Here’s the photo I got this morning:

Which came with a note:

“Hello Master Olpin,

My name is Rhina and I am 8 years old.

I just wanted to thank your for being my sponsor.

I want you to know that because of you my life is better.

I hope that someday you can some and see me here in the Philippines, so you can see just how much your sponsorship is helping me.

I will be sending you another message very soon.

Thank you, God bless you and I hope you have a nice day.

Rhina xxx”

Bless her. That proper made my day that did..

Having set off to a bad start wasn’t really helping the mental state at the mo. It’s all starting to transition from that surreal phase into the painful reality that no matter what I say, do or feel it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference to Kel as it seems that chapter is well and truly closed.

I’m finding it all a bit odd that after eight years she can just switch off and carry on as if nothing happened. That’s the bit that’s hurting the most at the mo, because it just makes it feel like I meant absolutely nothing to her and my brain just doesn’t want to compute that, it just doesn’t add up after everything she use to say to me. I dunno, I guess that’s just Kel’s way of dealing but it still feels like the most incredible slap in the face.

Anyway I did at least get to enjoy a nice little bubble of ‘me’ time tonight at the school because at least when I’ve got my belt on I tend to switch into ‘Black Belt mode’ automagically and at least then I get some of the old confident me back. Tonight was all about intensity and focus which meant I had to demonstrate those traits to a higher level than I’d expect my students too and that tends to rub off on them too and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more energised they are the easier it is for me.

As we often do, in my ‘Masters’ training session we started out on one topic and a question from one student led me off on a tangent into a pretty deep discussion about the psychology of confrontation and dealing with real aggression etc. Bit of a shame that some of our students don’t make the effort to stay for that part of the class because it’s where all the ‘real’ training begins.

Talking about that stuff and thinking back to some examples from my time on the door did me some good confidence-wise. Need to get out and hook up with some old training buddies I think and get a bit of the mojo back.

Anyway, best get some shut-eye. Off up to Manchester to see Rammstein with Huw tomorrow, then we’re coming back via Birmingham on weds to see them again

\m/ O \m/

Playing around with a very narrow depth of field on the nifty fifty.

First demo of the year for the team today at Dursley Primary school. Went pretty well I think, we made a few hiccups along the way but i doubt anyone watching would have noticed. Got a few weeks now until the next one so we need to get our skates on and get some serious training in to get up to speed properly.

Aww, bless ‘em.. See, days like this make it all worth while.

I thought they’ve got my head spot on, though I’m not entirely sure why we appear to have no trousers on!

See here’s the thing..

Yes I know it’s completely impractical, overly flashy and he has a totally compliant partner.

BUT..

I’ve been doing this stuff for years and I know just how hard it would be to pull this stuff off, even in the ‘perfect’ environment of a class or a demo.

Impressed me anyway..