It's Monday evening, about 6pm. This is my first real chance to sit down, compose some thoughts and have some time to myself in about a week. My brother's on his flight back to England and I'm tucking into the packet of chocolate Hobnobs that he brought over (other biscuits are available, but they're just not as amazing). My rest is just about over and tomorrow, it'll be back to the normal routine and business as usual.
I've had a few days off work since my brother came over to Germany, partially to see me, but the main purpose of the trip was to go down to Oberhausen for the wXw 16 Carat weekend. I know that we're only two months into the year, but they feel as though they've been two really intense months at work and I hadn't taken any time off since Christmas. I also had some leftover holiday from 2012, so it made sense to use that to spend some time with Andrew and head down to Oberhausen.
It also gave me the opportunity to use my day off on Thursday to check out the 25 Years of Pixar exhibition at the MKG Hamburg. If you don't know this about me, then you really should...I am a HUGE Pixar fan. Everything about the company fascinates me, from their very very early beginnings with very basic animated shorts all the way through to their feature length films and the current day. Their films have been the background of an entire generation and the Toy Story trilogy...well, I doubt I need to say too much. The exhibition is a celebration of 25 years in the industry with a wide array of original drawings, paintings and moulds from Pixar films. To see the level of detail, even in the early drawings and ideas of characters and scenery is amazing. It was really cool to see character evolvement and progression, especially for films like Monsters. Inc where the main characters of Sullivan, Mike and Boo look nothing like the early drawings for their characters.
Friday came, and it was time to head down to Oberhausen for the tournament. Three packed days of action with 16 guys in the tournament from 8 countries (and plenty of other non-tournament action featuring even more people). Simply fantastic, and I take my hat off to wXw for being able to put on a three day event AND be able to fill the afternoons with really interesting extras. One of the big points for me was being able to watch the Westside Dojo training session led by Tommy End. Even though the session felt really packed and included a lot to push the trainees, Tommy said that the material they covered was maybe 10% of everything they do (a lot of the other 90% being stuff that you just can't show to an outsider), but it was a really cool thing to watch people going through the basics and also getting to hear about why they want to train and become wrestlers. Sometimes, it's the little things that make the biggest differences.
Still, three days and plenty of moments to remember. So that was my break from work. It's been a good little opportunity to check out something that I'm really into and get a few days out of the office, plus I was able to catch up with a couple of Germans I met last time. I can't say it was the most relaxing break ever though...I'm feeling pretty tired, but I'm looking forward to heading back into work tomorrow and getting to work for another busy stretch.
Work is still pretty busy but it's certainly interesting stuff...and it's a hell of a lot better than being bored and having nothing to do with my time.
For those who have listened to my podcast so far (which you can find at trailingthoughts.podbean.com), I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's only a small small corner in the world of the internet, but it means something to me. With a bit of work and dedication, it might be able to mean something to others in the future. I've only had two 'proper' episodes so far, but they've both had good feedback and signs are encouraging. It's now available to listen to on the website as well as being on iTunes...and should hopefully be up on Stitcher Radio in the next day or two. I've got a couple of interesting guests lined up in the next few weeks and hopefully things will continue from there.
It's an exciting time. Let's go!
No comments:
Post a Comment