Let's Catch Up...

There are few things as frustrating as really wanting to sit down for a good blog session, but having neither time nor inspiration to do so. A fellow blogger would understand.

So let's have some coffee, and catch up. I've got my coffee, where's yours?

It's been a hectic few weeks since my last post in August. I think the problem is that there is just so much going on right now, that I haven't got the time to really sit and think about one particular thing. My mind seems to be in a permanent race with itself, and I'm not sure I'm winning.

That was "Bubble Girl". You may have seen her before - she's one of those internet sensations. In reality, she is really just running away from bubbles, but if you Google search "Bubble Girl", you will find her photo-shopped into all manner of scenes. My favourite is her running away from Prince Charles.

So, back to catching up.

 The last time we chatted, I was telling you about boxing, and how cool I've become now that I have new boxing gloves. I'm still boxing, a few times a week or as often as possible, but I think the cool-factor has most certainly worn off. I'm back to being a bit of a nerd. I know this because I managed to trip over nothing this week, and I also walked straight into a table, inspiring a snort of laughter from a friend. When cool people walk into things, people look away and graciously pretend it didn't happen. When nerds do it, the world stops to point and laugh. Yes... I'm back.

It's Spring in South Africa, which means that people are whopping out their braai's (barbeques, for my foreign readers) and getting ready for the Season we all love. People complain about South Africa. The crime. The government. Taxes. Fuel prices. Corruption. Potholes in the roads.

Gosh. Take a look around Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet! That's why I don't listen to the radio anymore - we get so caught up in the bitching and moaning, that we completely miss the beauty of our immediate lives. We reside in one of the most exquisite countries, with what is notoriously the most beautiful Summer weather. And you want to let a few cents on the fuel price ruin your day?

No, thank you! I'm going to LOVE this Spring, embrace it, smell it, sneeze at it, and then smell it again. I'm going to wear dresses, and skip through the flowers. Carefully. I'm going to skip through the flowers carefully. Or maybe I'll just walk. I'm likely to trip over a tulip if I skip.

Gah! My coffee's gone cold. How's yours?

People have been looking at me a bit weird this last week because I'm on a diet of sorts. Now if you know me, you know that I am already rather slender. But here's the thing: I don't want to lose weight. I actually want to gain weight.  I just want to lose a few centimetres around the places that matter - IE, my hips, bottom and thighs - but I'm exercising really hard to gain some muscle to make up for it.

So, I'm having my Herbalife shake for breakfast and for lunch - to lose the wobbly bits - but adding some protein to the shake so that my body is equipped to build up some lean muscles. Something like this...

I'll bet she has no wobbly bits.

Ha ha! I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. Now you'll have to Google search "Puppies" and "Bunnies" to try get that image out of your head. With all due respect to female body builders, who work exceptionally hard to get where they are.... I guess it's just not everyone's cup of tea. Or coffee. Even cold coffee. To her credit, she does have a beautiful face, and she'd be an amazing addition to The Avengers team.

In other news... I've been listening to Justin Timberlake lately. (What?! That is news! When have I ever liked R&B?!)

Well, this is the point in the coffee date where the coffee is gone, and conversation is awkwardly silent. You've not said a word, and quite honestly left all the hard work up to me.

*Smiles*
*Hugs*
We really must do this again sooner!
*Smiles again* Gosh, my cheeks are hurting.
No I'll call you, I promise! Do stay in touch!

Ok, bye!
*Smiles*

Bye!

The Flying Scissors, and being generally flipping cool

Got new boxing gloves this week.

Golly, it's exciting. My old gloves were almost ten years old, and starting to cause a wrist injury. I used the new ones for the first time this evening, woweeeeeeeeee :) *happy dance*

So my gloves look kinda like this...

...Twins Special is a top brand in martial arts apparel, these particular gloves being hand-made from genuine leather in Thailand. They are used by professionals all over the world.

At one point this evening, I really felt like I had spontaneously become a more awesome boxer. I felt faster and stronger, my punches felt like they carried more weight, I thought my posture had improved and that maybe, just maybe, I looked as wicked-cool-dangerous as I feel when I'm boxing. Oh yeeeaaah, these gloves have definitely made me a more proficient boxer. Move out the way Ali, I'm about to float like a butterfly and sting  like a bee. 

So, I was well into my training this evening, and increasingly convinced that I have been transformed into the next Baby Jake. I've been working on a wicked combo for the past few weeks, one that I've nicknamed "The Flying Scissors". It sounds dangerous, doesn't it? Yes. I'm impressed too. My husband assures me that it is rather intimidating to watch as well. I don't care that he's biased and trying to win brownie points.

