DarthPenguin

Yeah i have enjoyed the anime tbh. One thing i like about it is they haven't made Luffy more "heroic" than in the manga - they did that with Goku in Dragonball (in the Anime he is trying to be a hero often and save people in the manga he just likes to fight and saving people is a nice consequence). Luffy helps people but it is because he wants to or likes them, rather than going about trying to overtly save the world (where i am in the story anyway). Am looking forward to watching live action season 2 though

watched the first season and will watch the second shortly. Have been watching the anime with my son from the start though - we are now partway through the Fishman Island arc so about episode 540 or so!

Congratulations @Zaine , well done! 20yrs is a fair innings too!

Monday 16th March Karate Session First session at new club. Really enjoyed it. Nice atmosphere and lots of very skilled karateka to learn from. Everyone was very welcoming. Also got to learn some new stuff i have never tried before (they covered some advanced kata which is typically used for 4th Dan grading but said it was useful for us to all get some exposure). Great class and i think i am currently very happy with my decision to move!

Friday 13 March Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 86kg x 5 86kg x 5 86kg x 5 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 69kg x 5 69kg x 5 69kg x 5 Really tight on time here so tried to get the minimum in for the key lifts

Update Re: Karate unfortunately due to multiple things i have decided to change clubs (so wont be sitting grading!). It has become quite obvious that the instructor (for whatever reason) is not treating me fairly. Not going to go into details here but i would prefer to change clubs and wait a year or more to sit grading than stay in this one now. It is a shame but to use the awful phrase "it is what it is"

Saturday 7 March Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 86kg x 5 86kg x 5 86kg x 5 86kg x 5 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 69kg x 5 69kg x 5 69kg x 5 69kg x 5 Pull up assisted -40kg x 5 -40kg x 5 -40kg x 5 -40kg x 5 Standing military press 34kg x 10 34kg x 10 34kg x 10 Triceps pushdown straight bar 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 E-Z Bar curl 26kg x 10 26kg x 10 26kg x 10

Thursday 5th March Lifting session Quick one here. Got a new set of catchers for my rack and wanted to test them as i can now do incline barbell bench if i use them (coildnt get bench into place beforehand) incline bench 20kg x 10 30kg x 10 40kg x 8 45kg x 5 50kg x 5 55kg x 5 55kg x 5 55kg x 5 Pendlay row 55kg x 8 55kg x 8 55kg x 8

Wednesday 4th MArch Karate Session Getting more annoyed now tbh. Literally did not get called up for kata when everyone got called up by grade (was only one left out with no comment made). Then when the entire class got up and ran through kata from Kihon kata to Bassai Dai the instructor literally stood behind me and faced away.

Tuesday 3rd March Conditioning workout quick one here. EMOM ABC complex with 2 x 16kg KB. did 16 sets just to get a little movement in

Monday 2nd March Karate Session This class was warm up, then kihon then lots of kata. Tbh was not very happy as i am meant to be grading in two weeks and got literally 0 comments from the instructor. As we are a small class this is a little concerning - when i think about it it has also been the same for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully it is that i am just so amazing (lol i doubt that) but i should be getting more feedback

Monday 23rd February Karate Session Same session as per usual: grade required kihon, kata and then kumite. Nothing too exciting to report tbh

Awesome. It feels really good when you begin to see things coming together - you know it has taken long enough (it does for me anyway) that you have actually gotten a little better over time and not just got lucky. I have always said "you can land a lucky punch but you don't land a lucky armbar or choke!"

sounds like a really positive class! Being able to advance and keep your position etc. is definitely a win. If a decent wrestler then that would be a nightmare anyway so again don't be too disheartened! Final one, if you felt like you had a good match then that is what is important. Definitely sounds like it is coming together Is it still just nogi or you guys training in the gi now too?

I know we are in totally different locations with different processes and rules so there isn't a lot i can offer that is relevant to the USA but i can say that Aurik's comment above is mega mega important. For myself, when my partner and myself bought our current house we took a mortgage that was about 2X combined salary (at the time) even though banks would lend up to 4.5X (and prevailing wisdom was to get as high up the ladder as possible at all times). What this meant was that when interest rates rose (as they had to do since the rates of 0.5% etc. are historically artificially low and usually are somewhere between 4-6%) we had no issues and the mortgage payments etc were still fine. Whilst we saw plenty of things on the news here from people massively struggling to pay their mortgages as they were either on a tracker rate (which had massively jumped) or their fixed term had ended and new fixed rates were high. Personally i would add to the above that i like to take a fixed rate for the longest sensible term (in my view) so i have certainty as to costs and affordability. Is it the cheapest option? No, you might well get a tracker rate for cheaper for some of the time period but i know my billing amount and it is one i can pay. Removes the risk of a sudden unaffordable hike