Well, here's the explaination of what happened from Friday to Sunday when I got back.
But first - looky looky tis a picture of me in my kendo gear (hakama and Gi only) before I found out that I had failed: http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/Ryuichi_/PICT1330.jpg
(copy and paste is probably the best option cause I can't get it to be an active link *shrugs*)
Friday - well got up, got to the station, found out that the saver returns were 50.00 instead of the 15.00 that we had been advised of - thank god I had some extra money on me ^_^. Get on the train fine and sit next to Mark for the journey, talking about games and then taking photo's of people asleep hehe. The last part was quite cool as me and Hiya spent it going through my mp3 player of music which was really fun. Got there and headed to argile market for food, then to static games where I got a new RPG book (I'm such a sucker for those things) and then we mooched around for a little bit, headed to the hostle, the others (being Bill, Bo, Mark) were in one room whilst I was in with Kamo and Hiya. We headed to Forbidden Planet and I ended up with the last volume of Abenosbashi (very weird and strange but it does make a lot of sense actually) and the last two of .hack//legend of the twilight (and consequently I've been reading them pretty constantly since I've got home) so that was all cool.
Came back to the hostle, Kamo decided to call someone whilst me and Hiya tried to get some sleep cause we were tired. So we get sorted out and Bo, Hiya and Kamo disappear off to a pratice that I had no idea was on at all on the friday night - learnt later that the others had found out at the pub and forgot to tell me about it. So me, Bill and Mark head out to find the internet cafe's of Glasgow to get a membership form for Bo cause he hadn't renewed his. Finally found one with printing and spent half an hour trying to get onto the computer and then got that sorted. We've agreed to meet the others for a meal around 10/10:30 so we wait in the cafe and have some hot chocolate and gossip on for some time which is quite cool, then head back to the hostle, calling the others as it's roughtly 10 and we've not heard from them at all. They say that they'll be back there in roughtly half-an-hour, by twenty to eleven they've still not turned up so we go and get the last order in at pizza hut and just as we finishing ordering they call us asking where we are. So we have our food - considering we hadn't eaten since argile market - and I head back to my room with the others and Hiya asked them to leave because both of us were wanting to fall fast asleep and be quite content with it all.
Prior to all this, I had to call baka and tell her that the seminar (see below) was actually going on longer than what I had been expecting so that was a bit haphazard and I'm sooooooooooooooo sorry Baka-chan. I will make it up to you though I promise!!!
Was pratically out like a light that night.
Saturday - the alarms went off and I woke up, got washed, dressed (in the bathroom) came out and found that the boys weren't awake and I knew we had to be out, so me being me, I turned on the light and opened the curtains telling them to get up. Most of my stuff's packed up anyway which is good, so I head down to breakfast with Mark (we seem to run off the same steam and structure) and wait for the others. Have breakfast and then head back up to the room, grab backpack with black hakama and white gi in it, shinai, boken and bogu and head to the metro to Kelvin Hall. OMG that place is so cool and it's a sports center which is very very strange. But we weren't pratcing there.
Got lifts off people to Castlemilk Dojo where we were going for the seminar, cost us twenty quid but it was worth it. bar the fact that it was five hours of kendo. I kid you not - normally I'm used to doing two hours so it was fun doing something. We did two and a bit hours worth of kata pratice with Honda-san!! (basically he's a 8th Dan grade and he's really cool and really really nice and good fun ^_^) which was handy and gave me a chance to sort that out, then we did a hour of cutting pratice with various methods and blocks in and stuff which is cool, then we did an hours worth of shiai pratice in compotition/grading style and I swear that I came off pretty well after that (and if I had done that style in the grading then I probably would have got it damn it!) and then we spent the last bit doing kei-gao pratice (pratice fighting) for an hour swapping around. Now Kallers remember that sension where we faced each other for twenty-five minuets? Yup you've got the general idea, just throw into the mix that it's five minuets per person and I ended up again four dan grades in a row who were playing around with me for the whole time. Seriously it was like ouchie! but good for learning not to watch the shinai and I also found out that different clubs have different styles. Cause the Edinburgh lot (aka where Ruth's from and just to let you know Kal she is coming to our dojo this summer and is now a Dan) constantly move their shinai up and down whereas the Northumbria lot - to quote Darren - stay sticky in the centre and can keep it tightly back there which is really quite strange.
But it was a good session, bar the floor made concordia fell like heaven on earth and I got myself a lovely new blue tenaguy (the sweat rag you wear) and it's really really pretty and I'm so happy that I've got it ^_^
As you can probably imagin I was el knackode by the end of that and practically we got back, went out for food and drinks - which was quite amusing cause Mark was worried that we wouldn't be able to buy any booze when we're in Scotland with me at my age with a driving lience and Bo whose 24/25 (I know I was suprised by that as well). Bless him, he's never been to Scotland before and had trouble with the Scottish accent. We go for Subway sandwiches and then head back and I've got the most horrible headache in the world - just boarding on a migrain so I'm in bed by 10 something but literatlly I was at the point of exhaustion. I fell asleep quickly but woke up later on with a headache again so I headed to the bathroom, grabbed some toilet paper and wetted it and used it as a coolant for my head which helped and them spent five minuets shivering whilst trying to work out why it was so cold.
