Where I failed, LT succeeded

LT's bathing in a tea cup

I was playing around with my camera at Takara waiting for the table to be filled before the start of the sungkai buffet. I took a few photos of LT posing sideways above a glass of water. The pictures did not come out so well and LT decided to give it a try.

She took the above photo and proudly commented that I looked as if I was bathing in the tea cup! Looks pretty much like it doesn't it? I did not want to leave her talent undiscovered and decided to post this picture.

Well done LT!

Visit to Crush

Last night was supposed to be aikido and karaoke night but none of that materialized. I decided to visit Miles at his dojo anyway to see how the training is done.

Abas was also there training fresh from Jakarta. He brought back with him the T-shirt that I asked him to help me buy as well as what he learnt for the 4 extra days that he stayed after attending Takeda shihan's seminar. He showed me the 1 and 0 that Hakim sensei shared with us during my time in Jakarta. To put it briefly there is only 1 in aikido and if one of the pair the 1 then the other must be a 0 so that together both become 1. It involves feeling your partner with you heart and boy it will take me long enough to really understand if not to start training on it!

I hope that there will be a chance for me to go back to Jakarta to train under Hakim sensei because I enjoyed his selfless sharing and seemingly soft but effective aikido. Sensei strikes a harmonious balance between waza and aiki and that is something that I want to learn from him.

I miss you so much

Let's make a date to meet up June next year ok? Your jia jia misses both of you very much...

Attention aikidokas, please take note and pen this event in your diary.

The above pictures are all courtesy of the Malaysian Aikido Association

Visit to Low sensei's class

From left to right, Low sensei, Andrew, Richard, Hui, Tong, Bryan and myself


With Low sensei, President/Chief Instructor of MAA at its HQ dojo at Jalan Scotts. Sensei is also part of MAA's National Teaching & Technical Commitee

After a week of being aikido class-less it was good to be in class again. My first session was at UKAY aikido dojo which was conducted jointly by Hafiz and Zizi sensei. Having fun I visited Low sensei on Monday night at the MAA HQ dojo in Jalan Scotts. Low sensei started with kokyu exercises, tai sabaki and tai no henko. Sensei placed emphasis on ukemi and refreshed my memory of the ukemi that he taught at Sugani Shihan's seminar in July this year. Taking ukemi in the traditional manner could eventually be hard to do as an aikidoka advence in age and sensei showed us how ukemi can be done to reduce impact to the body. We practiced taking ukemi with nage using a jo and uke would attempt to grab the nage's jo by the other end. The first time nage will move before the jo is grabbed and uke takes the ukemi. The second time around the uke grabs the jo and the nage moves with the jo for the uke to take a yoko ushiro kaiten ukemi. I had a very big problem doing it so its back to more training. Come to think of it my ukemi does need alot more work.

We moved on to kihonwaza thereafter and started with shomenuchi dai ikkyo. What struck me as different in this class is the way the nage takes the shomen from the uke. In this class the nage practices to have a hard shomen to "receive" the uke's shomen. We were told not to grab the uke's shomen by the wrist. The kamae taken is gyaku hanmi and initially it caused some confusion on my part. Luckily my aite were patient with me. I also got a tip on how to bend the uke's arm for nikkyo ura. As someone who's gotten comfortable in a certain way of learning it was a good change for me. I am always reminded to empty my glass for every class that I go to and I hopefully I can take back something I learnt back home with me to share with others.

I enjoyed the practice and company and hope to make more trips back to the dojo.

PS: to know more about the japanese terms that I used in this blog please go here.

My Sunday with SM

It was supposed to be a day of shopping with SM but we were short of time because yours truly went for an aikido class in the morning and after the commuting, getting ready etc etc time went short. Nevertheless we stopped at Delicious to have some food and chit chat before the sumptous dinner later. I enjoyed the bruschettas and the tomatoes were grilled tastefully. We did managed to squeeze in some time to get some very comfy sheets. I hope we get to spend more time together. Time always fly by when I am with SM.

SM enjoying her "Death by Chocolate" drink



The yummy bruschettas

Carbonara spaghettini

SM with that look on her face whenever I pull out my camera...snap snap snap!

For dinner we met up with a few friends at Fatty Crab. Variety is not present on the menu but they do a good job with the prawns and crabs that we ordered. The crabs and prawns were served steamed and wok fried. I did not eat much in case my allergy acts up (so far it has been dormant since I was 12). It was an enjoyable night over good food, great company and some red wine.

