KarateK

Oh dear - Patrick I don't like all this competition for funniest member of KF!!! Am slacking a bit I admit!

Sounded like someone whistling to me? Nice clip - aint you a clever so and so Aodhan

Well done

I thoroughly agree - we charge for gradings to cover costs of room rent, event insurance and all the sundries and paperwork that go along with gradings. In saying that noone is forced or pushed forward for grafing if they are not ready. As such with one recent exception we have never failed someone. I am always cautious of clubs that do 30 day trials - we charge individual lesson fees. Am sure however that the best judgement is your gut instinct - if you feel you are being forced into joining or grading too soon then in your heart of hearts I'm sure you will know.

OO its not far away now - am looking forward to Masters of the Mat this year. Should be a good show. Am contemplating staying at one of the hotels but it depends on the others travelling down. Would love to go to both days.

Congrats

Happy new year, am hoping this one will be better than the last - cant be much worse!!!

Right back at you savedbygrace. Merry Xmas all x

Next grading probably April - however with NHS what it is I probably wont have the surgery until June/July - so I can at least get this next grading under my belt so to sspeak.

Its only recently I have heard of the inheritance trilogy - gonna have to get started on that one!! I forgot another favourite of mine - The Harry Potter series!!!! I started off with the first 3 reading them to my daughter, however as they got a bit more adult in genre I have become addicted!!!

Unfortunately Bushido_man my knee wont recover until I have the reconstructive surgery - so I just have to do the best I can. If I have the surgery its nearly 18 months out of action!

I voted 2 - Kick boxing and karate, but have taken two forms of Karate, Shotokan and Shukokai, have also taken the odd wing-chun lesson.

With mawashe geri and yoko geri my old sensei used to place a chair underneath our legs so we couldnt kick lower than that - or face hurting yourself! I have always found that my best training comes from pad and bag work - its a good drill routine to get your power and flexibility flowing.

Im curently undergoing work based training to become my companys controoler of the management accounting. I WANT to eventually go back to counselling. I want my own practice, ideally in the US, failing that by the seaside in good old UK

On my works pc is a picture of my daughter last year at christmas, at home I have a picture of the New York skyline - if I could go anywhere in the world I would love to go to New York - a girl can dream

Have just started Hannibal rising, recently gone back through from beginning the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. I am a big fan of series books I have to say - Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta is a fave of mine.

4th Kyu if you please Yup I did it - got 65, the average is usually 60 on a grading so am pretty chuffed Some of my padwork and combinations werent great but wasnt expecting high marks what with my knee. Was overall a good grading, got a few good kumite sessions in and thats over with for four months now so I can relax a little!! Celebration at mine lol Added - Actually I lied, was very dissappointed with my marks, especially as one of the kids got 70. I know I am marked critically by my mum and her partner, and as adults we are critiqued more than the cadets but I had a surge of GRRRRness once I got my marks! The judges came to me afterwards and congratulated me etc but I was dissappointed with myself

Ah duh - noticed an error - I meant she wont be DATING!!! Lol whoops

We use it both at work and I use it for personal use. I arrange all my bills to be paid, obvioudly get my wages paid straight in. Fantastic revolution if you ask me, although luckily have never had any fraud cases (probably cos theres nothing in there!)

If you ever get too down ask me for the story of my love life this year - that will soon make you feel better about yourself

Am a HUGE amazon.co.uk user, brilliant for books, dvds etc. Loads of obscure music I would have spent hours trawling the shops for. Also a gorgeous shop if any of you guys are looking for a pressie for the woman in your life its https://www.lush.com. Gorgeous natural homemade beauty products that come gift wrapped etc. Its worth a visit.

At the moment I have just finished training, am on messenger to a friend, and listening to music. Before I installed broadband at home (ALL BY MYSLEF!!) I used to post at work - so technically I should have been paying wages etc etc!!

My daughter wont be grading - have signed her up for the army at 10 lol!!

Cheers all Will let you know Monday how I get on!

I agree with jaymac, getting out there is the best advertising you can do. We have done demo's in schools and asked for parents of the cadets in the club to put the word around. Free trial lessons in local papers are good to - if you can accompany this with some sort of story they will usually run it free and not as advertising. Good luck anyway