darryn

It was my first “intermediate” kickboxing class, and I loved it. Gone were the technique drills of the beginner stream. Welcome to the world of sparring. I was paired up with an older guy who had a lot more experience and 10 kilos on me. I had a reach advantage, but that was useless. I am covered in bruises and it hurts to move. In other words, I had a great time! I have really found an IRL pursuit that I enjoy.

After kickboxing K and I raced home to shower, because we had an appointment with destiny. We were looking at my longtime dream apartment, 69 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove. The place was pretty good inside, but no cats. No dice. Since we were there, and had an appointment we headed off to meet a property manager who was to show us a less attractive apartment in Longueville Road. She had cancelled, didn’t we get her voicemail? We decided to go and have a look at the outside.

When we arrived we found a removalist truck parked outside. My heart fluttered. I asked one of the guys if they were moving out apartment 2, and as luck would have it, they were. They let us into the lift, a no-no in a security building, but I could smell the future. We got to the apartment and the owner was still there. She was a nice old lady named Thelma. She showed us the apartment. She showed us every tiny bit of the apartment, almost showed us each cupboard handle individually. I won’t bore you with further detail, but suffice to say that this is the best apartment that I have ever seen.

The stand-out wow feature: space-age parking. It has two car spots. Yet only one car spot in size. The cars are stacked vertically. There is a FUCKING CAR LIFT!

We immediately went to see Greg, Thelma’s son, to negotiate the deal. Cats are OK. Pay TV install is OK. We got the price down a bit, the deal was struck. We can move in two weeks. Only the formalities to go.

This is the bit that I am scared of. I wonder if I will sleep tonight. You see, the real estate agent was none too pleased that we had broken the chain of command, even though there was not really much dodginess on our part. But there was some, and I am afraid that it will count against us. I don’t find out until tomorrow afternoon if we got the place, owner pre-approval notwithstanding. Butterflies. Trying not to get too excited. Trying unsuccessfully. For a few days, you can see it here.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Last night I revisited my childhood. I went to my first yoga class. There were about forty other students, two of which were male. Kirsten’s theory is that this is because men are competitive and feel that they must progress up a level each term, whilst women are not compelled to follow, and are happy to stay at a comfortable level. There were very few of us newbies, so perhaps she has a point. Or perhaps, as I observed, it is because yoga is for chicks.

OK, I admit that that was written with tongue in cheek (mouse in cheek?), but there is an element of truth to it. This was a very gentle exercise. No sweat, no panting. Just bending and stretching. I was there for two hours and I came out relaxed, but not tired or feeling as if I had exercised. Luckily I still have kickboxing for that…

It always comes back to kickboxing, so here it is. To be honest, whilst at yoga I wasn’t being all hippy and at one with things. I was thinking how these postures could be useful for kickboxing. I don’t mean that I will invent a ‘Yoga Style’ of kickboxing, I mean that the stretches and balancing will make me more flexible, and so will improve my kickboxing. But then again…perhaps I have stumbled on the path that will lead me to the fabled Shaolin Buddha Finger.

Popularity: 9% [?]

We flew in on Saturday night for Bettina’s birthday held a new club called Madisons. The theme was “A touch of feather or leather” so there were many feather boas floating around. Adam, Chris, Ric and I had a few too many shots during the night, but I think Adam was the worst for wear. There will be photos. Some of them taken later in the night, if you take my meaning. By the end we were starting to run out of steam, and left the club after closing time at 1pm.

Hi Lite: not many smokers
Blog-related HiLite: I got a photo of a Box of DETPACKS!

Sunday morning was spent on recovery time, but after our bacon and eggs breakfast we went to the Victoria Street markets, which were not many blocks from Bettina’s and Adam’s place. I bought a wallet, but the highlite to me was busting some guy trying to steal a bike and using my deluded self confidence to think I could look after myself if it came to that. Luckily it didn’t, and we got some policemen to take care of it.

Sunday night was a BBQ, watching the ARL grand final. I am glad that Australia won. Afterwards we went to see a Fringe Festival production, which was a Cabaret type act. Hi Lite was the nudie fan dance. And the “arty” use of circles, from which came the title of this blog.

Sunday was breakfast at Fitzroy, followed by a haircut ($55!) and a trip out to St Kilda to walk along the pier. Yawn. It is not even close to Sydney. The chowder was OK though.

In summary, yet adding new facts: Melbourne is a great city, and although it lacks the beauty of Sydney, it makes up for it with a much more relaxed environment. Food is cheap. I would live there.

Popularity: 3% [?]