Alive…

I cycled into town this morning at 6.30am so I could park my bike at work then cross Blackfriars Bridge to head to my usual two-hour Tuesday morning hapkido class.

It was still dark and raining when I set off and the roads and parks of my journey were pretty empty. It was even relatively quiet coming over Westminster Bridge at 7am and that’s usually filled with engine-gunning driving nutcases at every hour.

I love London when it’s quiet and the addition of the rain made the roads and streets look like something from a 1940s B&W movie. It was sweet…

At one point I was on a cycle lane going through Hyde Park and I happened to glance at my front light and I saw a few drops of rain fall past its beam and I suddenly had that feeling of communing with a time and a place and being utterly at one with everything.

I sometimes have those moments during hapkido when a technique works or a kick connects just as I intend it to and it’s so perfect I just want the moment to stay. I also used to (when I wasn’t too pissed to ignore them) have those moments playing pool. It was a great feeling when I knew I’d hit the shot so well that I could feel the ball hitting the back of the pocket before it had happened.

Sadly that happens less these days on the pool table but with my desire to practice waning it’s probably just as well that particular chapter is reaching a hiatus.

But new opportunities are opening up. And my liver will probably thank me in the long run…