I am not perfect

Last Wednesday at the salle I committed an unforgivable sin whilst fencing. I got annoyed. What was worse was... I ALLOWED IT TO SHOW. Now those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that this is a big deal for me in that I always advocate remaining calm and detached where humanly possible. Obviously last night was a time when it wasn't humanly possible! So what could have possibly contributed to my lapse of character? Did someone denigrate my fencing beliefs and theories? Did someone impugn my credentials? Did someone slaughter my wife and son and burn my farm down - oh hang on, that was Gladiator.... None of these dear reader, none of these romantic reasons for a red mist occurred. The reason I lost my cool was..... Velcro. Yes, that amazing material invented primarily for the purposes of space travel was the cause of my undoing (quite literally). Those of you in the know will recall that the fencing mask is held on by a back strap. This is usually secured by velcro and provides a snug and safe fit. (I presume in the old days they would nail it on or something). Well it should provide a snug and safe fit. Unfortunately my mask is getting a bit worn and the velcro has seen better days and last night it was coming loose between every hit which meant I had to fumble around one handed to keep sticking it back. This was fiddly and time consuming and (in my mind) made me look a bit of a klutz. This in turn translated into my fencing, where I began to resemble King Clumsy George the Ham-Fisted, ruler of Clumsinia and winner of this year's Clumsiest Clumber-magnet competition. This didn't put me in a good state as every time I came on guard I could hear the gentle rrriiiiiiippp of the velcro letting go and this started to really annoy me. Interestingly enough I was fencing with a french-grip foil (all my other pistol grip foils are out of whack at present) which I have never done before on the electric scoring equipment. But strangely this didn't really bother me as I was treating it as an experiment. It was that bloody velcro that really did my head in and eventually after being beaten by my opponent I expressed this anger by rather elegantly drop kicking the errant mask into my bag from a distance of twenty feet. I swear the whole salle turned round to look and marvel; "OhMiGod, Dave has lost his temper!" Anyway, upon reflecting on this incident I have the following observations to offer:
I am going to buy a new mask
I am either going to get my foils repaired or get some new ones I am going to remember Musashi's words "pay attention to even small things" with a new perspective now; it's not just that the small things can guarantee victory, it's also if you don't look after the small things they can guarantee defeat!