hawQ

Founders Cup

2006-08-07T11:32:00.000+10:00

UNSW was the host for this years Founders Cup which is basically a team competition between clubs in NSW and Canberra(ANU). So I guess there will be a lot to write about. Hope you find this interesting!

Saturday(5/8/06)
Volunteers for the registration table were supposed to get to uni by 8am and help set up everything. Being me, I woke up at 7.30 (when ur supposed to get out of the house by 7.40) and started walking at 8. I arrived at the venue to find most UNSW players there already *shame on me..yes..I know) After changing into my hakama and gi (which I washed the night before and dried) Dino assigned me to the registration table where Duy and I then took the registration for the seminar and most importantly food. Most of the participants registered and some even paid for the dinner at night. *I would have thought the price for the dinner would turn people off. It was so expensive!*

Anyways, we started warmups with Kirby leading the way quite late in the morning. He did the full normal Thursday warmups and I could see some amused faces when we did the lunges, and especially the space invader warmup. I guess it is pretty funny if you've never done them before. With everybody nice and warm, we started on the seminar with Tanaka Hiroshi Sensei leading the way with Sano sensei translating. We split into 4 lines and did kirikaeshi, kihon men, kote, do, kote men, the usual stuff. Then Tanaka sensei made us take men off and then we did timing exercises. This is in order for kikentaichi to be synchronised together in order to make one explosive attack. Hence, we did the one-two timing against the other motodachi. Just one step, one cut kinda thing with the motodachi holding the shinai at men level. We then moved on to following through with the men cut still with the one-two timing. (I wasnt being careful as motodachi and copped a blow near my eye from Anna Cho's incoming men when I was holding the shinai up for her to hit. Will never be careless again~~) After that, we did do cuts in a similar fashion to the previous men cuts but this time with gyaku doh. The motodachi would do go into hidari jodan in order to receive the do and then move the right foot forward in order for the body to turn into something like migijodan and receive the gyaku do. Was pretty interesting to see people coordinating the movement. It could be confusing I guess. Tanaka sensei mentioned that when we cut do, our hips must also move in order to make the do cut more crisp *is this the right word?* and then follow through. It does not have to be a big movement to the side and only enough so that the men doesnt hit. This would only require maybe half a step to the side. With Tanaka sensei giving pointers and us doing the exercises, it was then time for the NSWKA annual meeting. Hence, there wasnt enough time for us to do some waza exercises but Tanaka sensei did explain to us about the timing for kote-nuki-men, kote-suriage-men and kote-kaeshi-men.

Afterwards, we had the meeting but I, err, sort of slipped away downstairs to wait for the food to arrive. Apparently we would be having Subway and there were also vegetarian *wanted seafood, but too bad there wasnt any today* Anyways, the food came just as the meeting upstairs finished. *Ken Chen had a crush on sensei's daughter, Tanaka Yoko, but was disappointed when he found out that she was sensei's daughter. It was funny looking at him drooling~~ =P*

I got assigned to tick the people off who paid for the seminar and food. There were a few people who hadnt paid but wanted to get food and I was being very stubborn. I had to say no to two kids whose parents didint pay for the seminar and food and then got called a nazi by all the other girls. Hey, I'm just doing my job!! No money no food lah~~ Dino then said that whoever wanted food could pay $5 for it. Pretty cheap I would say~~

Grading
We started grading a bit off schedule but catched up later. I got up to grade for 4th Kyu and got partnered with a girl from Gilderoy College. I kinda got..err...pissed during kihon coz she didint follow me and I had to break my rythym *how to spell that??* Same thing happened during uchikomi geiko. Afterwards, I saw her crying and her parents were putting ice on her arm. Apparently it was my kote cuts. Huh??None of the girls at the club cry when I hit their kote tho. Funny~~*Afterwards, I saw her arm in a sling. She's either very mengada or I did hit hard. Either way, I couldnt do anything about it* Got called up to do 3rd kyu and the same thing happened. Oh wells, I just beared it and went on lazily as I've already lost it. =P Didint really care whether I got the grade or not. We finished early however, and all of us got our grade *yea...I got 3rd Kyu. Yay*

Seminar, Round 2
We did have lots of time left and so did another 45 minutes or so of seminar and tried to incorporate the waza's that Tanaka sensei was explaining earlier. We concentrated more on the timing more then the cutting. Sensei mentioned that we should cut properly first with good timing etc and then only start to edge more and more further away to get distance. We did a few rounds of kote-nuki-men, kote-suriage-men and kote-kaeshi men. Then we did kaeshi-do keeping in mind of the timing etc.

Jigeiko
Jigeiko was pretty short today and I only had time to jigeiko with Maki sensei. I was pretty disappointed that I didint get to play Tanaka sensei as the drum went just as I was about to have my turn. I was so disappointed, that you'd never imagine. I then thought, oh wells, theres tomorow. And I waited for AGES. What a waste~~

Saturday Dinner
We arrived late to dinner because Kirby stopped by to give a ride to the Tanaka sensei and family to the restaurant. Hence, Dino, Sussan and me had to wait for him to drop them off and come back to pick us up. Graeme couldnt drive them as his car battery broke down or something and so he had to forfeit dinner which is a shame really. Anyways, we got there late and it was PACKED. So many people! I would say it was a success. The highlight was when the belly dancer came and started to dance and invited us to dance with her. Tanaka sensei was hilarious with his incorporation of kendo into the dancing and his stick balancing act on his head. Mind you, he's bald~ Dino got up and started dancing with the dancer. All I can say is, GO DINO!! And screamed myself hoarse. Even more so when SANO SENSEI got up. I went crazy cheering him on. *I got up to dance too on sensei's instructions. Haha..you'll never see me do that again okay!!* Food wasnt that bad since it was halal and all but I was expecting a bit more. I wasnt that full by the time we finished but the $30 was well worth the belly dancing anyday!

During dinner, we discussed the team selections with Sano sensei and somehow, Sussan and I got the Kyu Kata. Lolz, doesnt help that Sussan left her bokuto at home and had to borrow Yoshiki's instead *I ended up using it since she didint like the weight* We practised till about 3am with lots of err...knocks and hits to my furniture. It was interesting though and we still managed to get some of the moves synchronized.

