I posted this on multiply; forgot to post it here. Freshly Ground is a South African group...

watch and listen - it's one of the most beautiful music videos I have ever seen...

...but not the long flight home. Urgh :-/

See Multiply and all... photos etc. to come later...

I have them. So watch out... ;-)

Way back when I got my first passport ever, a friend of mine looked at the empty pages and said "this is going to get full of stamps..."

Well, I'm on my second passport now. I just got back from the US Embassy because I had to get new pages put into this passport, as I'm running out of un-stamped pages. Just like I had to do with my first passport...

The royal cuckoo.

I already knew she was quite a whackjob, but this time she's really flipped. The worst part is that a lot of people out there actually take her seriously... :-/

I've finally started to write up some Madrid stuff...

And this video is rather interesting...

I'm on a Krav Maga break (for formal training anyway) until August. In the meantime, I need something to do, and after the strength drills from hell during Thursday's grading ("the Nazi" among other things), it's quite obvious I need to work on strength...

I still want to work on power, so I figured I'll do this during the summer:

day 1: legs + back (+ biceps)

day 2: shoulders + triceps + chest (+ biceps)

day 3: power/plyometrics (full body) and/or punch and kick work with the mitts (killer drills)

So far, I'm thinking Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday or Friday for this. I'm not quite sure how I want to set up the sets and reps. I'm not sure how I want to fit in abs either... maybe on my condition training days. Otherwise, condition training (both interval and steady-state) first thing in the morning Monday-Friday and maybe an extra jog or punching/kicking during my non-lifting/power days if I'm up to it.

Saturday will be my rest day.

We'll see how this works...
   

Today I purchased the following:

- training pants for Krav Maga
- focus mitts
- a large kick mitt
- mango shower gel
- a little travel-size bottle of conditioner
- lip gloss
- a leg from a suckling pig (tomorrow's dinner!)
- lots of spelt pasta (since it always seems to be sold out otherwise)

This is strangest shopping list I've had for quite some time...

Oh, and I got to visit a pet store that has lots of cute parrots and I got to baby-talk with all of them! And a very cute little African grey let me scratch his head. Wheeeeee :-D

Hmmmf...the soreness from Thursday's grading is really starting to kick in my shoulders, pecs, back and neck... owie... it better go away tomorrow, as it's time to start up a hardcore strength-training program again. After our last set of drills during grading, I realized I need to get myself some pure, raw strength... urgh...

I graded tonight, even though I said I wouldn't. We both decided this afternoon to grade. We were very apathetic about the whole thing...

We're both P4 now :-)

My injuries, in particular my evil finger, weren't bothering me too much. And I was able to execute the most difficult thing in our pensum - defense against an overhead stick attack - almost perfectly. I couldn't be happier about that...

My Little Toe of Doom would like gifts. Lots of gifts... ;-)

Here's why.

Amnesty International supports the rights of all women, including their right to abortion when their health is in danger or human rights are violated, especially in cases of rape or incest. This is essential for women's rights... for human rights...

"We are saying broadly that to criminalise women's management of their sexual reproductive right is the wrong answer," Amnesty's deputy Secretary General Kat

Thank you, Amnesty International!

(AS is the Norwegian version of Inc.)

We were at a Krav Maga seminar yesterday; the theme was protection of third persons. Our guest instructor was a guy from Sweden...

Anyway, we were mostly outdoors (and I have the tan to prove it) and we did a lot of technique work (with and without weapons) and then drills where we use what we learned. I was the only female attending the seminar and consequently the smallest person there. It was rather amusing protecting guys who were a bit bigger than me against guys who were a bit bigger than me. But things worked out nicely. I was able to use a lot of (other) dirty Krav Maga tricks when I was too small/weak to get the techniques we had just learned to work properly. It shows I've learned something during training ;-)

The place where we had our seminar is a place where the police do a lot of "practical" training. There was a building that had these "apartments" set up. Our last drill was protecting someone while that someone was going through the rooms of the apartment, with lots of attackers waiting. (We all switch roles, of course.) It got really crazy in the end. Good fun. Especially when it was much cooler inside the building than outside in the sun...

Today was spent outdoors as well... first at a sort of food festival or farmer's market or something... I got to sample lots of sausages and cheeses and I bought some ecological salad and lots of fresh herbs... and then to the botanic gardens to take some pictures... and well, here I am now :-)

Not that I care. This whole ID check thing serves no other purpose than to make sure that someone doesn't pass off their non-refundable non-transferrable ticket to someone else anyway. Maybe the airlines should stop being so anal about that...

