Kjartan said:
Well - Hopefully I have better ukemi than a possum.

That reminds me of a story told me by a four month student. He's an 17 year-old Slacker/skateboard dude on the outside, pretty scruffy. (Like me when I was his age) Very bright, doesn't like to let it show, his family life leaves something to be desired. Oh yeah, 5'7" and slight build.

At a party, (alcohol, et cetera) a much larger linebacker type kid started bullying and shoving him. He put his hands up to protect, bully upped the ante and bounced a punch off the top of his forehead, ineffective, and reared back for a second, better shot. This dude, pre-aikido would have wailed into that fight and devil take the hindmost.

But what he did this time was interesting.

He moved inside attacker's Maai, causing second punch to slide off harmlessly and he fell straight to the floor as though hit. Balled up in a safe ground position, He watched as twenty people pulled off the bully and chewed said bully out for the poor behavior. He didn't get hurt, bully didn't get hurt, the fight never got started. He wanted to know if that was Aikido.

I said yeah.