2015 will be my bitch.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Dusk till Dawn

Day 49

Another busy week hasn't led to me to write about much this week.  It's been the usual of working quite a lot and seeing friends and boxing but nothing really for me to shout about.

My friends and I love poker.  We try and play every other month at someone's house - usually mine.  It's always pretty fun when 5-8 of us get together, catch up, eat some greasy food (usually pizza), have a drink or so and gamble a little of our earnings to make one or two of us a little bit more happier for the night.

We've never really dived into the competition world where we would apply our skills that we use against each other against other poker lovers in order for an even bigger prize.  Usually because the tournaments run during weekdays and we all work and plus, the weekend games are a lot more expensive to compete in.

We aren't total gambling addicts, we wouldn't risk £100+ to play poker when we don't play enough to warrant that kind of money to lose.  We however tried a midweek competition at Nottingham's Dusk till Dawn for £30 buy in.

About 100 people showed up to a busy night at the casino, which was really nice.  The atmosphere seemed relaxed and I felt people were generally quite cool about being competitive but also having a good time.

I felt pretty nervous playing though, my heart was racing dramatically at full pelt for quite a long period of playing.  It was only till I got the last 30 people that my heart rate returned to a suitable pace and I could relax and just have fun with it.

I hit a lot of great hands during the night and claimed 4 people's exits, though it could have been more had I not made one big stupid mistake but we live and learn. 

My stack was pretty low at this period of the night when the blinds were 4,000/8,000 with an ante of 1,000 too. I opted to be aggressive if I hit anything worth shouting about.  My night ended when I went all in with pocket 9s as my opponent hit a 10 on the flop to match his in his hand, ending my night with a disappointment at the fact I wasn't beaten by a better hand than that.

Finishing 28th out of 100 people was pretty good though.  Two of my other friends were doing rather well though when I left but I don't think they came close enough to claim a cash prize unfortunately.  I will be definitely trying my hand again though but when that will happen, I don't know.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

The Theory of Everything

Day 46

There's been a lot of hype about the film, The Theory of Everything.  A story about the life of Stephen Hawking and his wife, Jane.

Although this film is considered a biopic about one the greatest scientists to ever live, it is simply much more about than just Stephen Hawking and his theories on time and our existence. It is about the love of him and his wife.

The tale is told lovely bringing you smiles and frowns around each turn of the story.  Felicity Jones playing Jane, gives a great impression on what type of woman she is and her compassion towards her husband.  To stay with someone that supposedly had 2 years to live because of love is quite lovely and makes you hope to have that with someone special yourself one day.

Eddie Redmayne portrays Hawking in such a beautiful way.  To get into such a character that no one can understand his suffering, but still show his character in the way that he is known to be like is astonishing.  Redmayne delivers a wonderful performance enhancing not only Hawking's brilliance as a scientist but as a man with a great sense of humour considering his condition.

I would highly recommend this film.  It doesn't matter if you like science or not because in true reality, it is also a love story.  No wonder the film and it's actors and actresses have been nominated for so many awards. A big 10/10 - one the best films I have seen this year.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Day 43

It's been a while yet again since I last wrote anything on here and it's because I've been a busy bee.  Since shooting last Thursday for Benji Smedz, me and the men at New Label Media have been busy again on the Monday and Tuesday filming for our steady client, Nook & Cranny, located in West Bridgeford.

Basically we are shooting a video tour of the houses that would show potential customers the place where they will hopefully stay for a short period of time.  It's a good way to show how big a place is without having to travel in order to be disappointed because the pictures didn't quite show you everything.

Now last night was a great night to mention to everyone.  I went to see Callum Burrows aka Saint Raymond at Rock City last night and he was fantastic.  Supported by the great name of Fickle Friends and another Nottingham act, Amber Run this was always going to be a cracking show before the main event of Mr Burrows and boy did it he live up to it.

Only the 4th Nottingham act to sell out Rock City, Saint Raymond showed his true colours playing in his home town with a smile of his face throughout the gig.  His toe tapping tunes and stadium anthem lyrics really shook Rock City and made the place really bounce.. literally.

Saint Raymond's music just makes me constantly smile.  It's music that gets you in a good mood when you are a bit down - not that I am sad very often but he does brighten your day.

