Continuing with the Blog?

Certainly anyone who might stumble upon this blog can tell that I don't keep it up to date. I'm thinking of getting rid of it.

Update of Sorts

Once again, its been a while since I've written anything here. Which is no excuse, since mostly I haven't felt bothered to. Even though I've become the only Instructor of JKDU in Australia. Have had an article published recently in a magazine here. And, Denise and I will graduate as full-fledged Feldenkrais Practitioners in June.

Floro Fighting System

Well, it's certainly been a while since my previous post....

Last week I finally did it... Ray Floro gave me my Instructor Certificate. Woohoo!

Denise and I head off to Chicago in just over a week. Fourth session of Feldenkrais Teacher training. :) After this session we'll be authorized to teach Awareness Through Movement classes.

JKDU Performance Group is lagging. My fault really. Do get interest, but usually its from people who are already training somewhere and want to check out the perceived competition. Looking forward to getting to train with Chris Lund again, when I'm over states side.

Cheers!
Patrick

Water Chestnuts and Koi

Earlier this week, I went and bought a 75 L plastic garbage can. Figured this would make a nice pond for my water chestnut. Brought it home to the backyard. Put in the three plastic milk-containers that I’d filled with soil and started the water chestnuts in.

As I was filling the can up, one of the chestnuts started to float. I had to reach in and push it back into the soil. This wasn’t a problem. Should mention too that most of the water came from the dehumidifier that we have to use to keep the place from being overcome with winter mould and damp.

Today, Denise and I went and bought nine feeder Koi to put in the “pond”. Figure they may prove to be good against mosquito larvae.

Waiting now for the watercress!

Holy Crap

Holy Crap! I really should make use of this thing.

Cheers!
Patrick

Yesterday was Boxing Day

Yesterday was Boxing Day here in Australia. Denise and I had plans to go to the Taronga Zoo. Due to me being a lazy ass, we started out late. Got to Circular Quay, where we saw crowds of people with the same idea. Then decided to do it another time when its not wickedly hot and there aren’t tons of people.

Well then… where did we go? We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. A place I’ve never been to before. Seeing as how Contemporary art usually just reinforces my love of older art. And makes me wonder who finds most of the newer stuff appealing?

Well, I have to admit that it inspired new feelings in myself. Feelings of Disgust and Shock! There’s a piece there called the Bear Chair. In my opinion it’s child porn. Part of which is a bear on a chair with its penis just inches away from the face of a child’s doll.
It was so bad that I had to ask where I could lodge a complaint. This I did down at the front desk. Where I was told by a staff member that rape and child abuse/molestation are more common in Australia, and that the artists of the piece are Americans who like/liked to shock. (How either relates to the museum having an offensive piece on display still baffles me).

Afterwards, Denise and I went for a schooner of Toohey’s New. In the pub, Denise got the dubious pleasure of hearing me bitch about what we’d seen. No fun for her, I bet.

I’ll have to wait and see if the Director of the Museum gets back to me.

Now, we move on to other things. Looking forward to training with Ray Floro, Friday morning. Have only managed one session since returning from Chicago. Money’s been tight and so on.

Cheers!
Patrick

Xmas!

Well, its two days to Christmas. Yep, Christmas. The day when people should remember the birth of Jesus. But what if you're not a Christian? How's that supposed to make you feel?

You just have to turn on the tv to see countless commercials trying to push the buying of gifts and more gifts. Telecasting of Church services; where people who never go any other time of the year show up. Specials and movies, that always have a happy ending! No doubt, due to Xmas being a time when we all want to believe in Happy Endings! Unless of course you are the fellow who its all meant to be based around....
The fellow who supposedly got crucified to save Mankind. Who's now remembered as a means for Mel Gibson to get richer. The fellow who never had St. Nick scamper down his chimney.

Actually, I've been already gifted this year. Denise and I finally got married on November 19th! Two years to the day since we first met in person. Not including all that cybering before that....  ;) Just kidding, it wasn't all that much, really.

You know how someone can tell how much I love her? Just think, I bought her "The Sound of Music" on DVD. The freakin' "Sound of Music". The only thing worse than being forced to watch "Grease" over and over! Its her favourite movie, though.

Oh yeah, after we got hitched, we applied for the spousal visa! Looks good. Just waiting on my Police Check from Canada. Apparently, DIMA is used to it taking forever. Damn RCMP ;)

What worried me a bit right after applying, though? The race riots that have happened here. Not something I would expect from Australians. Wonder if they would think about it at Xmas? About the colour of the skin of that fellow who they're supposed to be remembering on the day that's celebrated as his birthday. And just where he came from.

Something to think about? Here’s a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. :

"I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And if you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot you or bomb your house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice."

So, Merry Xmas!

Cheers!
Patrick