PS:- SM seems to be adapting very quickly to my penchant on food photography, as long as she is not hungry when I am taking my time to snap away! Hehehe.

Century eggs and ginger. I didn't try this dish as century eggs don't appeal to my palate.

SM negotiating a claw

Remnants of the dinner.

An interesting T-shirt

Need I say more? He he he

Showdown of Champions 2008, KL Malaysia

From left to right: Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer (drool...), lucky man who got to do the coin toss, John McEnroe and James Blake

I was wondering when I will ever get to have the chance to watch Roger Federe a.k.a. FedEx play in a match since missing out on his last 2 Australian Open appearances but lo and behold! I get to see FedEc play in Kuala Lumpur! I am so thankful. There were 3 matches and each comprising of one super tie breaker set match. I would have settled for just a 3 set match between FedEx and James Blake but it was good to see all 4 players in action.

The first singles match was between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. It was played at a more laid back pace and McEnroe won the tie breaker at 7-6(13-11). Although McEnroe is 49 and Borg is 52 years of age they both look as fit as a fiddle for their age. The second singles match was between FedEx (the absolue best!) and James Blake. FedEx won the tie breaker at 7-6(10-7). The last match was a doubles match between USA (McEnroe/Blake) vs Europe (Borg, SWE/Federer,SUI). Europe won the match 7-5.

The matches and antics of the players provided much entertainment but I feel rather disappointed with how the event was organised. Below are a few of the notable glitches.

Firstly when we arrived we were not informed of when the gates wil be opened for seating as we were only allowed to collect the tickets at least 2 hours before the match on the day itself. Kurei and I had to loiter around the area before the gates opened at 10 past 6 pm.

Secondly the booths for selling souvenirs were places inside the stadium and by the time the gates were opened there wasn't much time left for ticket holders to spend time and decide. It created a rather tense atmosphere because on one hand you want to buy souvenirs for yourself or for the players to sign on it AND get to your seats on time but on the other hand you are worried about the barrage of people rushing in to do the same.

Thirdly, the ball boys. If you can't secure ball boys who are tennis players then at least brief them on how to be proper ball boys. The ball boys were running across the net picking up balls when the ball is in play, not knowing when to roll the balls to the serving players end because they don't know how a tie break is played and raising their arms to offers balls when they shouldn't be...just to name a few.

Fourthly, the usherettes and support staff. The MC Mahatir Lockman had very clearly from the outset reminded all in the stadium to observe the appropriate etiquette during matchplay for example not to make movements or walk round when the match is in play and to observe the code of silence. But NO you still see persons with VIP tags walking in whenever they want with the usherettes and at one point McEnroe just stopped playing at looked at the VIPS who came sauntering into their boxes. Shame on you! It was only after getting a stern reminder from the MC that people started doing their jobs. I am sure some VIPS were unhappy to be made standing until breaktime but it just reflects on their personality. When in Rome do as the Romans does. Grow up! I don't even want to talk about the staff who were gaurding the doors when the match was in session...

Fifthly, the ghastly music played during the doubles match changeover intermission. It was a techno piece (extended version) with lyrics like "blow my whistle b****", "blow it hard blow it like you mean it". I cannot believe that from the millions of songs available it was this song that was chosen and they played it throughout the match. Halfway through I screamed for the song to be changed which attracted agreeing applause but all fell on deaf ears. There were so many kids there too. What a shame that is all I can say.

I hope that Excess will look into the feedback given to them and do a better job the next time around. I do appreciate that it was a great job making the Showdown of Champions KL happen in the first place but there is much room for improvement in the event organization as some of the undesirable incidents that happened could have been avoided.

Hopefully Kurei and I will get to watch Federer play in a Grand Slam match, like how Hiko and A.L. did this year at the Australian Open. Better yet of all 4 of us get to watch it together.

With bro Kurei in Stadium Putra


With bro Kurei outside Stadium Putra


One of my all time favourite tennis players, Bad Boy McEnroe!

Finally! We get to watch FedEx!

Takeda Yoshinobu shihan's seminar - Day 1

From left to right, Chui, Takeda shihan, Zizi and Miles

There are supposed to be 2 sessions on the first day of 2 hours each, first in the morning and second in the afternoon. Half of the first session was taken up by formalities where the President and representatives of Yayasan Indonesia Aikikai, the Deputy Minister of Sports and other distinguished guests were invited to the opening of the seminars. Speeches were given and also in the spirit of promoting martial arts silats masters and practitioners from 3 schools of silat were invited to give a demonstration at the opening ceremony.

