A Stab in the dark, An afternoon with Richard Brook.

Firstly the interview,

How and when did you become interested in acupuncture?

It was when I was 17, I was already interested in yoga and Ti chi and its grown from there. I first properly started in my early 20's around 2004. I actually use to live with a new age community in Scotland and from that I have tried to make every part of my life holistic.

I sort of found my course through having a vision in a native American dance ceremony, at the time it didn't make much sense, but after I ended up at open night at a college a started thinking about it and what it could mean. Then absolutely by coincidence the instructor started talking about things that had appeared in my vision, I got goosebumps and it became clear that this was something I needed to do.

What type of training did you receive prior to obtaining your license?

I had bit of training before I started on acupuncture, some energy healing with my hands and reflexology but not to any real accredited standard.

I have a degree in food technology, which I saw as more similar to art, It was all to do with natural cycles.

Do you think a patients attitude towards acupuncture influences the success or failure of the treatments?

No, I believe that if some ones got that mindset it won't matter. It will still work. I think that them not believing in it is a sign of them losing touch with nature.

What about pain, do you think if somebody thinks its going to hurt it will?

Well every one has their own personal pain threshold. But feeling pain is a good thing, remember its just your body telling you what's what. It's the feeling of being connected with nature.

What might a typical treatment entail?

I start with a consultation and from that I'll try to gather what needs attention. Before I start with the actual treatment I'll also do a few physical exams to get a bit of diagnostic information, each exam I do gives me an idea of what's going on in your body.

How long would a typical treatment last?

The first will usually be around two hours with follow up treatments around forty five minutes.

My experience.

I must admit to prospect of acupuncture was daunting, now I'm no stranger to needles having my fair share of tattoo's and I have had pretty much every other holistic therapy under the sun.

But there will always be something about acupuncture.

The first thing everyone's wondering about is does it hurt? Well yes and no, some bits hurt and others I barely felt go in. The worst for me was the forehead and the inner arms and wrists. I should consider myself lucky as according to Rich traditionally instead of having a needle either side of the wrist you have one going straight through.

To be honest I did feel very relaxed during the treatment, but it's hard to say what its done to me in the following weeks as I didn't really have anything wrong with me.

But I do have to say lying there in my boxers with needles in my chest was a very surreal experience. Although as Rich said this is text book acupuncture action.

Richard uses a very traditional approach, which is called the five point style. It has a lot to do with natural living and communicating with nature, as Richard says we have lived for thousands of years with nature but now we seem to of fallen out with it, and it seems the more we try the more we mess up. We need to try to get it back.

I would recommend acupuncture to people and not just for physical but for emotional pain, one particular thing Richard mentioned is that its good for stress. Great news for all you dissertation stretched students out there. Even greater news is that he is willing to offer a huge student discount.

Usual treatments cost £55 to start and £35 for subsequent treatment, But for students he's asking just £15 per session.

Drugs shame and football report.

Too continue on the spate of today's posting here's a selection of things i have worked on as part of my course.

Drugs shame for football ace.
AFC Telford striker, Terry Fearns has been arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply.
The 31 year old veteran was arrested after a drugs raid on his home in the Maghul area of Sefton, Merseyside on Wednesday 3rd March.

Lee Carter the Chairman of AFC Telford United has issued a statement explaining the short term future of Terry Fearns at the club. It read “AFC Telford United have written to Terry Fearns informing him of our intention to suspend him for a period of two weeks without pay.”
The suspension is due to take effect from Monday, as of yet Mr Fearns has yet to make an appeal.

The club are aware of the situation but have gone on record as saying that it is “ totally unbeknown and unrelated to the club”.

Currently no charges have been brought against Mr Fearns and he has been released on bail until May.

A fictional match report.

A late strike from Ashely Young was enough to pound more misery on local rival’s West Bromwich Albion as they continue to push for the elusive champions’ league place

Villa should have made sure of the points in normal time as they missed guilt edged chances either side of half time with John Carew coming close in the 60th minute when his volley from 12 yards crashed against the woodwork.

The defeat leaves Albion bottom of the table at Christmas and they will be hoping for a repeat performance of the 04/05 season when they completed the ‘great escape’ under former boss Bryan Robson.

As Albion continued to frustrate Aston Villa, tempers boiled over in the 80th minute as Stylian Petrov was shown his second yellow card of the match for a dangerous tackle on Albion captain Jonathan Greening, the first coming 3 minutes earlier for a late tackle on Robert Koren

A major talking point in the clash at Villa Park was the penalty claim in the 10th minute. Ashley Young went down under the challenge of Paul Robonson in front of the holte end only for referee Howard Webb to deny the Villians the chance to take the lead from the spot.

This proved a crucial victory for Villa as the festive period holds no let up as they chase the champions league places. Visiting Anfield and hosting world champions Manchester United in the next few days will really test Villa champions’ league credentials.

Martin O’Neill was delighted with the win over the baggies and quoted on Ashley Young
“Obviously I’m especially delighted for Ashley Young. You know he’s great lad”
On the other hand, Tony Mowbray was still upbeat about his side’s chances of survival stating there are more than 50 points to play for and we will continue to play the right football as Long as I am in charge of this club.

