London 12/04/1990 Thursday
Went to work on Sunday and had a huge argument with Joe, him screaming at me, and me screaming at him, for him to stop screaming at me. I then said I wasn’t going to work there anymore, and for him to pay me. He said he could only pay when the shop closed and I decided to work until 3. After that it was all good! I worked on Monday and he was great. On Tuesday I went to Letitia’s shop and her boss said I could have a trial day on Friday and if it went well I could work there permanently. It’s seven hours a day, with one hour lunch break and two days off. My days off would be Wednesdays and Sundays. So yesterday I told Joe I was leaving and he said I have to stay for another 2 weeks until he finds someone. He said he should have never given me a job, to begin with, and by the end of our chat he said that I could always come back if I ever needed work!!!! I was a little sad. And then I stole some Le Roule (a divine cheese), which cost £18.00 – 9 hours work! He just doesn’t pay me a fair wage!
After that I went to Capoeira. The lesson went as normal, except I still have a bit of a cold. During roda I played with Lia and lost focus twice. Then I played with James and I nearly got him twice… Then Robinson came in the roda with me, I did ‘volta do mundo’ to catch my breath and off we went. He kept provoking me and I kept my cool, until he slapped me. My blood boiled and I went for him. Everyone started clapping, I did a meia-lua and next thing I know I’m facing the ceiling, flying upwards, in a lying position and then BANG! I land on the floor, flat as a pancake, on my back. How it hurt. Everything went silent… “Are you ok?” “Tudo bem?”. I waited until my spirit and my body got together again. Robinson was checking every part of my body to make sure I was ok.
Then I got up. Everyone surrounded me and then they all came to talk to me, one by one. Robinson kept apologising. Obviously this reflected very badly on him and he felt awful. It was a really violent take down (rasteira), I’m light, and a beginner, and he’s an instructor. I was in a state of shock for the rest of the evening. After class I shared the Le Roule with Karl, James and Lia and we had a spliff. We then got in the car and caught up with Robinson, Denise and some others. We chatted for a bit then Karl and James dropped me home.