The Flying Scissors consists of a back-hand, followed closely by a some weird kung fu sweeping backhand by the other hand. I then use the momentum from this sweeping motion to perform one final, lethal, spinning backhand with the same hand that delivered the first back-hand. Ok, I know I've lost you, but essentially, it's three back-hands one after the other in a Tekken-style spinning motion, probably highly illegal in most martial arts, and very aggressive. And it feels pretty flipping cool.

This particular combo requires several things that I naturally fall short of...
Grace. (usually bestowed on those who don't habitually trip over their own feet)
Hand-eye coordination. (not the kind where you hit yourself in the eye - that's the kind I do have)
Balance. (Yeah, right!)
Aim. (There's nothing quite as awkward and humiliating as missing the punching bag at full speed.. Doh!)

Being the clumsy, nerdy girl I am, I was quite surprised this evening to find myself delivering the Flying Scissors with such grace, coordination, balance and aim. Such precision. Wow. If I were my punching bag, I would have been profoundly terrified of me.

If I had known that my intrinsic clumsiness could be cured with a new pair of boxing gloves, I would have acquired these a long time ago.  I officially feel kick-ass cool.

For now anyways.


Bruce Lee: Fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks once; but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times.

Music to Get Your Gloves On...

I decided to do a little bit of a musical experiment this weekend - I hope you are as giddy with excitement as I am...

As I previously blogged last year, dance music (unaffectionately nicknamed doef-doef music) is admittedly one of the best music styles for any kind of exercise, including kickboxing. I decided to find out, by absolute trial and error, what other music is good for boxing. So I pre-selected a variety of music, and loaded it onto my iPod. I clicked on "shuffle" and off I went to the garage, where my punching bag hung waiting. My results were interesting, to say the least. Here are some observations:


Linkin Park
No good for boxing at all. I found this surprising, as I would have thought that their aggression would have contributed to the sport quite well. Not so - in fact, I felt quite drained boxing to Linkin Park. Not recommended, I'm afraid. Which is sad. But true.


My Chemical Romance
Now don't accuse me of being biased, but my findings suggest that My Chemical Romance is exceptionally suitable for boxing. The combination of near-psychopathic energy, aggression and most importantly, emotion, is what does it for me. I felt like I could tear a hole in the punching bag with my bare hands, and land in a sobbing heap on the floor. A bit over-the-top and dramatic, but effective nonetheless.


Sting
No surprises here, I would not suggest using Sting as motivational music for a boxing session. I felt more inspired to hang up my boxing gloves and take up yoga and meditation instead. Zero on the boxing-music chart.


Elvis Presley
Yes, I possess Elvis Presley music. (And proudly, I might add.) You won't believe this, but Elvis is truly great boxing music. I expect that the warbling croons of the likes of "Blue Moon" and "Love me Tender" instantly transformed me from a sweaty novice panting doggedly in my dirty garage, into Cinderella-Man... Has-been Champion pro, fighting for love... for survival.... for dignity... Age-old romance really does it, who knew? (I do now) 


Red
Red is a hardcore Christian band, and I honestly wasn't sure how I'd manage with them, but their extraordinary intertwining of bleeding guitars, screaming vocals and soaring orchestra (yes, orchestra) made me feel like a warrior, battling a giant red demon in the middle of a raging apocalypse. Red filled me with a passionate desire to overcome the punching bag, and overcome it I did. With goosebumps from head to toe. 


The Rasmus
Now this is a 'dark band' and, in my opinion, quite effective with a punching bag, but... it seems to work only if fueled by some kind of heartache in addition to it. It's what we call an emo band, and emo without pain is... well, just a lame fashion statement really. So use The Rasmus wisely with the punching bag, because they don't pull the emotion off quite as well as My Chemical Romance.


Good Charlotte
Again, an astonishing result - I expected the lovable punk band to provide me with bounds of joyful energy to work out, but instead I just found myself getting annoyed. But like, really annoyed. In fact, I had to stop boxing on a few occasions to take my gloves off, and change the track whenever Good Charlotte or Blink 182 came on. Gosh could this be the first sign that I'm getting old? .....Naaaaah, couldn't be.


Sum 41
This band did nothing for me. Neither did 30 Seconds to Mars or Hoobastank. It was all merely very good background music, but that's all it was. So, standard-issue alternative music seems to be pretty neutral ground. Better than Sting, at least. 


Kongos
Now this is excellent boxing music. Kongos is just a refreshing rock bad, with driving rhythm, brilliant durmming (as so well demonstrated on their hit track "I'm Only Joking") and good old-fashioned great vocals. Even their more 'toned down' tracks, like "Escape", make for pleasant exercise and boxing music. Great for light sparring and warming up.


