Lunar New Year 2012 greetings

Preliminary Announcement from Malaysian Aikido Association

Preliminary Announcement: Hombu Shihan Seminar 2012

Hombu Shihan Seminar 2012
Shoji SEKI Shihan

Dates: 
23rd March to 25th March 2012

Venue:
SPORTS ARENA @ SENTOSA
JALAN SERI SENTOSA 2A
TAMAN SRI SENTOSA
58000 KUALA LUMPUR

Programme: 
To be announced

Seminar Fees: 
To be announced

All Aikikai Aikido practitioners are welcome.

A night to remember

Life is just full of surprises. One surprise was that work has been quite loaded causing me to miss out on my evening aikido training sessions for the past 2 weeks. I didn't like it one bit considering that we only have 2 training sessions a week. Well it is a little bit unfair to say that it is a surprise judging from the line of work that I am in..*snort snort*.

But what happened last night was a surprise and simply amazing. Something that we hadn't done in a while now. After dinner ma, moo and I were just lounging in the living room and talking about our upcoming trip to Melbourne for moo's graduation ceremony. There were talks of where to bring pa to eat, where to eat and when to eat. In other words we were planning our NomFest. I only see my pa once a year so I am always very excited to see him, although it does come with other famously celebrated issues (which don't really matter anymore).

Ma had a thing or two to say about the trip but somehow when the conversation starting revolving around pa I thought up the idea of sending him to this seminar and see what would become of him. Relying on our memories of pa's favourite reactions and terms of endearment, three of us cracked up talking about how he would react in various scenarios. One thing led to another and soon enough we, or rather I, ended up rolling around on the laughing like a hyena. Ma and moo had a blast as well laughing at the jokes..and at me laughing. We were all worn out after but that was a wonderful and warm way to end the night. I love looking at ma's face, wrinkles and all, beaming from the amusement.

It might be just another crazy BS joking day but these are one of the family times I cherish the most.

I love you my family. Love you.

Drawing circles

After a rather long break for the Eid holidays it was training as usual at the dojo. Last night was my first session with session since the break. Things are different now and I have mixed feelings about it. What happened last year is still vivid in my mind and everytime I look at sensei moving on the mat I can't help but feel a sense of loss and sadness. But I must not disgress. What I want to write about in this post is about the training. I was truly glad to be back in sensei's class after the break. We, the few seniors now have sensei all to ourselves as the dojo agreed to split the classes into beginners and seniors. To top is off, there were only the 2 of us for this class. I can see a big workout coming..yaaaaay.

One of the differences I noticed in the senior's class is that we don't have our normal exercise that we used to do for the general class: tai sabaki, ukemi, shikko etc. I can only assume that where we are now we should be reasonably proficient with these movements therefore practice of them is dispensed with and we are expected to refine them in our own time.

Sensei started with the ikkyo movement, stopping after entry has been made. What he wanted was to draw the circle for ikkyo in a different way from how we would usually do it, which forwards. The circle is drawn to the side to to speak is achieves the same goal as the other circle, which is kuzushi. Sensei was talking about drawing circles, how you draw them and where you draw them. I was training with a man who is taller and much stronger than I am. Having been training from another (now defuncted) dojo, he still retains the trappings of his past training despite sensei's instruction there for over a 1 year before the dojo closed. I am familiar with his movements and tried my best to adjust to his movements which were heavily dependant on the muscular power of his arms. At times I feel a very strong re-coil from his entry and my re-action would manifest itself through the medium of certain sounds (insert laughter here). Maybe I am getting too soft..

Then we moved on to executing the technique. Apart from drawing circles I was also told to draw my circles firmly and in the right place. I think sometimes I tend to be too "nice" during training and it compromises the timing and effectiveness of my techniques. Something that sensei wants done away with.

