Diary > Achieving Dreams.
07/31/2009
Someone came into the gym the other day, got out at the wrong level as they were looking for Remote Equipment Repairs as they used to work there, and come over the old GZ at 377 Little Bourke, and to say the least he was shocked. He said" Geez you guys have come a long way from the old days... and it got me thinking.
It was normal for me to work from 11pm til 7am at the casino doing security, leave in my track suit and go out running before heading home for a few hours sleep before teaching the lunchtime guys at 12:00. However, after a long week and an even longer saturday night at work I was usually in need of a more than four hours sleep on Sunday morning.
Problem was that there was lunchtime class then and cos I was so broke I was sleeping in a sleeping bag on the mats with a beanie over my face to create some sort of darkness.
One day I was walking down the alley outside the gym and spied a huge box I guessed was used to cover a fridge or similar and a wee light went off in my head... so then I slept in that. It was nice and dark and not too hot so I could sleep during daylight hours....brilliant.
It was a source of great amusement to my students who trained on Sundays to see me rise out of this coffin like box to count class numbers then return to my slumber at 12:00 on a Sunday afternoon.
Then one of my students, who later became known as ŽJudoŽ George decided to build me some sort of room so I could sleep in peace, so work began and soon I had the makings of a little bedroom and there I lived for years, quite happy working all night and training all day, one day hoping I could afford to move out and into a normal home like most people.
The old GZ was small. Hot as hell in summer and freezing cold in winter, so cold I taught wearing a beanie, ski jacket and wrestling boots to keep warm while coaching. I was forever looking through my cracked, dirty windows at the room across the alley at 373 Little Bourke, jealous of the tent display room of Mountain Designs and later of what looked like an engineering firm in their air conditioned, clean premises, dreaming of one day being able to teach from such a place.
One day about a year ago now I was walking down the alley and saw a for lease sign for the room Id always wanted! After a trip to a few banks ( without a balaclava ) and a phone call to Bailey Stuart real Estate I was now renting the room Id always wanted.
Since then the student numbers have grown so dramatically were having to put on extra classes all the time and we have a huge plasma TV for watching fight videos, an x box to play the UFC game and as a team were going from strength to strength. Its amazing what you can do with a little self belief, the right people around you to help and give good advice and old fashioned hard work. Thank you to all my students and friends who have helped me achieve all this, were only part of the way so lets keep working together and lets all achieve our dreams.