Rihanna
The problem I experienced with the likes of Rihanna, Shakira and Beyonce is that I felt the urge to strip my gloves off, and dance with my punching bag, instead of hit it. So, while I can't accurately say that this is not energizing music, it's not the kind of energy I'm looking for. Well, except for one song - Breaking Dishes - which I've mentioned once before HERE."Breaking Dishes" I could box to... but I'd probably break something. 


Guns N' Roses
Now it's not easy to mention Guns N Roses in this forum because my iPod only played one of their songs, "Sweet Child of Mine". Big no-no with the punching bag, it seems. I'm not even sure how this happens, but in losing my focus to this track, the punching bag actually managed to punch me back, in my solar plexus, and left me somewhat winded for a minute or two. So classic rock, the likes of Guns n Roses and  Metallica , not conducive to safe boxing, and not recommended.

To summarize, I'd have to say that ny top three boxing bands are....

My Chemical Romance 

Red

Kongos

And if all else fails, Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet, there's always that blasted dance music.

Everybody *dance* now!

 Yesterday I did something that I have never done before: I bought (paid good money for) a dance-music CD. Actually, a compilation of three discs, to be precise - Kevin Grenfell's Club Anthems 2011, vol. 2. For those of you who know my musical preferences, you will understand the significance of this occurrence. But I could't deny myself any longer. 


I have been listening to a lot of radio lately, giving my poor, overworked iPod a bit of a break, and the radio has been playing a great deal of house and dance music. Now, usually, when this type of music abuses my radio, I roll my eyes, sigh in exasperation, and utter some derogatory word or two about 'this damn doef-doef-music'. However, I have discovered in my radio-listening weeks that there is a reason that this music is called "dance". Despite my resistance to liking the stuff, I can not help myself - when it is playing, I simply must move. Something about it makes me jiggle and jive and bop and wriggle... All in the embarrassing confines of my car. I just want to dance! 


With this in mind, I realized that it would be the perfect music to play while boxing. And so that is my excuse. I refuse to admit that I have come to like house music, but will concede to it's usefulness in an exercising environment. 

And so it was while working out this morning, and listening to my cheesy dance CD, that I decided that I have a lot to say about boxing. A LOT. Enough to blog about, for sure. So, if anyone is out there, and if anyone is interested, my next blog will be about boxing and kickboxing... I'm quite sure I've wasted enough of your Sunday talking about dance music *sigh of exasperation, eye-roll*, and so I shall address the matter another time. (I do have a LOT to say)


Get your boxing gloves ready and your doef-doef on, Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet, it's nearly Monday! 

Random Thoughts of The Old and Decrepit

Had another confusing day. No, it's not that anything unusual happened, just that I've been in a general state of confusion for some time now. Must be getting old, and I've been thinking far too much. 


When I was a child, I used think that adults were complicated and a bit loony. Now that I'm here, being complicated and more than a bit loony myself, I think I'm starting to understand why. My theory is that as you get older, you obviously collect more life experiences as you go, and like an overloaded computer, one's processor gradually slows down, and just generally wreaks havoc with one's internal hard-drive. 


Games played.
Broken hearts.
School learned.
Fights lost.
Friendships born.
Bungee jumps.
Books read and movies watched.
Saying goodbyes. 
Road-trips. 
Work stresses. 
Wedding vows and honeymoons.
Car crashes.
Romantic dinners.
Concerts attended.
Loved ones dying.
Braai's.
Battles won.
Shopping sprees.
Frienships lost.


There's a LOT to that goes into one life. 


So, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. If I forget something important. If I say something stupid. If I bare my soul when I shouldn't. If I brush my teeth twice because I forgot about the first time. If I wear mismatched socks. If I indicate right, but turn left.


You see, you'll have to forgive me, because this is just the very beginning of me being old and decrepit. 


Of course, at age 27, I do have a long journey of oldness and decrepitness ahead of me, so I am fighting it off with simple pleasures. 
Had doughnuts and energy drinks with a friend today. 
Went to a car show with my husband yesterday.
Had a night out on the town last week.
Caught a bird and set it free. 
Zoned out with my iPod for a 5 minute break at work.


One of the best things that I've been doing lately to clear my head is boxing. Ah, there is nothing like boxing. When I got home this evening, I was feeling emotional, frustrated, and just stupid in general. Half an hour with a punching bag is like the 'proverbial restart' that seems to fix everything. 


I wonder what other people to do 'restart'. It's important you know, otherwise we'd all be very old and very decrepit far too young. 


Peace out to you all, fellow inhabitants of this planet, may you live long, learn from many mistakes, and have a doughnut-moment very soon, before you lose your marbles completely.