Maxblog: now officially living in Sydney!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 29 Nov 2005 04:13

That's amazing news!

A second weekly session would double my chances of being able to attend one

Great!

Still on for the 5th. Where exactly do you guys play on mondays? Uni or the Terdelt gym...?

max · Post by **max** » 29 Nov 2005 04:29

Hey Wim, mondays and possibly Fridays in the future we're playing at the ULB campus... I'm not sure which one it is, it's the one that is at Tram / Bus stop ULB next to BUYL. I know that bus 71 goes there (I think) and for sure trams 93 and 94 although the 93 doesn't work at night. I get there at around 8ish sometimes earlier. We play till 10pm. Same setup is foreseen for Fridays too.
We play in the actual sports complex, the one with two gymnasiums and lots of other sports rooms. Wehere exactly in there depends on what's going on that day.

max · Post by **max** » 05 Dec 2005 02:23

My God what a week-end.

I am LOVING Brussels. It' a funny place Brussels. It's a transit town of sorts. Lots of Europeans come here to work for the European Commission or the European Parliement and stay a couple of years. What does that mean? Brussels is an expat town. What does THAT mean? It means that people are super easy to chat with. I have met SO many people here here just talking random crap at some of the many many many expat parties that are on on a weekly basis.

Funnily enough I have come to loathe going back to Paris.. a home town I have lived 9 years in. My God Brussels rocks. Expatriating myself is the best thing I have done... EVER! Why on earth did I not do this before?

oh yeah footbag: got close to ps whirl > double spinning osis last friday.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 05 Dec 2005 10:06

max wrote:I am LOVING Brussels.

That's superb news!

max wrote:oh yeah footbag: got close to ps whirl > double spinning osis last friday.

Hell yeah you did. You WILL hit that next time you kick!

max · Post by **max** » 06 Dec 2005 03:17

Big session yesterday. At one point there were 8 people (me included) freestyling. This may not sound like much but not only are we in winter but no longer than 2 months ago I still thought that there was a grand total of 2 freestylers here in Brussels. So yeah I see new people on a near weekly basis and that is very cool. I was ultra hung-over and trying to get over a grueling yet extremely fun week-end so I played like absolute crap. So I was mainly just giving tips to all the new players. One guy in net-shoes even hit mirage, legover and clipper all BS all first time. Ju was off the hook too doing some super long runs. He hit flip osis and ducking clipper for the first time. he also had torque roll off his foot many times. So yeah the scene here is starting off nicely. A low-key first ever competition on Belgium soil is in the works.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 07 Dec 2005 08:28

More!

See you on Friday? Julien will probably be guiltless by then

Jul · Post by **Jul** » 07 Dec 2005 09:00

Hey hello Everybody
My first post ^^

So yes It s amazing to play with Max
I see so many things

I can tell what I feel in this moment it s so incredible

Wim i think we cant play longer in that corridor at Ulb and if we play Friday we probably play at schaerbeek...

But its not sure (and im free at 20h30)But I hope we can play somewhere

My english is so poor wathever

See ya

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 07 Dec 2005 10:17

Welcome to the boards Jul!

That's some seriously bad news about the corridor...! Schaerbeek is a nice place to kick, but hard(er) for me to get. Anyway, motivation beats everything, so if I'm up for it I'll surely see you on Friday.

max · Post by **max** » 22 Dec 2005 03:06

And so I went to Berlin last week-end.

So I've been to about a dozen coutries in Europe before (lived in 3) and for some reason I had neverAnd so I went to Berlin last week-end.

So I've been to about a dozen coutries in Europe before (lived in 3) and for some reason I had never been to Germany before. This is actually quite hard: Germany is huge and smack in the middle of Europe, I think you really have to go out of your way to travel around Europe and NOT go to Germany. Anyway I'd been meaning to go for a while and was just lacking the right occasion. Well I found the occasion: a friend of mine had been living in Berlin for a couple of months and it was her last week-end there, she had a big flat and told me to come over. So I did. I'd been hearing these crazy stories about Berlin bars and clubs and galleries and art and whatnot an was intrigued to say the least. I had a checklist of things I wanted to get done in Berlin that week-end:

- check out those unique bars people have been telling me about
- check out those crazy electro clubs that are littered here and there around Berlin
- eat a Würst (yes it's probably spelt wrong)
- have a glüvhine (same as above)
- eat a pretzël (ditto)
- drink a german beer...
- walk around Berlin for a couple of hours.

