South Meets North

[Melanie]

Hi All,

In a couple of days time, I shall venture up north to Scotland and meet the forum owners and several members of the MAP!

I have been given several bits of advice, from taking my passport (yeah old one ok) to not believing everything the Scots say to the Americans :D

I'll be staying in Edinburgh from Tuesday evening to Friday evening. My evenings are already booked up and quite frankly I think I shall be thoroughly exhausted by the time I get back Friday evening. :(

I am "attempting" Aikido, Lau Gar and possibly Shukokai next week....so this should be a laugh...for everyone else watching.

I hope to find time to write down what we go through and come back with a detailed description of the things that each group subject me too. :(

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know why you won't see me online for a few days...but be assured...someone will always be watching :D

[khafra]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Wish I could come along, but at least I have some sound advice for whenever I can make it up. Think if I let 'em know I'm about 1/8th Scottish they'll cut me any slack?

[khafra]

By the way, I just read a travel advisory about Scotland...

Your Best Chance to See a UFO Is In...

By Cathryn Conroy
...Scotland! The home of the legendary Loch Ness Monster also has the highest concentration of UFO sightings on the planet. So much for Area 51's claim to fame. According to figures compiled just this week by Scotland's official tourist body, VisitScotland, the country has around 300 UFO sightings every year. Here are the out-of-this-world figures: 0.004 UFOs are sighted for each square kilometer in the country, which is four times higher than France or Italy. And the 2,000 UFOs spotted annually in the United States? That represents just 0.0002 sightings per kilometer.

"This confirms that Scotland is the nearest thing there is to the Costa del Sol for aliens," a VisitScotland spokesman told Reuters, referring to the tourist Mecca of southern Spain, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year who obviously would change their plans if they only KNEW what they could see in Scotland! So who is seeing all these unidentified flying objects? One in 17,000 inhabitants of Scotland have that privilege. Compare this to the 1 in 61,200 people in Canada and 1 in 136,450 people in the United States who have seen UFOs, and it's easy to see that Scotland is the preferred destitination for most aliens. The best spot to see E.T. and his buddies from outer space is Bonnybridge, which is 30 miles west of Edinburgh. One local lawmaker is even on a quest to get the town "twinned" with Roswell, New Mexico, the U.S. UFO capital.

If any green men try to abduct you, kick 'em in the head! Use that Tae Bo training! (j/k)

[Chazz]

WOW mel, i wish i could go with you. It would be a black to do all that and to hand with you and jack and the MAP people. Oh well too bad i can. Let me know how it goes.

[Cooler]

Hopefuly we will meet you one day Chazz :D

Cooler

[Chazz]

Yes that would be great and to tell the truth im working on that.

[Melanie]

Hmmm...where to start, where to start!

Well, put quite simply, Tuesday :)

After getting to Herriot Watt University at break neck speed - thanks Greyghost! We eventually arrived about 2 mins late. Martin (Tintin) said Hi and directed us out to the changing rooms and as expected I got out before GG (Hehehe).

We caught up with the warm up and after a couple of the normal formalities activities began. Dave - Silver No 2 took GG, Myself and a white belt through forward and backward rolls. To watch GG so ungracefully throw his 6'2" frame was if nothing worth the journey alone. However, he did manage to pick it up very quickly and was reaching dizziness at a faster pace than myself in no time at all. For some reason I managed to pick up falling backwards a bit easier than rolling forwards...perhaps I couldn't see the danger this way?

Then on to the first of many techniques! I was paired up with Silver, Freeform, Spike (surprise, surprise) and Nestor mostly. Silver was very good at demonstrating the technique to me to get me under way. I did notice some similarities to the SD training I have been doing recently so managed to pick these up a bit (?). By far, all of the class are way better at break falling than myself - so it was quickly noted that I shouldn't fall too often. Believe me, I will keep practising!

Freeform (Colin) - what a character...He was very impressive in his shorter than previously imagined stature (Hahaha). He took me through some hand grips/locks. I managed to pull off some nice locks I think - tragically he managed to do them a lot faster on me and I spent most of my time with him cursing my sensitivity to pain :(...but as previously mentioned...I will get my own back in due course :D

Spike - I found out why he picked this name - and well deserved it is too ;) Although thankfully he didn't draw blood once! He once again (as others) was a credit to Martin and explained things clearly and demonstrated technique smoothly. I think one of my fave techniques with him was where you caught their arm (knife in hand) and pivotted round and using their momentum changed direction just as they were about to stand up and drop the them to the ground with just a manipulation of the wrist.

Nestor - You were brilliant! I have never had so much fun throwing some one about before! I'm a bit embarrassed at how long it took to pick up the technique I did with you - but it was well worth the effort. After repeating it several times - you made a deliberate point of saying to me "Make sure you hold on!". The next time we did the technique - he almost looped the loop and landed gracefully and quietly. If I could ever achieve that amount of control and conditioning - it would be an honour.

I suppose one of the things I enjoyed most out of the entire evening was seeing BB's sparring. Dave (another one) and Martin - did a little towards the end and I really enjoyed watching them.

After putting the mats away and knocking down a few lockers - I managed to spend some time talking to the class and established who everyone was. We popped along to the pub for a swift...er...coke and agreed the next time I was in the area I could come along again. Spike seemed most enthusiatic at this prospect (which worried me a little).

