Back in the Saddle

Written Sept 23, 2014.    

Its great to be home, had a great vacation but I am tired and have missed the awesome country and culture that is Canada.  The girls came back to Canada with us and will be staying close to their mother where they belong!!!  Looking forward to living and training with my daughters they are after all the original reason I started to study Kung Fu and I missed training with them.

Written  Oct 6, 2014  Tommorrow

Enjoyed the I Ho Chuan meeting and it was really great to see and talk to my I Ho Chuan team mates, missed you guys and the training!  Sihing Tymchuk talked about the word tommorrow and I got right on that list of things to do and back into my training routine.  The shelving is installed and the rumpus room is cleared
pushups, situps and kicks are happening.   Did NOT get all my form reps in and my double stick form has a lame ending.

I also attempted to upload a picture of me (rather than a really cute panda) to my blog site as requested.  Failed ... not sure what went wrong.Will try again.  Terry post this with the new picture!!!

Written Oct 22, 2014  Lion Dancing

Hurt my neck pretty bad being the head of the lion,  agony for a week.!  I talked to Sifu Playter and he gave me some tips on how to do this without putting so much strain on my neck and using my arms more without setting the lion on the top of my head.  Very tired arms, still some discomfort in the neck but not agony thank god.   I am really enjoying the lion dancing and I am glad that I will be the tail for awhile it will give me some time to build up more strength in my arms and shoulders.  Missing the dragon dancing!

I think the picture worked.

Google Plus

So I did as requested and set up my google plus profile and started using the new system.  Seemed pretty straightforward and then I started getting invitations to add people to my circle.  Huh?  What circle? Where is it?  How do you get into this circle thing?  How do you add people?  Why do you need to add people? So finally I think I have it figured out.  Created a Kungfu circle, everyone who asked me to add them to my circle are now added.  Its all looking good from this end I am seeing posts and comments, not sure if its working from the other end. Hope so!  If I am incorrect in my belief that I have successfully added you to my circle please let me know.

Dean & I will be leaving for China on August 26th, going to visit my brother in Dalian for a few days and then meeting the girls in Bangkok on Sept 2nd, will be back in Edmonton on Sept 20th with my girls.  I am taking my Ipad and hope to keep in touch that way.   Going to the tiger temple, spending a day with the elephants, We will all be tanned and de-stressed when we get back.  Can hardly wait

Lost a great friend

Last Monday July 28th my friend Jackie passed away (Sifu Rybak not the Jackie that works for me)!   She was younger than me and has been battling cancer for the last few months.  I met her 6 years ago at the dance studio and her and I just clicked.   Like two puzzle pieces everything lined up.  I loved her totally wicked ability to see the ridiculous in human behaviour and still love us all and give to her family, friends and the community.   She was not judgemental yet would with deadly precision anihalate excuses making you aware of how stupid you just sounded and then laugh with you, not at you.  We always sat together at dance events, did barbeques on the weekends, ignored stupid rules, and talked, and talked.  I will miss her so much!  The memorial service was yesterday, I cried there and all the way home, broke my diet and ate an entire large bag of chips with dip but nothing is really making me feel better.  Gotta go, crying again

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.

Tech Booboo & the Elderly

So apparently while I was setting up all my I Ho Chuan stuff on my Ipad I misplaced or modifed some important links to my blog pages,  I could see previous blogs at my blog site but could not log in and get anything to display on my dashboard.  Fortunately they have help topics on google, apparently others have done this as well, so I got it all worked out.

I am sorry to have missed so much with the I Ho Chuan this last couple of months it has not been a lack of interest or engagement.  It has all been personal stuff that I put off last winter and had piled up into a marathon of packing, donating, hauling away to the dump, painting, repairs, cleaning and yard work that had to be done so we can sell my Mom's house for her. She is not in the best of health and cannot do this for herself any more.  It is truly amazing how much stuff a 75 year old woman can accumulate and  how run down a property can get in 5 years.  On Saturday night / Sunday morning we got back from Sylvan Lake at 1:30 am and it is done!  The house is listed and they start showing it on June 9th (Monday).   This is a huge responsibility off my shoulders and I am very thankful it is done.