Sunday (6/8/06)

We had seminar in the morning where we did shimpan practise. I played for the first shiai as I wanted to get "warmed up" for shiai in the afternoon *not that I was hoping or anything* I got killed by Jason Chapling basically because I didint warm up and I was being lazy. Hah...good for me. Anyways, we then split into kyu and dan grades and did some shimpan practise as well. Some advice from Tanaka sensei:

- When shimpaning and a kote was scored where the subshimpans couldnt see and only the head shimpan had view of it, the decision of the head shimpan should be taken into consideration. This is because, the other two shimpans can only award based on sound and only the head judge has full view of it. THerefore, if the head shimpan waves it away, the other two judges have to take this into consideration and wave it away as well. I reckon this would be pretty hard to do since the judging has to be made after the point has been scored and not too late as another point could have also been scored as well. All this has to be taken into account in a very short period of time and this got me thinking - I dont think I'll be shimpaning in a LONG while~~

- sensei also mentioned that when going down into sonkyo for shiai, eyes must be on the opponent and sussing them out even before the rei and sonkyo. All must be done in unison in order for more ..err..connection (?) and intensity.

Kyu Kata Competition
We practised a bit more and then Sussan got Lyma's bokuto and we gave it our best shot. The funny part was when Sussan brought the bokuto out and it was the wrong way round!!! I almost died of a heart attack. Thinking we'd already lost, I gave it my all anyways and it took so much concentration!!! Never have I concentrated that hard to follow Sussan's moves..etc. First round and we got through. I couldn't believe it. We actually got through!! Anyways, we went on to the finals where we got up against SKC. I was telling Sussan, lets just have some fun and just do what we do best. When the flags came up for white I thought we lost but then I checked again and saw that we were white. I was like, AWESOME!!! My first medal that I actually EARN. Cool stuff. I was pretty happy after that. =P

Women's Team Competition
We were up against ANU after getting a BYE in our pool. I was up against Reiko Cunningham and scored a men just before the wistle went. I was THAT lucky. We werent too lucky in the other two matches but then, it was kinda a tough match. ANU went on to win the womens team competition.

Kyu Team Competition
I'd be lying if I said I wasnt disappointed that I couldnt be in the team but hey, if sensei says no then its no. We didint get out of the pools tho and HanRimWon won the competition.

Dan Team COmpetition
Now this one is interesting. All the time I had to keep score for the teams in court 1 while UNSW was playing in Court 2. Let's just say my concentration wasn't really there. Thank god I wasnt keeping time or anything like that or time would just go with no wistle. Our team got into the finals and I was soo...emotional, as Ted Rixon sensei would put it. Hah, I think my blood pressure went throught the roof. Especially when Mike was playing. I was sooo nervous! We lost by points tho. I was so disappointed. Very disappointed! But then, we have no luck. We'll just train harder then. =P

Jigeiko
Finally able to play against Tanaka sensei and Yoko-san. Did my best. Tanaka sensei told me that when executing hiki-kote arms have to be extended when cutting. Well, thats what I gathered from his rapid Japanese anyway. Funny when you can understand when you want to. Haha, makes me think that maybe I just dont bother when other ppl speak. Only when its important that my brain starts to think. HAHAHA. Afterwards, he started to speak in rapid Japanese again when I went to thank him and when he decided I couldnt understand, he just said "Men, OK!" Haha. Oklah, I get your point~~ hehe

Yoko-san was a pleasure to play with. I know now that my kendo is largely influenced by the way my opponent plays and hence Yoko-san plays fast kendo. I found that I was influenced by her style of playing which I kinda liked actually. When I went to thank her later, she didint speak much english and my japanese utterly failed me again *not important enough?haha* But I got the message anyway.

Dinner
At KCR as usual and then home for an early night. Mama practically forced me to sleep when she saw photo's of me at Founder's cup. Nizam said I look like a ghost. Thanks bro. Really appreciate that~ =P

Well, to sum it up, I think that we hosted it pretty well with good timing etc. Hope everybody had a good time!!!

MooDoKwan Kumdo Competition

2006-06-25T00:09:00.000+10:00

Today was the MooDoKwan Kumdo Competition and had to get up at 6am as Adam was going to pick us up. Got to Burwood reasonably early *ie no ONE was there* checked shinai etc and straight went in for shiai as my pool was the first. I played Brendan Kee from ANU and got a BYE. I was pretty out on the first match having just woke up etc so I just went bludging all the way. Even got one men in. Oh wells, next time...Founders Cup! Anyways, next up was women's individuals. Me as usual, warmed up and stuff. First shiai and halfway into it I was already so friggin' tired. It was really unusual as I dun usually feel this tired. Later on, I knew it was due to the lack of food that I took *no energy etc* had 3 shiai's in a row that really took a toll on me. By the end of it, I was totally...blweh..I dun care anymore..Anyways, lost and got 3rd placing.

On a side note, saw Takeshi score a point with drifting for zanshin. Ultimate cool machine~ =P

Won my match for womens team. Thanks Anna...for the kebab. Really put me back into the game!!!

Dinner at some Pho restaurant and games after. I think I lost 30 in one nite. 20 on games maybe. -_- This is NOT good~

McQuarie Kumdo Competition

2006-05-11T00:20:00.000+10:00

On Saturday, the 6th of May the McQuarie Kumdo Competition was held at the McQuarie University. Somehow, I ended up being driven by Gideon to the uni *Supposed to go with Graeme but ended up with Gideon. Long story~* But anyway, we arrived at about 8.30-ish at the sports centre and proceeded to get ready. Gideon was kind enough to weigh my shinai's for me *Thanks Guv!!* and they all passed. Thank God! I was afraid one or two might fail especially since I took the pieces apart and reconstructed a whole new shinai.

Next up was the junior competitions but I didint watch much of it coz according to Dino, the womens were up next. *as far as I remember, womens was always after kyu's* Either way, I was first in both categories so had to warm up anyways. Ended up Kyu's was first so back to court 1 I went. Basically, I messed up my kyu individuals; was too nervous and couldnt play properly. I've always hated shiai, theres so much pressure there. Anyways, I lost 2-0 to John Tsu and 2-0 to Ellis who went on to win the kyu individuals. I wouldnt be lying if I that was soooo not me playing kendo. Totally somebody else.

Anyways, Womens was up next and I had already given up playing for the day. Decided to change my tenegui *just in case the black one has good luck* and went straight in for competition. Didint realise court 2 had already finished the kyu individuals. I played Tan again. I played her last year and she won by 2-0. This time, I got 2-0 on her though I seriously can't remember what the points were. However, I lost 1-0 to Jacinta from Usyd who played really well. I guess my performance in the kyu affected my performance in the womens as well. All I remember while playing is to stay calm at all times. Dun get overexcited.

