Life of Doo

When I woke up today at 8:30 I was weighing in at 75 kilograms and 900 grams. Shit! I had to get down to 75 kilograms and fast. Thirty minutes of sauna and no breakfast later I was only 300 grams over. Good enough! At this point I’m already running late for the competition. Gi in the bag and off I go! Watching the other guys start their fights gets me all nervous so I go outside for a quick run in the cold. Much better. Time to fight. The scale says I’m at exactly 75 kilograms. Perfect. I start the battle, try to monkey around. I’m tired. WHAT? Yeh we’re back, good. Relaxed again. Ah! The zen. Try an armbar, fail, recover, reverse, mount, armbar YES! This feels good, coach Tudor is cheering me, everyone is. Second and third fights not as spectacular but they’re easy wins on points. Now all I have to face is the guys from my gym. And we don’t fight each other in competitions. I decide to settle for second place. Two has always been a good number for me. I’m sort of a champion now, I guess.

Below a shot of my gi (kimono) all bloodied from the fights of today.

Bloody Gi

Tomorrow I will be competing at the Romanian Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Cup. The only worry I had cruising through my mind was: “What if I face someone better and lose?” but now I realise that if the guy is better he deserves it so it’s fine. And my objective is not to win but to be able to be in the flow and totally calm while in the fight. If I’ll do that I’ll be as happy as a chimp with a banana dispenser. For the Zen!

Today’s shot is of Eddie Kone, BJJ coach from the UK and a great guy. He is flanked by two guys from Absoluto: Horace and Cip, great guys in their own right. I was actually looking for a shot of Eddie alone with some guys fighting in the background, which I got; but I find this image to have a bit more power.

The Kone and team

Below are more of the shots I took of Corina on Tuesday.
I quite enjoy some of them more than the one I posted for the 365 project. Anyway, enjoy:

Not the greatest shot but daylight doesn’t last that long. Unlike traffic.

Night Traffic

The shot for today was taken from my room in one of the few sunny moments of the day.

The View Outside My Room

Today I took some exposures in very low light. Luckily the model, Corina, was very patient and I managed to get in a couple of decent shots. Think I will enjoy working with her in a more decent light.

Corina

Today’s picture is of Tudor Mihaita, my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach. It isn’t posed, I just set the shot knowing this was one of the gestures he does after sparring and hoped for the best.

In other news: today I bought some shampoo and shower gel for babies due to some minor skin problems. The pharmacist was cute enough to give me a prospect on how to raise a baby. There goes the 20-year-old looking parent. Found the experience to be quite amusing.

Bad Boy Tudor

The shot below is nothing special but I was a bit pressed for time. It’s meant to celebrate the first time I managed to ride a bike for more than a few meters. The only previous experience were a few hours spent at summer school when a friend and a teacher took their time to show me some basics, but I was quite the failure.

Bike

Starting today (October 24th 2k9) I’ll take a shot everyday, no matter what.

To set it off, below, a shot of me. I did spend some time in photoshop to get the background, but I’m quite a happy mushroom with it.

The Doo(d)

I am studying at what is supposed to be the best economic school in the country. Not a big deal, but still they feel pretty proud of themselves. So I find it funny when they assign lecture halls that can fit at most 80 people to groups of 150 people, and when some of us have to go home because we don’t have room. Long live the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies!

After getting home I made the lovely lemonade below:

Lovely lemonade