Rest day ...

A rest day today - after arriving home just after 3:00Am this morning from Perth. A huge four days, with visits to Launceston in Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth. I look forward to heading back again in early february of next year. I have to say, there is such a great standard on the mat - all throughout Australia. The last seminar I took in Perth for example, saw four black belts on the mat - a paradigm shift from a decade ago, when a blue belt was considered to be the 'go to' expert. Times have changed. A big thanks to Beau Forwood, Adam Newton, Paul Butler and Stewart Clayton and the others in Tassie. Thanks to Darren Cartwright for a great night in Adelaide and dinner afterward at the ever reliable PF Chang's. Thanks to my good friend Steve Stevenson, who wont read this due to his aversion to all things technological, for driving me around in Perth. Thanks to Manfred Bohmuller - those new MMA mats are absolutely awesome - my knees send their thanks as well! Thanks to Lance and Belinda Johnson - and congratulations on your coming upgrade to a full-time premises - well done! Thanks to Paul Marsden for organizing a great class as usual - and please pass on my best to your good old dad - what a trooper! He is a wealth of old-school knowledge! Thanks to Adam Metcalf - one of the best martial artists and coaches in the country - and finally, thanks to Troy Flugge - you have such a great mat culture going at Submission Factory - its a pure pleasure to be there. Nice to see Gerald Burton-Batty and stacey Wilson on the mat as well - big bonus.
The end of the year approaches with the velocity of a speeding bullet. Where has this year gone? Time flies my friends - I don't know how it goes with you, but for me - I have to put it in my schedule if I have any hope of it happening. I think 100 people asked me these past four days - when's the third and final installment in my Rogue Black Belt series coming out? Well, I put it is my diary for the first two weeks of JAnuary. So it should be done by early next year ... time, simply, has not been on my side. I took on a few extra little jobs in this second half of '09 - and in doing so, totally blew out my schedule. More of the smae awaits me over the next sic weekends! Love it! I am though, taking mondays off! Starting ... NOW!
JBW