Oct 26, 2022 | Goggle-eyes, Legs!, Tai Chi, Writing
A wee bit of a catch up in this post: October has been quiet on the blogging front.
I wanted to put something up to mark one year since Coyote in the Corner was published. I can’t say that I sold a lot of copies in the great scheme of things, but it does still sell, and it’s nice to think of the results of all those nights in the shed at the keyboard gracing some stranger’s bookshelf or Kindle. I look at writing and publishing differently since I put Coyote out, but that was part of the point of publishing – to learn. I plan to write something longer about this once I manage to coral my thoughts into coherent form. Meantime, I’m researching what will be novels and keeping my hand in with new short stories. More on those later.
***
I’ve been running quite a bit of late, and all of the runs have been around the 5km mark. I’m starting to tail off a bit as it gets wetter and colder – I may return to the exercise bike in the garage over winter, depending how the weather turns. I’ve been swimming but it, too, is tailing off, mainly because my days have been taken up with research and writing as well as other family stuff.
Whatever happens with running and swimming, I’ve tried to make the Chi Kung/Tai Chi a permanent fixture in my week. Mostly it has been Chi Kung and the ‘Eight Pieces of Brocade.’ Until last week we had been taught the first two pieces; last week we learnt two further pieces and it felt like something was coming together. I aim to practice the routine at least once a day, and usually I manage that. Even if I don’t do the routine, I do try to focus on the five fundamentals – correct posture, correct breathing, relaxation, awareness and focus. I can’t say that I’m on them 24/7, but I do try to stick at them.
And I achieved another of my long-term targets this week – I’m wearing 30″ waist jeans for the first time since the early 1980s..
***
When I can, I try to catch the odd TV show – almost always online rather than on the crystal bucket in the corner. Updates:
Rings of Power: underwhelming. The final episode recovered some ground, but overall I didn’t enjoy it. The acting was good, as were the production values, but the writing was all over the place.
Pennyworth: is back for season 3. I’ve only caught the first episode so far, but it was as great as ever.
From Marvel have come She-Hulk and Werewolf by Night, and I enjoyed them both. The latter has Laura Donnelly in it and I’ll watch anything she’s in. She-Hulk caught me by surprise – I didn’t expect to binge watch it. In some respects it was a bit ‘too Marvel’ for me towards the end, but what I like about the Marvel TV series is that they are all different in their own ways and some try hard to push the boundaries. Even if they don’t always work, they are all worth watching. My favourites remain Moon Knight and the wonderful Ms Marvel (and, from an earlier era, Jessica Jones.).
Andor is one of the best things ever done in the Star Wars universe. I’ve seen all the films, most of the animated series and read a smattering of the novels. They fall into two camps: the major one sticks to the whole Jedi/force thing; the smaller camp is much grittier and Andor is in that one. ‘Must-see TV’ is a cliché, but I look forward to Wednesday mornings. Also new in the Star Wars universe is a short animated series – Tales of the Jedi, which largely focuses on Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku. It has only 6×15 minute episodes and is from the same Dave Filoni stable as Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and The Bad Batch. It was slight, but I enjoyed it; my guess is that it is part of the set up of the forthcoming Ahsoka TV series starring Rosario Dawson.
Finally, Gangs of London is back for series 2. I’m 2 episodes in and it follows in the spirit of series 1, and that can only be a good thing.
Oct 12, 2022 | Tai Chi
Further to yesterday’s post, I was at the swimming pool earlier and decided to apply those Tai Chi principles to my swim. Did it work? Yes and no. The most compatible activity was breast stroke because it is more naturally consistent with focusing on the abdomen as the source of energy and, crucially, with abdominal breathing. These are less naturally applicable to the crawl, at least for me.
The result was a very enjoyable swimming session, predominantly breast stroke, in which I felt much more at home in the water than previously – it felt less like physical exercise and more like a natural activity. Of course, the same caveats that I mentioned last night might apply and it could be psychological. In the end, though, that doesn’t matter. This is an approach which is working for me and that is worth persevering with, I believe.
Tomorrow will either be a rest day or a short jog in the early evening to allow the exercise of the last few days to consolidate itself.
Oct 11, 2022 | Legs!, Tai Chi
I noted in my last post that I had been to my first Chi Kung/Tai Chi Chuan session last Friday. As an introductory class, a significant portion was devoted to the very basic concepts behind Chi Kung and Tai Chi Chuan (yes, there are various spellings, but I’m going to stick with those for now.) At the heart is the notion of the balance of Yin and Yang. The core elements we are asked to focus on are posture, breathing, relaxation, awareness and focus. A fundamental notion is diaphragmatic breathing focused on the lower dantien (or dantian or other spellings) which, in Chinese philosophies and practices, is the focus of energy in the abdomen. For both Chi Kung and Tai Chi Chuan, the abdominal dantien is the body’s centre of gravity and regulator of energy.
On Sunday, I went for a run and wondered about the application of some of these principles to the act of running. In particular I was interested in the abdominal dantien as the centre of gravity and regulator of energy and in abdominal breathing (as opposed to gasping for breath as I ran.)
And … I found it did help with the run, as did incorporation of Chi Kung exercises into my warm-down. I ran a comfortable 4.5km on Sunday and then tonight ran a comfortable 5km. Neither were fast runs, but I’m not especially bothered by that. They were, though, steady and comfortable runs, which is what does interest me. I found that consciously changing my running form to treat my abdomen as the centre of activity helped, as did envisioning the abdomen rather than the legs as the source of power. The breathing, well, we’ll get there.
Now: if you know me you’ll know that I’m not much given to mystical woo. You might say – entirely reasonably – that finding a good posture and paying attention to breathing is naturally going to make a difference, as is developing muscle memory and stamina, and you would be right. But the fact is that, for whatever reason, a single Chi Kung/Tai Chi Chuan session has had a marked influence on my running AND my recovery afterwards.
My next exercise session will likely be a swim and my next run, after a suitable rest, will be shorter. Considering that it is nearly a year since my doctor called to discuss diabetes and that I’m now 60+ lbs lighter and a lot happier, that’s a pleasing sentence to write.
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.
***
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.
***
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.
Recent Comments