Bulgaria 07 by night and by day

The nights were all like this

the days were all like this

what a life

Another Ben Ken

Yo bro
Just around where the path disapears there is a large rock. Just to the right of centre in the pic. Just to the left of the path. Jelly legged Internals.

This b one

There they are

The unknown Country

On top of the Cobler lookin out. And yes internals were done on the way back down. I went thru the eye of the needle but not on to the top. There is a photo tho of someone on top.

Bulgaria 07

On second thoughts maybe it was not. O7 was the first time and the mystery of Dimitar was fresh and puzzling. We trained in the botanical gardens of the University of Sophia under trees. Claire and i worked on pushing hands(?) with weapons. Very interesting that was. This year(08) I played around with reverse Form. Very interesting that was.
In Varna the hotel was good but the sea and training place was a good walk away. We ate in different restaurants every night sampling mostly Black sea fish. Claire had to put up with some rollicking drunkenness from her 2 male traveling companions. The heat was such that walking slowly was the best to do.
Lee and Emma were there as well.
The barby was a night of strategy. Must post pictures each worth at least a thousand words.

views from the Jaffa hostel roof

these are some of the pics from an old story. it is a few years now since Claire and me were treated to such wonderful hospitality in Israel.

Ever been there

This place is familiar. Just a few pictures back. It is an early morning view over loch Awe. It is a sort of a view over a garden. A great place to train when the midges were asleep.

More places to practice

so where d u think I am

Like the busses none for ages then a whole fleet all at once

A friend called today to ask me a favour. He asked if it was o.k to bring a friend of his along to a class of mine. But before he asked me he told me a story. Apparently his friend had been in Georges Square very recently and some nutter had tried to plunge a knife into his neck. Fortunately his friend had managed to fight off his assailant. .... However it brought to mind some telly footage I had seen of guys bouncin around with what seemed to be mostly samurai swords. I thought I remembered that the footage was shot recently in Glasgow...... Man what route is this bus on?

this'll be the tourisy stuff for real

Bulgaria 08 One very interesting time was had. In its own way it may even have been more interesting than 07. Let us just say it was different. The hotel was all inclusive and the European cup was on the telly. For once I did not get ill from the food. The noise the frogs made was unbelievable. Major levels of decibel I thought it must have been ducks or geese not frogs. When I got round to investigation I found that there were a goodly number of species and that over all there must have been thousands. and then there was the snake. The first live one I had come into close contact with since the Hong Kong Snake restaurants; there they took great pleasure in teasing Cobras. Made me feel quite ill. This however was about 18 inches long and swimming like the clappers, as far away and as quickly it could get from me. I almost stood on it.
The insects were a problem for quite a few folk but for me the old marmite worked a treat no bites until just before we left.
It was great meeting all the people again and great seeing how far they had come over the year.
on a few night we went down to eat and drink with the guys and I think if anything the wine was even better this year. The Mavrud was excellent especially. The Gamsa and Melnik were also good. The was also the first time in my life I got to taste some really nice vodka.
This brings me to the point of this whole style of tourism. This is not insular. Tho we may be a group engaged in what could be called an insular activity It is an activity carried out by people from across Europe. This group consisted of Bulgarians(of course(( all male))) Russians(all female cept for Misha and Max), Irish, Scots(East and West coast) and Joe(hi Popeye hope yr hudge has shifted). Local people sharing there local culture, local hospitalty, history, architechture, food, drink. Still there was a beach and a great bay sheltering water that never got very deep, just deep enough. There is also the fact of different training partners. some may say that is stretching the point just a bit too far.
I however am still searching for Dimitar. I spent the whole of last years camp trying to trace him. I thought that was to meet us and maybe that is where I went wrong. All 5 days it went on. So you must be dimitar then. Mo I'm Mitko.... ah so you must b Dimitar then..... No I'm Ivan........ so you must be ..... no I'm Micko. By the end of it I must admit getting a little paranoid and the guys did wind me up a bit.. Who the *7^%? is Dimitar. Eventually it all got sorted.
I must say I really like the Black Sea coast and the people i meet there.

Better late than never

It has taken me a while to get back to this blog.
I have been trying to figure out how to work with it.
the picture is post Karioke knights night out.
More will follow.
But see Glasgow at night.
Och aye
I will get back to the time line eventually
On the other hand I may just ramble on as usual.

A journey to Deepest Chinese New Year

And what a journey that was. It was an evening of mythical animals. Symbolic ends and fresh starts. We began the evening in George's square waiting under the horse. there r a few animals in George's square and at least 2 of them are horses. None of them were pigs tho.. the departing year and none were rats the incoming year. We left the counting to the counting house.
When the team had gathered we made our way to the Loon Fung.... Bird and Dragon.... Both creatures of fire. We needed fire as it was rather parky. I had booked for 10 and as it turns out tho i had only counted 10, with 3 people calling off 10 turned up. Another auspicious omen.
It turned out as i had expected and the ordering was done mostly by Lucia. She has after all more experience and ordered a right good combination of dishes.
To make matters even more interesting the restaurant had a house band that started playing up as we were getting down into the meal. Rachel and Lucia managed to ward off John's advances using the very yin tactic of both promising to dance last creating a vortice into which Nicky and Ketron were sucked.
Another mythical flying creature that featured in the night was the great, long sought after Flying Haggis. This strange rare creature features as the name of the ceilidh band Gus plays with. And there was him thinking his band was named after a motorcycle...........
I had an interesting chat with Christine about Buddhist psychology as she works as a psychologist and is a Vagrayana practicioner. The beauty of the imagery and the bare spare beauty. The contrasts that unite and admit everyone.
Eventually when we had eaten enough and tired of the band we repaired to out last mythical animal of the evening... The Griffin. there some of us drank pear cider and some of us didn't. Rachel left in search a karaoke nesting site and returned empty handed. Then much to everyones surprise and pleasure Malky turned up with Angela. More pear cider was or was not drunk and the evening glowed on till it was time for Farah to depart. This heralded the end of the Mythical new year night out as it came close to the end of licensing hours and chucking out time was looming. This was probably a relief for Dave as he was driver designate and we all know how trying it can be being the sober one midst a bunch of jolly inebriates. So after much ado the return journeys were sorted and Ketron Rachel and i walked off into the night to traverse the river city and eventually the river. The evening being nicely rounded off with a set off 4 yin internals in Maxwell park at about 2 in the morning. some things are best left unsaid. But i will say it. it was a most pleasant and relaxing night.

A Journey to inner space

I recently returned from a trip to Sweden. I was there to experience a Sesshin or meeting of the mind. As a Tai chi person it was very interesting. As a person it was one of the most interesting things i have ever done. Over time i have noticed the link between tai chi and meditation. You only have to look at the meditation and tai chi courses run by Buddhist centers.
One of the most common forms of meditation is breath meditation which comes in a great variety of forms. In Tai Chi we make great of the breath and its relation to relaxation and internal power. Well... The sesshin practice for me was breath breath breath and only breath. For 4 days I did nothing but focus on the breath. No talking. eyes down, beginning at 4.30 every day and ending with sleep.
i learnt a great deal about inner work. The whole experience reminded me of the 'Inward training' Taoist classic because that is exactly what it was. the conclusion i have come to? There is a lot more to sitting with the breath than i imagined. The continued application beyond sitting tho that seems to me to be where the action is.

Moon in a Dewdrop

So this will be about reflection.
Reflection on journeys.
reflection on going nowhere.
reflection on being.
So we have a reflection reflected in a dew drop.
A light that shines at night.
a mirror that reflects in the dark.
If you sit very very still and listen
you may become aware of your breath.
What does it reflect.