A Warm Winter.

 

Ben – Running Precision.

 

I had planned to be out this weekend, as it had been months since I was last out [1] and the weather was set to be sunny for a change this weekend. It was looking promising and as if nothing could go wrong, well that was until Friday arrived when that lovely predicted sun changed to rain all day. Typically it always seemed to be rain on a Saturday, why was the weather not giving us a break for our weekly community jam? I wanted to train, as I’m sure many others did too. James wasn’t going to be out this weekend as he was busy watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the cinema. This was one reason I was expecting the weather to be good, as it was Sod’s Law (Murphy’s Law) that he wasn’t to be out and then miss a glorious day of training, being envious in the process. A similar thing happened when he wasn’t out one weekend [2] and then the Derby guys had come over and we adventured to the Victoria Embankment area to train for the day with many photos.

I ended up going to bed at around four o’clock binging on various TV show as I expected the day to now be rainy due to forecast, so what would be the point in going early to bed to awake to that rubbish outcome. After all, Sunday was looking the better day and I could train then instead, with no worry of rain ruining the day. I woke up at quarter to twelve to Adam having sent me various messages asking if I was awake yet and still up for training. I said yes I would be up for training, though he had expected me to say no. The floor outside was damp, wet in places and it looked overcast like it might rain again. But even with this, I said I would go out and he offered me a lift into town on his way, though I had around an hour to get ready and head out to meet him. I had to rush around to get ready, I didn’t expect to be out for long so it was easier to get ready than normal and I packed very little for the day ahead.

 

Shakespeare Street.

 

We ended up walking from the forest up to the new spot (seen above) as we called it, on Shakespeare Street near the Trent University. An area I had yet to sample, but some of the community had trained there before, as it had been built in the summer. The floor was still very wet and it seemed like it was going to be one of those days. As we arrived at the spot, I could see Holbrook and Parrish already jumping around. I guess we weren’t the only ones wanting to be out as it wasn’t raining, it didn’t go unnoticed that Holbrook had a black eye either, ouch. A funny story from when he was out at a gig. It felt good to be out, at a new spot getting ready for the day ahead. I felt energized, I wanted to get as much as possible done there before we no doubt got moved off. From what people had told me from training there a while back the security was on top of people using the area, with it still being newly created and so our time may have been limited.

A woman walked through the area as we were trained and said ‘don’t injure yourself before Christmas!’ To which Parrish told her his present was life insurance. Frankie had text when I checked my phone and that he was at Plaza and no one had arrived yet and that he was going to go home. It would seem no on was out yet then, I expected people to still be there and was planning to visit Plaza after I had trained at this spot for a bit. I rang and told Frankie where we were, and directed him the best I could to where it was located. Out of no where just like John Cena, Jack arrived along with Noah, Jp and Mat.

First Session of 2014!

 

Parkour Hotspot – Urine Nation.

 

With my sleep pattern well and truly messed up I was in two minds if I would even be awake in time to go out to Saturday’s training session. I had only had three hours sleep Thursday night and then for the rest of Friday I felt extremely drained and hoped that would make me be able to have a good nights sleep and wake up at a more acceptable time for the weekend training session. I crashed to bed a little before ten and then slept easily until 4am, at which time I felt wide awake like I should get up due to having enough sleep. I decided to go back to sleep and woke up at 8am before lolling and sleeping lightly until 10am when I finally got up and had enough of my bed and sleeping. I arose to see it was terrible, rainy weather outdoors, this was normally the case as it would be fine all week long and then be rubbish come the weekend! The weather never helps my mood, nor does it make me motived to go out to the session. I wasn’t expecting many, if anyone, to be out today in this dreadful weather, though I had seen that Pete had already made a status about him being out and had tagged the rest of us to see who else was up for being out too. So far only Phil had replied saying he would be out and a few others from U:R. I didn’t get a reply on Facebook chat for the Bulgarian moaner Denis, nor did I get a response from Yaz, no doubt both still in dream world and with that I got ready to go out.