I was lucky that Jacinta lost to Tan so that makes us all equal which means we had to play each other again. I had to play Jacinta again after that and won 2-0. Then I played Tan whom I got 2-0 on as well. I seriously dun remember what the points were but I will update when I've watched the videos. After that, I got into the semi finals and played with Anna Cho. Got through with 2 hiki-men's then it was the final. I was really excited to actually be in the final that I already don't care whether I win it or not. As predicted, I lost to Sharon Wragg 2-0 *Partly coz I'm too noob and partly coz I was too excited to actually be in the final*

Lunch was awesome with sushi and stuff but I couldn't eat much as the teams were afterwards. *Okay, so they didint really pick out the teams yet but I was hopeful..=P* I was lucky enough to be in the teams alongside Elaine, Dino, Ephragm *who was playing EXTREMELY well* and Duy *BIRU CHAN!!! =P*

We played against ANU first up and I lost my match (grrr). I nearly lost hope when Ephragm pulled out his exccellent kendo skills for the day and killed Ellis with a Men and then a Kote in two straight cuts. I was impressed!! It totally got us throught to the next round. Ah, the semi finals against McQuarie Uni. They only fielded 3 players so they played in 1,2, and 4th position. Gideon wasnt impressed because that meant that they played Duy, me and Elaine. (They were playing on 2,3,4 positions before) However, after lots of arguments with Rixon sensei, we had to go on with the match. Duy was awesome with his spirit and really got into the game. Next up, I had to play this pushy guy which kinda annoyed me a lot. He was really pushy during shiai and nearly got me out of the shiai jo if I hadnt done a 180 and back on the court again.I got a point on him though which I cant remember what. Just so relieved to get a point and won the match.

We won against McQuarie uni but lost against Sydney Kendo Club who beat us in all the matches. I would NOT count the point I apparently got because of the fact that it was NOT a point. Cassandra passed me the video of that match and it was really obvious that it was NOT a point. I had to replay the thing over and over and over again to see what exactly was I hitting and yea, I still have no idea. That was one DODGY point. Eheh =P

After comp we all went for Korean food (again) which we always have anyway. I don't know why but its all good. Actuallynya, aku dah tersangat tak suka makan makanan Korea tapi nak wutcamne, dah orang lain suma nak mkn, aku ikot jelah..lolz

Recent trainings...

2006-04-23T13:41:00.000+10:00

Ever since my parents moved back to Malaysia and hence making me a "bachelor", I've been going all out to trainings as much as I can (as a result of being deprived of it in the first year of my kendo career =P). Hence my kendo schedule would start on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights with Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings and afternoons. Come to think of it, it's not that much anyway. Oh well~

Lately, training has not been going so well for me. Waza and basic practise is fine and I can concentrate but when we start jigeiko, my brain starts to fall asleep. No matter how hard I try to concentrate, my head and eyes feel so sleepy that I think if I were to be given a pillow I would just doze off in the middle of jigeiko. However, after the jigeiko, I am fine again which is really wierd. I don't know what to attribute this to, mental?dehydration?lack of sleep?I'm at a loss. It's been going on for two weeks now and its affecting my overall rhythm in kendo. I'm still trying to tackle the problem. I feel sorry for everybody who played me and got shitty kendo in return. I did try my best but after a while, I just feel that I cant concentrate anymore. It's even worse then playing with a tired body, at least the mind is still alert. *sigh*

Monday training...
I kinda wrote the above and saved it and have only now come back to it. Monday was AWESOME. Felt really into it and concentrated 100% eventhough most of the time I was just plain hyper and not really scoring anything. After the two hours I went straight into jigeiko. Come to think of it, my waterbottle was still nearly full by the end of training as I didint take a drink. I had jigeiko with Chaos, Aaron, Adam (Sanpon) and Mike. Chaos gave me the men in Ippon, didint like that. Aaron looked kinda tired coz he didint have the usual fire that he has when playing. I like that, makes me mentally alert all the time as he doesnt let me rest even during tsubazeriai. Really refreshing. Playing Adam was interesting coz we decided to go for a 3 point match. I think we ended in two points with both of it going to Adam. I'm too slow in thinking unfortunately, I was trying out debana kote that we were praticing during class. Also, I tried to make the jigeiko as much like shiai as possible in order to train for the kumdo Comp. I'm really really bad in shiai. I hate attention and people looking when I play. Its not just kendo, its everything. I don't like it when people start looking (the judges, I'm paranoid..I know). So I'm trying to overcome that plus trying to save my cuts and play more efficiently.

I think thats all I wanna say for the time being other then whinging about how broke I am going out for dinner almost every night. Grr...kendo costs a LOT of money. But I am too lazy to cook after kendo, its just too tiring!! =P

Hidup~

2006-04-13T15:53:00.000+10:00

Dah dekat sebulan lebey aku tak update blog neh. Dah sebulan lebey parents aku tinggalkan aku di bumi Australia nih. Dah sebulan lebey aku tak makan makanan melayu, masakan mak aku, mendengar adik2 aku ngamuk tiap kali aku usik depa...Nizam ada crita hari tuh kata dah masuk dah rumah kat KL tuh. Syukur la akhirnya rumah KL tuh siap gak, sampai ke bila nak jadi nomad kan?

Skarang nih baru aku blajaq nak appreciate mak aku. LoLz, hari2 kena masak, pikiaq nak masak pa, nak basuh baju. Dahla apartment nih tadak washing machine, aku basuh ngan tangan jer. Hebat ark? Teringat balik time duduk kat hostel dulu dok basuh ngan tangan punya nak seb duit takmo basuh pakai mesin.

Hari ni start cuti pertengahan sem aka Easter Break. Aku pikir dan rancang nak study for mid session yg akan tiba on 28th neh tapi terasa malas lah plak. Tadi aku ada interaction test for jap. Siot nya takleh nak buat beb, aku pakai freestyle jap aku la. Hentam kromo jer. Dahla tak brapa nak paham sangat sensei kata apa, tapi tak pa..abeh2 pon dapat markah skit gak. Lolz...

Aku nih kan pemalas..thats gen knowledge beb..kerja tute work aku tuh weeks 1-3 jer aku pulon cuk kora, skarang ni malas siot. Tapi aku pegi gak lar kelas kalo aku tak tidoq lambat dan bangun lambat. Hari tuh aku terjaga lambat sangat tak terpergi lecture jepun aku tuh, teros gi kendo. Dahla malam buta lak tuh, takut tuh ada gak tapi kena lar berani coz I'll be doing this like...for the rest of the year. Anyways, cukuplah stakat ni rintihan aku..nanti bila aku rindu keluarga aku lagi aku tulih lagi..hahaha..

