Tis the season to be busy

So I will see you after a few weeks when thing are settled. Have a great Sunday!

Little Jack

Yaaay I got to visit Mazzy and little Jack! Mom and baby are looking good. Jack is a handsome little boy! Whilst Mazzy and I caught up with each other I got to spend some alone time with Jack and take pictures of him, in and out of sleep. Enjoy!

 Jack and mommy

 Smiling in his sleep

 

 Who are you and what's that black thing you are using to point at me?

 Oh it's a camera. Ok I will smile and show you the dimples that I inherited from mommy.

But my patience quickly wears thin and hence I will show you something else that I inherited from mommy ...The classic M frown.

Warming the heart.

The year is still new but somehow I can't wait for January to be over! There are many things happening at work and it has brought my stress to a whole new level. Saturday was another full day for me and I have to attend a night meeting before I could hit the sack. It so happened that the meeting when long (well that and the after meeting chat. 

What cheered me up alot was opening the post box and finding greeting cards from some friends and teachers. One in particular I thought was very special. It is an advent calender card with pull up flaps showing the sights, tastes and toys of regional Japan. I think it was very thoughtful of the sender to give me this greeting card considering the fact that I told her I will be brining my mother (her first trip) to Japan for a holiday. Thanks Kana-chan!

 

Aftering admiring and sharing the card with my mom I decided that it was time to go to bed. In my room, I had a look at the books on my bookshelf to decide on bedtime reading. My eyes casted upon a wrapped bundle and I took it out of the shelf, unwrapped it and lay the book on the study table. I received this book as a gift from my dear Chin who made it herself, nearly 3 years ago. I kept the book for a purpose but it seems that the book will remain in in its unused state for some time. Hahaha. You will never know, there will come a time when I know that it is the right time to use this special book.

Chin, thank you again for taking the time to make this book for me. It is one of the items I cherish very much.

 

Alright. Off to bed I go. Goodnight everyone!

First keiko for 2011

I am glad that the dojo did not take too long a time off before we start training for 2011. That being said I could still do my own training but I would still prefer to train with my fellow friends on the mat. It would be nice to have a few tatami mats at home! 

When I arrived at the dojo sensei was holding a piece of paper. After we opened the dojo we went to the notice board to put up the piece of paper and immediately I knew what it was. Our roster. Sensei has arranged for us to take classes for 3 days in a row, in turns. N will take the first 3, then myself, and finally Chiong. This will go on until sensei's knee has receovered and he is well enough to take the class. I can see from my occassional glimpses at his expression during our training that he feels very left out, sitting there with his crutches next to him and looking on. I wish him a speedy receovery.

N sempai took the first class for 2011 and taught on katatedori shihonage and shomenuchi dai nikkyo. C wasn't feeling well so we were the only 2 yudansha in class that day. In a sense tonight's class was quite a relaxed class as I took turns training with all the juniors. After class N and iIpracticed on our suwariwaza locks and a couple others worked on their shomenuchi dai nikkyo. They were also very eager to improve on their kaiten ukemi and I spent some time with them on their locks and kaiten ukemi. I got to know the new students abit more and it was a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. I also used the opportunity to explain more about the dojo and training etiquette. 

I've also prepared a brand new training notebook for 2011. I had one for 2010 but it was abit on the small side. Lefties apparently don't have visually pleasing penmanship (I get that all the time in the office) so writing small could aggravate other's poor eyesight as well as my own.

After arriving home I received good news from an aikido friend in Singapore; Horii shihan will be in Singapore on 2nd May 2011 for a one day seminar!! The last time I met him was in July 2009 MAA 15th anniversary seminars. I really enjoyed his session and his approach to training. I am so excited to be able to join his seminar again. I hope that some of our members will be able to attend as well. I better book my tickets!

With C and Horii shihan at the MAA 15th anniversary seminar.

If anyone is interested in joining the seminar, make your preparations now!

Happy New Year 2011!

Wakey wakey its a new year!! First thing is to fill up the tummy with a good breakfast. I got the ingredients ready yesterday to prepare for a good start to the new year. 2 sunny side up eggs, 2 strips of bacon, sauteed portabello mushrooms and a glass of full cream milk. Happy tummy = happy Chui.

Happy New Year everyone!

AMA seminar 24-26 December 2010

Tis the season to be jolly and I decided that I will spend Christmas this year at an aikido seminar and to support my sensei's sensei in his yondan grading. I missed out on the Friday evening session but had a full day on Saturday. The 2 sessions in the morning was taken by Zainuddin sensei and afternoon's double sessions were taken by Yusuf sensei. It was my first time meeting Yusuf sensei and it was a pleasure training in his session. I noticed that he consistently made one comment during training which is telling the students "relak. Relak. Relak!" 

The night session was replaced by the grading session which was orinigally planned to take place on Sunday morning. I was uke for one of Zainuddin sensei's student for his shodan exams. The grading session took place for candidates going for Ikkyu, Shodan, Nidan and Yondan. As you can see it will not be a short one. The grading session was followed by a BBQ dinner.

The last session on Sunday was a 2 hour session jointly conducted by Zainuddin sensei and Yusuf sensei. In this session the senseis touched on the observations made suring the grading session the night before. Comments were made on technique, execution as well as etiquette. I took down notes of whatever I can remember during the seminar to share with my friends back home.

