Today, Sunday 22nd June 2008, I completed my usual walk well before noon when a delivery from Sainsbury’s was due.

I didn’t do my usual weight training session as I have strained my neck muscles by doing too many sit ups.

I was amused to hear that Felipe Massa also has strained his neck muscles. He was going upwards in a lift when he sneezed. His head went downwards as his body continued upwards! Hence the strain.

Felipe has to endure this strain during an important race for him today in France as he challenges for the Formula One Championship. I on the other hand can sit in a comfortable chair watching the race on TV!

If someone else is in pain, you do not feel picked on by the Universe. Others are often much worse off than you. Your pain is halved.

The Sainsbury delivery has just arrived. I asked the delivery man if he was suffering any pain. He wasn’t! But he had once strained his back when sneezing!

Today, Saturday June 21st 2008, I walked round the local area just before noon.

As I walked down Berens Way I saw a lady with a little white dog. She was picking up its crap with some white paper.

I praised her consideration for the general public as I drew level.
She even asked my advice: “Is it OK to put the dog pooh into the drains?” I said I thought it was.

She then told me how she had been picking up the pooh when a lady rushed up to her flourishing a bag and said: “That’s not the way to do it! You put it in the bag and take it home!” - or words to that effect.

My friend was naturally affronted at this aggressive advice and told the bag holder (who was probably correct) to stop waving her arms about and that she already knew what to do.

The incident shows clearly that if you want people to listen to your advice compliment them first and then wade in with any advice or criticisms once you have them on your side.

I learned this principle the hard way when teaching in London
Comprehensive schools. The best piece of advice I ever heard when teaching was: “For every piece of criticism you dish out, give three pieces of praise.”

I always tell my martial art instructors to praise the way a student does something first before telling them how to improve whatever they are doing.

Once people realise you are on their side or are least appreciating some part of what you are doing, they don’t mind listening to your advice or criticisms.

Even if people realize you are deliberately looking for their good points, they will still be pleased that you have found something good to say about them.

Tonight, Holland are playing Russia who have a Dutch coach - Gus Hiddink - in the quarter finals of the European Soccer Cup. Gus gave out a fascinating piece of advice to the media.

He admitted to fearing the Dutch who have some prolific goal scorers: “I am scared as hell of Holland. If you are scared, you drop back and then you get more scared. That’s why you must try to attack as much as possible.”

You could give similar advice to someone under attack from someone with a knife. Don’t start worrying about what their knife will do to you. Attack as soon as you can and make them worry about you. If you keep trying to evade the knife you will get cut sooner rather than later.

For the record, Russia attacked Holland with real determination and ended up winning the match by 3 goals to 1. They are now in the semi-final!

For more tips on self-defence check out my website at:

www.self-defence.org

Today, Monday June 2nd 2008, I walked round the neighbourhood. The weather was cool and breezy.

In Clarendon Way, I met a man I had spoken to before. He asked me why I was walking. “To stay alive!” I replied rather over dramatically. “I should be walking further in the local woods but this walk saves time.”

“You should always give time to what is important!” he rightly replied.

“I will be doing some weight training after this walk,” I said in my defence. He thought this was not a good idea.

I explained that so long as you avoided lifting too much weight, you can build muscle and increase your metabolism. A higher metabolic rate helps you lose weight.

I continued walking and noticed a cat crossing the road ahead of me. I too crossed the road and saw the cat in a garden. At first, it rushed towards me thinking it knew me. When it realised I was a stranger, it stopped and kept its distance.

Keeping your distance is a key self-defence principle. If you allow a potentially hostile person near you, you make it easy for them to knife you or hit you. If necessary step back or tell them to stay where they are or just walk or run off.

For tips on self-defence, check out my website at
www.self-defence.org

People who break into your house during the day are called housebreakers. Those who break in at night are called burglars.

A week or so ago, my next door neighbours were burgled. The burglars came in at 8 p.m. when I was out and my neighbours were out. The burglars stole jewellry and cash.

On my walk round the neighbourhood today 24th May 2008, I chatted to one houseowner who had a single padlock on his garden gate. He believed that most burglars or housebreakers are too lazy to get past even one obstacle.

I was reminded immediately of myself. I tend to miss a work out if I am not already outside and near the door to my gym. This is why I combine my workouts with my walks so that I can go straight into the gym after the walk.