Fukuda Sensei Visit - Episode I

2006-02-04T15:00:00.000+11:00

I was a little late on Thursday due to the bus coming late (again~~). As I entered the dojo, I heard warmups being done so I thought I'd miss haya suburi (again~). I got surprised though as the warmups were being done by a group of young boys who I've never seen before. Since when do we have separate warmups? Anyways, I knew as soon as I saw Fukuda Sensei. Ahh..these must be the 10 boys Sensei said he'd bring from Japan to train with us. They look...fast~ Anyways, we did our own superspeedy warmup (lead by Mike) and then got to seiza.

After seiza, Fukuda sensei showed us how they do kirikaeshi and so all 9 + 1 of them got on the floor to demonstrate. Ahhhh..let's just say they flew across the dojo, the one on the far end was so fast he banged against the cupboard (OUCH!). They did kirikaeshi all across the length of the hall and back (Kirby used to do this) but only once. Then it was our turn to do it. I paired up with Elaine and after getting inspired to fly across the hall, we managed to at least walk at a fast pace across it. My turn to do kirikaeshi and I stuffed it up. Probably coz warmups were too short and I didin't really get a good hold on my shinai (always happens when I start late..*sigh*) Anyways, I tried my best since we only did it once as well.

Next up was tsuki. I was like, whoa...way cool~~ They showed us how they do tsuki. I tried to take note of everything but it was a bit too fast. Kirby said to do it like how we do it on Wednesdays during bokuto waza. I tried to do it that way but it grazed Elaines neck. Fukuda sensei then showed me how to do it properly. Apparently you'd have to gradually move in then at the last instant thrust with your hand and kiai- TSUKI. (I didin't hear anybody kiai that way earlier on) Fukuda sensei said that the tsuki that we are practising now is not for shiai tsuki. It is more for practising seme. We can also use the same body movement to execute a men or kote cut. Gradually go in with seme and cut men at the last instant with fumikomi and kiai. It was pretty interesting. However, won't our opponent sense us coming in and hence would be able to execute a cut beforehand? Or should the seme be as subtle as possible so that the opponent could not see us coming. Must ask Sensei the next training~~

With reference to that, Sensei then told us to try out men, kote and kote-men.
MEN should be executed at the last instant (like the tsuki cept we do it for men). Same for kote (correct me if I'm wrong).
KOTE MEN - this ones a killer. Fukuda Sensei's students demostrated to us how good kote men should be like. BAMBAM...or something like that. It looked really fast. I didin't get to do it though, I let Kai have a go at doing something. The poor guy was just standing there for the last two cuts. I'll try it out sometime next week on Monday most probably.

Next up, we got separated into 3 groups. Fukuda Sensei's students, the higher grades and the lower grades (where I belong keke). First up, Fukuda sensei demonstrated us how to practise debana kote. One group was split into half with 4/5 on each side. Then the player doing the de-kote will be in the middle doing it. Others would take turns attempting a men cut on the player as fast as possible and the player would hence have to attempt de-kote before the men which would mean..as fast as possible. The last person that the player cuts will receive another "goodbye" cut. Group 1 did it with style and elegance (if you count doing de-kote with good kiai at top speed elegant) Then the higher grades did it. Also with considerable amount of style and elegance. Then it was our turn. There were a few confusions and banging and yea..we need more practise -_-

Worse still was kote-men. This time, the player would be attempting to cancel out kote cuts done by the opponent and then go for men. This time the left feet does not step forward and fumikomi is done nearly at the same spot. (Please correct me if I'm wrong) There will also be a hiki men on the last cut(person) which is something like what Fukuda sensei taught us before. Instant hikimen after blocking an incoming men.

Then the highest 9 grades will go up against the 3rd dans from Japan. Fukuda sensei said that they did not train for the past 6 months and are therefore kindof not at their strongest (what the hell~~ I don't wanna know how much stronger they can be~) I can't remember much of the matches cept the first and second match didin't go too well. I guess our players were pretty psyched up and really nervous about the shiai or just too excited. But after that, we saw a pretty leveled game. A few hikiwake's and Kirby managed to salvage some Aussie pride by landing a men. Sano sensei, Fukuda sensei and Master Kim were the shimpan's for the shiai.

Next up, we had jigeiko with all the jap guys being motodachi. I played the jodan player and..another player. I can't read kanji unfortunately, so I cant distinguish who is who. They all look the same in bogu. Jodan player was really fast. I thought I could get a kote in but his men kept coming down. It really made me think how to get to that men. I still didin't get a cut in after a few tries. He finished me off with a men.

Afterwards, I played Master Kim whose kote cuts were legendary. I was pretty defensive of kote and he kept going for men. I was kinda surprised but it still was a very mind stimulating game. It actually got me thinking how to kill his centre, kamae etc. I usually just play for the sake of playing without actually using my brain. heh..wrong...I know~ However, time is short and so I bowed out with a men cut from Master Kim.

Next up was this anonymous Japanese player. I can't remember much from this match though. It was still mind stimulating but not much different then the jodan player cept he finished me off with a kote. =P

Since it was Dave's last show today, Sano Sensei made him play with all the Jap players at one go. He got almost all hiki-wake and missed several good nuki-men because of the lack of proper execution of cut (or something like that...most probably zanshin?) Anyways, he's going to Singapore so I might see him at goodwill taikai's between Msia and Singapore.

That's all for now. Will post Episode II soon. Ciao! =P

First 2006 Training

2006-01-06T13:08:00.000+11:00

4/1/2006 happens to be my first training for the year. The club started on Wednesday which I unfortunately couldn't go as I was sending Shaheen and family off at the airport. I'm soo gonna miss them. Anyways, Fukuda sensei took the first half or so of the class. We did two waza's which according to him, Australian's do not use frequently. One was where motodachi and shidachi both go for men at the same time. Then during zanshin, shidachi will turn around then do a hiki-men. It was pretty cool cept it felt wierd doing it the first time. After a few more runs, it felt more natural but I think it'll require a few more rounds before it stays in my brain.

After that, we did a particularly hard one (well, I found it hard, dunno bout the rest of the club). Motodachi will go for men then come to tsubazeriai then shidachi will straight away go for hiki-men. Sano Sensei mentioned that we could act like we are bracing for tai-a-tari and then go for a cut before motodachi comes to a full stop. It's kinda like faking it (I think) so that motodachi will stop at tsubazeriai position and then we'll go for hiki-men. The hiki men has to be done instantaneously as motodachi comes in so that there's no room for motodachi to block. It helps to push the motodachi's shinai down a bit before going off. However, I was thinking, wouldn't it make it obvious that we will be attempting to cut?

