Muito axé

I had an absolute shocker of a capoeira session last night. I just started feeling massively overheated after about an hour, and just had to stop so that I could breathe properly again. I hope I'm not coming down with something. I had a bit of a rest and managed a couple of restrained turns in the roda at the end.
Mascote, the kid of the group, was the opposite of me. A fidget at the best of times, he was ludicrously over-energetic last night. In the roda he was tearing up the place, but not thinking it through. At one point all I had to do was sidestep behind him and wait till he stood up out of rolê to smack him in the back of the head. (I didn't actually kick him, of course. It's bad form, and anyway he's about 12.) Kind of a weird evening.

The cool news is we all now have our uniforms - the abadás(trousers) and cordas (rope belts), at least. T-shirts to come. Definitely makes one feel a bit more like a proper capoeirista. Despite my last post here, the bananeiras have not been going so well, but my aú and meia-lua de compasso are improving considerably. I think a lot of it is getting enough practice that you can afford to think about what you are doing next rather than how to execute it.

Developments

I made two minor breakthroughs at capoeira last night.
One is that I can now do handstands -- some might say that 27 is a bit late in life to be learning such a skill. Regardless, it's one of the basic things you have to be able to do for capoeira.
I can also now hold that backwards 'bridge' position like what contortionists do. Before now, I had generally managed to get vaguely into the right position, then have my arms fail me and collapse unceremoniously, usually banging my head on the floor. So that's another plus.

Now, if I could just get those cartwheels right.

Hua Guofeng, 1921-2008

So there goes Chairman Hua, The One Nobody Ever Remembers, aged 87.

I may have strongly disagreed with his politics, which were immortalised as the Two Whatevers: "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave." (He later renounced this in self-criticism sessions.)
However, he did get rid of the Gang of Four, which is a lot more in itself than most polticians have managed.

BBC obituary: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7572298.stm

My favourite photo of Hua Guofeng (top left), taken at last year's Party Congress:

Q: What's more annoying than getting a tax return?

A: Getting a tax return the day after you've gone to the trouble of posting off a form to say 'hey, you didn't send me a tax return' so that the Inland Revenue Department can't later fine you for not telling them in time.


On the plus side, next year I won't be liable for any tax at all, probably. So I don't know what I'm moaning about.

Exciting new layout

At first I was just experimenting, but then I couldn't get the old template back, so here we are and there it is and really, what are you going to do?

The blogroll thingo on the right is a bit better now, and hopefully more interesting to people who aren't me. E.g. you.

K-Town massive

Well, it's been a year and a half, but I'm at last moving off Lamma island, in a bid to save money.
I'll be sharing a place near Kennedy Town, on Hong Kong Island, with a friend of mine whose lease is up in North Point as of August the 9th. His rent was about to go up to HK$7000 a month, for a one-bedroom place not much larger than a shoebox, and he concluded that this was too much for a place he only spends 3 nights a week in (he lives in Shenzhen).

Splitting the rent between us will leave us paying $4100 each on a larger place, and even I'm saving money. My Lamma flat only costs $4000 a month, but add on $580 for a monthly ferry ticket and the savings are already rolling in. When C moves in in February, those transport costs will be more important too.

The area is not bad. It's more Chinese than other places we looked at (we trolled round such diverse locales as Hang Hau, Quarry Bay and Tuen Mun), which makes us feel more comfortable. It's also comparatively quiet, and it's 5 minutes to Central on the tram. This also means I'll be able to stay in bed slightly longer on work days. Huzzah.

Now the only problem is getting all my stuff from Lamma to the Island...

Wedding discussions

"Hmm, can you get miniskirt wedding dresses?"
"Probably, but you want it to be like in the video for "November Rain"? What if Slash loses the ring?"