The difficulty I find during the training is the timing of it all. You need to make contact at the right time and space, otherwise you would end up with a heavy shomen, feeling a strain on you lower back taking the shomen or stretched out of your spacee etc. What I see is that it boils down to not clashing with your partner. Ah Mr Awase. I really don't see you that often! And of course I needed to get over the mental hurdle that I am dealing with someone that is taller and stronger than I. But then again it would be pretty boring if all things were equal. It was tiring but I had lots of fun.

I have always loved circles.

To all Muslim friends and family

Office Trip 2011

I am very fortunate to be part of yet another annual office trip this year, which means that the firm is doing well. After much debating on the destination this year, it was settled: Gold Coast, Australia! There is not going to be any sun tanning at the beaches though since we are making the trip during winter.

The flight was a good flight. I usually sleep during the flight (or rather, when it is time to..). I managed to watch 2 1/2 movies and do abit of a stretch-about to keep my limbs from seizing up. The weather on the first night was good; cool with slgith breeze. From what the tour leader told us, we would be having dinner at an Asian restaurant. We were under the assumption that she had made reservations at the restaurant as it was quite late unti the night when we arrived at the hotel and we were not entirely sure whether eateries will still be open at that time. Plus she told us that she did some surveying on the day before. We enjoyed the weather and sights until we arrived at the restaurant; it was closed! so we walked around some more until we came to a kebab shop. I felt like having something else then so a colleague and I had some pizza. that was the first night.

The second and third day was taken up by making trips to the Universal Studios' Sea World and Movie World. Below are some of the pictures taken at Sea World.



The fish detectives. No prize guessing who the star of the show is.



My favourite show. I am always amazed to see the dolphins physical prowess and intelligence.

Taking this picture made me feel like diving.

The penguins were most amusing. Marching back and forth.

The lone and contemplating penguin. Looks suicidal almost.

 Pcitures taken at Movie World:


One of the cartoon characters I managed to capture on film. I missed out on alot of the characters because of the time we spent in the queue to watch the stunt show.



The stunt show is a must see if you are going to Movie World. The stuntmen were awesome!

Grand finale.



The fourth day was supposedly an exciting hot air balloon ride trip. I could barely wake up at 4:00am to get ready for pick up at 4:20pm. there were 8 of us that signed up so we were quite excited although groggy. It was very chilly at that time of the morning and the heater was turned on in the van. that with am empty stomach and lack of sleep..not good. The driver told us that the balloon would be launch in one of several sites and the pilot is driving around to see which site would prove to be most conducive for take off. Alas, 45 minutes later at the pit stop we were given the bad news: windspeed of 30-40 knots per hour. During to the unsafe weather conditions, we went back to the hotel to have breakfast at 6:30am. With the trip cancelled, the group decided to join the rest for a shopping trip at a factory outlet shopping mall. And that was the last day.

There were some very good moments during the trip and my friend and I finally found out who those hot sexy ladies wearing little golden shorts are: they are the meter girls! Took a picture with one of them for posterity. Hehehe.

Only thing is, it would have been better if I got managed to train one session at a dojo!



Upgrade

Once again I find myself in Jakarta since the company trip last year. This is around it is for aikido seminar. I had the pleasure of being taken cared of by my Indonesian hosts, who too the time and effort to pick me up from the airport at midnight.

Upon arrival at hotel, I was told that my room had been cancelled! I did not know how my room was cancelled as the booking was made through my Indonesian hosts. So I picked up my book and started my reading whilst the gentlemen tried to resolved the issue with the receptionist. Whilst the resolution was ongoing, I was informed that sometimes the hotels here employ certain tactics to compel the guests to upgrade their rooms thereby generating a little more income for the hotel in the process. Just like my case, single lady, tired and standing at the lobby in the middle of the night.

Suffice to say that with some fanfare the issue was resolved. I ended up getting a suite with no extra costs. For that I am abundantly grateful to my hosts.

I took some pictures of the suite and I must say, it is not too bad at all.

The living area

At the living area leading into the bedroom

Ahh the bedroom. Nice bed but I did not sleep well on the first night.