Congratulations to Zainuddin sensei and Suzalie sensei on their success at the yondan examinations and to all other successful candidates. As for those who did not make it, continue to train and another time will come for you to go to another level.

My last seminar for 2010!

Celebrating Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice falls on 22nd December this year and as always it is celebrated by making the identifying food of the night, the glutinous rice balls or "tangyuan". The Winter Solstice occurs when the axial tilt of the Earth is the farthest away from the Sun and that means the daylight of the day is the shortest. The Winter Solstice is  one of the most important festivals celebrated the Chinese. At the same time, it is also celebrated by others apart from the Chinese.

As a child I did not know much about this festival, known as DongZhi in Mandarin. In my mother tongue we call "tangyuan" as "siyang". The siyang is one of my favourite food and we would make it at times other than the day of festival itself. It is a simple and yet delicious dish which I have become rather good at. As of tonight I am officially the "Best Siyang Maker" of the family. Muahahaha. But seriously, it is a great pleasure for me to be able to make something (although simple) that satisfy the palates of my loved ones. It is a time of reunion and quality time. 

Tangyuans are usually taken in sugar syrup and may have fillings of sesame, red bean paste or peanuts. I know that there are many more varieties these days but the ones that I have are very simple. And its the dry version too. I will use some pictures to guide you through the process of making our siyang.

First there's the glutinous rice flour. This is the brand that we use and glutinous rice flour from Thailand are of good quality.

Add water to the rice flour and mix to a very soft consistency.

Boil the rice balls in water. The rice balls will float to the surface once they are cooked.

In comes the yummy part. This is soy bean powder that has been fried and grinded to look the way it is now. the soybean can also be roasted in the oven if you don't like standing in from of the wok frying the beans away. Be careful not to overcook or roast the beans or you will get the burnt smell and taste in the powder. Add sugar to the soybean powder but take care not to make the mixture too sweet.

 

Scoop out the rice ball with a filter and mix in generous portions of the soybean pwoder and sugar mixture.

And the siyangs are ready for consumption!

 

It is very easy to make and if you do make some to try out please let me know what you think! Enjoy!

A Tree in the Dojo

No. I could not avoid it. Sensei said that I will take class. Ok.

I led the class in warming up and stretching followed by some drills to show how they relate to execution of techniques. 

I started with kosadori dai ikkyo which was a continuation of what C taught on Wednesday's class last week. C stopped at irimi and I continued on to finish the technique for both omote and ura. I focused the class' attention on the role that nage and uke plays and how in the execution of the technique it relates to the stretching exercises that we do. I also try to prepare the mental attitude taken during training. I ran thought some of the basic terms such as kamae, the different hanmi and the names of the attacks. 

The second technique was yokomenuchi kokyunage.I explained the aspects of irimi and executing the technique with irimi tenkan as well as in a more static position (for the juniors). From that technique I moved to yokomenuchi shihonage to show the techniques are similar and at which point the similarities end. It was in this class that I realized that knowing something in your head is very different from bringing that same information thorugh your mouth! Hahahaha. Anyway, I tried my best to share what I know and understand at the moment. We are all learning everyday and learning takes on a new phase when you reach a certain level.

It was T's last session with us for this year and he will be going back to the UK for holidays. We will see him again next month. I brought a little Christmas tree and thought it would be apt to take a group picture. As you can see, sensei is still immobilized from his injury. There were some after class training and after I asked sensei for feedback about my conducting of the class. The reply was "a lot of things lah". Hahahaha. Hardly surprising. So I listen intently as he tells me his views and how it could be done better. I admit there are many considerations to take into account when you conduct a class. The personalities, the expectations as well as your own skill.

I also asked C to train with me on my ukemi. I am still stiff and fearful, or is it fearful and stiff? At one point I actually felt dizzy when I got up from an ukemi and I think that was the one when I really stiffened up. C said as a matter of factly that we need to train more. Yes I agree. We watched C's recording of his grading and he thought that it was really short, although when he was doing it felt like forever!

Christmas is just a few days away and if everything goes well, I shall be in KL this weekend for a good mat slamming session.

 Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la!

Season's greetings!

I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year ahead. Let us all do our part in making this world a better place, for those who are with us, around us and those that will come after us.

Happy holidays and may the Force be with you!

Russian Roulette

I attended the bersanding ceremony of Timah today who was my senpai at the dojo. She has since taken along break and will now embark on a new chapter in her life to start a family with her newly wedded husband. I wish her and her husband a lifetime of happiness in their journey together. The usual AD gang was there and as Timah embarks on her new phase in life so will we as AD members.

Sensei has subtly and not so subtly said to us there are responsibilities that lie ahead for us as the core members and seniors of AD. That includes taking a class now and again (and I'm being optimistic here). C has taken a class last week and N claimed that he took a class a week before. Sensei's injury this time round is quite serious as it was worsened with another mishap recently. If the injury is further aggravated it may mean going under the knife. So he is constantly reminded to err on the side of caution. He has about 3 months before we receive instructors from Hombu Dojo so we are all wishing him a speedy recovery.

In the meantime, SOMEONE has to conduct classes whilst we wait for sensei to be back in action. The shodans have been given the go ahead by our supervisor to teach, but formal appointment awaits. So...if I can help it I would like to be part of the class...hahahaha. Sensei says, "you people discuss among yourselves and deicde who will take the class." 

Let's see who takes the bullet tonight. I better write down some notes now.