Goooood Monday to you all. Hope everyone has had a nice weekend and enjoyed more sunshine than we have. It has rained everyday since Friday. When it rains here, it really rains. None of this half hearted attempt we get back home. It's rain with big balls, real rain! Man rain!

Since the tattoos got done it has been all about training. The tats healed up within a few days and now look like they have been with me for a while. I still forget I had them done sometimes and often think I have something on my shoulder whilst we are stretching. The weekend had arrived, the last weekend of the month. Every last weekend, Tiger put on a BBQ Beatdown. It's an all you can eat BBQ and drink. Also they put on a few smoker fights between students from each section. There was 4 muay thai fights and 4 mma fights. It is suppose to be a friendly scrap but always ends up in a full contact brawl, just how we like it. Typically the morning of the BBQ starts with a beach session. We headed down to nai harn beach and found dang just standing there by himself looking out to sea reminiscing of the days when he was a pirate God of some sorts. You could spot him a mile off. The session starts with a run to the end of the beach and back. We then had to line up milatary style facing the sea. O took the warm up with the sea often coming up to our ankles. Was definatly a different way to warm up but I was not going to complain. We split into 3 groups and all did different muay thai drills. After these drills we were told we could go for a swim to cool off. One of the chaps (Simon) we have become friends with out here thought it would be a good idea to tackle the stick weilding hobbit Dang into the water. Was very funny and Dang did actually laugh which was good. After catching some waves we were split into 2's and had to compete in a wheelbarrow race. Nobody ate sand which was a shame, I was kind of hoping James would. After that finished we were once again told to go for a final swim to cool down before heading back. Enjoyed some sun, sea and good laughs then headed back to camp for some grub. Second part of the BBQ day Is the trainers vs students football match at a local school. We all jumped in the back of a pick up like some gang, all we needed was some ak47's and some bandanas and loud music and the picture would have been perfect. Got to the school and found the pitch was actually gritty sand which one half of was water logged from all the rain the night before. Once the ball hits that patch it actually stops dead in it's path, so trying to run the ball through there became very interesting and messy. Suprisingly some of the trainers were very good at football. Us on the other hand were like a bunch of headless chickens running around into each other with the exception of a couple on our team who could actually play. The heavens opened and my goggles became very difficult to see out of. Then with the heat aswell they became steamed up too. So like the headless chicken I was, I was now a blind headless chicken. I'm not even sure if that's possible. Nasee, one of the trainers was coming round whilst we were playing just handing out shots of his home made mystery whisky. Was very nice and made a nice warm feeling on the way down. By this point we were getting beat. James decided to play in goal. He dived for the ball and ended up gashing his elbow up pretty bad. It looked quite deep, he got it cleaned out with some water and it looked painful. We ended up loosing but it was good fun but very wet. Headed back to get cleaned up and ready for the BBQ. I filled my plate right up and ended up enjoying 2 plates of good food. I was not drinking that night so I stuck to a glass of pop whilst James enjoyed the local beer. The fights were good to watch. Everyone talked to everyone and was a very good fun night. Nasee was cleary smashed at this point. He was wearing very tight red jeans and dancing very....special. Good to see all the trainers in a different light though. They clearly work hard and party hard when they get there chance.

Sunday morning whilst James was still enjoying some morning after sleep I went for a nice morning swim and some breakfast. Came back and found a very dead looking house mate. I'm sure if death actually walked around and talked then it looks like James did Sunday morning. We headed up to our new favourite spot for our favourite burger, friendship beach and the amazing phillycheesesteak burger. Thought this might make James come alive, but it failed, death was still very present. We got back home and I was quite restless so I needed to head out and do something. I hoped on the blue love machine and headed out for a night ride. Ended up heading towards the Big Buddha. The hill up there is very long and surrounded by trees. By yourself in the pitch black on a slow moving scooter is enough to make you question why you are doing it. I kept hearing noises and bugs kept flying into me, that stupid scooter could have gone quicker for me. I finally reached the top and was met by Buddha himself just sat there chilling enjoying the evenings view. An amazing view at night I must add. It was pitch black up there also and I was greated by a security guard lurcking in the shadows. He actually ended up letting me walk around the whole statue and walked with me with a torch so I could see. We walked past the monks during there prayer time. The views were amazing from up there. Was nice to have a little private tour when no other tourist was in sight. I gave the nice torch man 100 baht (£2 ish) for his efforts and lighting the way for me. He was happy with that as I don't think he expected anything. Headed back down the huge steep hill but felt more at peace this time and actually stopped a few times to admire the view and quite surroundings. Went past some elephants that we had fed at the start of our trip. Was a very peacefull trip and i felt very relaxed after. Got back to see my dying house mate...he was still dying.