Thanks everyone for making us feel so welcome. I can honestly say you have brought Aikido into my life now and I look forward to perhaps taking it up some day.

[Spike]

As a minor point, I didn`t pick the name Spike, that sobriquet was bestowed upon me.

Why did it worry you that I`d like you to train again?
Next time you`re in the area, I`d love for you to come...along.


"Thank you for the UKESOL, Goldfinger I`ve seen enough."

[Melanie]

Hahaha = nuff said! ;)

[Melanie]

Thursday - Lau Gar Kung Fu

I met up with GG again and travelled at light speed accross Scotland to Irvine. From what I managed to see (not much) Scotland is an incredibly beautiful country. This time we arrived with plenty of time and the venue of the class is a rather ornate Church Hall by the looks of it. I met Andy Murray at last and was pleased to say he was in fine order when I met him...

Cooler and Ghostsuit were expected a bit later - so we started on a thorough warm up - headed by GG. As we warmed up Cooler (Jack) and Ghostsuit (Forbes) arrived and made me feel paticularly embarrassed by the fact that both started taking pictures almost immediately! It was during the warm up that unfortunately Andy's Achilles Tendon bit the dust - but he remained for a good hour for chats and photos and believe it or not some practise too.

We lined up and and did this hand in fist bowing - which took some getting use to and started on some thorough stretching in pairs. Thanks to Angie btw - I feel more limber today than I have done since my return to MA.

Then Jack and I watched the rest of the class perform a form. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of this but it was done with a high level of tension in the movements. GG then took me and another member of the class Maria through the form and I practiced mirroring with her through the moves. I'm not sure how well I did at this - and leave it to GG to comment. I then went through some pair work with others in the class blocking and deflecting punches - I did some with Cooler too. Unfortunately I was too stiff in the arms to do this very well though (nerves?). Then we did some sparring. I was first partnered with Cooler and then GG. I didn't really have much luck with either of them - as expected! Cooler is built on the big side and has incredible control and speed - GG - is 6'2" and could have put his hand on my head and it would have been all over for me :( On the upside though - I can honestly say I kicked Frasers arse - 'cos I literally did - only the once though. Within seconds, I was on the floor with his fist in my face...oh well...

Towards the end of the class Jack, Fraser and I went through different forms/kata. Jack demoed Wado Ryu and Hung Fat, Fraser did Tai Chi 42 steps (what a long form!) and another form from Lau Gar....and I did Sandan. I wasn't ready to show my feeble Yondan :D

Towards the end I managed to prise the camera out of Forbes hands and he actually "attempted" Heian Nidan with me. You're a real sport Forbes and you weren't that bad either :) Apparently, this is the first ever class that Forbes has attended in Martial Arts and I was happy to be there to see it. :)

Once again, thanks to Andy and Fraser for a very enjoyable evening. I have to say that coming up to Scotland and meeting both classes is a must and the welcome you get is worth the journey. I would like to thank Maria also for her help with the form we went through and look forward to meeting up with you all in again in the not too distant future. :)

[Freeform]

Glad you enjoyed yourself Mel, your SD trainings paying off (I almost felt that ;) ). All the best aertial artists are shorties (we learn to defend yourselves from a young age :) ).

And yes, Nestors just not right! But boy can that guy fly!

And as to Silver and Spike, just make sure you aren't left alone with them.... ;)

[Chazz]

WOW it sounds like all went great. Some of the US members will have to get together sometime and do the same.

[Spike]

I resent that Freeform.

Being alone with me is fine, being seen in public with me is where the trouble starts

[Greyghost]

Mel,

It was a pleasure to have you at the club on thursday. You did really well with Jorn Sau, you picked up the movements and the principle behind it really quickly. Mhairi was glad to have a partner that could mirror her and was only slightly puzzled by the white Gi and incomprehensable accent.

It was unfortunate that Andy injured himself so early on in the evening, as the class would have went a different direction, concentrating more on sensitivity than basic hand drills...still i'm glad you enjoyed yourself.

I'm glad you enjoyed your sparring, Cooler is an old friend of mine and we go quite a way back in Kung-Fu. His control is very good and i'm glad you didn't hurt him too badly....

Well,.....lets talk about our sparring ...shall we Mel!!!

I noticed that you tend to hang back and wait to be attacked when your sparring...until those aggressive tendencies of yours build up and then you explode like the wild woman of borneo.

Serious though...you were a very keen and able pupil. Next time though ...i will have to practise my Buttock blocking...Or perhaps you could work on your flexibility.!!!!!
;)

The forms/Katas preformed after the class where excellent. Coolers forms where very detailed and (as always) of a very high standard. Your own sets were very good and obviously well practised. I hope you liked Lau Gar Luk Hup Kuin.


I hope the next time you venture north we can again arrange to have you at the club.

I should have recovered from this vists by then!!........


Many thanks for you time.


Fraser
:D

[Spike]

I`m worried about what you two got up to, sounds rather ribald to say the least

[Spike]

I`m worried about what you two got up to, sounds rather ribald to say the least


"It`s the ship that made the UKESOL in less than twelve parsecs"