I get there Friday night, I hook up with my friend who had a french bf over for the w.e (another Max as it were), it was a good thing I took a nice German girl I met earlier in Brussels over with me too. We go out have a nice meal with loads of german beer (check 1). We get done at midnight and I'm already pretty hammered with the flight and all. Anyway, get home, drop stuff off, get changed and go to this club in Kreutzberg... it was o-k, drum and bassy, a bit too harsh for my tastes but fun nonetheless. So this was really my first taste of Berliners. First impressions:

- everyone is tall.
- you see some über cool dress sense from both guys and girls
- girls have no qualms about keeping eye contact for a good long while (a pb. I've noticed with Belgium girls)

Anyway so I polish up my 20 word vocab German and after a couple of trips to the bar I can order drinks in German without having to repeat myself. I do have to pretend that I understand the price the barman tells me though :-/ Oh yeah, Berlin is dirt cheap btw. Anyway, get back pretty buzzed at about 4 or 5ish, call it a night.

Saturday:
get up earlish (2pm) it's snowing lightly, I take my german friend and ask her to show me around Berlin. We walk down to a chunk of what remains of the Berlin wall.... it's a wall.. nothing too exceptional about it really. We walk up to Karl Marx avenue and walk it all the way down to AlexanderPlatz. Now this is where berlin is quite weird. Berlin is HUGE. It is one of the largest cities (in geographical size) in Europe. This Karl Marx avenue must be close to 100m wide, it is monumental. The buildings along it are just crazy, most are soviet union style socialist huge buildings, but you also have loads of modern buildings aong it and buildings from all decades.. it's quite a mix. It's so hetergenous it's crazy... Very different to the Paris / London / Brussels I'm more accustomed to. Anyway we make it down to AlexanderPlatz where a pretty cool scene from the Bourne Supremacy was filmed, I recognized it instantly. We stop for a Gluwine on a christmas market (check 2)

Then it's off to check out the bars (check 3)!! We hook up with other Max from France and off we go. This German friend of mine used to live in Berlin and took us to some pretty damn cool bars (thank God she was there); Greate deco, super laidback, uber cool people everywhere, the styles of these bars were so unique they're hard to describe.

I'll write the rest later (work to do).

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 22 Dec 2005 05:39

girls have no qualms about keeping eye contact for a good long while

Haha! You noticed that too? Somehow I always feel more handsome the minute I pass the German border. So it's them, not me. Now I get it

.

I think one of the things that make Berlin so unique is that it has got such a short history. It got completely wasted during the WW and was rebuilt according to modern day needs (e.g. fucking BIG streets), unlike the Mediaeval centre of say Brussels (that has many capital-unworthy streets).

Also did you notice there are few tall buildings and skyscrapers? I like that, feeling free in the middle of the city.

max · Post by **max** » 27 Dec 2005 04:25

So guess who popped into Brussels yesterday?
The DAOUK family! All three of them: Shirine, Silwan and Karim. They apparently have family near Namur (Belgium) and called me up for a kick and some beers. So we hooked up in Brussels last night, had a quick bite to eat and then off to a squash court for a hefty session. So there were the three Daouks, Julien and myself. We ended up kicking not in the squash courts but in some kind of dance hall with mirrors and a sound system.

It was very cool kicking with the Daouks, I warmed up with Silwan who STILL insists on playing with brand spanking new filled to the brim footbags (i.e.: unplayable)

He had some nice runs including one with every flavor of ducking / diving mirages. Then I went to kick with Karim for a bit but my knee started really hurting (I hurt it trying stupid tricks...) and I had to sit out wuite quickly.

So Karim, well he's off the bloody hook. I saw him hit these crazy repeating shuffle runs, fives everywhere, drifter > vortex > torque repeat drills, infinity swirl x7 (then he ran into a wall), diving drifter x2, ripwalk swirl bsos (was trying it back to back), ripstein BSOS, ripped > ripped > spike hammer, phoenix > spike hammer > phoenix > stepping ducking drop

Anyway he was busting out some seriously long genuine runs with ridiculous links. I saw him trying gyro butter swirl repeat but that was a nogo. He will hit it I'm sure though

i unfortunately did not get to kick with Shirine more than a few minutes, but she's hitting smears, ripwalks, blurs all over the place.

