Hi. It´s nice to catch up with you all once again and I hope all is well in your world, whatever your doing and wherever you are. I´m currently in Spain at my mum´s place writing this blog in warm but breezy weather. It´s 22 degrees here not bad for late November eh. And they say climate change is not real.

Training this week has consisted of a bit of roadwork and I´ll be back at the gym from Tuesday onwards. I´m training 5 or 6 times a week again and my current goal is to improve my kicking guard. Over time I´d developed a bad habit of from time to time letting my hand connect with my leg as it swung as I kicked. Not only does this reduce the power of the kick but can mess the kick up all together.

Where I have spent a lot of time working on speed and power of late when on the bags I failed to notice the recurring bad habit until it was pointed out to me in sparring and by my trainers watching me on the bags. Thankfully I´m getting it put right. It´s going to take time and dedication but when it comes to putting things right I have plenty of that.

A favourite photo of mine from 2012. My arm is in mid swing but you might see how it can go horribly wrong here. I threw that kick in survival mode and it hurt him. Not all bad I guess.

The 21st of November would of been my dad´s birthday. To me and my mum it always will be and it is rapidly approaching the two year anniversary of his death. Mum and me decided earlier this year to make a scrapbook celebrating my beautiful and amazing father´s life and we have also since decided to get some of the short stories he wrote years ago about his life in South Africa published if we can.

My dad went through so much and at the end of it all never hated anyone. Living under a brutal white supremacist system like the apartheid regime you can understand why it would of been possible for him to feel bitter. He was angry and campaigned as a political exile for justice and freedom from tyranny for South Africa. My mum and dad taught me to stand up for what was right. Dad´s journeys with the police and state have been the same in some respects as my own and like dad was I have also been traumatized by what has happened to me.

Like my beautiful father however I kept fighting and keep resisting police oppression. There was more to my dad than the everyday struggle us people of colour go through just like there is more to me than Muay Thai, public speaking and campaigning. I´m keen to learn more about my families roots in South Africa and hope to visit for the second time in 2024. Sometime ago I wrote this article for Mixed Race Faces about me and my journey as a mixed race black guy. Now at nearly 45 do I finally get what my dad went through in his life because of the colour of his skin. I´m fiercely proud of my heritage and love my mum´s side of the family equally.

There is a silence that arrives when a parent leaves that is a void that takes time to fill. I often wish I could speak to my dad about what I have been through and still going through but I know that everything I do celebrates his life. I look in the mirror and I see him looking back at me. I speak at an event, I deliver a workshop or I speak at a march and I hear his strong voice. December the 2nd will never be the same again and after that day in 2021 life changed however, day by day its becoming beautiful again. Despite it all. Most tragically grieving is something I seem to be doing very naturally.

I´m already looking forward to hitting the gym next week, it does me the world of good and I can never stop saying thanks for being in the right environment that brings out the best in me surrounded by good people who care about my well being. My mum is 82 tomorrow. What an amazing age to reach! we´re heading to the local port for a nice lunch with her friends we´re also doing a little more work on the scrapbook about my dad. Owen Pegram. The lion of South Africa. I think he´d like that. Despite it all. In the meantime. here´s to the sun and just like the last time… I´ll see you on that road.