First bruise for 2006 was given to me by.........Voila...ME! Hahaha...the most dangerous person to myself is me. Sigh. Anyways, played Eddie, Nat, Sussan, Hugh, Adam, Sensei (it was tough..have to get back into that kendo feeling) and Sussan again at the end. I think I played Sussan and Nat twice. Lolz..But it was fun, going into jigeiko again, thinking and playing.

So yeah, that's all for now. I'm too lazy to write some more but there would be a few things I'd like to acheive before going back to Malaysia at the end of this year:-

1. Get over a good kamae, one that doesnt falter when you go for a men cut.
2. Try get a men cut on somebody!
3. Improve on zanshin
4. Build up stamina
5. At least go onto the next round of a competition. I'm sick of just playing 2 games in a comp. =P

Well, thats the five things I'd like to do this year. So yeah, c ya'll around!

Nurlin

2005 Last Training

2005-12-24T19:40:00.000+11:00

Thursday, 22/12/2005

How time flies! It was like just yesterday that I signed up for beginners course in kendo and now I'm in full bogu. Today Fukuda sensei took the first part of the class. During seiza, he advised us that in kendo, there should be the feeling of moving forwards. Controlling your opponent as opposed to just trying to get an ippon in (At least that was what I THOUGHT he said, since he was telling it to us in Japanese and Yoshiki was translating. Can't hear much though, they were on the other end of the dojo~) I got the point where Fukuda sensei said about not hesitating when going after pretty girls. Quoted from Anna who heard it more clearly "despite having a wife and 5 gfs, he cant pass up on a chance to say 'i like you' to a pretty girl, or he wiill regret forever". I think what sensei was trying to say is that do not hesitate when there is an opportunity for a cut. Just go for it. Like he said, if we hesitate, that girl might just get picked up by another guy (come to think of it, this only applies to guys!!! =P )

Okay, after all the advice given, we were told to put it into practise. I can't really remember what we did before ai-men so unfortunately I'd have to skip that. So, Ai-men. Both sides doing men at the same time. The aim of this exercise was to go straight in after the cut. Sorta a wave kinda thing crashing in on your opponent. Problem was, everybody seemed to be crashing in to me. Lolz, should've seen that coming. Anyways, jigeiko was next.

Had jigeiko with Aaron during which he gave me a lot of advice which was basically strengthening what Fukuda sensei said. I tried out some of them and it really works sometimes. Somehow, I still get intimidated when the opponent moves in gradually. I have yet to learn how to overcome that. Next up, I had jigeiko with sensei where I tried to implement what I learnt before. Sensei did a lot of men-uchi and seme-men on me. I did feel threatened but I tried to remember the going forward spirit. We played for ippon after that.
I played Mandy last and she let me get a men on her.Personally, I think the cut lacked zanshin and it was like MEeeEEEEEENNNN.Yeah, something like that.

Afterwards, Fukuda sensei invited everybody to his place at Cronulla on Tuesday for lunch and beach. Erm, yea, Cronulla. I'd have to think about it. It somehow strikes a different chord with my father. =P But anyway, if I do go, I'll tell ya all about it. Till then, Ciaoz!!

Shimpan

2005-12-08T08:58:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was a pretty interesting class. I'm glad I didin't miss it. Nearly did though because of the scorching hot weather. Anyways, it started off with the usual bokuto waza. Going through kihon-ichi to kihon-kyu. My partner for the day was Elaine which is good coz then I can gage my distance properly since we're about the same height. We practised kihon-roku, kihon-nana and kihon-hachi since it was the worst among the lot. Personally I think kihon-hachi (Men-kaeshi-do) is pretty hard because I tend to move to the side to much hence ending up real close to the uchidachi. Furthermore, I also tend to block really dodgily (forgive my spelling~ =p) and have yet to learn the proper way of blocking the men. Actually, more like learn it already and then forget it again. Lolz, I will never remember no matter how many times I try.

Sensei came half-way through the class. He then instructed us to go through all the bokuto waza's that we know before proceeding to give us an option on whether to do suburi for the next 40 minutes or learn how to shimpan. LoLz, he made it an easy choice. Of course we wanted to learn shimpaning. SO here a lil bit of what I remember from last nite:

Basics
There are two flags. One red and one white. The head judge holds the RED in his right while the white is held in his left hand. There are three judges in all including the head judge. Asistant judge no.1 (on the right handside of the headjudge) holds the flags the same way while no.2 (on the left) holds the RED in the LEFT and the white on the right. When rolling up both flags, the aim is to not let the white flag be seen. Therefore, the white flag must be rolled once or twice before putting it underneath the red flag and then rolled together. No white must be seen (Lolz, I tried doing it but the white still showed. I ended up stuffing bits of the white flag inside with my finger..hehe).

Holding the flag
One finger must be pointing down at all times when holding the flag. This allows the flag to remain in position instead of moving when the person moves.

Positioning of Shimpan's
*I'll post a diagram of shimpan's positioning during shiai when I can figure out wuts not making it happen now.*

Scoring a point
In order to show a point scored, the respective flag must be held at around 45 degrees above the shoulder with the hand straight, finger pointing outwards. Movements must be sharp (?) and not indecisive.

Hansouku
Giving hansouku is similar to scoring a point except the flag is held 45 degrees below the shoulder pointing at an angle to the floor. Hansouku is usually given when there is foul play or if a player steps out of the boundary. Should both players step out, the first person to step out would be given hansouku.

Stopping a match
When a match is stopped, the head judge will call out YAME with both hands up in the air with both flags pointing upwards.

Proceeding a match
If the match is to proceed to for the second point, the head judge will hold flag which got the point at 45 degree angle and call NIHONME. If a hansouku is given, HD will point the flag at 45 degrees to the floor and call HANSOUKU-*the number of times*. Then proceed to call hajime again in order to start the match.

When a match finishes
HD will put up the winner's flag and call out shobu-ari.

Well, that's about it for the time being. If I can remember any more details, I'll add them later.

THURSDAY
Sensei came early today and told CC to lead warmups. Lolz, I nearly laughed until sensei told me to take the suburi's. Heh, funny joke. So I took suburi but unfortunately didin't count. I kinda lost count and so decided to just count out last ten when I feel like it. Elaine got to do haya-suburi. Lolz, it was cool~~

Today was a manageable class and sensei allowed us to do all the basic cuts to get the feel and everything. Then we were instructed to practise whatever waza we wanted with the motodachi doing men and kote cuts. I tried a few but still can't get a vaguely convincing cut. Damn~~Have to train harder next time!