I honestly think this young lad from a city I think we are both proud to be from will be a future number one and even if he isn't, people will always see him in that way.  His songs can be very relative to everybody and I am sure they will touch people in very different ways but if he keeps producing such tunes as Fall At Your Feet, Young Blood, Brighter Day and many more then I can't see why he won't be a huge star.

But I also believe Callum is someone that has his feet firmly on the ground.  He seems like the kind of guy that doesn't take things for granted and his smile throughout the gig showed how overwhelmed he was feeling and I hope his attitude doesn't change.  

I still can't believe I filmed the same guy at Splendour Festival back in 2012 on the Courtyard Stage (Sort of like the Introducing Stage) when he was only 17 years old.  I remember Callum saying he had only been doing gigs for around 2 years and when asked where he would be in another 2 years and he jokingly said he would be on the comedy stage.. well how wrong was he.

Well done Callum, you're making Nottingham very proud of you and I am sure many closer to you than me are even more joyous of your success.  Keep making toe tapping bangers and I genuinely hope I get to work with you on a music video in the future!

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Catchphrases

Day 36

Me and the New Label boys were back in action today shooting for a local hip hop artist by the name Benji Smedz (Ben Smedley).  Look him up if you get the chance. Not got many songs on YouTube or anything but a good old school artist.

Originally, we had planned to rent a studio and shoot another green screen video but in a lot simpler terms than what we will show you when the We Are Carnivores video hits you on the 23rd of February.  But this plan fell through last minute and we needed to rethink of ideas and fast.

Luckily, having experienced University and the times when Jordan or someone had left things a little late, we knew exactly how to wing a project here and there.  Ben was quite happy to do this because he was desperate to shoot something and I'm glad we did.

The video changed in my favour massively as it involved me using my Steadicam for the whole shoot.  I was quite excited as I hadn't shot anything proper on my kit since I did the course at the National Film School.  Plus I hadn't shot anything since my bike injury so this was going to be a good test.

We filmed plenty of walking shots and although I think I can improve a lot, they came out pretty well. Ben and the rest of the team were happy with the results and what we got out of the shoot.  I think that lads were glad to work with someone new and something that isn't quite in everyone's comfort zone, being that type of music.

Hopefully, we get this music video done as soon as we can so we can get it out to the world for everyone to see, which will see us drop two projects this month.  I will be sharing and posting them on here as well other social media sites and I think people are going to be impressed with what we are trying to achieve at New Label. Hopefully it'll also mean more business.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Day 35

My brother and I saw a recent cinema release called Kingsman: The Secret Service today.

Starring a young unknown actor to probably 99% of the movie fan population, Taron Egerton gave a great big screen debut playing Gary 'Egsy' Unwin.

Egsy's character is a young man on the wrong path after losing his father to the same service he will eventually try out for.  With a mother that is regularly beaten by her boyfriend, Egsy isn't quite in the right place to exactly succeed in life.

This is until he encounters, Harry, played by Colin Firth.  A high class member of the Kingsman.  He recruits Egsy as a favour to his father for saving his life and takes him under his wing as his mentor.

Alongside Firth and Egerton, Michael Caine, Mark Hamill and Samuel L. Jackson feature in this fast paced, action-comedy thrill ride.  With Direction from Matthew Vaughan (Kick Ass 1&2 and X Men: First Class), this film was always set out to be a good action film with high pace, great fight scenes and a joke inbetween all the midst of the craziness going on.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film throughout.  It was a really easy watch, I could sit back and just enjoy what I was seeing and not have to think about too much about what was going on.  It was great to see a new face in Taron Egerton and he has a bright future ahead of him depending how he is typecast.

It was lovely seeing Colin Firth in a different film other than something romantic. His charm still shone through with a swagger about him that made me enjoy his performance in a film where Firth and action don't really belong.

Seeing Samuel L. Jackson as a villain in his film was hilarious.  He had this great lisp for his character and although I don't condone taking the Michael out of people that generally have this condition, it must have been hilarious filming some of the scenes when he was coming out with this speech impediment.

Overall I thought the film was great.  Nothing too amazing, nothing too boring and not overcomplicated with the storyline.  7/10 for a score. Would watch again for sure.  Even if it's just for the cheeky bum shot towards the end ;)  

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

It's been a while..

