Rocking On

Whew.
Edinburgh, Swindon and the first of two days in Sheffield.  Great people.  The hosts, Mick Franklin, Andi Kidd, and Garry Smith have been extraordinary-- organized, friendly.  Down to earth and devastatingly  intelligent.  Wide experience in life, martially and the world.  Good times.

Naturally sleep deprived.  The sleep has been good when I get it, but there are so many better things to do, stories to hear, thoughts to explore... Some of which I won't remember until after I get some sleep.

The breakdown has been different than usual.  Sometimes trying to cram sixteen hours of material into a single day, or spreading things over two days.
So far-
Edinburgh-- Day one was trying to get the funnest elements of a two day class into a single day, taking it all the way up to environmental fighting and still keep it safe.  It felt so weird that I stayed after for three hours and went over more stuff with the people willing to stay, filling in holes that only really existed in my own mind.  A very long, solid day.  Followed up by talking until 0300.
         Day 2-- Conflict Communications.  Met a few people that couldn't make the first day.  Saw an old friend who was able to make it into town.  And left immediately from the class to catch a plane.

Swindon-- Met Andi, checked into the hotel, slept, woke and hit the ground running.  Day one we combined a condensed version of Ambushes and Thugs with the basic version of ConCom.  A ton of material.  And I set off a panic alarm groping for a light switch.  Sigh.  I'm a dork.  The second day, met with a very few hand-picked people at a nightclub called The Furnace.  Went over in as much detail as I could how to run scenarios.  Safety.  Purpose. Personnel.  Scenario design and execution.  Trouble shooting and emergencies.  Next year that club will be perfect for either or both an environmental fighting day or a scenario day.  Left right from the venue to the train station.

Sheffield-- First session was the same evening, so Garry met me at the train station, kept up a running tour-guide imitation all about the history of the area as we drove to his home and got some stew and coffee into me.  Then we went to play.  Good crew.  One of the karate guys was probably only 5'7" but  was one of the strongest men (great structure, too) that I've ever met.  One giant.  Wide variety of systems and styles.  Mike attended the Swindon session and came up here too, so I added one of the elements I skipped due to the compressed time.

And up this morning.  Another session tonight.  Looking forward to brawling in an equipment closet.