Pugilism....

...., the noble art of self-defense.

Before I left to Bosnia, I used to box. Boxing is, unlike what most people think, a self-defense sport. However, this was not the reason for me to do it- I started doing it because someone once told me that it was 'physical chess'. This was about the biggest nonsense i had ever heard, so one day i decided to go to a gym to find that out for myself.

And indeed, it is a game of strategy, more than pure muscle and strength. After doing it for a while I had to admit it is indeed a mind game , and that if you keep paying attention during a sparring match, you can win it, without being the one with the bigger guns...

The only requirement for winning is being in good shape. Something I am not currently. Something I sort of forgot. Until last Friday, at around 20.35. At that moment I was in the dressing room of the gym, after my first boxing training in almost three years: beat. In the literal sense of the word. In my last sparring rounds I could not even keep my arms up high enough for s decent defense; I was used as a punching bag for about half an hour. Lovely. "You have been abroad for a while, haven't you?", one of the boxers asked me. "Yeah, I can tell. You packed quite a few pounds..." Thanks. But he is right- I saw a group picture of the gym of June 2004, and indeed I looked more like a boxer than I do now....

Nevertheless, it was good. And sure, a mind game, physical chess, bladibla. For chess you do not have to do hundreds of push-ups for a reasonable result. You can learn it from a book. Yesterday my arms were so sore, that I could not even keep a book in my arms. Let alone box again. Maybe next week....

I was asked to write something about Micro Finance, private equity and my new job on my blog. That'll be for later- once I understand all of it....