This week I ordered a weight training bench which is now ensconced in my front room. This way I can do some training without even having to go into the gym!

So far this ploy is working well. I might even lose some weight!

The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism is and the more easy it is to lose weight.

As I write this post, I am watching the Eurovision Song Contest.

The emphasis now is more on spectacle than on the actual songs. However, it is good to see so many countries taking part in a peaceful activity as opposed to some kind of warfare.

Today, Sunday 18th May 2008, I walked round the neighbourhood. The sun was out and the snails that had populated the pavements last night had nearly all disappeared.

It had rained all day yesterday and snails escape the extra water in the ground by moving on to the pavement. Two large armadas of snails had moved on to the pavement in Berens Way.

They might well have been safer in the grass and garden soil. Humans quite innocently tread on them and kill them. At least the snails in England are not the edible kind. No one goes out to harvest them for the restaurants.

Edible snails can be found along the Atlantic coast of France and in several areas of Mediterranean countries. I once ate a snail omelette in France and they tasted OK.

Humans need to know how to survive flooding as well and more recently earthquakes like the ones that have hit China recently.

One controversial expert advises not going under tables etc. during earthquakes. He prefers would be survivors to hunker down in the ’safe triangles’ of space near sofas and tables.

Other experts disagree with him. The subject clearly needs more in depth research sponsored by the relevant authorities. Snails cannot afford such research but we can.

Today, Friday 9th May 2008, I drove down to the chemist’s to get some pain relievers as I had overdone the weightlifting on Thursday and had fairly intense pain in my left shoulder and upper back.

Pain is very tiring and I felt like hitting the sack for longer than usual. I am full of admiration for people who suffer pain on a daily basis. I have no idea how they keep going

I went for a short walk near the chemist’s and ended up at Comet’s to get some new batteries for two smoke alarms. The sample battery I had in my pocket had become almost too hot to hold. Perhaps it picks up heat and/or electricity from the body.

I picked up some Deep Heat and Ibuprofen at the chemist’s and then visited a local grocery store. The young lad at the counter asked me how I was doing.

In return I asked him how he was doing!

“I can’t wait to get home,” he said.

“That’s not the right attitude,” I said.

He smiled and asked if I wanted a receipt. “I’m not married,” I said, “so I can buy what I like.”

We finished the transaction and he rushed off, presumably to his home. It is estimated that huge numbers of people have the same attitude to work as he did.

They can’t wait to get home! By now I couldn’t wait to get home myself. I need to be more grateful for having a home especially as a major disaster is currently happening in Burma where dead bodies are lying in the water without homes and without life.

Today, Saturday May 3rd 2008, I combined a walk with some shopping at Waterstones. There were some interesting books on sport and one book which focusses on the lessons we can learn from sport.

I bought one book on Joe Calzaghe, one on Lewis Hamilton, one on belief in God and the one about lessons about life which you can learn from sport. I have a website on this topic at:

www.lifelessonsfromsport.com

On my way to Waterstones, I saw two young lads who have recently joined my martial arts class. They smiled but did not stop to talk as their mother walked steadily onwards.

I am hoping their mum will join the class later as family groups encourage each other to keep going and if you keep going you get better and better. Cue my current favourite quote:

“Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.”

- Ted Williams, Hall of Fame Baseball player

On my way home in my car I spotted a grey cat with a bulldog type face crossing the road. It watched my car so carefully that it walked straight into some iron railings. I chuckled for the next hundred yards or so!

On Thursday May 1st I combined my walk with a journey to the voting station on St Paul’s Wood Hill. I had almost decided not to vote when I saw a poster being unveiled in Ken Livingstone’s presence. It said:

“Vote for London and Not For a Joke.”

I hate people being written off before they have been given a chance so I made up my mind to vote for Boris. A month ago very few people believed he would win the vote to be Mayor of London.

However, Boris had the courage and confidence to take up the challenge refused by other conservatives. He is now the most powerful conservative in the country.

People who have the courage to try and who believe in themselves have often had the last laugh throughout history.

You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo!

This joke came to me via an email from my step brother, Michael. I’ll try it out on my choikwangdo martial arts class tomorrow!

I saw Kwang Jo Choi, the founder of Choikwangdo at a Seminar in the K2 arena in Crawley, yesterday. At the age of 66 he gave an awesome performance.

