There was going to be a "Year In Brief" covering 2006, but I got bored with the idea. Instead of looking back, I'm going to look forward to what the new year brings. Here's a brief run-down of some of the things that have happened already (in no particular order).

At the first training session of the year I found out that I had two weeks to prepare for a grading for both Iaido and Jodo, instead of the four weeks I was expecting. Panicking, I spent a fair amount of time at the dojo training and the rest of my free time writing the essay components of my assessment. It all paid off, as I passed both gradings on Tuesday, bringing me to Shodan in Iaido and Nidan in Jodo. During preparation, it felt satisfying to work through my own issues and make progress, and I felt like I was really beginning to learn. I can start to see the path ahead, something that was becoming clouded before. Although I'm not able to go to the national seminar and championships this year, I'm glad I've been able to make some progress.

There's been a spate of Ikea shopping recently. I purchased some cupboards to go in the alcove near the front door which will (eventually) hold a number of miscellaneous bits and pieces that are currently scattered around the house. More importantly, it will let free the spare room of the junk, making that useful space again. I also got the little boxes that fit in the bookshelf that I bought last year, providing more useful storage space for various things. I also picked up a new desk to replace my current ratty looking one. Its slightly shorter, but it will still hold all my junk. I haven't set it up yet, I'm waiting until I've got other stuff sorted out first. I'm not usually one for Ikea furniture, especially when they present storage the way they do in their catalogue, but I don't think I got anything too ugly, and am pretty happy with what I've got.

Sandy and Niaal have been cooking food and bringing it into work for the last week or so, sharing it around to those that want it. I cooked a Lasagna to participate, and will take it in tomorrow. Hopefully it won't taste like crap, and we can continue to do in-house lunches. I also roasted a leg of lamb (improvising from another recipe) and that turned out really nice too. Fortunately I don't have to share that :P Contrary to popular belief, I do actually enjoy cooking, but most of the time I just don't know what to cook.

Michele and I went down to Cottesloe beach on Wednesday night to look at Comet McNaught. We spotted it after about five minutes standing in the freezing wind, and continued to watch it for about another half hour until I finally got too cold. We also played with Michele's cameras for a bit, trying out the Holga in low light. We'll have to wait until they're developed to see how they went. When we look at the comet all we see is a little dot of light with a tail behind it hanging in the sky. Its hard to imagine just what the comet is, and how fast its moving. The closest I can get to visualising it is some corny sci-fi space movie, where there's an idyllic peaceful view of the Earth or some other planet in space, and then suddenly a giant ball of rock and gas comes hurtling past from behind us at a furious rate. What looks so peaceful so far away must be completely different up close, and I find that concept eery. We're such small beings on a chunk of planet whizzing through space at a mind boggling speed. It's almost enough to give you vertigo, if you think about it too hard.

Burning Crusades came out on Wednesday. I picked up my pre-order and started a Draenei Shaman on Argent Dawn. I played for an hour or two, but found it funny how packed the starting area was - everyone was starving for npc's for quests. I'm toying with the idea of starting a Blood Elf Mage, but I know my heart isn't in it. I might level my Tauren Druid instead - he's ready for the new levels. Sadly I think my WoW days might be numbered - I haven't played in two months, and still feel no compulsion to play. It would be a bit of a waste to have just shelled out for the new expansion just to close my account (although I doubt it would be any great loss). I'll see how it goes.

I think the spirit of this year will be to look for the little wins in between the bigger wins. I think last year I forgot how to live life, but I hope to learn from that and make this year count. There's things I want to do, both big and little, so I just need to get out and do them.

So now I'm the tardy one, not updating in over a month. Fair cop, 'guv. So what's been on the go since the last update? Here's a brief rundown in something vaguely resembling chronological order:

A few of us went and saw FourPlay at the Fly by Night again. They were awesome, just like last time (except last time Peter didn't crack his cello - he didn't look happy about that at all). Sandy piked at the last minute, but that didn't stop her from getting Emiko to make Peter sign a shirt for her. He went the extra mile and wrote a haiku. I also picked up their "TheJoyOf" cd, the one I didn't have already. Shenzo threatened to sign it "to Susan" again, but luckily it escaped untarnished!

