Health & Swords, Sydney ANZUUA, Animal Crackers, Equinox

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Work provided health-checks for staff; for someone who is physically completely out-of-shape (let's say I fall into the very overweight category), my blood pressure is fine, my pulse-rate is fine, by cholesterol levels are fine and my blood sugars are fine. Apparently I am the rare creature, the healthy fat man. Nevertheless, I am now making some effort to rectify the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle; I have taken up fencing again at the local University club. Personally I prefer half-drunken swashbuckling in rural areas (which I used to do) to the more formal rules of competition fencing, but nevertheless it is a start back into using stabby-pointy things.

Next weekend coming caseopaya are in Sydney. We'll be staying at The Centre in Randwick, attending the ANZUUA conference, seriously for me, probably more nominally for caseopaya, although some of the agenda makes me smile and shake my head; a workshop on postmodern prayer? Well, I suppose we are a broad church. Hoping to catch up with a range of Sydney-siders many of whom I haven't seen for years. We have later Friday evening free and Monday afternoon; probably the Zoo Bar (175 Oxford St, Bondi Junction on Friday), open to suggestions for Monday afternoon.

First bit of animal news is the discovery that naked mole rats don't get cancer. An entire species of male sharks are really dickheads. Finally, two sets from Cracked (who have done the transition to the Internet so much better than Mad); the truly weird weird animals, giant versions of disgusting critters and biggest assholes in the animal world. Finally local rodents, Trouble, Mischief and Calamity, celebrate their first birthday (making them about 30 in human years) with cheesecake and chocolate sauce.

Edit. Almost forgot to mention; great equinox dinner on Wednesday night at the Mooroccan Soup Bar followed by drinks at Deco, organised by _nightflower with several guests including horngirl and alchemon. Great night, and special thanks to _nightflower_ for arranging it!

Comments

[mellotron_breakfast]

Postmodern prayer is probably like experiencing a sort of happy schizophrenia to commune with the divine.

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

Postmodern prayer? My mind is boggling.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Hahaha - that's hilarious !
: D

[kits-the-dm.livejournal.com]

uh dude, you could go swashbuckling with us

Thursday nights, at St Augustine's Parish Hall in Yarraville

[damien-wise.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget that fencing is little more than a formalised sword/knife-fight in an alley or corridor. ;)

Sounds like fun...always wanted to give it a try but never had the time.

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Your rats are gorgeous. Damn, I shouldn't have looked - I want some now!

(Happy birthday, ratties!)

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Ah, so that was you folks we saw heading up St Georges Rd on Wednesday evening as we stood outside the Soup Bar. We were attempting dinner there, but given our group was too small to book for, we ended up elsewhere rather than brave the two-hour wait... Glad you folks enjoyed it, though. *smile*

And many happy returns to the ratties!

[forwrathandruin.livejournal.com]

I cannot recommend fencing and swordplay in general enough for the purpose of improving the body. I practiced a light form of kenjutsu for a few years off-and-on amidst other martial arts, and I noticed it strongly when I stopped.

Another friend of mine studied fencing intensely for a few years and came out of it with a physique something like Bruce Lee's, with no additional effort.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I think healthy fat people are a lot less rare than the diet industry would like us to believe.

[thebaronmk1.livejournal.com]

If you prefer a more swashbuckling style of fencing then have you tried the Melbourne Swordplay Guild ??

http://msg.swordplay.org.au/

We are a group of western martial art enthusiasts and we meet every Thursday in Yarraville. This year we are studying the English Broadsword as taught by George Silver. We previously have studied German Longsword, Italian Rapier and French Small sword. The group is small but dedicated and from a firm IT, Geek, Goth background :-)

We use steel weapons in a controlled environment and consider ourselves primarily swordsmen (although there are some re-enactors represented as well)