Day 34

I do apologise to anyone actually reading this that I haven't posted for a while but there hasn't been much to post about in all fairness.

I've hit the boxing sessions twice since my last blog installment and it's not got any easier. Today was the first time that Martyn made me sick, although it made me feel so much better to carry out the rest of the session, it wasn't great to give in like that.  It did tell me that I was being worked though and that's good.

Since the last installment, Forest have been back on the losing run after beating Derby.  We lost a couple of days later to and rejuvenated Fulham 3-2, though we were 3-0 down at 30 minutes, we tried a spirited comeback but only to be too many goals down.  We also went on to lose to Millwall, who are awful, at home resulting in Stuart Pearce being asked to depart the club.  This led to the appointment of another ex Forest player in Dougie Freedman.

It's going to be interesting to see how Freedman does but for me, I will always support my team through thick and thin.  What I've read about him doesn't really shine the best light on him but I am not one to judge so quick.  I thought Psycho was going to do the business only to find out that he wasn't the man to do so.

Mine and Jack's Euro trip is on and cannot wait to get going.  We've got so much planned, I can't wait to share pictures and any stories that won't get us into too much trouble but it'll be great nonetheless.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Boxing Session Two

Day 20

I've pleasantly surprised myself that I've managed to write something every day for this month.  I predict this won't happen for much longer cause there can't be that much happening in my life to entertain you enough to read what I do every day surely.

I have generally enjoyed writing this blog so far, I think if I miss a day here and there it won't matter too much really.

Anyway, I did another boxing session today and it was super hard.  I felt quite phlegmish this morning.  You when you cough and that mucus is sitting on your chest and you can't quite get rid of it.  It makes me heave.  I thought I was going to be sick last week at boxing, so the thought of that made me think this week was going to be harder, which then led me to think I was definitely going vomit this time round.  Especially with this phlegm in my system. However, I proved myself wrong and managed to get through the session quite successfully.  It was great that Martyn had already noticed some of my weight loss and that my diet was paying off cause let's face it, I hadn't really done much fitness this year.

I find it hard to notice my actual body shape, whether my belly is getting smaller or what. I find it easier to identify weight loss through how my clothes feel and people noticing.  It gives me that confidence to continue and hold my head high.  Not that I don't feel that confident anyway, it's just a nice extra touch though.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Helping My Mum

Day 19

Still buzzing from the weekend and it was Monday.  I had a meeting with Frazer and Jordan from New Label before hitting the gym for a light session.

Me and the lads were making a new music video for local hip hop artist, Benji Smedz.  A lad I've known for a while since I was making videos with a mutual friend of ours.  We sat down, listened to the song and had a good brainstorm for how we was going to shoot this video, how it was going to look and what sort of creative ideas we could do to make it interesting.

We are hoping to shoot that video at the start of February and I'm really looking forward to getting back into what I love and working with the boys again.

The gym was a standard light session, I didn't want to exhaust myself as I was back tomorrow boxing with Martyn again.

After being home for a while, my mum came home and asked if I would be up for helping her cook the chicken.  I quite like cooking and learning from my mum is best way to learn, especially when she's not there or I move out because no one else is going to do it and I don't quite fancy eating microwave meals or take away meals to be honest.

Plus, my mum cooks, cleans, provides a roof over my head and doesn't half make me laugh so why wouldn't I help her out.  Any good son would.  I think it went pretty well to be fair.  My mum keeps telling me I would make a good husband, though I'm not sure about that when I get into the film industry - long hours, traveling all the time but we will see.  Long time before any of that stuff!

He's me introducing you all to my lovely mum, Barbara. 

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

American Sniper!

Day 18

Sunday is always a pretty chilled out day.  I saw West Ham beat Hull City 3-0 before chomping down on a good Sunday dinner.  Later I witnessed Arsenal put in a great performance away to Manchester City. Me, Danny and Jack went to see American Sniper tonight and it did not disappoint.   American Sniper tells the story of the US Navy SEAL hero, Chris Kyle.  He was decorated as the most lethal sniper in the US army with 160 confirmed kills whilst serving 4 tours in Iraq. Bradley Cooper portrayed Kyle in the film directed by Clint Eastwood.  Sienna Miller played Kyle's wife, Taya.  Cooper was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

I was hooked on this film when I saw the trailer and I was surprised where that took place in the time of the film.  If you are reading this and you haven't seen the film then I will warn you now about spoilers. 

