Kevin Muldoon

Time For A Change

February 9, 2009 in Travelling with 2 Comments

I’ve been in Rawai for over a month now but since I cannot train anymore, I will probably be going somewhere else in Thailand.

I’ve not trained for a week now and to put it bluntly, I’ve been really bored. I had planned on staying here the full time to train so getting injured has caught me by surprise a little. I’ve been to most of the islands around here years ago so there’s nothing that I feel I need to go and see or whatever. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been limping everywhere like Christy from My Left Foot so it’s limited what I could actually do in the last week (thankfully I have a skooter).

If myself and James had paid for a good apartment/house for a month then I would have been happy to stay around and would have just found something to keep my occupied. Perhaps just go to the gym during the daytime (do weights, sit-ups/press-ups and other circuit training work) and maybe do something constructive, like do a thai cooking class or whatever.

I’ve made some good friends here, particularly James, Sonya and Cameron. But perhaps it’s time for a change. Sonya is leaving tomorrow morning to head north to Chang Mai and Cameron has moved out to a house with some friends. Bob, another English lad who has been here a month, is leaving in 2 or 3 days too (shame as he’s a sound guy too).

One of my friends Chris is coming down from Chang Mai Thursday or Friday, so it’s actually pretty good timing. He’s here until the start of March so I will have someone to go travelling with, though I would be happy just to relax in Phuket as well. I’ll meet Chris at the weekend, have a few beers and then see what our options are. I’ll probably drag a few of the rawai boys out for a beer also, it would be rude not to!!

I’ve not seen Chris in about 2 years. The last time I saw him was in New Zealand : I was heading home via Japan and he was staying on in New Zealand. He then moved onto Australia and is now starting to head home (after almost 2 years travelling!).

The picture below shows us together before we did the Tongariro walk in New Zealand 2 years ago (17 damn km long!). Chris is on the left, then me and in the middle is my friend Michael.

Tongariro walk

I’ll let you all know what I end up doing in the next few days

Night Out At Freedom Bar

February 9, 2009 in Travelling with Comments Off

Most foreigners in Rawai go to a bar called Freedom at the weekend. It’s run by a few English guys and is where most people from the gym go.

Here are some pictures from a night out there a few weeks ago (Saturday 24th January).

Cameron (Australia) with Pippin, the nice lady who looks after the bungalows we stay
Freedom Bar

Freedom Bar

Sonya (Aus), Pippin and Me
Freedom Bar

James, Me and Cameron
Freedom Bar

James and Sonya
Freedom Bar

Me, James & Sonya
Freedom Bar

Me, Ali (England), Sonya, Pippen and Cameron
Freedom Bar

Pippen and Cameron
Freedom Bar

James and Pippen
Freedom Bar

Sonya, James and Pippen
Freedom Bar

Raja (France), Pippen, Cameron, Me and Naan
Freedom Bar

A Taste Of Paradise

February 9, 2009 in Travelling with Comments Off

Just about every day we go to a great little restaurant across the street called Archees. It’s run by a really nice family. They are always smiling and laughing and make us feel really welcome. We’ve been there most days for over 5 weeks now so they are really great with us.

The other day the owners brother fashioned this extremely long bamboo stick and then used it to get a few dozen coconuts from the trees next to Archees. So they gave everyone a Coconut for free

A Taste Of Paradise

Although the exchange rate isn’t that great at the moment and Phuket is much more expensive than the rest of Thailand, it is still incredibly cheap. I had a bottle of water, a pineapple fruit shake, stir fried chicken with garlic and pepper with rice and a Coconut : all for £1.92 (about US $2.86). Bargain!

The coconut is not as nice in it’s raw form. It’s ok but the juice almost tastes like it is fizzy i.e. like tonic water. Perhaps I’m just too used to the manufactured/processed form of coconut juice!

Men Who Wear G-Strings Should Be Shot

February 7, 2009 in Random with 2 Comments

Myself, James and Cameron went down to the beach the other day. After swimming in the Sea I lay down on my towel and was just chilling out. I was doing my best to relax but it was very difficult as there was an Italian man in his 40s playing with one of those beach bat and ball sets with his wife. Which in itself is not disturbing.

The problem is, the man was wearing a thong (G-String). This was bad enough but he seemed to be too at ease bending over all the time to pick up his ball and reveal to the world…well, pretty much everything.

Wrong Wrong Wrong!

Unfortunately, this is no irregular occurence at Naehorn beach. There are several men wearing thongs parading along the beach everyday, one guy must be in his 70s. Wrong Wrong Wrong!

I cannot understand why any man would wear such a thing. At what stage in a mans life does he feel inclined to wear a G-String and display the crack of his ass to the world.

If you ever see me wearing one of these at any point in my life, you have my permission to run up behind me and punch me in the back of the head.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

February 7, 2009 in Random with Comments Off

I talked about Amazon emailing me a few months ago about purchasing Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method: The Complete Edition. Basically, at the start of September they emailed me saying it was being released and that they thought I’d like the book. So I placed the order.

