F Is For Fight Night

Friday night is fight night - this used to be an exciting refrain to hear as a kid, and even now I find it quite exciting, though one rarely hears it.

At the tender age of just 54 I had my first real life experience of Fight Night as my boxing gym hosted an evening of White Collar (my W post) boxing.

My fight was with Conrad who became a good buddy and went on to be a great help to my son as he went to college to study sound engineering.

Anyway, back to fight night...

We had a great fight and though we were the lowest billed fight on the card that night, we were voted *Fight Of The Night* because we went heavy ad hard and really battered each other. It was a LOT of fun!

E Is For Evasion

It has been said that boxing is the art of hitting without being hit. I can't find any attribution for this, but there is an element of truth about it.

It's easy to think of boxing as pure pugilism in which two opponents merely slug it out, hitting each other as hard as they can until one is knocked out. However, boxing is about the defense just as much as it is about the offense.

Featured Blog

Jim over on Missionary-Blogs.com has featured Facing The Mountain once again.

This time we're part of his Awesome God in Amazing Africa post on the Missionary Blog Watch page of the website, where Jim picks up on our post: Savouring Every Last Drop, a short post as Jim describes it "Just a little simple post of thanksgiving!".

I do try and focus on the blessings as much as possible on the blog and this particular Soup Kitchen was a tremendous blessing to us as well as to our regulars.

It's always humbling and a privilege to have any of our posts picked up and shared by others, so thanks Jim!

D Is For Dad

My Dad was, is, and always will be my true hero!

Dad, born Donald Coutts Finnie in 1929 sadly died in 1984 (I was just 18) after a long battle against MS. 

I won't bore you with the long story, but in a nutshell... when I was 2 (my two brothers were 4 & newborn) we were taken in to local authority care after my Dad was imprisoned for beating up our mother's boyfriend. Sadly, due to health issues which were complicated by his MS, we never got to live with Dad again, but he used to regularly visit us in the children's home and later I would cycle to see him most weekends.

Anyway, my Dad instilled a love of boxing in me and I used to love looking at his trophies and hearing his stories, though he was most proud of his brothers, particularly Dave who was a notable professional middleweight contender in Scotland.

C Is For Cristiano Jesus Ndombassy

Coach Cris as I know him was my first boxing coach and to this day the best coach I've had, and he is someone I have a huge amount of respect for.

Cris is the real deal! Also known as The Warrior of Faith, he is  a professional boxer and belt holder, he is currently holder of the World Boxing Federation (WBF) Welterweight International Champion. He also held the African Boxing Union Title (ABU) Champion which he successfully defended twice.  Cris now coaches boxing for the love of the sport.

A bit of background: Cris is Angolan but lives in South Africa, he's part of the Angolan diaspora caused by the civil war in the country which eventually ended in 2002. He arrived in SA as a youngster and now resides here permanently. Cris started boxing in Luanda aged 15 as a distraction from the gangs he was involved with and his passion was sealed.

B Is For Boxing

Boxing (or fighting) is probably as old as time along with prostitution and taxes.

The first record (or physical depiction) of boxing comes from around 3000BC in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). Since then there have been other notable ancient depictions of boxing and in 1650BC we have the first depiction of Boxing in front of spectators, dating back to Thebes in ancient Egypt.

The first illustration of boxers with gloves was seen on a fresco from the Minoan civilization dating back to the Bronze Age in Crete c1650BC.

The modern day sport of boxing as we would recognise it has some seriously dodgy roots and was pretty much outlawed within what we would know as *civilized society* through most of the 19th Century. In America, boxing's roots are directly traceable to the illicit world of gambling and casinos.

A Is For A Beginning

We all have to begin somewhere, so my beginning of the Blogging From A To Z April Challenge is "A Beginning". It's a bit of a cheat, but hey, we all have to start somewhere...

As I said in my Theme Reveal post, I'll be looking at my A To Z of Boxing. 

This isn't a definitive A to Z of boxing, rather it's an A to Z of my journey in boxing and my love of the sport, which was instilled by my Dad, himself a keen amateur boxer in his day, but more of him later in the month...

A To Z Blogging Chalenge 2022 - Theme Reveal

I will be participating in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge once again this year and I'm really looking forward to it. This will be my fourth participation having previously joined in in 2012, 2013 & 2021.

In my first Challenge (and last year's) I couldn't think of a theme so decided to keep things random, but this year, as in 2013 I have a theme. Hooray!

