The Fragile Human Body

All,

From my last post many of you might be waiting to hear how it went at the Mansion on Saturday night. Well, unfortunately I am going to disappoint you all as I did not manage to go. As the point before I explain, I have to say doesn't that always happen, you really look forward to something and it either never happens, or is a real big let down. WHY IS THAT???

Back to my misfortune anyway, waking up on Saturday morning, it is fair to say the red wine of the night before had taken it's toll on my head. I decided to relax on the sofa while watching Football Focus (yes they have BBC1 and BBC2 in Amsterdam, they have been my savior). I am not sure whether it was tiredness or hearing Mark Lawrence speak but I fell asleep.

When I woke up I felt a twinge in my neck, and that was it, I knew it, pulled something just like that from sleeping arkwardly. I couldn't turn my neck one way at all, and the pain was then going down to my back. Was not fun..!!

After some heat packs it got better but not enough for me to go out. And that is how I missed out on a great night out. This was made even worse by one of my work colleagues going there and spending most of the day going on about it. Oh well I say, what is meant to be is meant to be.

For the caring folk out there, my neck still hurts but is much better. This made me think about how fragile the human body is. I think many of you will not agree and I can understand, we punish the body quite alot and it comes out on top, twist your ankle, backaches, broken bones, it conquers everything and I agree. My point is that it gets easily injured in the first place and it drives me wild because we only have one of it. Amazing really the one thing we needed to be indestructible, is the one thing that isn't.

My list of injuries goes on as a long list, and all of it related to the game of gods, football/soccer. But can any of us stop playing...not a chance. The other point is that we are always reactive, and not preventive. We wait for an injury first and then worry setting it right, never worry about protecting ourselves first to stop the injury. The reason why..TIME..!

We never have enough time to relax, stretch out, do yoga, all the things that will help us in old age. Instead we give them up for an extra ten minutes infront of the tv. It's not that we do not want to, but let's face it, it is just boring. When we have to do it after an injury then there is a need, but before that, it's just boring.

Well, I guess I started off on one thing and ended up elsewhere, be good to hear how other people think about this. Do you agree? Or am I just going off on one.

Maybe I could summarise and say, look after your bodies, you only get one of them, and I recommend everyone gets into yoga to some extent (even it is means just stretching), we all have fragile human bodies, and they need to be looked after......otherwise you will never be able to go to the best places because of stiff necks..!!

'Say hello to my little friend' - Scarface

Sikhs Rejected From A Club in Amsterdam

All,

This story begins a few weeks ago. I am currently working in Amsterdam and have been doing so for a few months. My cousin came to see me and we went out to what on the internet looked like a very fine establishment. A mix of a James Bond Casino, and a Hype Williams Hip Hop Video. All excited and dressed up we went to this place called Mansion (www.the-mansion.nl - great introduction).
Walking up the red carpet to the entrance we got stopped by a over built, over aged bouncer who said we could not come in with our bandanas on. We were very unhappy with this, and went about explaining that this was to cover our hair and that we were Sikhs. The bouncer was not arrogant and understood the situation but still decided against letting us in, explaining that it was the club policy not to let in headgear. I would go into all of the details but at the end of it, we did not get in and had to walk away. Trust me I was very upset and unhappy.

The next day came and I wrote an email, I also faxed a copy and even though I received no replies, I sent a letter again showing my unhappiness. (Letter is available for any people that request it, it is a bit long to post here).

I guess a lot of you readers are either angry as I was, or laughing, or are already on a flight to Amsterdam to try and get into this place.

Well, yesterday I received a response. It is fair to say that this was the response I was expecting. It was a sincere apology from the owner, who is actually from Northern England he says and does understand why we were not let in. He stated that an exception should have been made for us but could only apologise that it was not. He even offered us a free dinner for two as a show of good faith. Fair to say I was very impressed, and the apology and understanding that this would not happen to any Sikhs that visit this place was all I wanted. The dinner was not what I set out to gain and so I have replied saying I am declining this offer (did I do the right thing? maybe I can explain in another Blog later). I did say that I would like to visit this place at the weekend, as I really want to walk into the place past the bouncer who did not let me in.

Well, I guess the morale of the story is, the world is full of people, and it is all about people. To get on this world, all you need to do is communicate and things just work out.
I will give you all an update on what this place was like after my weekend visit.

If any of you have faced a similar situation it would be good to hear what happened and how you dealt with it. If you need any help with writing a letter or dealing with something like this, please just contact me, The Colonel is happy to help.


'I'll be Back' - Terminator

The Colonel has landed

All,

You will be please to hear the Colonel has decided to start blogging. After many attempts to locate the most efficient and effective way to blog, I settled upon Blogger. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages of this but this is not the time.

For now I wanted to say hi, and that you will be hearing more from me in due course so keep your ears and eyes open, the Colonel has some very interesting things to say.


'I don't have time to bleed' - Predator