The scene is of Kyle camped on top of a roof as an overlook for the men of the ground that are doing the building searchers for Al-Qaeda terrorists.  He spots a woman and a young child come out of the door and he suspects them immediately.  The woman takes out a grenade/RPG type looking shell and hands it to the child.  Kyle has no option but to shoot the child.  In doing this, the woman then proceeds to take action but Kyle intercepts her.

The film shows the changes in Kyle before the tours in Iraq and after.  With his family and especially his wife, his behaviour completely changed and I'm not surprised.  It touches on an important issue on how the people that serve their country have to do things they might not want to do and it can really effect them mentally.

Early on in the film, we become aware immediately of a rival sniper that fights for Al-Qaeda, named Mustapha.  A sniper that was an Olympic Gold Medal winner in shooting from Sierra. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I have never walked out of the cinema with such an atmosphere from the audience.  A very touching film and I think everyone felt the same way. It doesn't surprise me that this surpassed Avatar for the biggest intake for a weekend. I love that American's honour their heroes in such a way and I wish we did that in the UK a bit more. 10/10

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

BEST DAY EVER!!!

Day 17

I woke up early for Derby day.  The big one.  The game you look for first when the football fixtures comes out.  The match against your local, fiercest rivals.  Derby were hosting Nottingham Forest at the iPro or Pride Park I imagine most Derby supporters still call it. I love an away day and I've never experienced being a Forest fan at Derby.  Me and Danny met early for a trip to the bookies before getting a breakfast cob in.  We were very calm about the game because we felt that we weren't going to win at all.  We just wanted the team to show a good account of themselves.  We knew as fans we would get behind the team no matter what but we didn't need much encouragement when playing our most hated team. The fans on the train felt that same calmness also.  No one thought we would get a result today.  I think it helped that we were massive underdogs after not winning in 9 games.  We were playing against a good Derby side that were going well at the top of the league whilst we were slipping down the ranks week by week.  Deep down though, we knew if we could sneak a win then this could potentially turn our season around. There was no trouble in getting to the ground, the atmosphere was building nicely.  The teams came out for the game and the ground erupted.  You knew you was part of the local Derby if you was there.  It started out pretty even and we put quite a bit of pressure on our rivals but didn't look too threatening. The Derby midfield was dominating us.  We couldn't string 2 passes together nor did we seem to be able to grasp possession as the ball would bobble and hit our players' knees or ricochet kindly for a Derby player to regain the ball.  Jamie Ward, Johnny Russell and Will Hughes were Derby's main attacking threats and anything that looked dangerous from the Rams came through them. The first goal came for Derby.  Johnny Russell whipped in a corner, the ball just missed Richard Keogh and Kelvin Wilson and before Henri Lansbury could even react, the ball had hit his head and flew into his own goal.  1-0 to Derby, the iPro was bouncing and Forest fans were shell shocked.

Derby were getting on top having a series of corners and set pieces that we seemed to struggle to deal with.  De Vries pulled off a cracking save from a deflected Jamie Ward strike to deny the Rams going 2-0 up. 

Forest fans soon found their voices again and the team started getting into the game a bit more towards the last 5-10 minutes of the half.  Lansbury found Antonio with a delicious ball into the box.  Antonio tried squaring the ball for Assombalonga only for the ball to be cut out by a last ditch tackle from a Derby defender. Minutes later, Assombalonga went even closer when the ball dropped kindly for him.  He struck the ball beautifully with the outside of his right boot, just blazing inches over the bar.  It was 1-0 to Derby at half time.

Me and Danny found a few friends at half time for a chat.  We had a bit of belief that this Derby team were to be got at.  Hoping that Forest would see this too and hopefully if we got a bit more physical and started pressing more, we could get back into the game. The second half was to be the best half of football I have seen us play in a long time and to do it against your rivals is something else.  The fans got their singing voices and I've never heard volume like it.  Endless noise from the away end muted Derby fans for much of the second half despite what people at home that were watching might say - it didn't do us justice.  Forest fans became a 12th man and the team got a real foothold in the game.  Henri Lansbury woke up and started breaking things up and dictating play like we know he can.  Gary Gardner became instrumental for us by putting a foot in and becoming a calming influence for us in the middle of the park and Ben Osborn was becoming a real outlet for us to get forward.

