party party party PARTY! woooo

Still havnt trained since Hereford. Missed Tuesdays lesson as was in Worcester, missed Friday as I had some weird stomach cramps but then ended up going out for someones birthday!?, then I woke up hung over and it was pissing it down outside so I wussed out saturday. Not good, still need to up my out of class workout. My cardio is dipping, I didnt realise at first as Im abit more relaxed when I roll and I have been warming up properly for comp fights. But its definitely not as good as it was. Weirdly though Ive picked up some muscle mass from the ether, enough to warrent comments. Which is always ego boosting. I do feel strong though. My toe is swollen and itchy so Im gonna assume a radioactive spider has infected me.

So Sunday came round in the usual fashion but with the added bonus of the RGA christmas Dinner!. Met the guys at waterloo, got a series of trains and we got the venue which was pretty close to the RGA academy. The staff were abit curt and indignant which is always a good sign a place is swanky. Walked in and Jude and Nic G were meeting people in. Walked in and said to Nic "Yo Bro! hows it going" Nic: "My names nic" o_o; . Couldnt tell if he just really doesnt like being called bro or if he was just introducing himself (again). No worries though ended up having a good chat with him later in the evening, where I thanked him for some advice he gave me at Kent which has had a significant impact on my game. He was cool and gave me some props for Hereford. He told me I should be ready to lose, I lose plenty so not sure what he meant but Im sure its sage wisdom will dawn on me in the future. He also told me and Matt he hopes his there when we get our blackbelts, which I chuckled abit at as its the 3rd time he had said it to us!. Once when he got his blackbelt (although that was to the whole room), 2nd at Kent when I congratulated him again and talked to him about his website. And 3rd at the xmas do. The dude is awesome though and has a unique style of dancing!. Ill urge you again to check out his site Jiu jitsu Brotherhood . As it really has some great stuff on there I havnt seen elsewhere and he is a inspiring teacher.

Also spoke to Luciano Cristovam again, who is always a really funny happy customer. I told him one of his students had started a blog and made a post about how no instructers turned up one lesson. This was due to a change in class schedule that the students hadnt picked up on. Luciano then kept on trying to interrogate me to find out who it was, but I couldnt remember the site. Sorry if I dropped you in it blog dude, apperantly Luciano's gonna beat you up!. He was quite mirthful at the time so Im sure he was only joking. It made me chuckle though.

Dinner was good, drinks were very pricey!. Matt and Dean got on some horrible looking shots. Mauricio Gomes walks in (Rogers dad and pretty much father of UK BJJ and china BJJ for that matter). So I was abit starstruck. During dinner Jude has a little speech mentioning the club affiliates and giving props to the clinic (thats us, not a successful STD clinic). To this the guys started going "HOO HOO HOO!". This started a while ago and I have no idea why we do it!, we need something better :P . He, Nic G and Mauricio then give Andy a present from us, a customised black eagle mundial gi. We got Rogers and Mauricio's signatures embriodered on as well as the RGA logo and Judes Logo. Looked very nice!.

Edit: Just found a vid of it!:
You can even ehar me asking why we started going HOOHOOHOO
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=57703931096&oid=11174686978


Snazzy!

Ended up having a chat with Mauricio which was cool. Talked to him about my travel plans to Brazil and what he reccomended. Apperantly its gonna be roasting in July, Im hoping my south african blood will carry me through but he warns me about going inland. And hows its manic around the carnival. I then start talking to him about the Renzo documentary as theres quite a few cool extras and one of them is a good sparring match between Mauricio and Renzo.



Renzo apperantly had a fight coming up so they were actually going light!, with this fight coming at the end of a very long training day. I asked Mauricio what he thought of the documentary and if he knew the sparring match was in it. He said he thought it was a good documentary but didnt know the sparring match was in it till he saw it, didnt seem to mind at all though. Heard the very good news that Mauricio is coming to visit our club in a month or so, was quite happy to hear that!.

At this point I am feeling pretty merry, but I got to go and get my train. Sod it the jiu jitsu gods will look after me. Which they do! as Matt offers up his place. Me and Matt chat about our rivalry and we get abit philosophical about it all. You can improve if you have the drive and motivation to do so, so alot of that is internal. But there are external pressures to like wanting to do well for the club or other people, for money, for a promotion etc. I think this type of rivalry is one of the best though, everytime I miss training or am not training hard I think "Matts training his ass off, if I dont meet that and exceed it he will overtake me". Its strong motivation.

We get more drunk, me and matt gotta get our train. Sod it the jiu jitsu gods will look after us!, which also now includes Mike and Dean. We go upstairs to the club and dance our asses off. I DONT DANCE...but that night I did, I dont think they realised what they were witnissing. I have recently picked up some new moves "the shopping trolley" , "the bus driver".

Andy and his wife and other guys finally have to go (its like 2am). Me, Matt, Dean and Mike continue with diligence. And for some weird reason and burlesque stripper comes on, something probaly to do with the other people dressed up in burlesque style. And she does a number, although it remains PG it wasnt a bad dance!.

Closing time comes, the staff are getting particularly hauty tauty. Resorting to making fun of my hat, forgetting my scarf and being mad at me for it... . With a room full of Jiu jitsu guys I was actually hoping a fight would break out just so I could see a 50 strong jiu jitsu army in action. Sadly everyone was well behaved :P.

So... we are in the cold and the jiu jitsu gods are keeping quite. Any places still open are on the other side of london. Its around 3:30am. We are off our trolleys and its freezing. We decide to go for a walk. And the jiu jitsu gods come through! - I cant go into the details as I was asked not to. But we find a pseudo warm place for a few hours till we can make a move for our morning trains. I was very pleased!. We make our move around 6:30am and we all feel pretty grim but are still laughing about the nights events. I get home around 9am and instantly fall into a small coma.