of his way to allow him through our local GP’s surgery door ahead of me. It made me smile.

I have spent the last seven weeks slowed down, but now the kids are back at school and I am going fast. I am not in a hurry, I just rather enjoy the sensation of stretching my legs and walking at speed, rather than having to match my pace to people half my height who like to go the scenic route. I am enjoying grabbing my bike out of the garage and speeding down little pathways where I would normally have to crawl past the holiday pedestrians. I like the feel of the breeze in my face and the sense of freedom. I’m relishing in the chance to busy myself round the house, cleaning and tidying, making the space mine again.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you can get just as much enjoyment taking the time to speed up to smell the roses. Just so long as you take care to not knock anyone over on the way.

• Common Ingredient Substitutions – Allrecipes
  I find I'm using this page frequently during my current Plumathon – avoids yet another trip to Tesco.
  (tags: baking recipes cooking ingredient substitutions recipe reference food ingredients)