There's no real diary of summer school going on here, mainly because I'm sleeping in any spare time I get. Classes have all been great so far - early morning sword work with Ken Marsden, Kanetsuka has been magical as ever, Kobayashi is fantastic, and Matthew Holland (who I seem to be spending most of the week with) has been great.

Had the gradings yesterday, and it was a mixed bag: Steve and John got 5th and 6th kyu respectively, Dan was asked to try again next time around, and whilst I got 3rd kyu I really wasn't happy with my performance during the grading. I've yet to bore Tom or whoever graded me by discussing it with them, but I felt that I was too easily intimidated early on by a large uke (which is my fault, not his - I should be used to that) and was a bit ragged from then on... so there's plenty to work on before next time around.

Right. Got a busy day today tying up some odds and ends, then I'm off on "holiday" first thing tomorrow - to Summer School in Chester: 7 days of training and a grading to get through. If we survive that, the plan is for me and Steve to head on to Leeds and go visit Julie and Johnny. Doubt I'll be posting here for a week or so...