Then it was off for some well deserved beers and catching up. Julien (a new Brussels footbagger) was super happy to have seen his first foreign footbag players show up in Brussels. he got loads of tips from Karim himself so that's always a bonus. I also think that the Daouks were very happy to have been able to shred in Brussels. They had been coming yearly for Christmas holidays and this was the first time they shredded here! I'm also happy that came along it's always cool catching up with them: the swiss are a cool people!

Oh Wim, if you're reading this: I really did fsck up my knee pretty bad and I think that there's no chance at all I'll be able to kick on Thrursday or Friday... sorry.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 28 Dec 2005 14:26

Argh! That's too bad. But please don't apologise; physical wellness is paramount.

Good to read about the Daouks. It sucks I couldn't make it. I hope they'll return shortly for some other Christmasish occasion

max · Post by **max** » 11 Jan 2006 04:46

Had a fun little session yesterday. I wasn't on top form as my knee still hurts and the floor was a bit slippery but it was a cool "just shredding around" session. Wim was there as was Julien and Alexis and two others kickers. Seb didn't make it as he had a minor car accident on the way over and had to wait 2h. for the cops to arrive.

Anyway, Wim was on top form as usual hitting some nice shuffle combos with pixies steps and atomics. I saw him hit toe blur BS amongst other things and he had bubba beater all over his foot most of the night. I also took about 15 minutes explaining what wauxspin was and how to hit it.. I guess it's a bit of a brainfuck that move..

I saw Julien hit dimwalk midstring (had never seen him hit that move before) and he also hit a couple of smears, so big props to him! I coached him on atomics and stepping sets also and he should have these down pretty quickly. he also shattered his clipper record with at least a dozen (wasn't counting), so I've been aggressively pushing him to do the same on his flip and he's getting there.

I didn't hit anything notable except pdx tap BSOS (was my first flip nuke move) and a flip barfry (my first). Also stepping osis > spinning osis felt fun. Nothing truly inspiring really. It felt like a "getting back into footbag" session. Oh yes, Wim asked me at some point what WHAAAT?!? was, so I explained the basics of the move and then tried it for the first time. I started off doing a symposium reverse swirling op pickup... out of some sort of habit. Then tried again a couple of times and got the components right. I didn't hit it, but at least I know HOW to hit it now

So I'll leave this one for a later date.

bon, here's to hoping we can kick at Alexi's flat next friday.

max · Post by **max** » 12 Jan 2006 02:28

Wim edited a small video of a session a while ago:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/showset/maniac

(last vid: ULB session)

Again, not really on top form although I have a couple of sick three atempts at the beggining that look fun, and a couple of sick one attempts at the end that I'll hit sooner or later.

Watching this vid reminded me of one thing: I have not played on a non sticky surface in fucking AGES... all the sessions for the last couple of months have been on slightly slippery surfaces... maybe it's my lavers.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 17 Jan 2006 09:30

Dude, how's that big job responsibility thing going? Do you find the time to kick?

About the sticky/slippery surfaces: I say don't worry. The gym we played at last week is slippery indeed, as was the hall at the ULB campus (but to a smaller extent).

max · Post by **max** » 17 Jan 2006 11:06

Dude, how's that big job responsibility thing going? Do you find the time to kick?

er yeah the job responsibility thing is slowly getting out of control for the moment. I have to create a Project Quality Plan for a huge project we sold to Belgium's Federal ICT... I have no idea what a Project Quality Plan is.... but I'll find out. So yeah 12 hour days these days and no, I don't have time to footbag... but it'll all even out in the end I'm sure.

Maybe I'll be able to kick next tuesday. I'll let you know if I can.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 18 Jan 2006 03:50

I have to create a Project Quality Plan for a huge project we sold to Belgium's Federal ICT... I have no idea what a Project Quality Plan is.... but I'll find out.

Even though it's not footbag, I'm giving you huge props for that *hands clap*.

max · Post by **max** » 21 Feb 2006 05:08

Well I've been plagued with a knee injury lately. I had only kicked three times in the the past 9 weeks (I think) and each time my knee hurt like hell after playing. I did kick yesterday as I had not kicked for about three weeks and my knee was feeling better. So I avoided all double dexes / whirls / blenders / fairies and the like on my weak knee...

The good news is that my weak feels alright today. So I didn't stress it out much by shredding 90 minutes

The bad news is that I schooled some fairys and ps whirls on the other side and hurt my other knee

I must be getting old. I'm sure the cold doesn't help either.

