Aunts

So for the past 10 days I have been hosting my mom's two sisters (she has four) from Ontario, it is lovely to see them and have them spend time with my Mom.  She is the oldest of the five and her heatlth is not great so its a good idea to fly out here to visit when she can still go out and although she does get confused you can still talk and remember old times together.  Its been fun listening to them talk and driving them around ALOT and having them stay at my house (thank god for the cleaning lady).  However I still have to work, and do sit ups and kicks and form reps and so on.  I am behind AGAIN on everything including work.  The aunts don't know whether to admire or be appalled by my activities and it switches from moment to moment and aunt to aunt.  They go home on Sunday the 27th.  So of course there will be a dinner, and sitting around the fire pit at my place tommorrow.  Progress on kungfu related requirements has been minimal and I hate missing the I Ho Chuan and lion dancing.  I thought about bringing the whole works to watch but all the talking and comments would be distracting and they would probably be asked to leave :)  I come by the gab factor from my mothers side!!!

Pain Relief

For the past year I have been having a difficulty with pain in the backs of my legs all the way down to my heels and although it hasn't stopped me from doing alot of activities is has been a challenge to get a good nights sleep.  The baffling thing is that it would move from side to side so I was never sure if it was something in my lower back or a strain to the legs.  The 150 kicks per day (in small bunches) actually made it feel better so it didn't seem to be a muscle injury but no matter how much stretching I did it never seemed to really go away.  So after multiple doctor visits I decided to try acupuncture.   The lady I am seeing asked if I would like to try a method of treatment called cupping and oh my god, two treatments and what a difference.  Last week I actually slept without pain.  Her explanation is that the cupping (suction cups applied to the backs of the legs and lower back) takes the pressure off the nerves in my back and legs and helps release the fascia (? not sure of the spelling).  Less irritating to the nerves than using my roller (which I also tried).  If you are interested she works out of the Callingwood Chiropractic Clinic and her name is Katherine Frey.

I am a much nicer person with enough rest!

Escrima Stick Frustration

I am really struggling with these sticks ... yes I have watched alot of utube videos and learned some patterns and a few flashy moves but I am not really feeling it, if you know what I mean.  The footwork seems awkward and I am having a hard time getting the movement of the sticks to come from my core/centre/balance and not just the arm movements.  Not sure if that explains it but it does not feel good and flowing like my Kung Fu forms at all.  This is really an issue for me so I have been bending my brain to try and figure out how to get it resolved.  I am going to try incorporating the foot, body orientation of some of my Kung Fu forms with patterns for the double stick that I have learned.  Not sure how this will go but I've actually had dreams about this and Da Mu Sing, Se Chen and Kempo 1 are going to the first ones I try.  I will let you know how it goes.