overheating

it was a hot day - much hotter on leaving the office than on getting there. i bladed home, grabbed a beer and walked to the meeting point for the gay pride parade; my "if i could choose i'd be gay" shirt received compliments and shocked stares on the way.

some of the performances were great, but the lip-sync'ed justin bieber was incontrovertible proof that there is such a thing as a tasteless gay. i found a decent spot in the shade of a tree to drink my beer and wait for two groups of friends who would only arrive after i'd already left for training... i ran into a guy i once served with, and we had a fascinating conversation regarding education policy and tax incentives.

the amount of police - i really don't like policemen in this country, so it's tough to tell if their presence was positive or negative - set me on edge right off the bat, and the high heat and noise levels were really tough to deal with.

on my way out i passed a number of teenage girls taking posed photos of their friends on the side of the road... i guess being a model is attractive because it's a form of aristocracy - you're born into it and all you need to do is sit pretty and not say anything too stupid.

i had a quick peanut butter pre-training snack and tried to nap for half an hour, but my phone kept beeping or ringing. the one call i took was in such a sleepy stupor that i confused the poor guy who wants to see my apartment for the guy i ran into on the bus on thursday, and i was so embarrassed when i realized why i'd made that mistake that i couldn't rest any more: when i'm embarrassed because i've been stupid, my system literally overheats with shame :$

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training: everything was fine until the second fight, where after trading nutshots (products of badly timed jump-kicks) i received a blow to the bladder - aside from immediately having to find my way the dark, grimy, mosquito-infested indian-style public toilets, i suffered a dull pain for a while and my body's response time went to shit: i was stuck in slow-motion. when i stepped back on the mat i thought i was going to pass out, so i took a break to drink some water and eat a bar of chocolate; then i went back in to fight one of the black belts. it was an interesting fight, but i limped out of it with a damaged ankle and a really sore upper arm (our pads are only effective from the elbow down).

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i had a shower, gobbled down half a can of dry tuna, did some work and considered some possibilities for next year's courses. then i took a cup of coffee to my apartment to pack things, spending more time sorting than packing and discovering, after half an hour, that i'd managed to drop my cellphone cover on the way over. fortunately, pg had picked it up on her way to her mum's...

i joined them all for a nice dinner, after which i sat antisocially chatting on my iphone, refusing another invitation to the indigo festival and playing logic games, before pg and i left for my apartment to (pretty much) finish the packing.

after dropping off another heavy bag at home, we did some shopping and then watched a couple of episodes of one piece before going to bed. i was zombified halfway through the second episode, so we'll have to watch it again :P

...

i woke up slowly, having installed an rss reader app on my phone so i could catch up on comics in bed. good stuff. i've spent the past hour or two being unproductive, so now it's time to *do* something. it's sad, but the more i have to do the less i get done...