I arrived at Plaza a little after one o’clock and was surprised with just how many people had attended and were training today, considering the weather. It was wet but like all rainy days it seemed like it would be a day spent under the Crowne Plaza car park. Zain arrived and stated that he was here before anyone arrived and so he went for a walk around town before coming back later in hope that people would be out training by then. Pete text James to inform him, he was missing the homoerotic banter and myself at the training session and then I used his phone to sent a message telling James to hurry the hell up as he never arrives on time and is always late and then he wonders why he doesn’t feel the burn at the end of the day or understand why people want to leave early. Pete also text Yaz, but needless to say he didn’t get a reply back and with that I joined Zain for some friendly banter and a few light vaults over the blue railings and some skipping to loosen up and feel warmer. Zain was vaulting the rail, doing a lazy vault then went straight into a roll, while he practised this all I heard was a slip of a trainer and myself and Pete turned around to see Zain sprawled out on the floor with a groan of failure from slipping on the floor.

 

Ben – Portrait.

 

James came bounding into Plaza and was ready to train but not before some cheeky banter, trolling and a general chitchat. Zain decided he would try and tackle me as I skipped or even as I vaulted the rails, a ridiculous idea. He said we should try and vault and fight each other as we did so, and as I joke I went along with it and did a speed vault kicking him in the forehead slightly, and that was the end of that little game! I was next to Pete who was sat on top of the wall feeling uneasy, even more so when I pretended to grab his feet, while Zain wanted to actually pull on his feet and use them to help him climb up…

April Showers, Garages and Radford.

 

Random Time.

 

I arrived in town to find very few people at the meet up point for a Saturday, perhaps the predictions of rain had put many of coming out at all after how rainy the weather had been in the week. It was a sunny day never the less and we made our way up to Houses Two area to warm up. It was strange the sun went in and it began to be cold and people moved around or complained of the area not being as good for training. I started to do some press ups to which Denis came over telling me not to workout here and do that at home and then tried to push me over. Denis was mainly sitting around because he had an injured back from which he had done in gymnastics from landing on his head and it pulled and bent his back further than normal.

He was saying to Zain perhaps I’m not injured at all and I am just lying about the whole thing and really I’m doing awesome things without others knowing then one day I will be really sick and bust things no one thought I could do. The funniest part to watch was when the guys all had a small competition to see who could pop wall climb up the higher wall the fastest. I was having a drink only for Zain to tap the bottle from behind me and made me nearly spill all of it everywhere. He then ran off and I sprinted after him faster than he thought I was capable of and he shrieked as I chased after him. Before leaving, we had to wait for James who was late as always and we also had a call from Moonie and Will but decided to leave before they arrived due to being sick of waiting.

We took a walk down Alfreton Road and made our way into Radford area. On the way Yaz was eating his Jelly worms which he said had been imported over here, they were very tasty and were shared among us all. People spoke about how gangster the area looked as we walked through the estate and Flip mentioned he had came across this area before but decided not to stay due to people hanging around. We entered the first area which at first people didn’t really see that much to do until we started to train and open their eyes to what was right in front of them. Vince wanted to do the diving kong over two walls near a stair set, while others did the kong precision of it. People climbed up walls and onto the roofs. Flip and Yaz had a go at the various tic tac cats in the area and then later on they had a look at a black bar which was out the side of the building and was sturdy enough to support full weight and was used as a squirrel 180 cat.

 

Yaz – Tic Tac Cat.

 

One of the Tic Tac Cats was near a window on take off and Flip had already done it a few times and Yaz went over to check it out and see if he could do it, only for a window to open and a guy say ‘Yo, bludclot! What you doing near my window?’ To which Yaz replied ‘Checking out the wall’ for the mysterious person to respond with ‘You best get away from my window bled and leave the area!’ and then the window closed. Yaz seemed puzzled and we laughed about what had just happened and Flip asked what had happened too as he was ready to do the Tic Tac cat again. Later on when James was near the window just holding his camera the same person said not to take photos of the area or him and to put the camera away. Why be bothered though we are doing no harm and I guess if that person really was bothered they would come out and have something to say.

