Date:December 8th 2009. Grade status: 7th Kyu, yellow belt. Grading: Any time very very soon!

My name is Savage. Richard Savage. I guess being a Britt I should start off my blog like this. I was born in Wales, UK, grew up, studied, trained karate (more on that later). After studies I lived and worked in Paris France for 6 years where I met my wife (who is of course from around here) when I was 23. We moved to Sweden in '96 and I am classified in expat slang as a love refugee. ie why else would you want to live here? But joking aside I do love living in Sweden. 

BTW sorry for the English language thing but even though I speak Swedish it would take me ages to write all of this in Swedish, and furthermore my lovely wife would have to correct it. This way all mistakes are mine alone. I hope you like it in any case.....

So what do I want to write about? I looked at the blogs being created and was totally inspired to try and join this honorable crew. Sammy, who has a fantastic blog, which is totally inspiring and gives me a unique view into what it is like to be 2nd Dan. Harald's blog which gives us a lovely view into his temporary sejour in Japan is both funny and extremely interesting. I love the pictures of him with the small Sensei! And last but certainly not least Esra's blog which gives us a wonderful view of life in Team Sweden. Congratulations to you all, if I even get close to being so good I will be happy. So back to what I want to write about: I wanted to try and put into words what it is like trying to get to black belt. Its as simple as that: the joy, the pain, the frustrations and sometimes hopefully the great results of all of those things put together! 

I'd like to dedicate this first blog to Sensei Sven Ljung who trains in the Shotokan Club in Ljusdal. Sven is both my friend and builder and helped extend my summer cottage up in Hälsingland. Sven is in fact responsible for getting me into Shotokan and I therefore hold him responsible for all the pain and enjoyment I go through! Thanks Sven! You can find out more about Sven at www.ljusdalskarateklubb.se/Instruktorerna.htm 

Basically the story went like this: Summer 2008, Sven and I were painting my cottage together. As many do we started talking and chatting about what we did in our spare time. Me? I was too stressed to do anything, had just turned 40, workedtoo hard and was frustrated because I never seem to find the time to go the gym. Sven? He had trained Shotakan for a number of years and told me all about how basically great it was. (This took longer than an hour) I happened to therefore mention that I did in fact train Karate 21 years ago in the UK. A style for those of you interested called Tang Soo Do, the Korean budo version of Tai Kwon Do. Sven asked me why don't I go and train? These simple words grew like an Oak tree inside me! I was 40, the kids were old enough to look after themselves and I thought it was about time I started to have some fun myself and also I was rather worried about the large stomach that was appearing on me. And that my friends is how it all began.

Next time on this blog why I train and what makes me keep going. Plus how I did in my grading of course and how that felt!

Until then I wish everyone luck in the upcoming grading!