public service announcement

In case you ever decide to chase after me with a knife, don't. I'll kick you. One way or other, I'll kick you. Back kick, side kick, turn around and roundhouse kick, I'll kick you. And if you start stabbing me with that knife while chasing me, I'll turn around, break your arm, and mash your groin with my knee.

Yep, that's what we did in training tonight. Defenses against psychos chasing you with knives.

We trained outdoors too, so we had plenty of space to run around. And most of us were in plainclothes; I was wearing tight jeans. (Another PSA - groin guards under tight jeans are reeeeeeeally sexy.) It was hard enough running around on grass with tight jeans, let alone executing the kicks. I managed most of the time. I think. Next time I'll wear a skirt...

Another interesting thing we did, at the beginning right after our warmup, was tumbling on the gravel path. I've done tumbling on the mats and on the grass before, but not on gravel. Worked out fine, as my tumbling technique is actually there. I saw that some of the others were having a hard time of it though.

For the last thing we did, I let to guys punch out the RoF. One of those 2-against-1 drills where the 2 attackers hit your torso at 50%. I let myself get hit, as I could have easily fucked up my finger again doing the defenses. It's kind of a good thing to build up "resistance"/"tolerance" anyway. RoF was not amused...

The weather was a bit chilly, but actually perfect for the intensity level of what we were doing, and there were still enough other people out walking, walking their dog(s), jogging, whatever, and when they passed by us, they would stop and gawk. Excellent ;-)

Oh, as I hinted to above, it was a damn physical training. We were literally sprinting back and forth, being the attacker or the defender, not stopping until the instructor told us to stop. We also trained for a little over 2 hours, as opposed to the usual 90 minutes. I'm pleasantly exhausted.

Now it's time for some well-deserved organic sparkling wine :-)

poor Elvis...

This was depressing :-(

Heartbreak Hotel as king penguin Elvis can't leave building

ELVIS is alive and well, but marine authorities say he can't go home.

The fellow is in a rehab centre on a windy headland in Cape St Francis and, every now and then, he throws back his head and croons his rather haunting song.

Elvis is a king penguin that washed ashore near Cape St Francis in January, many thousands of kilometres away from his home on one of the sub-Antarctic islands.

No one knows how he got here, but when Trudi Malan of the Ajubatus Marine Rehabilitation Centre in St Francis was alerted, she and a local nature conservator rescued the creature.

"I can't believe how well he's looking now. He is beautiful. My wish is to release him back home, possibly to Marion Island, but the scientists say we can't because of the risk that he will carry back diseases.

"I understand that from a scientific point they can't take that risk. But for us, it's a very emotional thing. Kings are very gregarious penguins, they breed shoulder to shoulder and they like to be with their friends," said Malan.

"And every time he calls, ah, I just want to die. He throws it back and makes this sound. It's beautiful but it's so sad."

She had hoped the penguin could hitch a ride on the Department of Environment's ship that took research teams to Marion Island, a habitat of king penguins.

Rob Crawford, an ornithologist with Marine and Coastal Management, confirmed yesterday that this was not permitted in terms of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.

"Any species that has been in captivity may not be released back into the Antarctic or sub-Antarctic Islands, because there is always a chance of introducing disease.

"It could be disastrous if that happened," Crawford said.

Asked if the penguin could be released off the Eastern Cape coast and left to take its chances, Crawford said he was not sure it would survive in the warm Agulhas current.

"My personal opinion is that it would be best if it could be with another captive population," Crawford said.

Malan said the Edinburgh and Zurich zoos were interested in taking on Elvis.

"The Zurich Zoo has a world specialist on king penguins. He says they've got to be with friends or they fall into depression. They have about 20 but they really wanted a female.

"The Edinburgh Zoo was interested but they can't take him because of the bird flu ban," she said

Two Oceans Aquarium is also interested in taking him for their Antarctic and Islands display, yet to be built.

"I've tried everything. Sometimes I feel if I ever found another one, I would quietly euthanise him," Malan said.

the legs are evil and must be punished...

Lately, I've been training plyometrics quite aggressively, as part of my strength/power training routine, to supplement Krav Maga. Sometimes I do plyometrics-only, sometimes in combination with weights. I'm really enjoying these exercises, especially for the variety factor, but dang - they can really punish the legs! Especially after 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps ;-)

I had a really good killer squats+plyos workout this morning. Neither my legs nor the RoF were amused. I'll be feeling it tomorrow and Wednesday hahaha...

It's too soon to determine to what extent this is benefitting Krav Maga. I still have the damn finger injury, and it's really cramping my style. I can't train properly. (It also makes things difficult to do upper-body work.) Bah. And training starts up again tomorrow, after a long Easter break. I wonder what we'll do... hmmm... if it weren't for the damn finger, I would want to do a lot of ground work. Wrestling and throwing off attackers who are on top of you and the such... perhaps with weapons... good fun...

Anyway... how are your legs doing today?

exotic ingredients...

Hmm... what does one serve with a rabid salad?

mmm... gourmet local dives...

We have a new informal-yet-gourmet joint in the hood... Vognmand Nilsen... As we couldn't be bothered with cooking dinner last night, we ate there instead...

Rule number one... when a new restaurant in the hood gets great reviews in the papers, book a table... we got a table in the bar area where we could also eat, but that was less than ideal... (we eventually were able to move to a regular dining area table)

Anyway, we had a three-course meal. We could choose courses from the menu of the week. We had the following:

(Amuse bouche: jellied crab with aioli on flatbread)

Starter: grilled lobster tail with purée of petit pois, citrus-marinated julienne root vegetables, and shellfish foam for me, fried halibut with orange-glazed "poor man's asparages" (not really sure what this is), spinach, and white wine sauce for boyfriend of tuxette. We ate half of each...

Main: roast veal with sautéed artichoke hearts, port-marinated lentils, roast potatoes, and creamy truffle sauce...

Dessert: cheese plate with apple compote and fruit and nut bread...

Wine: we shared a bottle of Allesverloren Cab Sauv...

Absolutely delicious food - seafood and fish cooked perfectly, tender and tasty veal, perfect al-dente vegetables... The sauces were especially noteworthy; these were probably 1000 kcal per drop ;-)

The restaurant itself was cosy and unpretentious, and quite bustling... it's the kind of place where you don't have to get overly dressed up for... definitely a place to go back to :-)

teach yourself Xhosa

Well, now we've gone and done it. We bought a "teach yourself Xhosa" course, with a CD and book and everything. We'll soon be well on our way to clicky-clicky goodness... or was that confusion? ;-)

Heh, for one of the first lessons, you get to practice singing The Click Song hehe...

Igqirha lendlela nguqongqothwane...

What the song translates to is kind of funny :-)

getting drunk without the booze...

At the end of last night's training, we did this rather intoxicating drill. We got into groups of three. The first person (placed between the second and third) had to roll (sommersault) to the second person, the second person attacks and the first person counterattacks, and then rolls to the third person, who attacks, and the first person counterattacks and rolls back to the second person... this goes on and on until the instructor says stop and switch... the first 2-3 rolls were ok...

Then the dizziness, the drunken feeling hit... woohoo...

Maybe I should try some rolling around along with some beer and wine tonight hehe...