Rocksmith 2014

I guess i should start this post by wishing everybody a happy new year.

I love playing guitar, I am not very good at it but i do try. I did take lessons for about 6 months but found them very expensive and difficult to practise what was been taught between lessons due to other commitments.
I am now using Rocksmith 2014 on my PS3 to teach me how to play. This is not a perfect method by any means but it fits in with what I am able to do and it makes learning fun. I am sure many traditionalists would say you cant learn guitar like that but I beg to differ. Sure, your probably better off with professional tuition but this just isn't appropriate for everyone.
Rocksmith allows me to learn the basics of playing guitar. Its teaches everything from scales, chords, bends, slides, harmonics, how to improvise and jam with a band to learning well known songs and much more.

I have been learning "R U Mine" by the Arctic Monkeys for a couple of weeks now and though it is not perfect I think it is coming along nicely. Please excuse the sound quality, this was recorded through my phone and the sound quality from the television isn't fantastic.

What a year!

2016... Has been an absolutely amazing year for me with the exception of Joseph being diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. It has been a very busy year with lots of highlights and rather than make a long boring post that nobody read I am just going to bullet point all the memorable stuff that has happened and post memorable photos..

• Took Joseph to go an see Slipknot and he loved them
• My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Zachary.
• Joseph wins 1st place in Chuldow championships for Karate point stop
• I win 1st place in Karate point stop and 3rd place in kick boxing continuous at Chuldow Championships
• My cousin, Jose Louis from Spain comes to visit.
• We go to the beautiful country of Cuba for a two week holiday.
• Julie takes up Karate and gets to green belt
• Joseph and I get our yellow belts in Kick Boxing.
• I get my brown belt in Karate
• Joseph gets his black belt in Karate
• I got a new guitar
• I started playing Dungeon World again
• My friend Anthony got married.
• I am awarded Rothwell's student of the year at the end of year Chuldow presentations/Christmas party.
• My wife wins me a CIT (Certified Instructor Training) Course for 2017.

Joseph gets his black belt

After a lot of uncertainty Joseph managed to get his black belt in karate last weekend.
As you may have read in my previous post he was diagnosed in the summer with JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis) and spent many weeks unable to walk properly and then when the medication kicked in building up the muscle in his legs again.
In October his joints were in injected with steroids and after only a couple of days he had full mobility again and off medication, this wonderful treatment meant he was fit and able enough to take his black belt grading.
To say i am incredibly proud of him is an understatement, not just because he has achieved so much in his martial arts but because of the obstacles and personal demons he has had to overcome to get there.

A long overdue post

Dear Blog, apologies for taking so long to write a post. A combination of laziness, business and lack of time have all played their part.

Since my last post I have managed to gently persuade and encourage my wife to take up karate not only for the health benefits but all so we have a shared interest and have something we can do together. She began training about 4 months ago and has successfully attained a yellow belt. We took our grading together which was nice and though I struggled with my own grading I managed to get through it and get my purple belt though I suspect I was very close to not passing the grading as I struggled to remember the kata. Julie on the other hand was fantastic and flew through Tokyoko and Pinan Nidan.

We have also been on holiday and went to Cuba for two weeks which was absolutely amazing and by far the most beautiful country I have visited. It was even nicer than the Dominican Republic which we visited last year. The people in cuba are so terribly humble, friendly and bend over backwards to make you feel welcome. We stayed at the hotel Playa Pesquero, a huge complex with its own beach in the Holguin province. The food and drink was fantastic with plenty of variety in the form of both freshly cooked while you wait to buffet style and every cocktail you could expect from a carrbean country was on offer. Also due to Cuban law the hotel also had its own 24 hour doctor and pharmacy which we found useful at the end of our holiday.

We partook in two excursions. The first been a trip on a catamaran to some pristine coral reefs to snorkel for an hour or so before heading back. the coral whilst nice was not really worth the trip or expense as we had seen coral reefs just as nice without need to sail out.

Our second trip out was and excursions called Holguins green trail. this excursion was fundamentally intended to allow visitors to visit local villages, plantations and factories to see how real Cubans lived. This trip was fantastic and made me realise not just how much we take for granted but also how much capitalism and relentless need for the next hot gadget has ruined our society and morals.

If anybody reading this ever gets chance to visit Cuba, do so but do it in the next five years because once America gets its foot in the door this country will not be the same.

Our holiday took a horrible turn on the second to last day when Joseph began complaining of his knee hurting. Naturally we believed he must have hurt is while messing about in the pool so gave him Ibuprofen. however that evening he woke up in bed in agony, more Ibuprofen and painkillers were given and the next day we went to the doctors. The doctor however was out on call and we were told to go back in he afternoon. Joseph seemed better and was limping slightly. He wanted to go to the pool as he had met a girl and thinking that been in water would take pressure off his leg we decided to let him go. He had seemed fine until he told us he wanted to go back to the apartment because he was feeling hot. he got out of the pool barely able to walk and I had to support most of his weight. Whilst walking back to the apartment he said he felt weird and collapsed in my arms.

