Corda Amarela

I'm shattered. We got home last night at 3am after a full week of capoeira workshops that culminated in our first batizado yesterday. It's been fantastic, though, and a privilege to have some great capoeiristas training with us and playing in the roda - not only Mestre Falcao, who came over from Brazil, but also Mestres Ousado (Singapore) and Eddy Murphy (Macau), and the graduados and instrutors who came, some of whom also got new cordas.

A lot of our students received their nicknames yesterday too -- CK is now Fofinha.
So I have a yellow corda now. I went to pieces in the roda thanks to nerves, but luckily that didn't seem to disqualify me - I was baptised by Eddy Murphy*, which meant a lot to me as he has taken a real interest in my capoeira development over this first year.

Here's me and Galego getting our new cordas:



CK-- sorry, Fofinha now has a white & yellow corda.

It was a big week, and to tell the truth I'm getting a bit emotional just thinking about it now. Still, onwards and upwards.


* There's a sentence you don't see every day.

Like a lanky Croat

On the night of the Spurs in HK tram party in August, I made the acquaintance of a fellow fan. He told me his name, I told him mine, and he said "but I'm gonna call you Corluka".

This appears to have stuck, although I don't think I look that much like him.
The trend reached a head on Saturday night as CK and I watched the game at home via a dodgy internet feed (12.30am kickoff, what can I say). The camera goes over to some activity on the Spurs bench.

"Is that you?"
"No, that's Pavlyuchenko. I'm already playing."

See? Even I'm doing it now.

A Surprising resolution

I didn't expect to get anything out of the Student Loans Company, but shockingly they have managed to 1) use email for the first time in ten years and 2) send an apology that, although obviously a form letter -- they're not superhuman and I imagine they have a lot of these to send, does at least mention the specifics of my complaint.

Please accept our apologies for the issue of a default scheduling letter prior to you receiving your Overseas Annual Assessment Form. This was a system error and we apologise for the inconvenience we may have caused.

Your account has now been updated and a repayment schedule letter has been issued to your Hong Kong address.

I think they've based my repayments on a generous exchange rate too.