Jigeiko with sensei really opened my eyes. I've developed an ugly habit of pulling back my shinai after I go for kote hence allowing my opponent to get a men on me. Easy peasy. So sensei naturally went for all those open men cuts. He let me get an ippon men at the end though. Haha, I still think that men cut was ugly. But anyway, the one thing I learn from today if I can't remember anything else, change my kote zanshin. I'll think of something else sometime this weekend. I hope to go train at SKC on Saturday but we'll have to see how it goes.

RESULTS
Uni results are out now and hence I wish everybody good luck~ I now declare Accounting lecturers and tutors the best!! Haha, okay...so maybe they passed me when I should've failed but they really saved my neck there. So yeah, luv ya!! =P

~Till la'er days~

Stuff~~

2005-11-22T08:57:00.000+11:00

20th November, Sunday

Lolz...CC brought me to the motorcycle show on this day as my prezzie...IT WAS AWESOME!!way cool~~There were dirt bike freestyle and stuff. Never seen so many bikes in one place!! Course there were the BIG HUGEbikes (CC and I figured we could put our bogu and shinai in it) to the small cute scoots to the Harley Davidsons (Not a huge fan of it). Robbie Marshall was doing demo's on freestyle dirt bike. There were back flips, lazyboys and other stunts which I seriously can't remember their names. But yeah, it was awesome. The kids were cool too besides having an accident every other minute. LoLz...all in all it was awesome so thanks CC!! =P

After that I went to pancakes on the rocks (bit of dejavu here. Had my b'day there last year as well..Didin't realise it till vera told me..ahaks!) with Mabel and Vera. Most can't come because of exams, I don't really mind. Doesn't matter anyway~ =)..But it was good fun. Vera had this huge portion of pork ribs..err..she's got a big tummy..wakaka...and I paid for everything. Did I mention they got me Paul Frank PJ's? Lolz, my PJ's are more expensive than my outdoor wear (which is very limited anyway). Went home at around 8pm. Yea, it's early. I know. There's something called studying that I had to do. Exams aren't over yet for me. =P

Monday, 21st

My first day as a 20 year old. Lolz, I don't feel any different tho till my sister mentioned it. I feel...old~~But anyway, I always get over it. Heh.

Kendo training tonite was quite tiring (no surprise, Mike took class). 240 hayasuburi left my right calf(?) (anak anjing) quite stiff and tensed up. After that, we had tons of men cuts, kote, kote-men, uchikomi geiko then back to men. Sorry, but I err..kinda bludged it. Not to mention I kept getting the beginners which were kinda cool coz they had to do it twice..Lolz..I'm so bad~~I promise I'll try not to do it again~

The men cuts were cool, until my head started to feel like it could crack any second. My ears were ringing by the end of training and were still ringing when I got home. Kote-men wasn't good either coz I kept missing the damn men. Ah, yea, we also did debana kote. Funny how other people can just manage to do it. It's annoying coz this time, my brain just switched off..grrrrr~~

Jigeiko. The most interesting part of kendo. Played Big John, Eddie, Dino and Yoshiki in that order. Jigeiko with John was interesting, I couldn't find a way to get through to cut men. His height was pretty intimidating as well though. Eddie was interesting too. He did an awesome do cut when I just came up for men. (Damn, I'm a bludger) Somehow, I WILL find a way to score a point.

Eddie, Thanks for the bruises man.

We had shimpanz during Dino and Yoshiki's jigeiko. Lolz, do I need to say more?I got trashed by both of them. Argh, the embarressment. However, I did get a few pointers. I hesitate too much before making a cut. You see, I somehow think that the other person is coming in so Iwanna go for men cut but when I go in, the other person just kinda stops moving in. Now how does that work???I'll have to figure that one out pretty soon. =P Another thing, when I move backwards, I move my head backwards as well. Posture Posture Posture. Something I've never had. Eheh~

Okay, Ithink that'll do for the moment. I need to do some studying for exams. I'm not totally finished yet you know. Okies..gtg..ciaoz!

La'er days

Thursday training

2005-11-04T22:27:00.000+11:00

I'm currently trying to do some studying which I don't think is going to work so I might as well write an update for my blog.

Wednesday training;
Takashi sensei came over to our dojo for the nite. I was surprised! He gave us a couple of advice about kote cuts. How the bokuto should crack like a whip (I think that is what he was trying to convey to us) when making the cut. It's easier said then done though. Also, he mentioned about kiai that should be forceful and loud when making the cut. Hmm, that's a lot to think about when executing the cut though. Kendo isn't just about bashing other people up. It's about strategy and timing and lots of other things. Which makes Kendo even more interesting! =)

Thursday training was quite interesting. We learned a new type of waza. Faking do then going for men. Kirby said it's useful during shiai. Course it is, cept my faking doesn't look convincing.

It goes something like this:

During tsubazeriai, step back and make as if going for do cut with shinai swung over the left shoulder then at the last second (I think) swing the shinai back for a hiki men. It sounds easy but its a bit hard actually doing it. I find that because I know that I'm faking it, then the appearence of trying to go for a do cut isnt there. I'll try more of that though.

We also did quite a number if hiki waza's and chasing the motodachi across the hall. It's been a while since we practiced any type of hiki waza and it was a nice change once in a while. Legs get a bit sore afterwards but it wasn't as tiring as the usual Thursdays where we do numerous uchikomi and kakari geiko. Even then, because I've been eating non-stop since morning, I felt really heavy and lazy so my jigeiko was basically crap.

Oh yea, Kirby also mentioned to me at the beginning of session that I extended my arms too much. (According to lil' John, I've got "broken" arms. I'm not surprised =P) I think he used the phrase "locked arms". Then showed me how to do tenouchi without locking my arms. Its hard though coz I've already got sooooo much "extension" on it. Lolz, I really should try to take care of it tho.

On another note totally unrelated to kendo though, my Jap tute this morning had a small class party to celebrate the end of a semester and stuff. Ikeda sensei's friend is apparently a professional sweet make and she made us those riceball thingy's that you eat with bitter tea. I had both and it was really lovely!!! I especially liked the sticky riceballs. They're awesome..Anybody who hasn't tasted it should really try it out.

Okay, I guess thats enough for the moment. I'll write some more later when there is something to write about. =P

Saturday and Monday Training

2005-10-25T14:49:00.000+10:00

We did a few waza's on Saturday. More then normal I guess. There's stepping to the right and then men while opponent is cutting for men. Stepping to the left; then men or kote while opponent cut men or kote. Sounds easy but its very hard to implement. We also did uchitoshi which I couldn't do. No surprise about that! =P Then it was jigeiko time! Played almost everybody and then played sensei last. There were a few points which he mentioned to me. For example, don't try to come in too close (chigami?ergh) then not doing anything (sound familiar?). Then sensei also mentioned that once I've mastered that skill of coming in only when I'm ready for a cut, then the opponent will start to pressure you to make a cut instead of just waiting when you are ready. Does that make sense?

