Y Is For Youth

I'm really happy that my sons learnt to box in their youth, I wish I had.

If nothing else, learning to box ensures that they'll never be physically bullied, but what really warms my heart about them learning is the fact that it changed them both for the better. 

Make Way For The Little Guys

This was such a cute moment at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen this evening, and somehow it just captures the heart and essence of it too.

At The Gathering we happily serve all comers regardless of their size, stature or status, we're not swayed by whether folk walked, just got out of a car or maybe got a ride to get there.

We serve everyone with the same level of grace & dignity and are as generous as we can be until the soup runs out.

X Is For eXercise

I love exercise!

There, I said it. 

No I'm not mad (at least I don't think I am), but I do enjoy the rush of endorphins from a good session, they're a great fix and one that I'm in no hurry to give up on.

W Is For Women's Boxing

I'm a big fan of women's boxing. 

As a sport it is about as old as men's boxing but it has been derided, ridiculed, marginalised, mocked and banned in most countries for far too long. The boom in the sport as we know it today really began in the 1990s in the USA as women were becoming more prominent in other sports such as baseball and basketball. It's quite difficult to find any serious reportage of women's boxing prior to this because it just wasn't taken seriously and was often a sideshow at traveling circuses or conducted in less than salubrious venues.

Chew On That

Further to my post on Saturday: There's A Mouse In My Kitchen, What Am I Gonna Do about our mouse problem at The Gathering, I had some more steel plates cut to size and finished the job off by screwing them on to the store room door.

I've now placed steel plates along the length of the door and made sure they're as tight to the floor as possible.

On the corners I've bent two separate plates to fit with a flap sticking out to prevent any attempts at limbo by the mice.

I think I can say with confidence that I've won the battle here, and if they do chew through they probably deserve to be there.

V Is For Vasiliy Lomachenko

Having posted about being a southpaw yesterday, today I'm posting about one of my all time favourite fighters, who also happens to be a southpaw (but the similarity ends there!).

Vasily Lomachenko (Loma) is a double Olympic champion and three-weight world champion who has been described as the best pound for pound boxer of all time, and I'm not in a position to argue with that. I love the guy!

U Is For Unorthodox

I'm a Southpaw (and proud of it) which means I'm left handed or in boxing terms I take an unorthodox stance. This means that I lead with my right hand jab with my right foot forward as in the photo. My left foot is nicely behind my right with my weight balanced for stability, whilst my right shoulder is slightly leaning forwards with my left shoulder slightly behind. Essentially as a southpaw my stance is a mirror image of an orthodox boxer's stance.

The unorthodox stance actually applies to any stance that isn't right handed, so it covers any other stance including the southpaw stance, but today most people in boxing would understand the term to mean a southpaw or left handed fighter.

Keep The Chairs Coming

Wow, what a morning in God's presence!

At The Gathering we've been praying for numerical growth for so long that now that it's happening it seems a bit surreal, but we're incredibly in awe of our faithful prayer answering God.

As Mongezi opened our gathering we were already pretty much full, but as our gathering progressed we had to get more and more chairs out from the back so that everyone had somewhere to  sit.

There's A Mouse In My Kitchen, What Am I Gonna Do

We have a mouse problem at The Gathering and to be honest it's getting a little tedious and I'm truly fed up with having to clear up mouse poo from all manner of places around the building every time I go in. A Tom & Jerry cartoon this is not!

The mice come in through the shop next door's storeroom at the back, but they don't realise there's a problem because they have a cat which keeps the mice pretty invisible on their side.

Quite why the mice bother coming through to our premises, and what it is they find so exciting is a mystery as all our Soup Kitchen foodstuffs are in plastic tubs as is pretty much everything else, so the pickings for them are quite slim.

Despite this however, things are getting out of hand for both ourselves and for the launderette next door.

T Is For TKO

TKO in boxing stands for Technical Knockout and usually means that either the referee has stepped in to stop the fight, or the opponent has thrown in the towel (yes this is where the expression comes from).

So this post is a rant for Coach Cris whose most recent fight was wrongly declared as a TKO win for his opponent. 

Hold on tight because this is a disgraceful story in which certain players should hang their heads in shame...

Cream Of Beef & Tomato

It was a joy and a pleasure to make the soup for The Gathering's Soup Kitchen last night and it was a privilege to serve with our Gathering family to our regulars.

The queue was one of the biggest we've ever seen and folk were patiently waiting from before 5pm knowing that we don't begin serving until 6pm.

As ever the vibe was very relaxed and despite waiting for quite a long time, everyone was very grateful for what they received. 

I made 100 litres of Cream of Beef & Tomato soup for last night and though I say it myself it was rather good, and it certainly went down well with everyone because it was all gone in twenty minutes!