At ninJA last night we did a lot of sparring.

Sparring is always fun, it’s a great chance to hurt your mates, at one point ninJAmal couldn’t remember where he was for a few seconds after I’d hit him … sparring is great 😀

But my right hand suffered a little, I’ve ripped the skin off a few knuckles from punching ninJAs, and have a fantastically big swollen bruise from where another ninJA tried to kick me and I knocked his leg out the way with my hand.

So my right hand is pretty painful, and cut, and swollen.

Today at work I had a meeting with a major high street retailer, their Group Solicitor, the head of their Legal Team, and the store manager. (Not don’t skip to the next post, this does get relevant). My job was to tell them that they’re crap, and need to sort their act out. Their job was to tell me I’m wrong.

I’ve been in plenty of meetings like this, and the first thing they always want to do is establish the position of Alpha Male in the group. If they can show right from the start that they’re the dominant male, they can have the meeting run their way.

And the first chance they get to put forward their claim on the Alpha role, is the handshake. In these meetings they’re always Very firm, a good tight squeeze to prove the strength of the shaker.

And me with my painful, cut and swollen shaking hand.

Luckily as a ninJA I was able not to cry out in pain every time they squoze!