Eventually Allen & Alistair showed up at the campsite as well and kindly gave me a hand at hastily packing up my tent, etc. There was much “we’ll deal with it later” type stuffing of thing into the car, and soon we were off to the meadow as well. Alas, our hast was unnecessary as half of the participants didn’t show up for another 15 min.
Soon enough we were back to practicing. Much of this is a haze for me as my mantra for the day was “I. Can. Do. This.” through the nausea and headache. Note to self, three shots of vodka are enough, especially during a seminar. (This is where I question how everyone else could be so steady. They had as much, if not more than me! I really must be a wimp, or I don’t drink enough).I do remember running and pushups and more punching (which did not make me more nauseous, surprisingly).
Eventually we got to some of the more unusual training. Because we were outside, it gave us the opportunity to work in the forest a bit. We played hide & seek of sorts, only on a grander scale. This is where I really started to regret wearing shorts, as the sticks and brambles just trashed my legs. Vali’s lesson in this practice was the practicality & reality of camouflage. It really isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies! Camouflage print help, but does not make you invisible.
After that we spent another hour or so practicing with knives. Knives were especially fun for me this trip as I finally had my own practice knife, an old hunting knife that my dad gave me. I had thought that it was pretty dull, ant it was around the tip and top of the knife. Unfortunately for me and another participant (darn, forgot her name already), we learned that the lower blade was still fairly sharp. It bit me twice and her once. Thankfully, I had found a kindred spirit in her as she looked at it more as a learning experience than as something serious, although, we were much more careful with my knife after that.
Another luxury of practicing on Denman Island was the beach! After a short break we headed to the beach to finish of the training with and hour of training in the water. The water lends itself to all sorts of good training experiences and facing fear. We did more pushups, sit ups and squats in the water. There was some strike work and kicking and some stuff that reminded me of goofing off as a kid in the water, although we put a serious twist on it as well. It was a good balance of play and practice. We finished up with some breath work and then we had to go. The time was all to short, but there was a bunch of us who had to make the ferry. After some hasty good-byes we jumped in the car (I didn’t even have a chance to change and had to borrow Stephan’s towel to sit on so we didn’t ruin the rental car).
We made it to the ferry on time and I changed in the washroom. We chatted a bit and said our goodbyes to our friends. Rianna & Jeff were headed to her mom’s place and are moving up to Dawson’s creek, so it is unlikely I will see them again anytime soon. I also should have said goodbye to Ryan & Tom, but I thought they would be on the ferry to Horseshoe bay with us; unfortunately they went to Twassen instead (sniff, and Ryan was giving me such a nice hug, too. Sigh)
It was hard to believe that less than 48 hours before we were going to Denman Island, it seemed more like a week! The trip home was long, but uneventful and I think it took me about a week to recover from the weekend. I can’t wait to do it again.
*****
Well, that's it. I can get on with the rest of my life now!
No comments:
Post a Comment