What a morning I've had, and do I feel chuffed about it It was an 'internal' examination, but from an instructor who will not award anything without good reason - as a 4th Dan who has had to earn every grade, and as he is overseen by his teacher (7th Dan) he wouldn't dare I was teamed with a classmate who works fast and hard (in a very constructive manner), and he brought out the best in me. It has to be said that the knife sparing was intense, and I thank him for that. So to quote from the certificate in front of me: The bearer of this award, sought the standars required for weapons use and was judged to be worthy of.... Second Dan in the Sul Sin-Chong section of Han-Kuk-Mu-Ki-Do I've also finally seen the correct (or accepted) spellings for some of my weaponry (brackets added for non-Koreans ) : Jul-bong (nunchaku), Cha-ru (tonfa), Jang-bong (Bo [or big stick ]), and Dan-doh (knife) My longer term and more important milestone is the nationally recognised Black Belt in the unarmed basic syllabus of Tang Soo Do - I'm still only 2nd Gup at the moment. At that stage I think I will be confident enough in the basics to enjoy the development of the art along the more advanced pathways. I know that it is a lifelong journey along a few different paths, but I am more than happy with today. I will not bemoan about the fact that I was 40-years-old when I started, that is the way life happened. I'm going forward from here - and with that I thank all of you that I have 'met' along the way. Tang Soo!!