Homemade ID enough for air travel

ID checks for all domestic flights have been in force since March 1, but the ID cards used do not have to be issued by an authority.

Eilert Sundt from Stamsund shows a homemade club ID at security control when flying within Norway, newspaper Lofotposten reports.

Sundt is one of three members of the Norwegian Map Zoology Association, a group that looks for the shapes of animals in the layouts of city street maps. The ID card is for the association, and was made as a joke, the newspaper reports.

The requirements for ID used for domestic flight security are that the card has the name, picture and social security number of the bearer, information adviser Bjørn Erlandsen at the Civil Aviation Authority told consumer web site Forbruker.no. He confirmed that the homemade ID meets the requirements.

Erlandsen explained that the idea of the domestic ID check was to ensure that the person checking in baggage was the same person that boards the plane.

"This is not a legal check of the person's identity," Erlandsen said. According to regulations travelers with only hand baggage do not need to show ID.

Progress Party member of parliament Kenneth Svendsen demands a system where passengers must show an official ID card.

"This is completely unacceptable. I thought that everyone had to show an officially issued identification at airports. I have shown my parliamentary ID and been told that it was not valid because my social security number was not on it," Svendsen said.

How cool is this?!?!

Jewish same sex marriages welcomed

Jewish gays have lauded a decision by the South African Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ) to allow marriage between Jewish couples of the same gender.

The Jewish OutLook: SA Jewish Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Alliance - an organisation representing lesbian and gay people in the Jewish community - said the decision affirmed the full humanity of all Jews.

"It is particularly important that the status of lesbian and gay relationships will be equal to that of heterosexual couples and will be recognised as full Jewish marriages or kiddushin," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

SAUPJ announced the decision to allow marriage between Jewish couples of the same gender on Monday.

This is cool... lots of churches are actually applying to officiate gay marriages. Too bad about the exam delay though...

Churches get nod for gay marriages

eventeen churches across South Africa have applied to, and been accepted by, the department of home affairs to officiate gay marriages.

A list of the churches, released to the Cape Argus on Thursday by the department of home affairs, excludes the major church groupings.

The 17 institutions had applied to solemnise same-sex unions after the Civil Union Act, which legalised gay marriages, was implemented on December 1.

All were approved by Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said department spokesperson Mantshele Tau.

Ministers at these churches, are, however, still required to write an examination - which tests their knowledge of the Civil Union Act - but this process has been considerably delayed.

A pastor at the Unitarian Church, Gordon Oliver, applied for his licence on December 5 and is still waiting for material to prepare for the exam.

On Thursday, the Cape Argus reported that four leading denominations - the Anglican Church, the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church and the Catholic Church - had instituted policies that barred their ministers from officiating at gay marriages.

It was also reported that individual officials at religious institutions were obliged to submit letters to Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula if they did not wish to officiate over gay marriage ceremonies.

However, Tau said that, according to the Civil Union Act, "churches make their own decisions on whether to marry same-sex couples".

He said the rule of submitting letters to the Home Affairs Department applied to Home Affairs marriage officers only, if they did not want to marry gay couples.

In the meantime, the policies barring gay marriages at larger churches have not gone down well with certain ministers.

Nineteen ministers in the Methodist Church Cape of Good Hope District recently challenged the decision not to marry homosexual couples.

A minister of the church, the Reverend Timothy Attwell, said the church was in discussion with those ministers.

At another church, a gay minister, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, told the Cape Argus that he planned to leave his church denomination to move to a smaller denomination that supported same-sex marriages.

He said while he felt strongly about officiating at gay marriages, his church, which is one of the country's largest denominations, would fire him for even considering it. The church is not aware of his sexual orientation.

"I am definitely going to change my denomination because of the church's views towards same-sex couples.

"There are smaller churches that don't seem to be as unfriendly about it and encourage it, but they are in the minority."

A confused Magellanic penguin has somehow managed to travel from his native Chile to Peru. Nobody knows how he got there, or why - perhaps to seek asylum?

Well, like other strangers and asylum seekers, it is unlikely he will be given the warm welcome by the local Humboldt penguins, who "usually seek out their own species."

He'll probably get deported back to Chile...