I’m just back from a teaching trip to Seattle, and not too jet-lagged… which is good because I’m re-packing my bag for a trip to the Isle of Wight tomorrow. I’ll be spending the weekend walking round in enormous circles: two full circumnavigations of the island, totalling about 106km. Why, you may ask?

Well to start with, just to do something completely different. I don’t normally do any kind of monster endurance events. And while I was at it, I thought I’d raise some money for a good cause. What could be more important than educating children? It’s the silver bullet that solves so many problems. The charity I’m supporting is Room to Read, and you can find my fundraising page here.

Every little helps, and if you think this is a good idea, please also share the link with your friends.

I’ll write up the experience next week…

You can read more here about my preparation and pitfalls.

Boldness is a key virtue in swordsmanship, at least according to Fiore dei Liberi (and who am I to argue?). So I’d like to commend Adam Weller of Auckland Sword and Shield for having the wit and boldness to contact me and ask me to come to Auckland to teach a seminar for him. About a dozen enthusiasts from northern New Zealand congregated in a scout hall in Auckland for a day of dagger training, and another of longsword. It went extremely well, I thought, and as usual I let the students determine the content so we also covered the first six plays of abrazare in the beginning of day one. This laid an excellent base for us to build on. I moved on from Auckland having seen old friends and made new ones, and I hope given a boost to Fiore scholarship in the area.

I then got on another spine-wrecker (I mean aircraft) and tootled across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, home of my old friend and comrade in arms Paul Wagner, who hosted me for the week, and set up a series of evening classes for three of the Stoccata branches. Monday night we covered some Vadi longsword for Paul’s group; Wednesday we covered Fiore’s plays of the sword in one hand for Richard Cullinan’s group, and last night we did ‘how would Fiore counter Liechtenauer’ for Stuart McDermid’s group. As always, as a consulting swordsman, I let the organizers decide what they needed, and gave them that. What did I do on Tuesday, you may very well ask. Well, I spent Tuesday hanging out with a dear friend and her two glorious children, kicking a football in the garden, reading them stories, and generally catching up.  Teaching swordsmanship is the best job ever, obviously, but you’ve got to take time off sometimes!

Wednesday morning though was a revelation. My friend Alonya Mazoyer, whom I know through sword swinging, happens to be a very highly qualified SCUBA instructor, and while we were in New Zealand I mentioned that I’d never tried it. She took a day off work, organized the gear, and picked me up at 7am on Wednesday to go diving. We went to a little sandy beach in Sydney harbor, geared up, and got in the water. Then she wanted me to actually breathe in while my face was immersed. “Are you fucking nuts?” My whole body replied (my mouth didn’t). But obedience is a skill which I can apply when needed, and after a couple of tries, I managed it. Of course there was a regulator supplying air in my mouth at the time, but try telling my lizard brain that. We went through the key skill of breathing in and out in very shallow water, then went a bit deeper and did the three basic skills: remove and replace the regulator, recover the regulator after ‘dropping’ it, and get water out of the mask. Removing and replacing the regulator wasn’t so hard, but taking my goddam air supply and throwing it away was another opportunity to practice blind obedience in defiance of every instinct. But I managed it, just. Actually the hardest thing was clearing water out of my mask; it just didn’t want to go, because I was doing it wrong, water went in the wrong places (nose and eyes), and I broke for the surface. It took a minute to collect myself, then we went back down and repeated the drill until it was working, then “went for a swim”.

Under water, for about half an hour. Oh my.

We saw a baby Port Jackson shark. Pipefish, cuttlefish, really huge sea anemones, and lots of other things I’ll have to check my notes to recall the names of. This was awesome on every level: I was completely out of my element, out of my comfort zone, doing something really cool, plus I was dressed like James Bond. And it is really beautiful down there.

What next, you ask? I’m off on a plane in a few hours to Melbourne, where I’m teaching this weekend and Monday night at Gindi Wauchope’s school, Be there, or be square!

I’m flying back home (at last) on Tuesday, after three and a half weeks away from my girls. It’s been a wonderful trip, but I can’t wait to see them.

I’ve been off on my wanderings again. I flew to Singapore on Sunday 22nd, and arrived at 5pm local time on the Monday, to be met by Robin (who runs PHEMAS, my Singapore branch), plus three visiting students from Malaysia, and one from Jakarta, who were all in town to come to my very short class that evening.

After a spot of dinner at the airport, we made our way to the Eurasian Community House, where PHEMAS has been making its home for the last ten years or so. About 25 students showed up for the class, from all over Singapore, and I did my best to run a good session for them, bearing in mind that for many it was their first exposure to Fiore. It seemed to go well, and they were very ready for the pizza delivery that arrived when we were done at 9pm.

I spent Tuesday hanging out with Greg (PHEMAS’s glorious founder) and Robin, with a leisurely lunch with my cousin Jeremy, who has lived in Singapore for about 25 years. Then dinner in the evening with some of the new students, our new friend from Jakarta, and a couple of the old guard. Chilli Stingray for the win! The food in Singapore is simply awesome, and we finished it off back at Greg’s with the best straciatella ice cream I have ever eaten— made by Greg and his wife Lin. They produce it in their home out of top quality ingredients, and if you live in Singapore they’ll deliver it to your door… see Dancing Elephant Ice Cream for details!
Probably the best use of my time while I was there though was reading stories to a certain little girl…

On Wednesday evening I took the night flight to Sydney, changed there, and arrived in Wellington feeling surprisingly chipper. I attribute this to my ‘sleeping on planes’ kit. This includes my noise-cancelling headphones, an eye mask, and the Skydreamer pillow. Pillow is the wrong word; it’s two lumps of odd-shaped padding, that strap under your chin, and makes the world of difference to sleeping sitting up (your average sword student can’t afford to send their instructors across the planet in First Class). (Incidentally, if you’d be interested in a post about how I pack light for long trips, and actually sleep on planes, let me know in the comments.) At dinner that evening I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Manouchehr Moshtag Khorasani, author of over 100 articles and two extraordinary books on Persian arms, armour and martial arts. Having seen him teach, let me put it like this: I’d be delighted to fence him, but no way in hell I’d ever want to fight him.
I stayed the night at an alpaca farm just outside Wellington, which brought back memories of living in Peru.

Steve and Tam were lovely hosts, and Steve and I had plenty of time to chat before tooling off to the event that triggered this entire Odyssey: the New Zealand Sword Symposium. This was held at the Brookfield scout camp outside the capital, and I was teaching alongside people like Manouchehr, and Bede Dwyer, probably the pre-eminent world expert on Asian archery, as well as old friends Richard Cullinan, Colin McKinstry, and many others. The event was a delight, and the students in my class could not have been nicer to teach. I prevailed on Selwyn, the illustrious organiser, to promise to run the event again in two years, so it looks like I’ll be back this way then. I was too busy to get my phone out for photos of the event, sorry!
I think the greatest benefit I get from these events is meeting new colleagues and making new friends; the Kiwis have a gift for making one feel welcome. I’m staying at Lizzi Tremayne’s farm for a couple of days r+r before heading off to Auckland to teach a seminar this weekend. Lizzi is a horse vet turned novelist, as well as swinging a sword or two in her spare time.
If you’re in striking distance of Auckland, and fancy learning some Fiore dagger and longsword, come along! You can find the event sign-up here. See you there!