It was delayed and delayed and delayed. Now, 5 months later, they have emailed me saying they are sending it out (about bloody time!!). Knowing my luck, the book is going to be shit!

Who’s On First?

February 6, 2009 in Films, TV, Games & Music with Comments Off

The famous who’s on first sketch from Abbott and Costello. Enjoy

I Pulled My Calf Muscle

February 5, 2009 in Martial Arts, Sports & Fitness with 2 Comments

I mentioned the other day that I got cramp in my right leg at the end of Mondays afternoon training session. I assumed it was cramp at first, mainly because thats what the trainers said it was. But after a few days I still cannot walk and the symptons appear to be little different from cramp.

I searched online and found out that I have pulled my calf muscle. According to this article :

A calf strain is similar to an Achilles tendon tear or rupture, but occurs higher up in the back of the leg. A sign of a calf strain is similar to that of an Achilles tendon rupture – you may think you’ve just been hit in the leg and hear a “pop.” There is sudden pain at the back of the leg, pain, swelling or bruising in the calf muscle, and you have difficulty standing on the toes.

The above describes exactly what happened to me. It felt like someone had just hit my calf with a baseball bat and my muscle contracted and I hit the ground. Since then I’ve been unable to walk properly on my right leg and have been walking on the front of the foot only. My friend Sonya also noticed yesterday how big my right calf is compared to my left calf, obviously this is due to swelling.

I’m not 100% sure but I believe I have a grade 2 tear, which takes about 6 weeks to heal. I’m hoping this isn’t the case but after 3 days it hasn’t really got much better.

I’m really bummed about the whole thing as I’m unsure if I will be able to train anymore during my time in Thailand. Rawai is the perfect place to train as there isn’t much to do but if you’re not training, it’s incredibly boring, something which I have found out the last few days.

I really only have myself to blame. I should have rested my legs longer because of pulling my left hamstring. I believe my hamstring pull played a large part in pulling my calf. Apparently, a calf pull commonly happens when a person overstretches the leg. I was kicking ok with my right leg on Monday and kicking about shoulder level however I didn’t have great control over it because my stationary leg is the one which I have pulled my hamstring on. Which means that I would have easily extended my leg longer than usual.

As I said, I’m a bit down abut it all because I was excited about coming to Thailand to train for a long time and I was enjoying the training. Now I’m not sure what to do. If my leg gets better within the next week then I could train everyday and just box but there would still be a risk of pulling it more and doing so could make things a lot worse long term. I know the best thing for me is rest but in the last few years I have trained at least 5 times a week and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if I’m not training.

I consider myself a positive person and in the past I have tried to look at the positives in a bad situation. For example, when I pulled my hamstring I thought, well it will give me a chance to improve my boxing. I’m sure that not training is going to give me an opportunity to do something else. I just don’t know what that is as yet.

I’m going to relax over the weekend, clear my head and think about what my options are

Pancetta Pizza

February 5, 2009 in Random with Comments Off

We went out last night to an Italian restaurant in Rawai called M & M. I ordered a Pancetta Pizza which had mozarella, bacon, onion and egg. As you can see, the egg was not diced and placed on top of the pizza or even mixed into the sauce. It was fried and put on top. Delicious!

Pancetta Pizza

Kal Marx Quotes

February 4, 2009 in Random with 9 Comments

There has been a great quote from Karl Marx going around the web recently which is relevant in todays struggling economy. Marx’s work was the foundation of Communism. In Western societies Communism (and sometimes Socialism) is labelled as evil. However, there is no disputing that this statement from Karl Marx in 1867 makes a lot of sense today.

Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.

Apparently, Karl Marx believed that :

Socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution and would represent the transitional stage between capitalism and communism

American television frequently speaks about Socialism negatively a lot on it’s news channels (nbc, fox, cnn etc) but European countries definately have more Socialist values (i.e. public health care etc). I’ve never really thought of myself as a Socialist, and I still don’t. Though Marx’s quote does imply I am because I do consider myself to be in the middle.

That is to say, I don’t believe a 100% Communist method works and I don’t think a 100% Capitalist method works either i.e. there are people alive who are richer than entire countries and some of the richest countries in the world have the greatest wealth divides (Capitalism is probably the best system but creates a lot of divides in how wealth is disrupted).

Well anyhoo, I’m not trying to make any political or economical point here as such. I just thought the quote was very interesting

Christian Bale Goes Nuts On Terminator Salvation Set

February 4, 2009 in Films, TV, Games & Music with Comments Off

This is a funny audio clip of Christian Bale going nuts at a Director of Photography on the set of Terminator Salvation. Apparently, this was the second time the guy had just walked onto a really big scene which was being shot and ruined it.

From YouTube :

The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He’s a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, which is a big “NO NO” on most productions unless worked out in advance with performers. But apparently Shane was a pretty unrepentant light tweaker.

The scene in question, was a very emotional and tough scene between Christian Bale and Bryce Howard. A scene that required soul bearing and a deep level of immersive concentration. The sort of scene where everyone on set knows not to get in anyone’s eye lines, and definitely not to move lights around while FILMING. You lock that shit down before the scene starts.