Denis and Zain were sat on a room chit-chatting and not doing training as well as eating bourbon biscuits. They had passed the packet to Moonie to eat some and Yaz walked by to try and snatch them from her and throw them back up to Zain and Denis. As he did this the whole packet fell to the floor scattering them all over the floor and everyone simultaneously saying ‘noooooooo’ as they hit the ground. I was trying to hold some human flags on the washing line posts in the area but they proved

Rainy Days.

After yesterday and the dreadful weather, I awoke to a surprisingly dry and sunny day. I got ready to go out training and arrived in town at the meet up point with everyone else who wanted to join. The sky was now overcast, I really was hoping it wouldn’t rain, we started the jam off at Houses two (New houses) as some people call it. I decided on doing a repetition training day, with my movements today. Doing sets of 15 of a single movement to keep them precise and in good form. Later on I was drilling some old fashioned reverse vaults over a hip sized wall. I had not done any in a very long time and so was scared. In the end they were more like barrel vaults then reverse vaults. Vladimir’s arms and shoulders were looking big today (no homo) I’m envious, damn him, one day I will have the same sized arms! Mark my words Vlad! Yaz was late, arriving wearing his white Freemove t-shirt which was the second time I’ve ever seen Yaz wear white in recent years.

It went against his black jogging bottoms which looked good together. Though it was strange to not see him out in a bold coloured tee, very strange. Tom was doing some kong vaults over the wall, only to then clip both feet (knees) on one of the attempts, falling face first over the wall. Managing to save himself with his hands before hitting the ground. His hands took the impact followed by his knee which hit the ground full force. He got up right after and seemed fine only having a graze on his hand, it looked deep so he said he would go and clean it up before coming back to train. We started to wonder why Tom had not came back once we released he had been gone for some time and maybe he had headed home with Will. It began to not rain, but pour and so we all grabbed our bags and made a dash to Crowne Plaza!

 

Parrish – Cat 180 Precision.

 

We remained at Plaza for most of the day, what with the weather looking set to be rain all day. The rain really came down and flooded the area at one point when all the drains couldn’t cope with the incoming flow of water. People slowly one by one went home due to the day being a washout and I don’t blame them. Some of the guys had gone to the shop and on the return we were admiring Parrish’s long sleeve burgundy top he always wears. I asked if I could try it on followed by Yaz trying it on too, it felt nice and I asked where he had got it from. Parrish said it was from Topman. We all joked about we should all go to Topman and buy the exact same top he worn for the jokes. With this in mind and the weather not letting up, we decided to go on a little shopping spree, only to get there and find out they no longer stocked the top Parrish wore.

So we walked down to UN to train, before we got to the main area Parrish wanted to climb up onto the roofs and ledges that were up there and started to climb up. Once at the top he was telling us how dirty it was and how many feet and foot marks there were. I got some photos of Yaz and James up there before they came back down and Parrish going off to clean his hands which were black. In UN’s main area we were experimenting with doing dive rolls on the small wall, then some of the others had a go at the running upwards catleap. We then went over to the rail precision and started training the downwards ones from the wall to the rail. It was great today as there were so many cars park on the edge of the road beside the rail. If we were to overshoot the rail we would not be running out into the road and get hit by the on coming traffic.

 

Yaz – Hanging Around.

 

After much deliberating we decided to go and train the top of UN car park then go home. We arrived at the top floor only for the heavens to open once again and rain to pour down on us. Parrish wanted to do the big downwards precision so we set up the cameras while he dried his feet before doing it. Once we had a few angles and he was happy that he had done it we moved down a floor into the dry. Shortly afterwards we walked back down and towards Broadmarsh so Yaz could go to Poundland. We said everyone closes earlier to which Yaz didn’t believe, only to find out it was true once in the shopping centre. Stefano and Parrish did some tricks on the floor which acted like a springboard, we then walked up the road and stopped off at the stone circle near the church to train for a while. Parrish was busy doing the downwards precision to roll.

Yaz and Stefano grabbed some food from Sainsburys. Parrish was giving us many speeches about how we can and should do the downwards precision to roll and it’s really easy. No heavy impact or far even if you are tired.