MonkeyDispenser

Hurrah! I managed to pass my bike test. Admittedly it took two attempts and I thought I’d blown it the second time too but luck, and a nice driving examiner, appeared to be on my side.

So all I need now is a bike. Assuming the weather holds out for a few more weeks I’ll be heading up to Edinburgh to pick it up soon. After that the world is my oyster. Well, perhaps not since it wouldn’t go down too well if I spent all my time out on the bike. It’s tough being a modern husband…

That was a joke, by the way. I wouldn’t swap any of them for the bike, tempting as it may be some days

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I had my first attempt at cutting with a live blade tonight. It certainly makes a change from swinging a big lump of metal around and having to stop it yourself without hitting anything. What was a surprise was just how easily a sharp blade will cut through something. Newbies like myself tend to use the blade like an axe, expecting resistance at the point the blade strikes the target. What actually happens is the blade slices clean through the mats with very little resistance at all, leaving you to try and stop it before it hits the floor or your foot! As you can see from the second shot, my end point is a little low…

My form doesn’t look too bad, which was another thing I found surprising, but it does need some work to come up to the standard of someone who has been practising for so long. Sensei Keith Rose, 5th Dan, demonstrates the right way to do it.

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