The loss of Will Hughes for Derby seemed to make them disjointed.  They couldn't get their passing game going and with Forest pressing higher up the field, Derby were forced to play the long game and it was playing into Forest's hands.

Forest were winning free kicks and corners in dangerous areas and the ball just wouldn't fall kindly enough to stick a chance away.  Nothing clear cut for either team.  Forest fans still in good spirits providing much noise finally got their rewards on the 75th minute when Derby conceded a free kick.  Derby born, Osborn, whipped in the cross.  It was flicked on into the danger area, Derby tried to clear but Hobbs kept the ball alive by prodding it towards goal and Assombalonga was in the right place to stick it in.  Forest fans exploded into joy.  I have never experienced such pandemonium in my life.  People were going crazy with excitement.  

We could smell blood.  Derby fans couldn't bare to watch and they totally succumbed to silence as Forest fans continued their antics.  Chants of Psycho, City Ground and Everywhere we go were belted out as we egged our team on to grab a winner. 4 minutes of injury time were added on when a Derby clearance was intercepted by Forest on the half way line.  Tesche gave the ball to young, Osborn on the half way line.  He charged forward with Tesche overlapping him and only Assombalonga in the box.  Osborn was faced with 4 Derby defenders and the goal keeper and he opted to thrash the ball past Lee Grant to win the game for us.  I've not celebrated a goal like that in my life.  We were in awe.  We knew we had probably won the game against all odds.  Fans were falling over in front of me.  Danny was hugging me like a mad man.  We were hugging every fan in sight.

We awaited the final whistle in good voice.  You've lost that loving feeling echoed out in the iPro as Derby fans couldn't bare to watch anymore.  The ref ended the game and we once again burst into joy like we had scored again.  Forest don't win many away games at Derby this one was special considering the circumstances of both sides current form. Players came to celebrate with the away end but it was almost spoiled by a Derby fan running onto the pitch and punching Kelvin Wilson in the back of the head.  After the commotion though, fans and players celebrated wildly. A fantastic win for Psycho and his men. The journey back with the police escort was interesting.  Fans still singing for our heroes.  A group of Derby fans tried coming through some sort of car park or something like that for a scrap only for us to laugh at them as the police dealt with the situation professionally.  The best train journey back from a game in my life. The best day of my life, one I will never forget.  And to top it all off, I won £105 on a bet.  Happy Days!

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

More weight loss and gearing up for battle!

Day 16

I've recently started weighing myself weekly when last year I was doing it on a monthly basis.  Since cutting out fizzy drinks, crisps, biscuits, chocolate bars and reducing myself to two treats a week and one overall bad meal (An ice cream, the traditional Saturday cream cake and Thursday night Fish and Chips) I have been shedding off the weight.  At the start of the year, I weighed in at 15 stone.  I wanted to lose one stone ideally, maybe more.  More importantly, I wanted to tone my body, lose the love handles and slight moob thing you could say I had going on, though it was hard to tell.  Last week, I dropped to 14.11st and this week another 3 pound has come off bringing me to 14.8st in just over weeks.  A pretty good result from just eating better. This progress has put me in a good mindset to carry my efforts on.  I just need to sort my gym situation, basically start getting back into a routine and going again and I'll be toning this white, pale body of mine in no time.  I wouldn't mind looking half decent for the trip to Europe. Now, tomorrow sees me and other unfortunate men and women go to see my beloved Nottingham Forest travel down the Brian Clough Way to see us take on our fiercest rivals, Derby County.  A match that could potentially be Stuart Pearce's last game. It's the first time me and Danny are going to the iPro or Pride Park and we are actually surprisingly calm about the whole situation.  We would love to win but overall we don't think we will.  We have the 'nothing to lose' attitude and we hope the players have that mindset too and go out and play with some pressure off.  A good majority of fans I speak to, go to games and know their football don't want Pearce to leave regardless the result of this game.  Simply because we need stability. Sacking Pearce after this will do us no favours. We need to support him and give him some time to hopefully recover the situation.  We can only judge him in the second season realistically.  Who knows though, this game could turn around our fortunes of refs giving us decisions and the ball falling kindly for our players.  A positive result against a very good Derby side could see us turn our season around.  Let's hope that is the case tomorrow.  Come on you Reds!

