I accidentally in your base

Just got home from flying again. I now have nine of the ten items on the basic flight-skills list ticked off:

[X] 1. Attended, flew in tunnel
[X] 2. Can fly in a basic flying position with little assistance
[X] 3. Can hold a still and controlled body position
[X] 4. Can turn both left and right 360°
[X] 5. Can move forwards and backwards with reasonable control
[X] 6. Can move up and down in the air column
[X] 7. Can move side to side with reasonable control
[X] 8. Can enter and exit the tunnel with minimal assistance from the instructor
[  ] 9. Can follow direction from the instructor and make multiple movements
[X] 10. Can fly to a given number of places in the tunnel in a certain amount of time

The first three are a bit cheap, obviously. And to be honest, I think he was being a bit generous giving me a full tick for item 7 - side-slipping is difficult! Still, I did manage a couple of fairly deliberate attempts, and I think I'll do better next time.

9 and 10 are hard to distinguish from each other with the phrasing used, but it turns out that 9 basically means 'going diagonally' - so up and left at the same time, or down and right, or whatever. Hopefully I should be able to get that one ticked off on my next visit (Tuesday), then um... I dunno. Apparently the next step once your basic flight is stable is to learn to fly on your back - once you get that, you can start learning the really cool flips and other crazy tricks. *slightly manic grin*

I've updated http://dennyd.livejournal.com/649435.html with details of the October Airkix expedition - please go back and read if you're interested in coming along.

http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1498 amused me.

Life is going pretty damn well at the minute. In no particular order, lately I have:

* Flown (or indoor skydived, whichever name you prefer - I intend to go back a LOT once I get my settlement money).
* Fallen in love (rather suddenly and unexpectedly, and all the sweeter for it).
* Had a strangely affirming sort-of reprimand at work ("I need you to stop being apathetic; you're second in command of the whole company and I need your help." "Ah. Right.").
* Had lots of fantastic kinky sex. My girlfriend is made of win and yum.
* Had my annual check-up at the GUM clinic, all tests clear. Always nice.
* Failed to find a flat, despite looking at dozens of them. I'm not in a hurry particularly, but it would be nice to have somewhere of my own. Preferably somewhere of a reasonable size - I want to host some after-parties.
* Spent lots of time with my friends. They are lovely, lovely people, and I want to spend even more lots of time with them. Damn this working for a living nonsense, it interferes badly with what could otherwise be really monumentally spectacular social lives.
* Done quite a bit of spinning, mostly staff. Notably, four hours at Trance on the Thames - a free outdoor dance party on the Thames Beach (only appears at low tide, under Festival Pier on the south bank) - which was loads of fun.

Coming up there are more exciting things... at the end of this week, Helen and Kristen will be doing a live painting event at Planet Angel, which is cool. At the end of this month, they will be having their first exhibition, at The Foundry, which is even cooler. You should all come, to both but particularly to the exhibition - preferably to the opening night, on the 22nd :) [details]

I also have a certain amount of stress sources. Work is difficult to get a handle on at present, hence the previously referenced apathy. The new love, while sweet and wonderful, has not been the simplest of emotional entanglements, and continues to be tricky in places. My leg regularly hurts much more than usual for no apparant reason, and the promised settlement money hasn't even begun the process of turning up - the other side's insurance company are clearly going to wait until they're legally 100% obliged and compelled to hand over the cash (and quite possibly threatened with bailiffs) before they actually do so. Bastards.

Still, the good things (especially that new love, and my glorious girlfriend and friends) are outweighing the bad by a margin I couldn't begin to estimate. It's good being me.

Which is nice.