Kirby also mentioned the most problematic thing I have with kendo which is bringing up my left foot before making a cut. Said something about it being a telegraph for a cut. I still don't realise I do that. So there's a few things that I need to work on for the next few weeks that I can get training in.

Monday nite was awesome. I wanted to try doing suburi with two shinai's. It isn't that bad, really. The only thing that annoys me is that my shinai keeps slipping and I can't get a good grip on it. My hands are too small I guess *sigh*. The hayasuburi after that, my shinai felt light as a feather. AWESOME!! LoLz, will continue my warmups with two shinai's till I can get a heavy bokken or something that makes the gripping part easier.

I got told about the shuffling of my feet again on Monday and I didin't even realise it. Then when I start to think of not moving my left feet before executing a cut, I find that my body wont move forward. I think it'll take some practise and time before I can get that.

Did jigeiko with Dino, Mike, Yoshiki, John Watts and Sensei. Other then Dino keep stomping on my poor poor toes, everything went exactly like I expected it to be. Got trashed by all those men cuts. Sensei mentioned after jigeiko that I kept coming in and not making any attempt to cut. I think that could be my problem. Especially since most of my opponents are really tall, being too close would be fatal. It's just that sometimes I don't see an opening and I dun like standing there looking for an opening. So by the time I see one, I'm like really close. Maybe I should just move sideways or something. But anyway, the two things I wanna practise these few weeks would be

1) no shuffling of my left feet before a cut
2) don't get too close before executing a cut
3)work on the zanshin after the cut which I think lacks form and DOES NOT look cool.
4)Endurance and stamina. After Monday, I think I lack lots of it.
5)I want my old kiai!!! I think my voice is breaking~~

Thats the 5 things I wanna work towards for the next week or two.

Exam's are coming round the corner and I'm pressured to get at least credits for all subjects. (No, it's not a choice). So I'm guessing afternoon trainings at Usyd may replace Saturday training at Willoughby since it Willoughby would cost me the whole day just going and coming back. I hope to make it to this Wednesday and Thursday trainings. My grandparents are visiting from Malaysia, arriving this Thursday so I guess we'll just have to see. Furthermore, Ramadhan only finishes next Wednesday so I guess I'll have to skip Monday class again. Hope to come on Wednesday though. My brain gets rusty without excercise. =) Anyways, that's all my blurps for now. La'er days! =P

A series of unfortunate events

2005-10-18T13:31:00.000+10:00

Monday was exactly that. A series of unfortunate events; not like the Boudelair (did I spell that correctly?) children though. So what happened to me?

Firstly, I promised my sister's friend that I'll get her some sushi for "buka puasa". Ya know, the cheap ones they sell at about 4pm at the sushi bar. So I got there at about 4.20pm and they've already closed. Bummer. And I actually went to uni early just because of that. Needless say, she was disappointed and me; well, next time don't promise anything~

So, killed a bit of time before lecture at 5pm. Good thing I had my cd player with me. It wasn't as boring as it could have been. 5.30pm and the lecturer still hasn't come. I was contemplating on whether to just ditch it when Ikeda-san went in search for Armour sensei (the lecturer). She came back with Fukui sensei who in turn told us with a worried expression "I have no idea where Armour sensei is. I do hope he is alright~" LoLz, sorry. I just find that funny. Suzuki sensei didin't know anything about it during tutorial this morning and she was shocked as well. =P Anyways, since I came to uni for this lecture, it's been a complete waste of time.

Afterwards, we left early since there wasn't going to be any lecture. So I started to walk to Kingsford in order to find some food to buka puasa at 6.10pm. Maccers smelt yummy but I had too much time on my hands. Anyways, after that I went to visit kendo training. Had to kill more time as prayers start at approximately 7.40pm. I got the club tenegui and am going to wear it this Saturday. But first, I'll have to sew up the edges so that the tenegui doesn't fall apart later on =P.

Left the dojo at about 7.15 pm when everybody was doing warmups. Got the 400 to Randwick where I waited for a 37- bus to come. 2 were due but there was not sign of them. Clock shows 7.38pm. I knew I had to ditch the bus and "fly" to Malaysia hall which is opposite the Randwick race course. And so I "flew". Thank God I'm ok fit. I wouldn't have been able to run all the way from Randwick junction otherwise. LoL...so kendo has it's uses eh ba? When I arrived everybody had already started and so had to quickly get ready and stuff. I'll spare you the details~

Anyways, some good things did happen though. Like I did my tute work before tute and actually read ALL reading materials (okay, so I read half of it when I was waiting for training at Willoughby. Should do that more often though; then maybe I'd just be able to do my work. See?Kendo has its other external uses as well LoLz=P)

Oh ya, there's also a show I'm supposed to be organizing but being the bludger I am, I asked just for stage management during the day. It's on the 26th of November at Mattraville Public School. It's just a concert to celebrate the end of fasting month (okay, so it ended a month earlier. It doesn't matter)My brother is also in it. Supposed to sing about 6 songs. Lolz, good luck in memorising bro!! Sis is to sing a solo with some back up singers (Solo??? In case you're wondering, the answer is NO, I didin't arrange this). Anyways, all I had to do was to show up for practise and give comments *Australian Idol comes to mind* but I try not to be harsh. It's sometimes hard coz my words can sometimes hurt Lolz. Specially if I don't like that person(not that I care ~Mom'll have a fit though. Thinks I still act like a kid. But hey, I can't help it if I don't like them.)

Anyways, that's about it for now. I think I'll be a good girl and do more work. Thinking of where to celebrate my 20th though. But then, it's more then a month away. Still got plenty of time. Neways, till next time. La'er days!

"Break" from kendo - what I've been doing~

2005-10-13T12:00:00.000+10:00

LoLz,

So, I haven't been going to training. Forced to take a break by the King of the house. Grrrrr... Where the heck am I gonna vent all that energy I'm piling up? Answer: at SKC on Saturday. The only kendo training I get. A miserable once a week. Geez. By the time next week comes, I'd have already forgotten what I've learnt the week before. It also doesn't help that we just do a bit of waza and tons of jigeiko. Look, I've got nothing against jigeiko but I kinda view it as a time to practise the waza's we learnt besides trying to build up intuitive responses to openings. Since I have not been able to have adequate waza practise, I sometimes find that jigeiko isn't helping me build better kendo.

