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.

Yellow belts - Kicboxing

My son and I both attended the kickboxing graduations for our yellows belts today. We have been training for a good few months now and find the training far more intense than karate. Whereas karate tends to focus more on technique, kickboxing seems to be more about fitness.
I found today's graduation particularly difficult, indeed at one point I began to feel a little sick. The graduations began with 30 sets of press ups, sit ups and star jumps followed by a 30 second sprint. This was proceed by another 15 sets of each exorcise before going straight into 10 minutes of combinations of kicks and punches with reps of press ups and sit up in between.
By now I was sweating like a pig on its way to slaughter and so was relieved when we were moved to the punch bags, however there was no let up in the intensity of the graduation and were constantly being encouraged to push ourselves.
Skipping for 5 minutes proceeded the bag work followed by 3 rounds of sparring with different partners. My second sparring partner happened to be my son and once again he managed to almost break my big toe with one of his blocks. Its still hurts now as I am writing this.
Thankfully my third sparring partner wasn't too aggressive so I was able to use my weaker leg for kicks. At the end of the sparring we were treated to yet more sit ups, press ups, mountain climbers and sprinting. Despite my best efforts my legs refused to sprint, a slightly quickened jog was all they could manage. Thankfully this was the end of the graduation and we both were awarded with our yellow belts. Tomorrow is our karate graduations, Joseph if hoping to get his Pre-Dan and I will be aiming for my blue belt, I just hope I have the energy left to get though it and that my big toe does not give me too much hassle.

New Guitar Ordered

Today I took the plunge after many weeks of thought and bought myself a new guitar. I love my current guitar which is a Schecter Omen Extreme 6 with a Floyd Rose bridge. It has been a joy to play but buying the guitar with a Floyd Rose was a mistake. Don't get me wrong, it has been fun messing about with it but to be frank I hardly ever use the tremolo system. This in itself isn't a huge issue but having a Floyd Rose bridge means I have never tried different tunings on the guitar as it would be too much messing about.

With all the above in mind I have chosen to buy myself a nice hard tail guitar, the bigger and more

versatile brother to my current guitar. I have decided get myself the Schecter Damien Elite 6 which is not only stunning in looks but offers much more versatility in its tones.
It is fitted with active EMG pick ups which I do actually like the sound of after watching many YouTube reviews and have no issue with them not been passive.

The guitar I currently use will be sadly sold as I just cannot afford the space to keep it which is a shame as I have truly loved playing it. Hopefully it will find an owner that will make use of its Floyd Rose bridge and play it better than I ever could.