Reflections On The A To Z Challenge 2021

Firstly, it's eight years since I last participated in the Challenge. Quite why left it so long I'm not really sure, though some of those years were quite lean in terms of blogging. Sadly Facebook became my main thing followed by Instagram. Things came to a head in 2019 with a record low of just 13 posts for the whole year. At that point I seriously thought about giving up on the blog.

Z Is For Zebra

Z is for Zebra

I could have painted some black stripes on my car to make it look like a Zebra, but actually, this post is not about Zebras at all.

Truth be told I couldn't think of anything better and it seemed like a good way to say a bit about my upcoming adventure with my oldest son...

Joel turned 18 in March and as part of the celebrations of this event, we (he & I) will be going off on a three week off-road wild camping trip right around South Africa.

Y Is For Youtube

Y is for YouTube

Really, this should be W is for worship, but I only thought of that after the event, so here we are with Y for YouTube.

At The Gathering we're not blessed with any musicians that can lead us in our worship, so we use worship videos downloaded from YouTube, and then we sing along to them on Sundays and any other event where we would like a time of worship.

X Is For eXercise

X is for eXercise

In early January 2019 I made a life changing decision to get fit and healthy and had no idea just how timely and beneficial that decision would turn out to be. In fact, without meaning to be melodramatic, I'd go so far as to say that decision saved my life.

I had stopped all forms of exercise several years earlier, I used to cycle a lot and do a few other bits, but for a number of lame excuses gave it all up and became a couch potato piling on the weight. Because I'm quite tall I appeared to carry the weight well and no one ever said anything about my expanding beer gut.

W Is For Washing Machine

W is for Washing Machine

Why do washing machines do this?

I guess I should be happy because at least there's one sock that's not gone missing, but seriously, with all the tech that is packed in to the humble washing machine these days, why does this nonsense still happen?

V Is For Vinyl

V is for Vinyl

I love vinyl!

I think my main reason for loving it so much is the fact that playing a record is an occasion in itself. In our digital world it's too easy to pop some music on as background noise and then skip through songs without really giving it a second thought.

U Is For Upside Down

U if for Upside Down

Before I started this year's A to Z Challenge, I did say my theme would be random, so just in case things haven't been random enough so far...

Several nights ago I woke up just after 5am needing to wee, but for a moment or two as I lay on the bed I was a little disoriented because as it turned out, I was upside down on the bed. Apparently I had been that way since at least 1am when Paula got up to wee (oh the joys of being in our 50s!).

I have absolutely no idea how I ended up in that position on the bed or why, but it got me thinking about being upside down.

T Is For Thankful Thursdays

T is for Thankful Thursdays

I know it's Friday today, but sadly April hasn't been too cooperative with its alignment of days and letters.

Ever since we planted The Gathering we have encouraged the church to join in with our Thankful Thursdays in which we focus on giving thanks for all that God has done and is doing in our lives.

S Is For Spine

S is for Spine

Knowledge is power goes the adage, and the whole point of having an MRI was to gain the knowledge needed to make informed choices for treatment and prayer.

Today we know definitively what is wrong with my back, and now we can make informed decisions about where to go from here.

Firstly though, the good news is that I have no cancers or other unwanted tumors etc lurking in my abdomen, my spine is in good condition with good bone density and good alignment all around. All my internal organs appear sound with nothing untoward going on with any of them, so I'm very happy with that news!

R Is For Resources

R is for Resources

Or rather the lack of them. 

Jesus told his disciples in Luke 10:2 that: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few".

Q Is For Question

Q is for Question

I have a question...

What if all this bluster about the European Super League is actually just another of the big clubs smoke screens to get every one wound up so that when they announce it isn't happening we all pretend to like them and don't mind when they demand a bigger slice of the Prem's riches in return for binning the idea?

P Is For Philip

P is for Philip

Anyone who knows me well will probably be a bit surprised by this post given how anti-royal I am. 

I'm not going to rant about my feelings on the matter here (there's a time and a place for that and this isn't it), but rather doff my cap to someone I actually have a bit of respect for in one aspect of his life; his marriage. 

Philip married Elizabeth in 1947 and would remain married for 74 years which is an amazing achievement for anyone. On Elizabeth's accession to the throne in 1952 Philip renounced all of his own Royal titles and patronage in order to be subservient to the one true love of his life; his wife. Philip was a man with a stronger royal lineage than the woman he married but he was a man who chose to give up his name for hers and follow two steps behind her for the remainder of his years.