City School

We have a bit of a blip happening at the local Jiu-Jitsu school.

Our lease ran out, and the landlord wanted the property to expand his own business, so we were out. A new place was found, and the move planned.

Then the arrangement for the new place fell apart, and the school is scrambling. A new school facility was found for a bit into the future, and a temporary space generously shared by the Boxing Club until then.

The short news version is that we pretty much lost the first week of training after New Years, and will only be having two weekly classes until we get into the real, new replacement space. I understand that it, “might be a few weeks.” This translates in my brain to meaning February 1^st; the next rental period.

Our normal training quota is 3 advanced classes a week, and we will only be having 2 for the immediate future.

This just isn't enough for me, so I will be heading over for weekly training with our sister school in Vancouver. The instructor there is excellent, and two of my old friends train with him. They have 7 classes a week, but only the 3 daytime ones work for me.

Somehow, I am drawn to visit the Saturday classes. As a retired gentleman of leisure, there is no reason for this, but equally no reason to focus on the others either. Therefore, Saturday it is.

Doing this is a bit pricey. If I take a car over on the ferry, the fare comes to $70.15, although I use a discount deal, which drops the total to $54.15. This Saturday I'll be car-ing it.

If I leave the car at the terminal and ride as a foot passenger, the ferry bill will be only $12.65 after the discount. There would also be transit costs of $5.50, and a parking fee to leave my car behind of $2.25

So the car trip is $54.15, and the bus ride $20.40. There will also be some kind of charge for the training itself, but it will be fair.

I suppose I'll normally take the bus, unless I think of something fun to do in Vancouver that justifies the extra cost, or if I'm perhaps just feeling lazy.

In any case, this little weekly jaunt will get my training back up to an intensity I like. We have good classes at home, but working with the Black Belt in the city will make a valuable addition. He has different ideas and areas of focus.

If we do get into a new school location in a couple of weeks, or a month, I suppose I could drop the city trips, but likely won't.

Back in 1990 when we first moved here, I was a Black Belt Karate instructor. For several years I made monthly treks to the city to train at one of the top dojos. It was done sometimes by car and sometimes by transit, and was a longer trip. I am no stranger to doing this sort of thing.

I suspect that after a return to normal training at home, I'll still go city-side either weekly, or monthly, or something in between.