Sunday - woke up and discovered why it was so cold. It had snowed. Not the usual light splattering we get but I mean snow, about 18 inches deep at the worst point. To make it a little more fun, the taxi we had hired for the morning to get us to our grading - carrying all of our stuff cause we had to be out of the place by 11 and considering that our grading was 9-12 there was no chance to get out - decided to be extremely nice and cancel. So the Edinburguh lot called their sensai for a lift, we tried Denny (who was up) and found that he was snowed in and we ended up spending half and hour trying to find where the bus that we needed to get was leaving from and then another half-hour waiting for it to turn up. By this time it's 8:50 and we're all at the point of they better grade us for simply getting there on time.
So we are on the bus and it stops at the bottom of this hill, the guy saying that he's been told not to go up it. So we clamber out and think that it's just a nice hill that we can climb it. Now imagin Westgate Hill - near to the Opera House/Tyne Journal Theartre - one and a half of those that winds around, walking on snow that's turning into slush and water, whilst dragging bag filled with clothes and assoicated things, backpack with white hakama and gi in it, shinais and bogu. I end up well behind the boys and I'm plodding along, Kamo having taken my Bogu off me, I hear a car and move over to the other side of the road. The next thing I know the car's pulled up beside me, wound down his window and asks 'Are you going to kendo?'. I reply yes and he tells me to get in and he'll give me a lift. Turns out to be Nick-sensai who was there at the seminar on Saturday and it was just a relief to get there.
So I get changed, get ready and head into the grading. In my group I end up being the first number so I end up against Hiya first and my kei-geoi is not the best in the world but I've got a second chance so I can sort it out. Finally get around to my turn and I do a perfect and I mean perfect Kirry Kitash (or Kitty Kitash as I used to call it - basically the routine of hitting men constantly) which even Denny commented on that it was the best I had ever done. Then my Kei-gego and I got some reasonable kote (wrist) cuts and could I hell get a men (head) cut! No! That's the ones I really really needed and I couldn't get them at all! But then we all go through Kata and I do reasonably well bar I much up the third by not blocking on the right hand side which is a bloody nusiance. So we finish, I got and get changed, then mark reminds me I wanted a picture in my gear so I go and get changed again, get the pictures taken and then go and get changed again and then find out that out of the group I'm the only one to fail (out of the northumbria lot that is) and I'm disappointed obviously but not to the point that I'm going to quit! Ryu-chan is a lot stronger than that and she will get it next time and it doesn't really matter.
So I call mum to let her know and everyones really nice, telling me that I should've got it. Denny goes and talks to the guys and it turns out that they actually had two discussions about me so I was boarderline for a pass but someone said no and it stuck which was a shame. What actually caused me to fail was the fact that my left heal was too high up and I knew my kei-gegoi was okay but not the standard that I wanted to be at. But as Jane pointed out to me, the next time I go I'll be closer to sho-dan level so it should be easier and a little more fun (and she'll be there with my and hopefully Kallers as well) and plus I saved twenty quid for the certificate which is always a good thing.
Anyway we get away from that and I end up walking down the slushy, snow and water covered streets with all my stuff and Hiya trying to get to central station in order to get home. We get there before the others and wait around, finding that our trains been cancelled cause of the weather conditions. So we end up having to walk to Queens Street Station (by this time as well I've changed my shoes and am wearing odd socks because I went for a forage in my bag for them as my feet were totally waterlogged and I was freezing) to get a train from their to Edingburug (if someone could actually tell me how to spell that it would be great) and then a train from there home. Spend the time reading my manga's and calling Kallers on Hiya's phone - cause my battery had died completely on me.
Get home to find only a splattering of snow and ice cold winds. I have a nice long bath, watch 'Hope and Glory' which is a really funny film and talk to parents about various things over the weekened and then go to bed.
Monday - sleep in, mooch around, take the day off, go into work and chat onto Ahmed about what happened and show him my bruises which are large and were painful but not anymore, come home, have tea, watch Resi Evil and go to bed.
Tuesday/today - god I've been writing for over an hour now.
Got up and headed into Uni after reading some more of .hack for a tutorial about my script's first draft. I get in and Peter's looking a little unsure and worried and I'm thinking 'oh crap I've really screwed up on this' and he turns as asks in a concerned voice 'Have you had any help writing this?' I'm not so sure what he's meaning and tell him that no I've not becuase I wrote it by myself, in the spare room, and the first thing anyone saw of it was when I took it downstairs all complete and mam read the last line. Of course now I'm confused, what's wrong with it?
Peter turns around and says 'Well this sort of quality I would expect from a second or third draft and not the first. It was quite a surprise to read it and I was having dark thoughts about how you had written it so well'
Can you believe it! My first time writing a feature lenth film and the first draft is the quality of a second or third draft! How cool is that!!!! *bounces around like and insane idiot*
Well I've been writing for a long while now so I'm going to stop. Have fun peeps
