Update No. 1 - European tour 2008‏

6pm London time.

Good morning New Zealand!
Carl VR here in London...
To fill you in on the saga so far.

The four of us (myself, Mark Trotter, Luke Thompson and DJ Thompson) arrived here last night at around 1am local time after 36 plus combined hours of flying and airport transit... I had wanted to drop a quick first update from Shermetyevo airport in Moscow on the way through but language issues saw my efforts to access the airport wifi services thrawted :(

We all agreed that our experience at Moscow was of the 70s influenced retro variety and left us feeling like we had gone back in time to the coldwar period... Trust me. I think you'll understand once you see some of our photos...

Ms. Carolina Dillen meet us at the airport at Heathrow much to our relief and quickly guided us back to her friend's place where we happily crashed last night.

This morning we woke early and got straight out into London to see all the main sights - Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the river Thames, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben Tower, the houses of Parliament etc... it was a stunning whirlwind tour.

We also managed an afternoon journey out to the covent garden markets before sucumbing to a severe bout of Threethirtyitis which left us feeling a little inebriated by the time we managed to get back to base to chill out.
Which is where we are now.

In about five minutes we're off to train with Mr Tom Dennis, 6th degree and English National Squad Head Coach. Carolina has already described the "intensity" at which Mr Dennis holds his trainings... which sounded, well - fun. Just ask Carolina about the tennis ball sized blisters on her feet next time you see her :)

Mr. Dennis: "So guys, not sure how you normally do things back in New Zealand? How does 400 turning kicks, 400 side kicks and 400 back kicks (each leg) sound. For a warm-up?"
I can just see my face...
"Oh yeah. Only 400? *gulp* Pwfft. Back home we like to do 600 but yeah, we are a little jet-lagged so 400 is cool..."

So, we are looking forward to meeting up with members of the English team (which we met at the Canadian Worlds and also at the US Martial Arts Open last year) as well as ex-NZ team member Suzanne Main and past grand world champion himself - the NZ bred grand poo ba meat patty Graham Patterson :D

We'll let ya'll know how it goes.
Until then over and out from London with Carl VR and the European tour crew.

CVR