Last few days

Since I have been back I have been so busy, catching up with family and friends and then trying to get a few training sessions in along the way.

I finally got home on Wednesday afternoon and my lovely Mum picked me up from the airport and took me home. Waiting for me at home was a package that was sent up by Pat from grapplingstore.com as he is now sponsoring me. Pat has been kind enough to give me 3 Mizuno Judo suits, 2 beautiful Mizuno tracksuits and an awesome Mizuno gear bag that fits 3 gis easily.

Then I just went home and went to sleep. That night I went to the Southern Cross club with my lovely family, It was Sam, my mum my sister Cheryl and her husband Michael and her beautiful children Emma and my godchild Clare. You may have seen cute kids before but nieces aside these are the cutest kids you have ever seen. They are very blessed to have Cheryl and Michael as parents because if Cheryl is half as nice to them as she is to me then they are in for a wonderful blessed life. Samantha and I (as well as my brother Mal and his girl Sarah) we honoured to be asked to be Godparents to little Clare, we are so lucky to have been asked. For dinner I had the best chicken Schnitzel and chips, I absolutely love chicken schnitzel and chips it is one of my favourite foods behind chocolate and Japanese Katsucurry.

The next day I caught up with my good friend and training partner Oren, He was very keen on hearing about the World Championships and the ever-changing sport of Judo. Oren is another awesome blessing in my life and if I didn’t have Oren as a friend and training partner I don’t know where I would be competitively in the way of Judo.

I also caught up with my awesome good mate Steve. We had a coffee and then also had a training session on Friday in preparation for the comp this weekend. Steve was my groundwork dummy for a long time but each session he got better and better before you know it he's bashing most blokes in Canberra on the ground. It’s great to see. Steve has great athletic ability and easily enough talent to one day achieve his goal of becoming a Brazilian jiujutsu black belt and have an amateur (if not a professional) MMA (cage) fight.

It’s so great to finally be home and see my family again. I have been away for only 3 weeks but I think I have matured more as a person and really appreciate all the things my family and friends to for me. While I was away I was reading my bible and one of the things it said in there as a challenge was to write 10 things down God has blessed you with. Although I didn’t start writing stuff down I started thinking about all the stuff and man, I am seriously the most blessed person on the planet. I have a fantastic wife, awesome family, lovely Mum and a kick butt brother. I have awesome friends and just a fantastic life.

The only bad thing was once I started thinking about all the stuff I just wanted to come home and enjoy all the awesome things in my life. This made me a little home sick but I think you also need that to appreciate where I’m at with Judo and also to make sure to train hard because I’m sacrificing a lot of awesome stuff to be there.

Another Sad thing i leanrt on my return was the sad news that our cute little dog Bobs passed away the day i fought Pac Rim. She was very old for a cocker spaniel around about 14 years old and she was such a cute little thing. But she passes away leaving behind alot of fond memories of missing socks and snot on your leg. I rememeber about 10 years ago in the cold winter days of me taking her for a run a few days in a row and on the 4th or 5th day when i came out with the lead she was hiding behind a tree so i wouldnt take her for a run and tire her out.
Our whole family loved here very much and we are sad to see her go.

Have a nice day guys and maybe today think about all the blessings in your life hey.
Matt