Back in the mid 1990’s there was a show on television called “Highlander” based on the movies of the same name. The lead character Duncan Macleod, was portrayed beautifully by actor Adrian Paul.  If you have never seen the show—it is worth a look!!  Duncan finds out he is immortal (remember this is a fantasy show) and goes through his 400+ years loving, learning & defending his head.  Losing your head is the only way that an immortal can be killed. 

Well the show ended after six seasons, and now – 20 years later, Adrian Paul has created “The Sword Experience”. This is a class where he & a few other instructors teach you a specific sword fighting choreography.  When I found out about this–I just HAD to attend. Being such a huge fan of Adrian’s I just had to go & check this out!!

So Glen & I drove to New England last weekend, he had ZERO interest in doing this with me. But he drove & made sure I was safe– he is such a good husband!! The class was held in conjunction with the Granite State Comic-Con in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

All 50 participants assembled for the fun!  Adrian began the class with a warm up—to make sure that none of us got injured during the class.  Wielding a wooden bokken, we were instructed to not attack each other, but to stop short, so it looked real, without trying to cut each other’s heads off! 

Adrian & the other instructors separated us in to two groups to learn the opposing choreography.  After learning our individual choreography, we were partnered with another participant to “fight”.  My partner & new friend Tamara & I got down to work.  And wow, was it a work out—we all really worked up a sweat learning the moves. 

Towards the end of the class—Adrian took volunteers—Tamara raised her hand first (ugh), to use light sabers (yes like from Star Wars) & filmed us in small groups for the website.  It was very cool to watch as the others fell in to line for their moment with the light swords!!

When the class ended, Adrian signed autographs & took photos with the participants.  I was SUPER excited to meet him, I had watched his show for a long time, and I was so thrilled to finally meet him. He was charming, warm & very friendly, oh and quite gorgeous! (Don’t tell Glen I said so).

The Sword Experience began as a onetime fundraising event for Adrian’s charity-The Peace Fund (Protect, Educate, Aid Children Everywhere). It was so successful; he developed it into the event that I had the pleasure of experiencing last weekend.

You guys know me, I love to try new things—tango & salsa lessons, traveling to new places & cooking new recipes. I constantly want to learn new things!! I was so honored to be able to learn a few sword techniques from Adrian & his team. 

I may even try to attend another session some day! Maybe I will see you there!!

Until next time—

Quack, Quack-

Angel

Ps- we were not allowed to take photos during the class, Adrian’s team will be posting photos from our class very soon, which I will share on Facebook. I was not able to obtain photos in time to be included in this blog of our class.

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