We found a fantastic new restaurant in North Bridge called "New Orleans". We stopped there by chance, and decided to give it a shot for dinner. Run by some people we suspect escaped from a devastated city after the flooding, they serve up a fine selection of Creole dishes that leave you wishing you weren't quite so full. Quite probably some of the best food I've ever had the chance to try, and at a very reasonably price too. We went back a couple of weeks later and I'm sure we'll be heading back there again and again.

We had a killer meal at the Oyster Bar in South Perth overlooking the Swan river (if that's your idea of fun). I ate too much and spent even more (but not as much as some others), and I'm still not sure if it was worth it. Their steak wasn't very good - I feel cheated. Although I haven't really been a big fan of oysters in the past, I have to admit they were pretty nice. I think I'll have to go back for more of them, and not try to order for variety.

We had a quick game of Trivial Pursuit at Darrell's, playing the 2006 genus. Our team didn't win, but at least Marcus and Darrell got their piece of pink pie! Dunja, Steve and Elissa's team won, but I feel luck was on their side when it came to the easy questions. I mean, c'mon! "What is the name of Google's email service?" "What is the name of the internet search company, who's name is the same as a one followed by 100 zeroes?"

Joey celebrated his birthday in style by having dinner at Seizan Japanese Restaurant in town. 25 or so people stuffed into the party room. They should have closed the sliding doors - we made too much noise. There was karaoke afterwards, but we didn't stay long 'cuz we were tired.

The office provided an almost perfect venue to watch the Red Bull Air Race. As our window overlooks the river and Langley Park, we got to watch them setting up, doing practice runs, time trials, etc. There was no productivity that week. Strangely, its more interesting to watch than Telstra Rally Australia. We're all looking forward to next years event.

Michele cooked us all a fabulous meal at Marcus and Michael's house. The meal was to wish J a happy work trip to Brisvegas for the few weeks she was there (any excuse for a meal, really - she's back already!). Michele cooked all sorts of Japanese dishes, and when I wasn't busy pre-washing the bowls and chopsticks I helped by standing around looking bewildered. Uber scrumptious. I even tried Natou!

We spent last weekend at an Iaido and Jodo seminar at Kent St high school. Budokan Academy arranged for Oda Sensei and Nagayama Sensei to come down from Japan for a week, and Dr Lee Sensei also came by. Together they spent the weekend beating us into shape, clarifying and refining our techniques. It was extremely worthwhile, especially since I won't be able to make it to the national seminar in January. Unfortunately I had been feeling off-colour since the Friday before and it caught up with me on the Sunday afternoon, but I did enjoy what I was able to participate in. They're trying to make this a regular event, so hopefully they'll be back ext year too.

Sadly, Rebecca is leaving us for greener pastures. She's moving to Melbourne for work and play. We sent her off with a meal at Mathilda's in Vic Park (nice place, check it out). She'll be missed around toe dojo, but no doubt she'll be living it up in Melbourne (on the other hand, that means she'll be a Victorian).

Michele had her birthday last weekend! Yay Michele! Yes, the same weekend that we spent at the seminar. Celebrations were held in a mass birthday gathering last Friday, where we also celebrated the birthdays of Darrell, Jono, Luke and Yen. One big happy birthday party at The Blue Duck in Cottesloe. Jono and I got her a placeholder present of "Chess inna Tube" while her real present came from Sydney.

Yesterday saw the beginning of the Day Light Savings trial in WA, and what better way to start that by waking up at the equivalent of 5am to attend a grading. I wasn't attempting anything but was there to watch Michele. Although she was a bucket of nerves, she passed her ikkyu in Jodo and yonkyu in Iaido convincingly. Yay Michele!

So that's about it for now. Christmas is coming up soon, and that means there's some annual leave coming. I'm sure to have more to talk about later.

Michele, Marcus and I recently attempted and passed a grading at Budokan Academy for the various arts we were eligible to grade for. Michele passed her Gokyu in Iaido and Nikyu in Jodo, Marcus passed his Nidan in Jodo (woohoo! well done!), and Marcus and I both passed our Ikkyu in Iaido.

Yay us!