The difference between this seminar and the other seminars that I have attend was that we were told to forget about our waza. (!!!) Takeda sensei's aim in this seminar was to guide us to realize and bring forth our energy from within and harness it in complement to your waza training. Your qi is something that is intangible, unlike waza which you can see and practice upon. Therefore it is not surprising to find that certain aikidokas don't or find it difficult to conform or even accept this method of training.

We were told to visualize everything that we were doing during the seminar, when gathering, locking your energy and the energy around you, connecting with you uke(s) and moving together as one. It was difficult initially to visualize such an image because we usually only find it in places like comic books or animation. Takeda sensei gave us many opportunities to see and feel what it was like to be feel and be connected to his energy. From the viewpoint of an outsider or skeptic it may seem that there is a gullible group of persons who were psychologically lured into believing what he saw or felt, but I personally believe what happened at the seminar.

It was a different plane of training altogether and I am glad that I attended this seminar. Aikido is not just a martial arts of self defense but it is a way of life. As a beginner in aikido I want to absorb and learn as much as I can.

As long as you open your heart and is ready to receive, you will ALWAYS learn something, right until your last days.

Group photograph session with Takeda shihan and foreign participants. From left to right, Miles, Zizi, Paul, Aaron, Abas, Hector, Hakim sensei, Takeda shihan, (not known), Daniel,(not known), myself, Jean Rene sensei, Takeda Daiyu sensei and Berin sensei.


with Emilia sensei who is a co dojo-cho of
Dojo Sakura


Registration on day 1

Venue of the seminar, Indosat building.

First night at Jakarta

Kelapa Kopyor

I have never been to Jakarta before this trip and I had the fortune of travelling with a few aikidokas from Malaysia on the same flight who are also attending Takeda shihan's seminar. Hakim sensei of Aiki Kenkyukai dojo who organized the seminar sent his students Daniel and Finah to welcome us at Soekarno Hatta International airport and another student Adi to sent us to our accommodation.

I stayed at the Millenium Hotel Sirih Jakarta which is about 10 minutes walk to the seminar venue at Indosat building.

After settling down we made plans to meet up for dinner. We asked Adi to bring us to somewhere where we can try out the local dishes and he brought us to Sederhana Restaurant to try out nasi padang. The way nasi padang is served is that along with the rice the waiters will bring you a variety of dishes and you pay only for those you eat. Some of the dishes were tolerably spicy but they were tasty all the same.

Beef skin crackers. I was jokingly told by a friend that in Indonesia crackers can be made out of just any food!



Adi, a student of Aiki Kenkyukai who is limo taxi driver.



Abbas locking in on his choice of dishes while taking his rice

From left to right, Abbas, Miles, Adi, myself and Zizi

Chilling at my second home

I spent a day in Kuala Lumpur before flying off to Jakarta for Yoshinobu Takeda shihan's seminar. Coincidentally my KL cousins are on school holidays so it was great spending time with them. I did my errands for my mom during this free day and my aunt took me to try out some Thai food at Ikano. The rest of the day was more or less spent in hibernation mode. Pity my aunt doesn't have 333...

Pandan leave fried chicken. It wasn't too salty and the chicken was tender with crispy bits.


This dish I really liked. Sitcky rice with mango


Thai style fish cakes. A bit too rubbery


Fried rice with pineapple and prawns.

Hanging out with my Chin

Chin decided that we should meet up before I go off since I will be gone again for nearly a month (there was much ganshing of teeth from a few quarters). We met up at Country Patch since Chin has not been there before. It was a Tuesday so I got to order my favourite meat dish...laaaaaaammmmbbb. Hehehe.

As I excitedly shared with her about the upcoming seminar in Jakarta, Chin contemplates on what her mock grading would be like. Hopefully I can make it back in time to see it and be her uke. We had a lot of laughs before making our separate ways.

See you next month Chin!

Admiring the ring...and wrinklies! hahahaha

Cauliflower soup. It tasted light and easy and you can still taste the crumbly bits of cauliflower.


Digging into our lamb chops...still not used to seeing Chin in a tudung.


We ordered dessert and no prizes for guessing who ordered the chocolate mudcake MUAHAHAHA


My apologies but I can't seem to remember the name of this dessert that Chin order. It tasted of strawberries and yogurt.

My little darling