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Planning the invasion!

Day 15

Me and my buddy, Jack, have decided that we are going on holiday this year and we are planning to see a lot of places.

From Nottingham, we plan to get the train across Europe to see many touristic places, drink and eat local cuisine and make some memories.  Our first stop will be Munich.  We were going to start our trip on a Saturday but realising this, I decided to look up the football fixtures and luckily, Bayern Munich play at home to Hertha Berlin.  So instead, we are going to leave on the Thursday so we can get tickets to see the game as part of our stay there! Next on agenda will be Prague.  Seeing the Castle, the famous Charles Bridge and a few other things, this place should be good. I hear that Prague is a lovely city and I can't wait to see it. Following our stop in Prague will be a trip to my ancestors homeland, Poland.  More specifically, Krakow.  We plan to take a days trip to see Auschwitz, about 40 miles outside of the city as it's a big part of history.  I know I won't be allowed my camera there but I'll try and sneak a few pictures on my phone.  My mum and dad have also recommend a days trip out to Wieliczka Salt Mine.  I had a look on Google and it looks incredible.  I will also be educating Jack on some Polish vodkas and of course, Pierogi! We will then head down to Budapest for a couple of nights before heading to Zagreb in Croatia.  After this, we are going to visit a National Park half way down in Croatia on a friend of Jack's recommendation.  After this, we are heading back up through Europe stopping off at Venice before seeing Milan.  We plan to eat pasta, pizza and drink peroni for most of our stay.  Our last stop will take us to the high life of Monaco.  Technically a separate country from France and the smallest country but an amazing city. 

This trip will be quite the adventure and I hope to document it as much as possible with photos and videos on my camera.  I will be trying to keep up with writing this blog and still hopefully eating fairly healthily.  The walking around will do me good I would like to think.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

You learn something new every day

Day 14 Another day, another day at work.  The pains from the boxing session had settled in nicely for the day ahead.  I felt like such an old man.  My back was in bits having not used certain muscles for a good period of time.  My shoulders and arms felt as if someone had beaten them for a good period of time but surprisingly,  I could lift them above my head.  What hurt most was if I coughed.  My stomach has been in such pain from doing sit ups, I can't believe it.  I've done sit ups before and never felt this sort of pain before.  Martyn had ruined me for today. The day went by fairly quick at work.  I got home and watched the 7th episode of Hannibal, season 2.  I also watched a really interesting feature that is part of the extras on the DVD.  It showed the insights of the production team making the 5th episode, which was super cool to see.  It's crazy how much planning goes into making one episode of a TV show and how fast they film it.  I learned that they film an episode of Hannibal in just 9 days.  An episode lasts 45 minutes or so, which is insanely quick when you think about it.  The budget on production must be quite good from what I saw.  The use of prosthetics, special effects and cameras indicate to me that this not a small budget, especially when you look at the fantastic cast they have on board.  It's a show I would love to get involved on if I could.  It's mental to think that this show almost got cancelled after season 1 due to ratings or views in the US but I am glad they carried on and I can't wait till season 3.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

My First Boxing Session

Day 13

The day arrived for my first boxing session.  I knew I was in for a tough morning.  I had no thought it my mind that any of it would be easy and if I had such a thought, I wouldn't have bothered going but I'm glad I did. It was such an intense session.  My breathing was heavy from the start.  Having not done much cardiovascular fitness since my accident and recent illness, I wasn't surprised I was blowing out my arse early on, to put it lightly. My coach, Martyn, started me off with a good warm up, which included jogging and touching the ground with a corresponding hand to instructions given by Martyn.  I was often doing short sprints and this really got the blood pumping. After that, we got into some pad work.  Now I have never boxed before and you would think that just throwing your arms would be quite simple but you don't realise how much it effects your breathing.  I was really feeling the effects of this hard work out but I felt the benefits straight away.  I felt that the hardest part of pad work is actually keeping your arms up to protect yourself rather than throwing the punches.  I generally could have been sick but managed to breathe through it!