Michele will be able to grade again in three months, but Marcus and I have to wait until the nationals in January before we can go again - except for Jodo - Marcus has to wait two years for that.

I've been sitting on this post for ages. Its time to reflect (hah) on the 2006 National Iaido and Jodo Championships that I attended this January!

First impressions

Wollongong was Hot and Sticky. At least for the first two days. We arrived in Sydney at the dog-awful hour of 6:20 AM (that's right, 2 hours before I'm usually awake, in a timezone 3 hours ahead), and caught the trains down to Fairy Meadow. A mere 90 minute train ride (zzzzzz). The trains might have been airconditioned, but they were still unpleasantly sticky. But not as unpleasantly sticky as when we got off.

We checked into the student accomodation at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Campus East residential campus, and went in search of food. After about an hour or so, after finding the beach, we managed to get across to the other side of the train tracks and find the local shopping district. By this time we had a small handle on the local geography - enough to get us to the shops and back anyway. We found a small cafe and had a lousy excuse for bacon and eggs for breakfast before heading back to catch some sleep.

Wollongong might be a nice place, but the first experience with the weather made a week of training feel ominous...

The Seminar

My feet hurt. A lot. The seminar was held in the indoor basket balls courts in the UOW's recreation centre. Unfortunately, just 4 weeks prior to the seminar the courts had been resurfaced, which made them both hard and sticky. Not all that great for 7 days of pounding around on them, let me tell you that (and I'll let my feet do the phrasing).

The seminar itself was fantastic. 9 Sensei from Japan, and Dr Lee from Perth, as well as all the high ranking sensei and a wide cross section of students from all over the country. Lots of great people, lots of talent, and lots of great training under the tutelage of the Japanese Sensei.

Oda Sensei supervised the Iaido side of things and let the rest of the sensei do all the work :) We were split into groups based on what grading we were going for, so Marcus and I ended up having Kawafuku Sensei for the first two days, then Harada sensei for the next two.

Now you have to understand this: these guys are not young. While I don't know their exact age, I do know that they're at least in their late 70's, if not 80's (about half of the sensei were younger, but not by much). White haired little guys commanding the full respect of the people they're teaching. While we're working up a sweat they're having an easy time. One word: Wow.

Nagayama Sensei supervised the Jodo side of things. I was lucky enough to get a basic tandoku brush-up from Lee Sensei (Dr Lee), and spent the remainder of the time practicing kata with Yoshimura Sensei - a real character.

The Language Barrier made training interesting. There was a fair bit of standing around while the sensei tried to explain something to us in Japanese, while we could only listen in Bewilderment. Brendan was able to do some translation, but overall his general knowledge of Japanese wasn't good enough to do more than guess half the time. So we resorted to watching him do something, point something out, shake his head, and then do it again properly, point something out, and then nod his head. Fairly amusing, but also quite hard when the concept is quite subtle.

The hot and sticky weather (mentioned above) made the first two days of training quite nasty, in terms of comfort. You can put on your gi and hakama first thing in the morning (6:30 am), and be sweating in it by the time you get on the bus (I know I sweat alot anyway [yuk], but I wasn't the only one). Training in the large, un-airconditioned rec centre didn't help either - by midday you'd be soaking with sweat. Thankfully, you get to change uniform so you can soak that one too. We either got used to the weather, or it got cooler, but by the third day it wasn't nearly so uncomfortable, and you could get on with training despite it.

It took 6 days for my feet to get used to the floor though.

Grading and Championships

I was worried about my Jodo grading - the partner that I had to grade with hadn't been practicing for a while, which meant that our kata didn't feel good. I still tried to get the feeling of the kata, and put everything else in there, but it didn't seem to help. However, we were still apparently good enough to pass, and we both graded to sho dan. I'm not too happy about the grading, and it was a repeat performance in the competition where we (rightfully) got wiped out by a pair of low grades in the kyu grade competition. I also got enterred into the dan grade comp with Sensei Jeri James, but we got wiped out there too. That wasn't unexpected though, given we were up against a pair of san dan's.