Student Groan

I mean is it just me or are they genuinely malicious to student kind? I mean do they actually get a kick out of torturing us?
Yes they give us money so I suppose we shouldn’t moan, but I would add, they don’t half make us jump through hoops for it.
What do you think the average amount of forms a student has to complete in order to get a loan? Yes that’s right it’s thirteen hundred. What makes them so stony hearted? Then again I suppose sitting at a phone all day deciding who gets money and who doesn’t would get anyone going on a massive power trip. Then again on the other side I suppose giving students money to piss away every day must get a little annoying.

Now I don’t want to accuse the Student Loans Company of been a massive unorganised mess, but it just is. After I had trouble getting my loan I phoned up to ask what was wrong, they actually spent ten minutes trying to convince me that I hadn’t applied. Also the last time I checked three working days does not equal roughly two and a half weeks.

And that’s not the start of my trouble, after negotiating the terms for the release of my drinking budget. I was told by them that I shouldn’t have bothered applying online as it hardly ever worked and entered you into the system…
Fantastic.

I’m not the only other student with issues; the amount they give you seems completely random, I know people how get one thousand and people who get two thousand and any number in between. The official line is that it’s your parent’s income that affects the amount of loan you get.
Bollocks.

People have put down the exact same thing and still get different amounts, what you get depends on the mood of the button presser who we can only surmise is jealous that we bright young things are tearing up the black country while their stuck in Glasgow tapping keys.

The worst case I have heard is off one poor soul who sadly lost one of her parents, the student company have refused to take this into account. So she gets the bare minimum despite the fact that her household income has dropped by something like 70%.

But all is not lost as today I received my first instalment, two days after everyone else got their second through. My late arrival of funds means I am well overdue on my rent payment which brings me onto another student friendly organisation.

Has anyone had to dabble with the Universities financial department yet? For two months now I have been appealing to be released from my contract on the grounds that I can’t pay. Not good enough grounds apparently, so instead of releasing me because I can’t afford it their going to carry on charging me money I don’t have and because of this I have been blocked off every university system, makes getting assignments done and handed in a bit tricky.

So it looks like it’s going to be as hard as it was getting out of halls as it was getting in, can anyone think back to the fault with the online form to register accommodation? The genius form which every time you logged in to approve your offer looped you right back to the login screen?

Jeez Louise, anybody have trouble getting connected to the Internet at halls? Yeah thought so, it’s pathetic, you can go on for hours about the wonders of Cisco Clean Access, is there a particular reason why F-Secure the recommended Anti Virus blocks Cisco from popping up? Yeah, sometimes I really wish I hadn’t bothered coming to this polytechnic.

Jay's Cafe

If you at any point in your time in university have wondered out of the Stafford Street back entrance, then it’s a good bet that you have caught sight of Jay’s café.
Jay’s café, which is run by Tony and his wife Chris, is possibly my favourite thing about Wolverhampton.
There have been times at when the course is getting to me and those six thousand words haven’t been writing themselves, times when the only option seems despair or plagiarism. It’s at times like these when you need to get yourself to Jay’s for a special.

I truly believe that a Jay’s special is the ambrosia (the famed ancient Greek food of the gods, not rice pudding) of our times, as soon as you mop up the last bit of egg yolk your back and ready for anything. You just can’t beat egg, bacon, sausage, beans and tomato with a side of toast and tea.

In these cash strapped times £3.50 is by no means the cheapest breakfast you can find out in Wolves’ but it will be the best, you go to Jay’s for the ambiance, the feeling of the place. It’s just genuinely a nice place to be, He really goes out of his way to make you feel at home.

There will always be a place for greasy spoon café’s, deep down every health conscious busybody knows how good they are. Sitting down to a full English at a sticky plastic table is one of life’s greatest pleasures. You can moan about how unhealthy they are all you want but I would add I don’t give a fuck, it’s good and I like it, what other justification is needed.

So everyone get yourself down to 175 Stafford Street for a special, I’m on my way there now, maybe I’ll just see you there.

Rallying for print

Now I understand that its been rather a while since my last post, but nether less I'm going to pursue the same thought.

Now a few people mentioned various points in the last blog, alas nobody mentioned the delicious irony of me condemning the Internet via the Internet but what can you do. One of the points that stuck out was a discussion of credibility.

Now sure there probably somewhere professional writers on the Internet but I stick to my guns on the decision that most of them don't have a clue, now my delightful associate Mr. Heid pointed out that, yeah sure you can't believe everything you read in on the Internet but then you can't trust everything you read in the newspapers either. Fair point, a lot of stuff you find in the papers these days is miserable, boring, insipid junk.

There is a reason for this, and again it's the big scary wold wide webs fault. The Internet is instant, I click publish post and poof! you all get to read what I think, lucky you.
Papers can't deal with this immediacy, there limited to two maybe three editions a day.
Because (blah blah blah, bad grammar don't start a sentence...) of this the old titans of news are having too move away from news. Its imposable for them to keep up, so there we get the rise of celebrity journalism, which shamefully has become big business.

Think about that, we have made these feckless scum buckets into big news. Bad general public go and sit in the corner.

And this is why print suffers, because its last resort is this nonsense and by retreating to this it has lost all creditably. Goodbye old friend I won't forget you.