Ever since my first Winter in Tokyo - 1997 - I have experienced sciatic-related back pain. That first Winter was much colder than I expected, and all I had was a thin futon on the tatami, and one quilt to cover me. I spent the whole winter sleeping curled up in a ball. And then my back started to hurt, and it has been hurting in the cold ever since. I love all the seasons for different reasons, but I started to dread the inevitable pain that Winter would bring. Last year was pretty bad, with the pain setting up residence in my left leg instead of the right, just for a change. Up until then it had been fading in and out, but with the shift to the new leg, it got quite fresh and ouchy. I got my first hoop about this time of year, and found it difficult to hoop for any length of time due to the pain it caused at the time and the couple of days that followed.

And then I met a Very Nice Man.

This Winter has been completely pain-free, the first in 12 years. I attribute this largely to the VNM. I think that all the woolen thermal layers I bought back at the start of Winter may have been a contributing factor, and I think hooping might have been too, but mostly I think being so warm, all night, for so many nights, has done wonders. So now I need to find a way to express my gratitude…

Fantastic post on Public Opinion on the role of the media, and the public, in politics and civic life. The writer is a philosophy lecturer at Flinders Uni, but I have been reading his site for many years for well informed news concerning Adelaide.

“The fortress model is where journalism is criticized by all and in conversation with none; conventions of the craft are defended as first principles; and journalism’s business is information or facts not weighty reflections. That is for professors. Journalism inside the fortress just tells it as it is, interpretation (partisan advocacy) is left to others, and it is agnostic and indifferent to policy outcomes. Therein lies a problem.”

I admit it. I got bored. I got into a rut. I stopped dropping the hoop.

So I decided to try chest hooping, and suddenly I’m no longer bored but rather frustrated. Its amazing how hard it is to move those chest muscles, and the shoulders as well. But if its difficult then its probably worth it, all I’m doing is getting some strength up there.

Im hopeless at remembering anniversaries and birthdays, so when Kuri said that it was her hoopiversary I realised that I must have missed mine! At least I have some video evidence of the first time I hooped to help me remember (thanks Kuri!).

Yesterday I hung out with my Wicked Stepmother in the afternoon and we did a bit of hooping out on the back verandah. She’s got the hip moves going on already, so I showed her a few new things to try; off the waist stuff like passing around the body, above the head and weaving from side to side, and she picked it all up pretty quickly. I will have to take my camera next time!

Spring has sprung! This kind of wind has a name in Japan and that name is Harukaze.

It’s so lovely outside right now, and I have to go sit in the library all day. Ah, the choices we make….
I’m hoping that after years of working inside my current choices might lead to a job that involves reasonable amounts of working outside.

angkor wat bass relief

One of my subjects is not as I had expected it would be. Cultural heritage and the law is all about the international collection of cultural heritage: museums, and the international trade in antiquities. Oh dear, not relevant to me - or so I thought initially. But its a core subject, and no escaping it… I have to spend a bit of energy getting myself invested in it,  make it interesting, and so I have decided to pretend that I am from Cambodia, that I have come from the state department of heritage to study, and my goal is to learn about ways of keeping my country’s heritage intact, and that I will one day work at the Angkor Archaeological Park.

Adds a little spice.

I didnt know that hoop bootcamp was on, so I missed the beginning of it, but by luck or good fortune I have hooped every day so far in August. Ive really enjoyed all the stuff that Deanne has been putting together, found it so motivating! And I’ve realised that, wow, looking at my hands makes a BIG difference to how well I am able to do what I want with the hoop. There is this one particular trick im trying to do, kind of an extension of a pass float where instead of placing it on the waist, you keep going down, pass to your other hand and raise it up the body again without it touching the body either going up or down. I cant find a name for it, or a tutorial on the hoop dance tricks list. Safire does it on that awesome clip... She’s looking at her hands too when she does it! How did I not notice it before??? Looking at my hands means that I no longer whack myself in the back of the head or the ear when I bring the hoop up. It also means that I’m less likely to drop the hoop. Der.

It seems so simple but this is one of those lessons I have to learn over and over:  If I look at what I’m doing when I do it, it all works better.