Player of the Week

For training hard this week, and setting up two goals at the weekend J won the Player of the week trophy.

Moulin Rouge

The annual work ball last night was a Moulin Rouge theme, and the CanCan girls kicked off the evening in great style.

Lovely meal, good company and a stunning date to dance the night away with.

Viking Longhouse

School Project - build a model Viking Longhouse. After the trip to Archeolink last week, J had this challenge on his hands. Mostly his own work, just a little help from Mum with the trickier bits.

Race to Coupole

During the month of October I captained a team in a triathlon challenge to cycle, swim and run the distance from Aberdeen to Paris. 960km cycle to Dover, swim the 35km channel, and run the rest of the 295km distance to Coupole in Paris. 135 participants took part and today Team Extreme were awarded the trophy for the fastest team, completing the overall distance in just over 67hours. The second place team completed in over 87hours, so a clear victory.

Here's the winning team:

We also raised most of the money and were asked to present a cheque to Aberdeenshire Disability Sport. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for this challenge.

Happy 11th Birthday

On Sunday my cousins B & L came round to visit with M & D, Granny and Granda, armed with presents.

Today Grandma and Granda came round for tea. mmmm, chocolate cake.

Thanks everyone for all my presents, and the money will go a long way to the DSi I am saving up for.

Perfect end to an 11th Birthday celebration, a game of monotony. One of the presents I wanted - the world edition with the credit cards instead of money.

British Taekwondo Championships

The British Taekwondo championships at Kelvin Hall was an experience, and I am glad I have survived to tell the tale. Don't know why I agreed to enter, seemed like a good idea at the time.

The first category was the Pattern. In all categories you don't know who you are up against, there is no ranking, just the luck of the draw and if you don't win your bout you are out. This is my Dan Gun pattern. Unfortunately I only got 2 out of the 5 votes from the panel of judges so the other guy scraped through 3-2. He later went on to take silver medal. Close but no cigar.

OK, you probably want to see me get beaten up in the sparring category. It was just a digital camera so no longer than a minute filming at a time, so a couple of videos below. I'm up against a green belt opponent.

Here's the second part of the round.

And the result.

With no rest we had to bout again to settle the tie. I had never felt so drained in my life. You might not believe this but I needed all my will to lift my leg high enough to kick and was seeing stars.

I gave it my all, but lost 2 points to warnings, one with a tired back kick that was too low, and then I fell over trying a high kick. The end result went from a 2-2 tie to a 3-1 win to the other guy. Close but no cigar.

Last minute decision I also entered the power category. We had never done it in class before and I think the coach got a surprise when she saw me lining up to break a red board, which is the hardest one to break. They start to teach power technique I think green belt and above but I thought I would have a go. I opted for a knifehand strike technique, or 'karate chop' to the uneducated. I didn't break the board and got 3 'No's from the judges. For about five minutes I thought I had broken my hand. Never again.