Sou discipulo que aprende, sou mestre que da lição

So on Tuesday I had to lead the capoeira class. Our contra mestre called me about half an hour before to check I was going, and to let me know she's missed the ferry. The original plan was that she would catch the next ferry and I would just egt everyone to warm up and do some basic exercises. In the end, she didn't make it at all, but things didn't go too badly.

I ran out of ideas after about an hour - it turns out it's not so easy to think up sequences of more complexity that "you do this kick and you esquiva". But we did all right, and I think some of the beginners did need more practice on negativa and meia lua de compasso, which it was nice to do without too much pressure. Consensus afterwards was that without The Teacher there, one could get away with experimenting a bit.

At any rate, after I'd run out of ideas, we just made a roda and played for about 20 minutes. I put on some of the slower songs so we'd not get worn out, there being only half a dozen of us. I think this was good practice, since we don't usually get to play for so long at the end of the class. Unfortunately a combination of me not controlling my kicks well enough and two of the girls not doing a low enough esquiva meant I manage to kick two (count them) people in the head. One quite hard with a meia lua de compasso she didn't see coming and the other with a queixada I just didn't lift well enough.

Strangely neither seemed to mind that much.
So in the end, we got through it and everyone was very nice to me afterwards, suggesting I should get the evening's pay from our contramestre. And I won't complain about being at the front of the class for a while, since it's still easier than being the teacher.

Seen yesterday: "American Gladiators" dubbed into Cantonese. There was just one bloke doing all the voices, which made the female presenter sound a bit like Pingu the penguin's mum.
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I had another minor breakthrough with capoeira recently. Nothing to do with technique, however. Last Wednesday evening I finally plucked up the courage to go and practise in public -- I ran to and a couple of time around the park near the old asylum, and then found an empty corner, cued up the appropriate soundtrack on my MP3 player and did about 10 minutes of capoeira practice. Nothing too fancy, as it was too warm and humid to expend much energy.

No one batted an eyelid. My audience was three cats, and the other people in the park just jogged or walked on by. I mentioned this the next evening to a friend of mine who is also a capoeirista, though as an angoleiro he doesn't train with our class. He'd had a similar experience, and said "in fact, after a while you kind of get annoyed that people aren't stopping and staring".

Domestic bliss

"Is it only three months since I left home? Seems longer."
"That's probably the boredom. Don't worry, I'm sure the next 40 to 50 years will just fly by."

Moving in

The honeymoon is over, literally, and now begins the process of acquiring bookshelves and an extra wardrobe and all that sort of thing. I had actually been keeping a lot of CK's things in storage for a while, so the volume of stuff in the flat has not greatly increased; however, it does need to be rearranged so that it can be got at conveniently. There is not a lot of space on the living room floor at the moment, as a result.

Our honeymoon led to me driving a little over 900 miles in a week. It turns out that you can pull this off in a country 600 miles long, if you are forced by your relatives living inconveniently far away from each other to essentially do a lap of the nation.
It was not bad really. A couple of days loafing at home and walking the dog (with afternoons out to Cambridge and St Alban's). Two and a half days in London, doing all the usual tourist photos. Meeting up with old uni and school friends in pubs in Hitchin and London.

The only real mishap was when we tried to leave Yorkshire -- the car didn't like this. The plan was to head over the Snake Pass and spend the day in Liverpool, having stayed overnight with my aunt and uncle in Sheffield. However, as we approached the Derbyshire border, something went terribly wrong and we suddenly had the kind of engine note that does not bode well, especially in the Peak District, which has enough long climbs at the best of times.
So instead we were forced to spend the afternoon in Sheffield, which was not too bad really, while a garage in Crosspool replaced a section of the exhaust system. The most expensive section going, I would note, containing the catalytic converter.
At any rate, we were able to cross the pass in daylight, so we still got the nice scenery to look at, even if we didn't get the chance to catch up with Stephen.

CK had some trouble with the potato-heavy diet, prompting her at one point to exclaim "Don't you guys ever eat rice?" but otherwise it was all fine. As well as seeing relatives and friends, I also got the chance to visit places I'd never bothered to before (e.g. Stonehenge, Salisbury... er, Birmingham). Which was nice.
And now I'm back in Hong Kong, so I don't have to do any more driving for a long time.

Automatic for the People

Elmer notes the introduction of self-check-in machines at HK Airport.



I fly China Airlines a lot, so this could be good for me.
I'm not sure how much time it will save if you have luggage to be checked--you still have to go to a counter, and I guess you may well end up queueing for the machines too.

On the other hand, it is effectively like opening a whole bunch of extra counters without taking up much space, so that will help a lot, I think.
And if you are travelling with cabin luggage only (which is a great way to fly if you can pull it off--I recommend it highly) then the self check-in is pretty much made for you.

Hua Guofeng, 1921-2008

So there goes Chairman Hua, The One Nobody Ever Remembers, aged 87.

I may have strongly disagreed with his politics, which were immortalised as the Two Whatevers: "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave." (He later renounced this in self-criticism sessions.)
However, he did get rid of the Gang of Four, which is a lot more in itself than most polticians have managed.

BBC obituary: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7572298.stm

My favourite photo of Hua Guofeng (top left), taken at last year's Party Congress: