Week of something old and something else

So, this week began as usual with yet another truckload of biomechanics, but luckily from last week our teacher had changed from a boring old man to THE Man himself, Daniel Cohen. Strength and power expert who also knows quite a bit about all kinds of muscles up to cellular level, how energy travels about near and in muscles and everything in between or related to this. He also has a habit to draw a lot in to the boards instead of just pressing the right arrow in the keyboard and continuing with a steady pace and a monotonic voice. He even cracks a joke every now and then. After this, we had a tutorial that was somewhat an hour long, but with the man who we were expecting this morning. So instead of focusing on angular velocity, my focus was on not falling asleep. Not so oxygen-rich air and a steady yapping on the background is a deadly combination on a Monday morning. 

After this it was time to enjoy, funnily enough, a very healthy and nutritious Tesco MealDeal (with double fruits!) before Metabolic Nutrition class in Stapleton House. I like the teacher, and the subject in itself is indeed interesting, so it should be a good class. After all, even though I did train hard during the summer (my liver is tight as a drum) and ate healthy meals straight out of the grill accompanied by a salad, a piece of nutritional advice would not hurt. I do know that sugar and beer and pasta and everything are bad, especially in large amounts. But for some reason I just ignore all that information, and I hope that this class will finally change that. My guess is that someone has to make wire model about all these bad things they do, beat me in the face with it and then shove it down my throat. Maybe after that, the gates of nutritional heaven will open in front of my piggy-eyes and everyone inside floats about on their tiny personal clouds and are simply ripped to shreds very much like Fredrik Hellander or Kell Lynch, and I have become worthy. This might be a great time for a reality check, because pulling out something like that would require way too much self control and let's not forget that being a student, you simply have to drink beer every now and then. To be brutally honest, some guys at uni told me that if you do NOT drink beer often enough, they might consider you as a non-student and remove you from the institution. I like to play it safe, this costs big bucks anyway. Donny MacPherson has probably heard this too, and practiced for this during the summer. Intensively. Multiple times a week.

Tuesday was once again a guaranteed two hour session of Anne's I-have-no-idea-what-the-hell-she-just-said-bla-bla-bla-and-so-on -nonsense about respiratory system among other fairytales. Which we went through roughly seven times last year. We also found out that we have some great times ahead of us: some groups already did it, but since I am probably alone in the group 5, I have not yet had the pleasure to try if I can score the lowest score ever in the VO2max test! Also known as the maximal oxygen uptake -test, if some of you out there is a total nerd, boring, wants to actually do something with their life and hence has not been reading sport science. It will be performed on a cycle ergometer, and I will die. All these maximal stress tests (like Cooper's test) are good friends of mine when I don't have to hang out with them, but if we spend too much time together, we tend to not get along too well. After Tuesday came Wednesday which blindsided me totally but I was able to compose myself pretty quickly just in time for four hours of tightly packed information about my area of interest, Sport Psychology. Actually, two hours of it was tight information, and 1,5 hours of switching tabs between our university's library cataloque and Facebook. Another thing very common from the first year, but I guess that practice makes you something that is unreachable, a perfect in given area. And the Horns of Honesty are blowing once again when I say that I did not use the Library Cataloque last year as much as I could have used...but all that is about to change drastically. Hopefully. Things are going to be rather different this year anyway, I simply cannot just rely on the fact that things have a tendency to work themselves out. Now I need to start outworking the things, and become the man in the academic department. Last year in the Isle of Dogs, I laughed at my roommates who had reading lists for every lecture and they actually had to do something for uni. Now, if they happen to read this, they will probably be giggling in their respective locations because my uni is not just fun and games anymore. Time will tell how I adapt in to this new and exciting situation. 

Despite the fact, or because of the fact that my weekend had just begun (yes, my weekend begins around 12-1pm on Wednesday), the fun was only about to begin. On Wednesday evening we also saw the first baby steps of something that in the past has been known to mesmerize this nation with its beauty, skill as well as speed and beat down those who dare to stand in front of it: 2011-12 Season London Dragons. October 12 was the date of the first tryouts and therefore the first insight in to the team that might yet again be the dominating force in the British Universities Ice Hockey Association's Division 1, and why not in the Division 2 too. Turnout was good, only thing missing was goalies when out of 3-4 possible, only one showed up. But he delivered, and we should be worried this season about the goalie department. All in all, I was pleased with the amount of players, and the level of skill too. And what's even better, we already know guys who didn't make it to the tryouts for one reason or another. One of these men is Fredrik Hellander, London Dragons' very own Robert Pattinson who tops the "Sexiest Player of the Year" -poll year in year out. Apart from that one year when he was playing in the same team with Carlos Davila, who without a shadow of a doubt took the trophy home every year during his career in Dragons (Dmitry was the runner-up, every year). Second tryout session will be held next Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see if we get any brand new guys around this time. And I have to also mention that if we thought that Martin was annoying with his "two laps" -routine, the man who introduced that to Martin can be considered as not annoying, but as a murderer. He is of course our this seasons coach, Dan Hannigan-Daley. Small but muscular man from Toronto who will be whipping us into shape from now on. Not only he uses the two laps, his suicides are pretty punishing as well. It has been a while since my brain has told my legs to move, but they have just refused to do it. And I have a strange feeling, that I will experience that sensation many times this season. But as Jane Fonda put it, no pain - no gain.

If we take a peek in to my crystal ball and see what else exciting is coming up this week, Friday stands out pretty goddamn tall. We received an e-mail from a European high-fashion magazine that is coming to London to do a fashion photo shoot in Alexandra Palace. They needed people who are able to stand on skates on ice and this is a demand even London Dragons can answer quite easily. Me, Lukas Frlicka, Ludwig Wolf, Donny MacPherson and the new goalie Michael Hebert will make our way to the Ally Pally tomorrow to take part in this experience that will very highly likely be one of the most unique and interesting experiences of our lives. Ludwig of course is the pretty boy if this bunch, and having a Italo-German heritage, he has all the key elements to become a successful model, but I am not aware of any experiences of this magnitude in his life either. Who knows, this might be a beginning of five new modelling careers. Reality check -time again, make that four careers. Cab (paid by the magazine) will arrive in front of our house tomorrow morning, and that will be the activity that consumes most of our day. After the usual Friday's modelling gig, we have Felix and Sydel coming over to our house to make some dinner. We went out with this lovely couple in Camden last weekend and after few dozen cocktails we decided that it was so much fun, that we should do the same thing in the East Side as well. After dinner we will hit our favorite spot in Canary Wharf, the Attic, located on the 48th floor of Pan Peninsula building. Few of Sara's friends will join us also for cocktails and I have nothing but highest expectations regarding this night out, should be an amazing day to remember all in all!

So, the year in uni has been kickstarted and is already in a full roll while the ice hockey season is taking it's first steps. I may have mentioned before, but this year will be frigging awesome. No more, no less.