The Iaido grading went particularly well. I felt really confident about my performance coming off the floor despite coming on feeling quite zoned out. I think that might have helped, putting me somewhere near the state of "mind of no mind". Whatever it was, when doing the grading, it just felt as if everything that was taught during the week came together and worked for me. Feeling good about my grading, I was feeling confident about the Iaido singles competition, but I lacked something and got wiped out in the first round - even though I thought my technique was technically correct. Sure enough, when I ran into Oda Sensei later, he commented that my technique was really good, but I needed to put just a little more spirit behind it, give it that snap in the cuts, a little more zanshin. I put that into my Iaido teams competition, and managed to win my round (even if we lost overall), which made me feel a lot better about the Iaido single and Jodo competitions!

Off the court

Most of our time when not at the seminar was spent holed up in the common area of one of the housing groups, where we chatted away with the crew from WA, including Dr Lee, the sensei from our dojo (Ramon, Russell, Jeri), Marcus, Tony, Hans, Euan, Brendan, Tom, Rhys, Denichi, etc. Although there was a relaxed and casual attitude, I learnt so much, possibly more than I did on the dojo floor.

We still did meet up with other people though, during breakfast and dinner at the foodhall, lunch, and general all round shenannigans. We got to meet all the sensei at a casual dinner at their accomodation, at which they cooked for us. It was great to meet them on a casual basis, even if the language barrier did get in the way. The food was spectacular - different from anything you get from Japanese restruants around here, but still as delicious as anything.

A few of us also found the computer room at the accomodation, which had real airconditioning! (None of this 'evaporative' crap). So I spent some time (not much - maybe 3 hours all up) there emailing and chatting online with while I rested my feet, listening to my iPod.

The Official Dinner

This was held in one of the function rooms at the accomodation, large enough to fit us all around 11 or 12 large round tables. The Sensei spread themselves around (with the idea that every table had a Japanese Sensei), and we ended up having Dr Lee on our table, and Yoshimura Sensei sitting just behind me on another table. The food was buffet style, and wasn't that impressive, but we made up with it by having plenty of alcohol. Our table had the largest collection of bottles (11?) than any other table (possibly more than all the other tables combined). We made sure to share it around though, so things got a bit 'happy' in the end.

The highlight of the dinner was definately the auction. Jeri James was the auctioneer (as he is is every year), and he did a fine job. He openned with a green silk sageo, which I managed to score for a good price. There were heaps of items, but the most notable ones were the donations from the Japanese sensei, incuding: two iaito from Igarashi-san; a beautiful doll from Saito Sensei; a fan with a poem penned by one of the founders of Seitei Jodo, given to Yoshimura sensei, who then put it up for auction (which went for a steal at $300, but I didn't have enough funds to outbid Sensei Ramon for it); a signed fan from Shoji Sensei; a few beautiful laquerred plates and serving dishes from Oda Sensei. The list goes on. The auction was highly entertaining, and managed to raise over $5000 for the New South Wales club.

The Leaky Bucket

Marcus had the bright idea of writing stuff down in the evennings, and I wish I had done something similar. Alas, I didn't even take a pen over with me, let alone anything to write on. There was so much more that happenned that I didn't even mention in here. I learnt so much while I was over there, but even on the way home I could feel a lot of it slipping away. I still took away much much more than I came with.

Next year's seminar and competition is being held in Hobart, and I'm looking forward to attending again, despite the promise of sore feet.

About this time last year I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. My car had broken down, work was shit, work was having issues paying me on time, I was having financial issues, and generally things weren't looking good. A lot has happenned since then. I've knocked off a significant amount of my debt (and paid my HECS debt off), changed jobs, fixed my car, and things are looking pretty good!

The end of the work year culminated with a series of per department parties, which our team managed to get invited to. In particular, I enjoyed the joint Network Services and Applications gatherring, as most of the corporate staff were there. It really struck home how much I'd missed the people from iiNet, and even though there were some that really shat me off, all in all they're fun and intelligent people to work with. I felt happy to be part of that again - remarkable considerring how I felt when I left.

Later this month I'm heading to Sydney for an Iaido and Jodo seminar (which I'm quite excited about) which I'm really looking forward to. I really regret missing last years seminar, as I've only heard good things about it. It''s a shame that Michele won't be able to join us, but at least I'll have Marcus to keep me company.

This year is starting off well and promises to get better.