Back to the grind on Monday. Trained in the morning and chilled in the pool and chatted with some new friends and forgot that I had no sun lotion on.....yep, you got it, more burnage for me. Fool! Trained weights with Peter that night and headed down to Mammas for a BBQ and UFC from the weekend. Got back home, lubed up and air con became my friend for yet another night. I will learn one day I'm sure. Tuesday morning I went to the weights room once again and whilst between sets I walked out to catch some fresh air, a guy called me over to the toilet block to show me something. "hmmmm" I thought as it was a bit odd for a guy to be wanting to show me something in a toilet. I know we are in Thailand and strange things happen here but this was going a bit far. He then said there was a snake in there, so straight away I went over and there just chilling on the bog roll despenser was a green long slimy snake. Sod that. We tried finding someone to get rid of it before it ate a small child and took over the world. Then like the hero he is, out of nowhere came O (the trainer who did my tattoo). He took one look at the snake, went and got a broom and a towel, walked into the loo with no fear and shut the door behind him. The man is a legend. We could just picture him wrestling on the floor with this man eating snake, then biting it's head off and wiping the blood of the snake on his face like some tribal thing you see on tv, but no, O walked out with a smile on his face and the little snake wrapped around his arm and his head between his fingers. He explained this snake was not a killing machine but if it did bite you, you would swell up bad but still live to bite the wriggly sod back. So after this I headed back into the gym and carried on about my day. We have met another chap who can only be described as a real life He-Man No joke, he is a huge guy, blonde hair, blue eyes and looks just like He-Man. We did not know his name for a while but his name is not He-Man after all and does not ride Battle Cat into furious wars with Skelator, his name is Andrew, so not quite as extreme. He is a real sound guy and we normally end up chatting or eating together everytime we bump into each other. The last couple of muay thai sessions I have ended up doing pads with Nasee, he is also an ex champion and still fights now. He has been teaching me lots of little techniques that he likes. He has told me to move up to the advance class already. I was quite happy for him to say that. The training at intermediate is very good though and I have been enjoying it. It is alot more technique than begginers but not as much cardio. Still tough work and still 2.5 hours long. The level of sparring is a bit tougher but I still have only felt challanged a couple of times. It's just trying to remember to execute all the little things that makes muay thai different from kickboxing or K1 rules style stand up. Sometimes I do fall back on to my old style when i'm tired but normally the trainers make it known that it's not muay thai. I am picking it up alot easier now, especially after watching a few of the trainers just playing around. Nasee told me that when they play the traditional Thai music during the fights, alot of the fighters use that to pace themselves too. All little things make a big difference.

The last week in the evenings I have been doing a weights routine with Peter (gym trainer) and a guy called Scott. We work something different everyday. We did legs on Thursday evening. An hour of legs for me is hard as I very rarely work my legs at the gym, that's changed now though for sure. After the hour was up Scott and I decided to go for a small 2.5k run just to finish us off for the night. My legs felt like they had nothing left but I felt good for sure. James was still feeling ill at this point but was starting to feel a bit better. He recieved a couple of small boxes from home with some goodies from his family. In his magic box was some proper English tea bags. He was like a kid at Christmas. Also in the box were biscuits, sweets and some other goodies. I think the tea has saved his life and also saved mine as he his back to normal now, which I'm not sure is a good thing or not actually. He said tea could save the world. Let's just say he is very happy and grateful to his family for the magic boxes of goodness.

Saturday morning I was feeling a bit sore from the training of the week, so I headed over for some breakfast and ended up chatting for about 2 hours to a group of guys that always seem to eat at the same time. My mind was telling me to go do something, so I headed to my new second home, the gym. After that I went and hit the bag for 30 mins and jumped in the ring for some shadow boxing. Dang was taking a private session on the mats at the same time. He came over to me and told me to be there at 9am next morning (Sunday). Joy, my day off and the hobbit wants me to help him get a guy ready for a fight next month. I didn't want to say no so I agreed. That night we went down to Rawai, a little beach in the south. They have an English bar there called freedom bar. We thought we would give it ago. As soon as we both got there we decided to head back after 1 drink, both of us did not feel in the mood, also it was a little bit too English for our liking. We stopped at tesco's instead and I bought some cereal and we both enjoyed a bowl of ABC choco letters on a Saturday night whilst the storm outside seemed to increase every hour. So
Sunday morning I headed over to the ring to help Dang and this fella out. His name is Will and has got a fight in 1 month and Dang wants him ready for then. He has not been training long. We had to do 3 rounds of boxing and 3 rounds of full contact clinch work. The boxing sparring was fun as Dang told us it was 70% power to the head and 100% to the body, all good fun. Then with clinch work it was 100% trying to get position then 40% power with knees. It was tiring but I felt great, just goes to show the hard work is paying off I guess. Will was tired as Dang was beasting him on the pads too. After the session had ended the little goblin told me to be there for 5pm to do the same again. So I couldn't say no. Same drills but longer rounds. Inbetween rounds dang asked me to hit the pads too to demonstrate for Will, I felt bad for him as Dang was giving him a hard time as his kicks were not so good yet, but he battled on. I pulled my shoulder and my back whilst doing the clinch work in the evening session so we headed for a good massage again down at the local place we had it done last time. I woke up this morning and I'm still pretty beat up so I think my body just wants to rest for the day or 2. James had his first session back this morning after a week off with the lurgy. He has been itching to get back and I'm sure he Is happy to be alive enough to return. Just need some more sunshine now and another massage tonight to sort my back and everything will be perfect.

Sorry once again for the ramble. Hope everyone is enjoying reading these and I would love it if you could leave a comment to let me know what you think or how you are. Peace out people, much love. Stu.