My humble opinion…

Bleach mangaka Tite Kubo has released an artwork in support of Ukraine, as we can see Ichigo in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Being a fan of anime, I thought it was consistent of me to show my support in this way.

Hello my dear readers, I hope everyone is safe wherever you are.

We’re living a disheartening moment in history.

I’m sure everybody knows what is going on in Europe at the moment and I guess everybody is reacting in a very different and personal way.

Although I’m living in a relatively quiet and safe place – save for the normal average dose of micro-crime always present in any European capital – I cannot help to feel worried and in apprehension.

These days loads of articles have been written, loads of reports have been filmed and loads of words have been said. Every person, country, politicians have their own personal opinion and their way to react.

I’m not here to share knowledge as I haven’t enough of it. I’m not here to give new information, perspective or view as I’m not expert.

But I can tell you how I feel.

I feel sad, I feel worried, I feel my heart squeezed tight.

I feel sad for the situation a civilised world, that should learn from its own history, put itself into. We didn’t learn anything from our history, from the speech witnesses from previous war brought to us through suffering. It sounds like we cannot do better than self-destroy us.

I feel worried for my friends who are sitting on the edge of the chair hoping not to receive a bad news from their families.

I feel my heart squeezing and hurting in watching the images flooding all the media, all those poor people trying to escape, those children that don’t know whether they will survive or whether they’ll be orphans the day after.

It’s too sad and it’s too painful.

My thought are all for the civilians and the innocents on both sides.

I wish for them to hang in there and hope a swift end of this ridiculous and sad situation.

See you next week, my dears

Kangeiko 2022!

Hello, my dear readers!

Before I start with my long due news report, as promised in my last blog, let me tell you something else!

Taken into account my speed in communicating news – that are no news anymore by the time they appear on this pages – I wanted to share with you a fairly recent achievement of mine.

It’s true that it happened two weeks ago, but considering that the long promised news date to approximatively one year ago, this one I’m about to share is practically in perfect timing!

I think you remember the fact I started to attend karate lesson with my daughter and we’re still going. We have reached the purple belt before Christmas last year (well, Maya did. I got the temporary grading as I was too nervous while I performed my kata and I made one of the silliest mistakes ever! But it’s another story!) and at the end of January I achieved my goal with the Kangeiko.

For those who are not familiar with the event here is a brief intro: it’s a Japanese tradition, I discovered very common, where people challenge themselves in this cold training for a week solid. This practice, made at the beginning of the year would support your self-confidence in being able to face anything else you might struggle with.

Although very common in Japan, I hadn’t heard of this training until I joined the Hombu Dojo. Scott Sensei, brought the practice from Japan, where he’s studied to become an instructor – and here keep your eyes peeled, as sooner or later I’ll review his book telling all the juicy details about it!

Since I joined the dojo I always wanted to try and succeed in the attempt, but I didn’t take into account how weak my body had turned.

Well, when I was kid I did loads of sport, including my beloved karate, but from high school until two years ago I didn’t do anything, and this brought me to become overweight, causing an early retirement of my muscles.

Going back to the Kangeiko attempts: two years ago I tried to go to the dojo before work and commit to the seven days but I managed to do only two – well, then took me a week to recover.

Last year the event was only four days long and online, because of the lockdown but I managed to take part fully along with Maya. Then of course I needed another week to recover.

This year, sensei gave us the online and in presence options and it was back to 7 days long. I decided to join online, as for me would be too complicated to go to the dojo so early in the morning.

Monday to Sunday from 7 am to 8 am I trained with the sensei, the senpai and the other people who showed up at the dojo or connected from all over the world.

It was hard, very intense and ultimately extremely rewarding.

I didn’t think I would be able to make it but I did! This means the work I’m doing on myself it’s giving the first result. (I’ll talk more about it later on in a future post!)

It’s also true that I’m still very far away from my goal as two weeks later I’m still paying the consequences of my bravado! Still, I’m delighted with myself and I cannot stop giggling for the good vibes are still tickling me!

And that’s it for this week, my dears, I’ll talk to you next Monday!

Have a lovely week!

Welcome back to me and happy 2022!

I’ve been trying to get back to publish on these pages since May 2021, I prepared several drafts but never managed to get the job done — even now, I cannot believe I’m entering this new blog…it’s even quite scary!

When I tried and failed, since we were around Christmas already, I told myself that the most sensitive and stress-less thing to do, would be to keep writing drafts to have a safety net to go back to once going back online the next year.

Then the new year came and went without me publishing anything!

After that, I decided that the good Chinese zodiac was giving me a second chance so, I’d decided to postpone to the Chinese new year! I’m a big eastern Asia fan, as you may well know, so it’s in line with my personality anyway!

And once again I failed, but I’m a person full of love, so why don’t publish for St. Valentines day!

My dear readers, you’re witnessing a real struggle here! But I want to write, I really do!

So first and foremost, I wish you a Happy 2022! And a happy year of the tiger! And may the new year treat you well and give you joy and happiness….and loads of love!

Said that, let’s go back to us!

I have many news to give you, along with the old news… or new news that now are old! Oh well…

The habits, in particular the old, ugly and bad ones are hard to die, so you guessed right: I’m still not able to organize properly and manage my life to the pace I would love to.

However, one of the few goals I want to give to myself this year would be to publish something at least once a week. Better than nothing! Ideally I’ll be able to publish every Monday, as I’ll have more time during the weekend!

From next week then I’ll start with new posts trying to swap around among different topics.

You might have guessed right again if you thought that also my writing is in an endless standby status and I hope against hope to make some changes here too! It’s a personal challenge I’m determined to win! I have no clue when I’ll manage, but I will!

And I’d say that this is it for now!

So I’ll see you next week!