Finding Dantien

Oct 8, 2022 | Sugar, Ah Honey Honey, Tai Chi, Writing

In my final post in 2020, before I lost a lot of weight and took up running again, I wrote:

Some years ago, while I was still at Scottish Government, we had a team away day that included an introductory session to Tai Chi. I was struck also by its ubiquity in China, with lots of fit pensioners practicing in groups in the park in the morning.

 

Ever since that away day I’ve been thinking that I ought to revisit a class and take it seriously, as I rather liked the idea of controlled slow movement and meditative relaxation. Controlled slow movement is an issue for me because I’m overweight and my ankles and knees still protest at my having run on them for a time, which seems to me to be all the more reason to give it a try.

 

So, once things open up again, I plan to sign up for a beginner’s Tai Chi class.

I took that first class yesterday, an introduction to Chi Kung/Tai Chi Chuan that should run for around ten sessions. I enjoyed it a lot, but I have lots to work on. Watching someone who knows what they’re doing gives an impression of grace and precision: I have neither, but then I’ve only had one class.

It is not something that you do, though, as you might lift weights or go for a swim: there is a philosophy behind it that is not ‘western’ and thus a way of thinking that gives meaning to the movements and techniques (and even that sentence is probably too analytical.) That goes against my instincts in many respects, but I want to give it a fair go – even if all I get out of it are better posture and breathing, that would be worthwhile. I’d like to get more than that though, and that means putting in the work and going with the flow. Literally.

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I haven’t done a diabetes update page for a while, and probably won’t until the end of this month. Briefly, I put on a little weight in the US (2kg) and so far it hasn’t come off again, although I have been running and swimming and eating sensibly. There are things there to work on, and it will be interesting to see what the next set of blood tests indicate. I don’t have a date for them yet, but I expect to get a letter shortly.

Since my last post here I’ve completed 63 trips around the sun. I doubt I’ll manage another 63, but it’s a reasonable ambition.

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Edinburgh by Cezanne

I’ve been playing with AI art programmes online. I’m working up to a new novel series that will be set in 1930s Edinburgh and have been getting myself in the mood with 1930s dance orchestra music. I also used the AI programmes to generate images that might catch a mood (because I think the stories need a particular voice and aesthetic to work.) On the whole, that has been successful.

The image on the right is how the AI interpreted the prompt ‘Edinburgh painted by Cezanne.’ It isn’t one of the pieces that ties to the story, but I rather like it anyway.

Although I know the outline of the first of the novels and something of the second and third, a lot of the texture will come from spending time at the library with period copies of the Scotsman, the Edinburgh Evening News and the Edinburgh Evening Despatch. Life has got in the way of starting that research – I expected it to be completed by the end of October and it may not now be completed until November.

I’m hoping that the novels will be relatively quick to produce in rough draft. I’m doing a lot more preparation and outlining than I have done in the past. Time will tell.