I still feel like I'm trying to get back into my game. I had a couple of ok runs but was still very far from top form obviously.

I took the opportunity to school atomics, which is a set I have really disregarded for ever. I was happy with the following:

atomsmasher BSOS
tap > atomsmasher BS
plo > eggplant [rpt]
pixie ss mirage > tap [rpt]
and atomsmasher x2 off my foot loads of times.

I was also very pleased with symp. bubba beaters; they're starting to feel a lot easier despite it being a pretty taxing move. I hit PS egg also but to a drop.. I'll seal it some day.
What else? Oh yeah I tried symp. swirling monster several times and ALWAYS ended up hiting symp. swirling osis... I'll have to figure this stuff out at some point

Anyway I'm starting to have on eye on rubberman which I never thought I'd ever get close to. I'm still super far from hitting it, but I'm more confident in my atomics so I'll give all the links a go next time I play.

Other than that, it was cool going back to the regular monday kick. julien has progressed a lot. He can hit clipper x10 pretty easily now on his strong side and his flip is coming along too. He's hitting pixies mid run (saw him hit dimwalk, smears, plos, and he had a pixie ss mirage off his foot) and he's practicing his flip pixie also. He hit tap and was super close to eggplant. What else? Oh yeah ripwalk off his foot!! But I told him that he still needs to school his basics

BOTH SIDES! Oh yeah he had torque off his foot several times and can hit toe drifter (nearly both sides).

Two chicks were also there kicking with us, that's always refreshing! Hopefully they'll be popping back in next monday.

I should be kicking next Friday if all goes as planned. And I do plan on kicking a lot more.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 22 Feb 2006 05:08

Yes man,

Good luck with that resolution. I hope to kick it up with ya soon but that won't be before next week.

Oh yeah, and what exactly is monster?

max · Post by **max** » 13 Mar 2006 04:03

Have been kicking maybe once a week recently, and have been going very very lightly as I seem to always injur or re-injur myself... anyway so I'll blog about something else: my past week which was seen me globe-trotting over Europe!!

Last week-end (4-5 of March) I was in Paris just for one night, headed back to BXL for a massive party on sat. night, next monday I was off to Athens for 4 nights on business.. I guess that's one of the perks of working abroad for a Greek firm.

Athens... I hadn't been back in, oh, 23 years more of less. I used to live there as a child. I did look up on f.org for any Greek clubs but no dice.. Anyway I hooked up there with the girl that used to baby-sit me when I was 4 years old!! So she took me out to "see Athens".. Now I thought people in Brussels go out late.. well it appears that the greeks go out even later! We met up at 1am (I was working the next day) and she took me out to what I later found out was quite a dodgy part of Athens... we hit the cool bars and clubs and CHECK THIS: in one of the bars these two super hot chicks walk around with a tray of tequila / lemon / salt and ask me if I would like one... I decline politely not wanting to mix alcohols as I had to get up early tomorrow... then I learn that these drinks were being OFFERED to everyone (yeah so I had one)! I mean this kind of shit just simply does NOT fly in France / Belgium / England... so my greek friend informs me that yes, cute girls offering free drinks and cigarettes in bars and clubs is actually very common.... wow. Anyway this business trip was quite fun and I'm definately up for going back to Athens. I get back on Friday at midday, go to meetings and then head to London for the week-end..

London was a pretty typical week-end: shopping (had a chick riend over with me.. so she shopped for 5 solid hours as read books and nursed a pint in a pub for the most part).. the very particulat thing that did happen was that I was scouted by a modeling agency there!! Hahahhahahahahahhaha Man did I NOT know what to say:

chick: hello I work for <such and such agency> and we're looking for <such and such profile>. Are you currently in an Agency?
me: well quite surprisingly, no, I'm not currently in an Agency!
chick: great so would you be available for <photo / casting stuff>?
me: well quite regrettably I don't live in the UK
chcik: so you'd have a hard time making it to the different castings?
me: yes..

and that was baout it

I did want to scream out: can't you tell that I'm way under six-feet tall?? Anyway, God knows that boosted my confidence and that ame night I went clubbing and felt like I was God himself

blablabla hope to play some footbag next Friday in Paris. Oh and Wim, if you're reading this: big big big props on your photo / video shoot!!! It sounds lke you caned it!