Author: Dennis

Spent Christmas with some of my family, which was nice enough, though Moulsari, not speaking Dutch, felt a little left out as much of the conversation was in Dutch. I always respectfully ask people to speak English if they can so that Moulsari can also understand what’s going on, but invariably they’ll shift back to Dutch…even I do that if I don’t pay attention. Luckily, about halfway through the evening, when I went to drop someone off by car, and I visited my father afterwards with Moulsari, things had definitely improved. My aunt, emboldened by a few drinks, found herself speaking English more easily, and I think Moulsari started having a good time, too. Soon after, we had food. A lot of food.

I made a Boxing Day resolution to look into the options of swimming in the mornings, before work, because I have been getting a little soft lately. Having someone around that you have to consider when making plans is wreaking havoc on my Kung Fu schedule, so I’m going to see if I can supplement it by swimming.

Of course, I slept terribly bad the two nights we were over at my mother’s. We have relatively comfortable bedding, now that my old matress was moved there after I changed apartments, but we’re forced to sleep in the living room. All but my brother smokes in the family, and my mother has fourty million pets. With the irritation. Not so much with the rest.

I had bought my mother a DVD player for Chistmas, which was something she was sorely lacking for a while now. Let fate have it that my aunt thought exactly the same thing! A bit unfortunate, so we decided that we’d go and see if we could return the DVD player. (Hell, we’ll be able to find someone for it. Perhaps I’ll use it myself, since my DVD player is getting on in age quite a bit. Though sadly it’s not region free, like my old DVD player is.)

Spent Boxing Day with Esther and Ed. Ed had made dinner, we watched Kill Bill and played with the cats. I had a good time and got to see a part of Amsterdam I normally don’t get to see. (Czaar Peterstraat and surroundings.) Good fun.

Jim will be coming over the day after tomorrow. Looking forward.

So, for a couple of years now, Ankle, Right has been giving me trouble. After I tore my ligaments for the second time, I finally got some physiotherapy, and I have to admit that while Ankle, Right is still weak, it’s a lot more stable than it used to be, and I can happily do flips, jumps and summersaults again. (Although, I’m not sure it could withstand a few hours of Parkour.) However, for the last few weeks, ever since my move to my new apartment, really, Ankle, Left has been giving me grief. For the longest time it felt like there was a small balloon right in the center of Ankle, Left that would expand inside it, each time I would pressure on it (like standing), but now that’s gone. Now it’s replaced with pain in my tendons and ligaments around Ankle, Left. It’s like the ligaments have been accidentally wrapped around a piece of bone or cartilage and are stretched to the max, so there’s no more leeway to them. It sucks. I think I’m going to have to forego on Kung Fu this weekend. It sucks. I’ll have to be a bit careful for the next few days to see where this is going. It sucks.

I think I managed to kill three out of the four plants in the apartment by not watering them. I haven’t had to take care of plants in a few years, and I generally don’t pay them any mind. I screwed this up royally. Let’s hope I can revive them with some TLC over the next few days.

I wasn’t very interested in cooking after a long day of work, yesterday, so I decided to make myself a sandwich. I ended up making the most fantastic sandwich I have ever fabricated. From these very hands I’m typing this post with, came a sandwich, bountifully packed with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, fried egg (over easy), a bit of mayonaise, some sea-salt and black pepper. It’s sad to think that when it comes to sandwiches I peaked so young.

On sunday the Dutch Junior Kung Fu Championships were held, in which we competed. Six students, divided over two age groups, competed in two different categories; the traditional fist form solo and the traditional synchronised fist form. We scored one gold medal, three silver medals and one bronze medal. Only one of our team didn’t make it into prizes, and we made him jog back home next to the car (that’ll teach him), and one was screwed out of the gold medal and had to settle for silver due to the usual tournament drama.