I want to play a fun little game that I like to call spot the oncoming disaster before it happens. If you successfully spot the eventual disaster before it happens then give yourself a pat on the back, I don't think you will though.
So 'twas spring course 2014, my ankle was still not yet fully healed but I thought, like 2 weeks before, I would attend the spring course and train for as long as possible and stop when my ankle couldn't take it any more.
Can you see the disaster yet?
On Friday I arrived at the dojo and parked outside, I boxed in one of the car's but knowing it would belong to someone at the spring course I knew there wouldn't be a problem...
Oh....maybe you thought you'd seen the disaster but were mistaken, do you see it now?
So Zazen class started as normal. It ended with a new ceremony that I've never seen before during zazen. It involved approaching the Kamiza and burning some incense. Pierre was first, then Tim. Then I was next.
New etiquette, all eyes on me. YOU SEE THE DISASTER!
Nah, I'm just kidding, I nailed it.
However the pressure of Zazen on my ankle basically finished my day. I managed one body art class and some Bokken. But that wasn't the disaster.
No you see after Zazen I volunteered to cook porridge for the entire seminar for breakfast. That's porridge for 30. I have never in my life ever imagined cooking porridge for 30 people. And there was no measuring equipment. And I didn't the correct water/porridge/milk ratios.
But it worked out fine actually. So that wasn't the disaster.
Side note: Sensei was heading the kitchen operations, I won't go into the details but it turns out he has asbestos hands.
Then the next few hours passed without anything noteworthy. BUT WAIT! One of my possible disaster scenarios had not yet resolved itself.....
Sensei gave me and Ayman (not Ayman and I) the keys to his office to bring over some loudspeakers for music for the evening. There are 3 sets of various speaker based technologies in sensei's office by the way (who knew?) and so as you might expect we got the wrong set the first time...but that is hardly a disaster I'm sure you'll agree.
GET BACK TO THE CAR WILL, YOU KEEP HINTING ABOUT YOUR CAR!
Oh yes...
So we returned to get the correct equipment from his office. On our way we were approached by a local, a neighbour in fact. It turns out I had actually boxed in his car in the dojo car parks (FYI Sensei has a parking arrangement with some of the neighbours).
Ah, this could be a problem.
Nope, it wasn't. I moved my car and let them out and there were no hard feelings.
We returned to seminar, I decided to take part in the last Bokken class of the day as I thought my ankle was up to the job. "AHA!" I hear you say. "The actual disaster was in your very first hint!".....Wrong again my dear reader, wrong again.
The day came to a close without any problems at all. I drove home. Amusingly Tom Tam and I shared an unplanned dinner at a service station half-way down the M40 where we bumped into each other.
And then I met up with some friends at a local pub, had one drink. At about midnight (or possibly later?), still well within legal driving limit I went to drive home.
....
Which is when I put my hand in my pocket and felt the only set of keys to Sensei's office and the building in which the Spring course was being held still in there.
