Another first...

Not content with my "first day back at school", I also had my first kickboxing training session today. Needless to say, I am shattered, even more so than after the horrendous hot yoga Lady V dragged me to on Monday. Clearly, we live in a dangerous world, we need to know how to defend ourselves, etc etc. But there are other reasons why I am attracted to this not-so-ancient martial art. This one, for example:


In fact, ever since Little Pea dragged me to a Muay Thai class last year, which started a 3-months long passion, only interrupted by a Polish cartoonist driving into me while I cycled across Ludgate Circus, I've rediscovered my passion for martial arts. I'm saying rediscovered, because I practiced fencing during my time at university, from age 19 to age 23, which I thoroughly enjoyed, although I was admittedly rather bad at it. Fencing (scherma in Italian) is by all accounts the Western European martial art, rooted in the ancient art of Medieval warfare, and characterised by archane and very complex rituals and rules. The only difference with Asian martial arts is that when you are fighting you look like this:


Even Brad Pitt would look ridiculous in that gear. Now you probably understand why I switched to kickboxing...