Towards the end of this part of the session, I was really weak in throwing anything that would trouble a child in a fight and I was pretty knackered.  We moved on however to some sparring.  This involved me chasing Martyn around the ring throwing punches at him and this was far more relaxed in all fairness but it was equally hard. I'm not a person that likes to hit people, never mind it being in the face.  It's also strange hitting someone you have nothing against but Martyn egged me on to hit him in the face and I have to say, he has a lot of bollocks in what he does and that goes for anyone involved in any form of fighting. The next part of this light sparring session was Martyn putting pressure on me and coming after me and throwing body punches at me.  God forbid if he hit me in the face, I would have probably slept till tomorrow as I was so drained.  It was different to feel that pressure and intensity though but in a good way. We finished off with some sit ups and press ups but my shoulder was giving way at this point and I couldn't bare to carry on and risk any further damage.

All round, an amazing session and I would highly recommend anyone to get involved whatever level of fitness you are.  If you're reading this and you are from Nottingham, Martyn is definitely a guy worth training with and I can't wait till next time.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Divergent

Day 12

I haven't mentioned this but the other day, I watched the film Divergent starring Shailene Woodley (The Fault in our Stars) and Theo James (The Inbetweeners Movie) alongside Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) and Kate Winslet (The Titanic). Woodley stars as Tris, a young girl who believes she doesn't quite fit into the current world portrayed in the film.  Set in the distant future where the world is divided into Factions, similar to The Hunger Games.  The only difference being that each Faction is based on people's personalities and how they think.  Unfortunately for Tris, she is Divergent and the world is set on getting rid of them. Tris battles through physical and mental walls in order not to be discovered, though we all know that is not going to happen. I really enjoyed this film and I'm glad a friend recommended it to me.  I adore Shailene Woodley as an actress and a little more - who wouldn't think she's not attractive! I will be definitely wanting to see the next installment to see what happens next. I would probably give this film an overall 7/10.  It's an easy watch, not the greatest I have ever seen but not one I would turn off straight away due to the curiosity of what is going on.

The next big film I am hoping to review is The Theory of Everything or American Sniper, it depends which one comes first.

[2015willbemybitch-blog]

Sunday aches and pains.

Day 11

Feeling the aches and pains from the gym yesterday after my break of not going.  I hate that feeling after you've done anything for a while and your muscles just completely forget what a physical strengthening workout feels like, although it wasn't that long ago.  Playing football later didn't help, though I did minimal running as the other team were awful. I had a meeting with a young man about shooting a music video for him.  I'm quite excited about it as he does a different type of music to what me and the lads have been doing recently.  The idea we have is quite basic but I think it will let us show our simpler talents off. I went to see my friend, Abi, today as I haven't seen her for a while.  It was lovely to catch up over a cup of tea and talk about the things that are going on in our lives.  I consider Abi as my best girl mate, we are quite a like in a lot ways but we have our differences but we get along like a house on fire.  I forget how I met most of my friends but me and Abi always remember because it was at a memorable party where we shared a great joy in taking the piss out of a mutual friend of ours. Tomorrow sees me go back to work but hopefully I can start getting in the routine of going to the gym again more regularly but we will see.  There's plenty to do this week regarding the music video, sorting out other possibilities of shooting promos for housing estates.  We need to start upping our game in order to make steps forward and earn more money. It will happen, we just need to be persistent.

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Back in the gym!

Day 10 It's been a while since I've been to the gym because of the injury to my shoulder caused by getting hit by a car whilst cycling to the gym ironically.  It's been a long, slow and painful recovery because at the time of the accident I was feeling quite fit and happy with things.  I was cycling everywhere, hitting the gym a lot and saving quite a bit of money on fuel.

Today I got back to what has been my second home on and off for the last few years now and it felt pretty good, though I will probably feel the full effects tomorrow.  I have booked my first boxing session for Tuesday and Martyn has promised aches and pain and I am sure I will be suffering till I see him again the week after.  Progress will be slow but I will post updates and pictures to show how I'm doing and hopefully people will see the differences.

Later today, I went to see my beloved Forest play Sheffield Wednesday, in a game I thought we would finally get out of our drought and win a game but how wrong was I going to be.  With another inconsistent ref and the rub of the green going against us, we were never going to win this game and now I fear for the worst when I make my first trip down the A52 to visit iPro stadium against local rivals, Derby County.  It could get embarrassing but I can hope we can cause an upset in some magical world.