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.

"Foopball is a tuough game but it is a pity you canot win by hacking everybode. You hav to be nippy."




On Saturday afternoon, I played my debut game for the Hong Kong Spurs supporters' team. Mercifully, it was a friendly, as my performance was not up to much. It's three years or so since I kicked a football, and that was in five-a-side, which is quite different as it turns out. No throw-ins there, for one, my technique for which was described by a team-mate as "perhaps more suitable for netball".
Indeed, as I took my run-up for the first throw I suddenly thought wait, there are rules for this aren't there? but it was too late, so I just made the best stab at it that I could. Perhaps I'll look up some tutorials on YouTube or something.

Having done so poorly on one throw-in, I'm not sure why I took a second. I think I thought getting someone else to do it would be timewasting or perhaps insinuating that I would be best utilised on the receiving end of the throw -- clearly not true.

It later occurred to me that this was my first full-size football match ever. My school did rugby, you see, so my previous experience was limited to two types: 1) five-a-side and 2) playground kickabouts.
Both of these football forms are fine in their way and provide much-needed expertise and exercise, but there's a lot of tactical stuff to think about with 22 chaps on the pitch that I'll have to learn.

There was also a small issue with Getting Very Tired, for everyone, since it was about 30 degrees C in the sunshine. For me particularly, since it turns out it can be quite tiring to spend the morning doing a martial art based on kicking and then spend the afternoon playing a sport based on running followed by kicking.

We had rolling substitutions, thankfully, and I put in three separate stints - right wing, leftback and striker. Much to my surprise I seemed to do best at the latter. Turns out it's mostly running into space and annoying the other team's defenders, for which I have some aptitude.

Now, if I could just sort out the whole "kicking the ball into the goal" thing.

CK took some pictures, which you can see here. They're a little lacking in action, but I think I like that about them.
We won 5-2 in the end, by the way.

Feliz aniversário para mim



When I go to class tonight it will be exactly one year since my very first capoeira lesson. I'm pretty pleased with that. My progress from having no idea to where I am now hasn't been stellar, but neither is it too bad.

Goal for the coming capoeira year: learn to play the berimbau. Due to the circumstances of moving around (and our previous gym not being the right place for it), music lessons have been few and far between. I've had a go on the bermibau a grand total of once, in a bar. So if general music classes don't happen for whatever reason, I need to make an effort to get some lessons somehow.

The Ballad of the SLC

Here's an email I sent to the Student Loans Company complaints department at the weekend.

To whom it may concern

I received today a letter dated 4 August 2009, which kindly informed me that my repayment amount would go up by more than £100 a month because "we have not yet received a completed Overseas Income Assessment form". This surprised me, because I would have thought if you wanted one then you might have told me. Maybe it's more fun if your customers have to guess, I don't know.

Indeed, the penultimate paragraph of the letter says "We will contact you in approximately ten months to reassess your repayments for the following year." I am fairly sure the letter I got 12 months ago on this subject said much the same thing, and yet you have not contacted me.

Having inferred from Kevin O'Connor's blunt missive that an assessment form is required, I shall furnish you with one forthwith. In future, I hope that whenever you want me to send you something, you ASK FIRST. It's not rocket science.

I look forward to your next letter "in approximately ten months".

yours
etc.

I mentioned this to a couple of work colleagues yesterday. One had this to say:
Nicely said.
If they’re not capable of sending one letter a year, could they not send an email instead? They’ve had my email address on file for 10 years and not used it once.
It’s almost as if they somehow make more money by keeping us in the dark. How strange.
If there were any competition, the SLC would drop dead.

And then, this morning, from the same chap:
I've had a further development in the SLC saga. After receiving the “we’re charging you £147 a month” letter last week, I now receive a second letter, dated one day later. Enclosed is an Overseas Income Assessment Form.
Nice work, guys. Not only did they annoy the hell out of me, they made me waste my time downloading and filling in a form yesterday. I’d like to think that there’s some sense behind their behaviour, but can’t quite force logic into the required pretzel shape.
Expect a form in the post any day.


The trouble is, who do you complain to? What can one actually do about these idiots?
Depending on how annoying I find the reply from Complaints, I may write to my MP, since it's Parliament that authorises these buffoons, but I imagine it's a low priority, politically speaking.

Rock and roll

We had our first proper gig last night (i.e. not an open mic night), at the Wanch on Jaffe Road. It went pretty well - no major mistakes, plenty of people came, and the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Afterwards people said very nice things, e.g. "you sing a bit like Jim Morrison", "you're really good at the guitar" etc. These things are not really true, but it's nice that they said them.