He had passed out, It was terribly frightening. our first thoughts was he had sun stroke so we got him back as quickly as we could and tried to cool him down and phoned for the doctor. 

We noticed his knee had swollen up and the doctor said he had an infection and gave us antibiotics and paracetamol to give him. We were due to to fly back the next day and had to get a safe to fly certificate from the doctor the following morning which we got.

When we landed in the UK we went straight to our local hospital where Joseph spent 4 days and nights and was diagnosed with reactive Arthritis possibly brought on by a throat infection before we went on on holiday. Joseph still has this form of arthritis which can last up to 6 months, he has good day, bad days and days when he is so fed up of the pain and not been able to walk properly that he burst into tears. I am however incredibly proud of how he has handled his illness and the bravery he showed in hospital. I am incredibly grateful to the doctor in Cuba who put our minds at ease and enabled Joseph to be fit enough to fly home.

Brexit

I have tried writing a post 4 times in the past week regarding my countries EU referendum. I toiled and agonised for weeks searching every fibre of my soul trying to decide which way to vote. It was never a case of what I wanted but the type of future I wanted to leave for my son. In the end I voted to for Britain to remain in the EU.
I wanted my son to grow up in country that does not run away from problems but tries to work them out. I wanted the country to show him that when the going gets tough you don't just run away but instead you work hard to put things right.
As you can imagine I was disappointed to say the least when I woke Friday morning to learn that the UK had chose to leave the EU. I cannot say I was in the least bit surprised however. The remain campaign debated terribly in my opinion, choosing to use fear tactics to try and persuade voters rather than stating all the positive things that the EU has brought to the UK.
It feels almost like a victory for the far right fascists in this country even though I know for the majority of Brexit voters they voted for tighter boarder controls and sovereignty which I can identify with. I just worry that all the fascists in the country hide amongst Brexit masses ready to pounce and make Britain more secular.

I fear of what is to come, I love this country. I feel like the Brexit voters have been duped with empty promises. Already Nigel Farage has said the 350 million we spend in the EU will not be put back into the NHS despite this being a major argument for the Brexit campaign. Scotland is once again thinking of breaking away from the UK, Boris Johnson looks like he has just realised the shit has hit the fan and there is nowhere left to hide.

It is what it is however. Everybody including myself has to accept what has happened and pull together to forge the type of country we want to have. we have a choice, we can wallow in self pity, point fingers and carry on falling out with or family, friends and neighbours or we can pull together and decide as a country how to move forward.
We are lucky to live in a country where we have freedom of speech and democracy, whilst tempers may flair we should respect each others views otherwise we are no better than the dictatorships we claim to detest.

My New Guitar

I have had my new guitar for a couple of weeks now so feel now is time to report on it. I could video myself playing it like Slash but I am just not that good. I will do, I just haven't got round to videoing yet. My Schecter Damien Elite 6 arrived in perfect condition and the finish in just stunning.
I bought this guitar so that I may play in Drop D tuning when the mood arises without having to faff about with my Floyd Rose guitar. I have yet to go in to Drop D... That figures!

The guitar sounds amazing playing both clean bright to dark grunting groans. This is the first time I have played a guitar with active pick ups and I have to say I like them a lot. Because I am no guitar genius I like the simplicity in this guitar. It has no coil tap and has a single tone and volume control. my other guitar has a coil tap, two tone controls and a volume control to contend with which I found confusing at times.

I love the strings been strung through the body, not only does it look good but I occasionally like to pick the strings before the bridge just to listen to the ultra bright chimes they sing out.

The neck however not quiet as nice as on my other guitar, it isn't quiet as fast and it is a little thicker. It isn't that it is harder to play or uncomfortable, it just feels different. I am however noticing the more I play it the less I notice this difference.

I am hoping to get some serious practise put in this weekend, focusing on scales, chords and perhaps try to learn a new song as well as practising some old ones. Hopefully after my holidays in August I will resume guitar lessons, I am beginning to feel less burnt out and ready for some more knowledge!

Karate Gradings

I would have updated this yesterday but yesterday was a long day and by the time we got home from karate gradings I was far too tired to turn the laptop on let alone turn it on.
My grading took place in the morning and I didn't feel too bad considering how hard I found the kick boxing gradings. However I found the karate gradings more difficult by a long way, both physically and mentally. I managed to make a a few mistakes during the grading but nothing too serious and gained my blue belt.

Josephs grading looked absolutely brutal, 3 hours of kata. combinations and techniques, running and physical exorcise. This was the same grading every black belt has to take including adults and i can genuinely say I felt tired just watching them. Words cannot express how proud I am that he got through the grading, I would still have been proud even if he didn't go up a belt. Hopefully he will have his black belt before Christmas all being well.