He ran through the most important Choikwangdo techniques for about 5-6 hours with hardly any rest at all. He is a legend in his lifetime and like any great man inspires critics as well as fans.

At the end of the seminar several students were presented with
4th dan and 5th dan black belts. Some students become jealous when they see such presentations. They don’t have to be.

All they need to do is to start working hard on the syllabus and then take the necessary gradings. Before they realize it, they too will be on stage receiving applause for their achievements.

A large group of American Choikwangdo students had come to England for the seminar. They had an excellent demo team with them and gave an outstanding performance in the lunch hour.

The UK demo team did the same led by the legendary Nigel Brophy, their instructor.

Today,Sunday 27th April 2008, I walked round the neighbourhood. Seconds after leaving my house I saw a large fox loping across the road. Sometimes you can’t tell whether it is a cat or fox ahead of you but there was no mistake on this occasion.

What’s the difference between a fox and a cat? One chases rabbits, the other eats them from a tin.

My apologies! I’ll quit while I’m still ahead!

Tonight, Saturday 19th April 2008, I walked round the neighbourhood at about 10 p.m.

The air was cold and fresh. It was great to breathe it in. I was reminded of advice I received this week from an American relative.

It was advice about what to do if you feel like you are having a heart attack and you are alone. Can you help yourself? This is the advice:

“Read This…It could save your life! Let’s say it’s 6:15 p.m. and you’re driving home (alone of course), after an usually hard day on the job. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home.

Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. What can you do? You’ve been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course, didn’t tell you what to do if it happened to yourself.

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed to be in order. Without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about very two seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives!”

I walked round the neighbourhood quite early today since I had to be available to give my brother a lift to the dentist at 10.15 a.m. I didn’t see any walkers but quite a few builders were active.

On my return I saw a TV program called ‘The Wright Stuff’ on Channel 5. The subject for discussion was whether it is better to try and fail than it is to never try at all.

In schools there has been an ethos of don’t try to win anything and then you won’t be disappointed. Competition has been frowned on as a result. But life is full of competition. People need to learn how to cope with it.

One caller rang in to say that he was the son of an ace RAF pilot. He did not apply to be a pilot in case he failed and disappointed his dad. He went to Sandhurst instead to train for the army!

Later a top pilot told him that he had all the qualities necessary to be a good pilot. However, he was now too old to become a pilot. He obviously should have tried to be a pilot and just dealt with the disappointment of failure, if he had failed.

Most of us are too frightened of failure. I think we should be more frightened of lacking the courage to try. If we try and then fail, we shall, at least, have the satisfaction of knowing that we had the guts to give things a go.

Later at the dentist, I met a banker who has been playing rugby right up to the age of 60. He has now decided to stop after running into several tooth problems at the age of 61.

He described how common it was for people to punch each other in the rugby scrums. He didn’t like doing this himself but was told by his team mates to retaliate. The game is tough enough already without turning it into a boxing match as well!

He described how many players now wear some kind of body armour. Even one famous fly half wears a scrum cap! Another, Jonny Wilkinson, is protected by body armour.

Free running is now quite popular in London and elsewhere. The runners don’t appear to be wearing much protection but do some quite dangerous looking jumps.

They run and jump over obstacles like railings and walls that most people walk around. They tend to avoid going down steps; they jump or slide down railings instead.

Free runners warn against doing risky moves that you are not prepared for. Just take things slowly as you build up your skills.
They claim that they do not jump over cars and do not invade private property.

I love the idea of free running and might have a go at it in a very, very limited way if and when I see the opportunity! Heavily built up areas probably provide the best opportunities.

I could probably jump out of my house without stepping on the door step first! I might even manage to swing on some tree branches although they might well crack under my weight!

Watch the early part of Casino Royale to see some amazing free running by a champion free runner as he tries to escape from James Bond who is not a bad runner himself although he does tend to go round rather than over obstacles.

Why not give free running a try but do so at your own risk and don’t blame me if you break your neck in the process! Free walking and very limited jumping and swinging on large branches might be a safer option.

Later, at about 11.10 p.m. I was inspired to go for a second walk by reading an article by Robert Ringer. In it he describes how in his late twenties he tried to do one pushup and failed.

He was so disgusted by the shape he had let himself get into that he decided to embrace discipline in all areas of his life. He started doing 600 situps in the morning and the evening.

I decided that the least I could do was go for a second walk tonight. No one was about although it was a chilly but pleasant night.