Elizabeth

Two thoughts: 1) Can you re-register at your home GP for the purpose of being seen over the hols? Were you registered there before you went to uni? 2) I thought that they couldn't deny someone treatment for not being registered. When I first arrived in the UK I got really ill and was able to go see the local GP even though I wasn't registered there and they weren't even taking new patients at the time. I was a student too. Edited to add a third thought - when I injured my hand at Kings Cross I didn't go to the GP, I went right to A&E and got it xrayed. Why not do that?

If it were me I'd go to see the GP. Four weeks without improvement seems pretty significant.

Hello, I may need to get a heart rate monitor - the reason is to make sure I stay out of the anaerobic range when I am at karate class. (I'd rather not get into the medical reason of why right now.) I've never used one and until a few minutes ago didn't even know they required a chest strap! I think I thought they read your pulse off your wrist. I'm posting to find out if anyone has any recommendations for particular models. It doesn't have to be fancy, but something that would be fairly comfortable (where exactly do the chest straps go on a woman?) and would give me the option of having an alarm sound if my heart rate goes above my aerobic range would be great. Budget is adjustable but ideally it'd be under $100. And preferably the wrist part would be not too bulky so it wouldn't interfere with partner work in my karate class. Thanks!

Oh, if you've got a computer girl definitely take it to her, then. You should also ask her whether it's time for you to upgrade to a new computer, and to recommend an external hard drive to get.

You can find out whether your files are lost or not pretty quickly. Locate one on the hard drive, but don't open it. Instead, email it to one of your friends and see if they can open it. If they can, your files are still there and it's just a software problem that needs sorting out. What is the file extension on your documents? (.doc, .wrd, .docx etc)

Hi John, Yeah, that was one of the problems I encountered when trying to choose something - most sites that carried them had a very limited return policy and next to no information about size, so it felt like a shot in the dark. However, I've received my Turtle Shells gear which seems to fit, and I'll try it out at my classes this week and see if - in particular - it helps me be a bit less cautious about practicing choke escapes with a 16-year old male - one of the escapes seems to trap the attacker's hand against my chest! Having some sort of protection in place will probably make things easier for both of us.

I don't think I would train at a dojo where I feared the instructors. For me, fear is not a helpful part of a learning environment. We call our head sensei "Sensei Albert" and he's the most cheerful person I've ever met. Many of the people are our dojo are children or teenagers and he is always somewhere encouraging someone or explaining a correction or giving some advice about form or attitude, and helping the students learn how to apply the mental training they receive in the dojo to their lives outside.

Thanks for the input, guys. I've ordered some Turtle Shells and hopefully they will do the job!

I am quite happy to accept advice from anyone, lol - sorry if my initial post suggested otherwise! Thanks for the links! I'll check them out. Edited to add - ah, yes, I saw those mentioned (with praise) in one of the old threads, but didn't see any US sellers of them.

Are there any female martial artists here who can recommend a chest protection product that I can use during sparring and bunkai? Thanks! I've checked old threads for suggestions but they are VERY old and I don't know if something better might be out there. So far I'm leaning toward this but I'm not sure about sizing or quality and this site has a limited return policy. Edited to add...I've just found "Turtle Shells" - anyone have experience with those? http://www.turtle-shells.com/

Try the program at http://hundredpushups.com/ - I've been doing it and seeing results.

There are test "recitals" every three months at my school. To participate in the recital costs $35 and that will include the cost of the new belt. You get to keep your old one. We just had my first recital, and not everyone currently studying participated. For the two weeks or so before the test the senseis were giving us "mock tests", running us through everything that we'd be expected to perform. He told several of us that we had essentially already tested and would do fine on the official day. I know of one green belt who did not feel ready to test (I think he had recently returned from a break in studying) so he did not participate in the recital. The black and brown belts have a different test day than the rest of us; their procedures may be different.

Yup, that's the one! I'm still fine-tuning the new stances and movements but I've got the whole thing memorized at least. Three of us (two yellow and a white) demonstrated it for the upper belts at the end of yesterday's class, and we only mildly screwed it up, lol.

Thanks guys We're in between terms at the moment so while we are still meeting for classes, we're just doing "fun stuff" - sparring and a we-won't-be-tested-on-it kata called Shinpa-ton, which is a pretty cool one. There's a video of it on Facebook from the Vancouver Shudokan academy.

I just wanted to say that it was very cool to be browsing the karate forums and discover an Irish word. Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge agus is maith liom beith ag léamh as Gaeilge. Never came across Bataireacht in my language studies, though. I wonder if it's got any connection with the use of sticks in mock fighting movements during English Morris dancing.