Bruised Knuckles

Last night during training, my good friend K.C., whose Kung Fu is really very good, came up with some drills that required body pads ... no gloves. These drills were straight out of the forms we learnt and couldn't really be executed with boxing gloves on. I didn't have MMA gloves (those fingerless ones), and after getting K.C.'s fingers caught in my wraps, I removed them.

That meant hitting the body shield without any protection whatsoever. It felt AWESOME!

The side-effect is, of course, that I now have bruised knuckles on my right hand. The bruise is faint, and will probably vanish without becoming all that visible. I can see it, though. It amuses me.

But this is supposed to be a blog about my writing, which, incidentally has been going very well. I wrote another 4 000 yesterday. It means that I only have to write 1 000 today to be up to speed. That, however, might be something of a struggle for two reasons:

a) I exhausted my imagination yesterday, and I might need a little break to rest up and charge it again, and

b) I've hit a small depression. No, not the atmospheric type. Those who follow this blog know that every so often I get into a low or two for a little while. Sometimes these personal lows fuel my writing. Other times, they kill it dead. I have a feeling it's the latter this time around.

Of course, we'll have to see. I often say that I don't have it in me to write, and then end up writing a whole whack of stuff. Incidentally, a character I was fond of died yesterday, so that's what may be making me feel all sad.

Le sigh.

Well, you don't need to hear me complain about feeling down. So instead, I give you today's Forgotten English:

Chuffy:

Haughty, proud, puffed up; fat and fleshy. In some parts, clownish.

- M. Courtney, Glossary of Words in Use in Cornwall, 1880

Fussy, proud, conceited.

- Sidney Addy's Glossary of Words Used in Sheffield, 1888

Churlish, rude, surly, morose.

- Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893.

I use a variation of this - chuffed - meaning proud or pleased (with myself). For example, 'I got a good review and am now quite chuffed.' I got the expression from my maternal Grandmother, whose family (I think) were Cornish. Incidentally a chough (pronounced 'chuff')

is a bird similar to a crow that lives in the UK. Well, the red-billed chough does anyway. It has associations with a Welsh folk hero - Bendigeidfran (the blessed crow), who was, according to the folklore, a King. I wonder if the association between the crow/chough and the meaning of chuff have anything to do with one another.

Never mind me, just musing aloud.

Righty-o. I should probably open my story so I can stare blankly at the page in an effort to try and write. 1 000 words shouldn't be that hard, right?