Anyways, there's nothing much to do during the week then sleep and study (I havent been doing much of the latter unfortunately). Just had a few results back which are not good at all. Screwed up on one paper. (See, its not good to scream at me rite before exam. It makes me angry and therefore not able to concentrate! Happy now?) There's a lot of vent up anger in me at the moment that I can't wait to release on Saturday. I'd better be able to go on Saturday or something or someone will have to give.

There's more from where that came from but I think since this isn't a very good place to do it, I'll just stop rambling about my personal life here. Look, I don't have anything against God but it's just the way some people go about it that really sucks. You have to balance life and religion but I guess I'll have to obey the dictator till I get a life of my own. Oh Yeah, and remind me that single life is the best life anyone can have. Don't EVER commit to anything or anyone.

SKC training

2005-10-08T15:45:00.000+10:00

ola!

So, now I've been absolutely banned from training at UNSW nites, I have decided to go to SKC and USyd training whenever I can. Still have some personal issues that I hope to settle by the end of the semester. NOTHING is going to hold me off kendo for long. *insert determined look*

Anyways, training at SKC this morning was pretty interesting. The warmups weren't too bad (okay, so any warmup that doesn't involve haya suburi isnt bad...=P). Then we did a few rounds of kihon men and practised tai-a-tari. Payne sensei said to push with our hara. I tried to but all I could do was bounce off my motodachi. I will have to practise it more for hiki wazas. Tend to lose my balance after tai-a-tari so maybe I'll work on this lil thing at SKC until I get back to UNSW (I'm sooo gonna miss the dojo smell....huhuhu). After that we did a few rounds of kirikaeshi and another two sets of kihon. Then Payne sensei mentioned about sonkyo and cutting men immediately after getting up. (sound familiar?=/) This will also be another thing that I will continue to work on. My knees are a bit weak though I hope it can stand my weight. *sigh* maybe I'll just have to lose a few kilos.

Anyways, after that was jigeiko. Because there weren't many people at training today (not the typical Saturday training but there were still a number of people) I got to do jigeiko with about 4 people (Usually its just one or two). And there were a number of points that I was told...

Fast, but slow reaction. No sense of going for opening (gagagagaga..)
Zanshin, must go through.
Don't get cocky, just go for it.
Lots of spirit but must also show spirit in skills. Make the opponent go back.
Must practise more do (this is my own)

Hmm...Guess thats it for now. My kendo journal is going to be pretty limited till next month. So ciaoz!

Brisbane Unigames

2005-10-01T10:49:00.000+10:00

Decided to write a full account of the Brisbane trip. I've got work to do but stuff that for a while. My head can't take it anymore. Anyway, here goes:-

TUESDAY, 27/09/2005.

I arrived at Brisbane around 12.30pm from Sydney. Met up with David Forrester at the Sydney airport. Just conincidentally booked the same flight (Okay, so maybe it was the cheapest flight). Anywhoos, we arrived at Brisbane airport and took a taxi to the Chifley at Lennons where the rest of the UNSWKC are staying. The taxi guy was pretty friendly but is kinda bit annoyed with the wild uni students. He was surprised that both of us were civilised. Lol, I'm always civilised, most of the time. =P

So, we got to the hotel in good time. I was surprised to find the main door of the hotel is at the back of an alley full of dumpsters. Didin't give me a good impression of a hotel that I'd be staying for the 3 nites. But when I got in, it was pretty good. Has a spa and pool (okay, so any hotel that has a pool, I like). David got his keys but I couldn't get mine for some reason. Apparently my name wasn't in the computer system or something so I decided to leave my things in David's room first while we go out to eat and then find Sussan to work things out.

We ate Hungry Jacks for lunch (I ate onion rings and a sundae..blwek..it was disgusting!~) Anyways, we went back to the hotel where Sussan helped work things out and finally I got to stay at Anna and Elaine's room on the 18th floor (pretty high eh?). Then, all of us except Dave went to the Museum of Brisbane. It was a pretty boring museum. Just photographs and stuff. I had to go back early coz Dave and I had to go to Griffith Uni in order for us to make our accreditations for the day. Good thing I've got the travel pass. I feel like a VIP, just flashing the pass to the driver. =) So when we did the accreditation, had to walk all the way up to the Hub for the shinai weigh in which starts at 6.30pm. Accreditation closed at 5pm so we had 1 1/2 hours to kill. Melbourne uni had a practise session beforehand so we stood by to watch. They were pretty good I must say.

At 6.30pm, I had my shinai's weighed. The minimum weight was 440gm but mine was like 485 and 493 gm respectively.Lol, no wonder Elaine's shinai seemed so light!! But anyway, both passed the weighing in and checking so I'm pretty ok with it.

Dinner was at Sizzler's. mmMMMmmm....I love the salads and pasta. Especially since it's a buffet. I just ate 2 plates though. Not my usual self. I was pretty sleepy and had not much appetite going on so I struggled through the two plates. But it was nice, no doubt about it. We went to bed pretty early coz had to get up early the day after for competition.

Wednesday, 28/09/2005
The day of the comp!! I was really nervous. I so want to do my best in this games. We went to the bus station pretty early only to find out we just missed the bus. Anyways, there was another bus at 8am so we took it. Pretty long ride though coz it wasn't express but at least it got us there earlier then the other one. Didin't have a lot of time for warm ups (being UNSW, we're always lagging..heh) but we did the full suburi's. So, first up was Anna's comp I think. I couldn't really remember but we cheered her on as usual. (I really should stop embarrasing myself. Maybe tune down on that cheering but seriously, it's so exciting to see the match. Can't help it!! )

Coincidentally I looked at the other court where my match was supposed to take place. It was already the match before mine!! I quickly put my men on and hurried toward to other side. Then, it was my turn. I was just surprised and not yet really ready for anything. So I sorta just went to it. I scored a point on him. A do. I remember that coz I was trying to do proper do and zanshin and stuff. The next point was a men from him. It was, I would say...pretty..erm...dodgy but nevertheless it scored him the point. I was pretty pissed and couldn't really play well after that. Psychology I guess, I'm never good at holding back my emotions. Anyways, I basically lost in the kyu individuals. I did go back to thank him and stuff but I still felt really pissed off at myself and at certain parties.

My next match was the kyu team. To tell you the truth, I was SERIOUSLY hoping to play a girl not anything but because my head still hasn't calmed down enough from the other match. We played Sydney Uni and I was sempo and my opponenet was a girl. yess!!!haha. Anyways, my turn came first so I naturally went all out. Being pissed off sorta helps sometimes for kiai. =P I really can't remember anything from the match other then screaming my lungs off and trying to go for a point. I didin't even know I scored. (On review, I don't think I scored but what's done is done). Anyways, I won the match. Jihou was Anna (won by 2 points), chuuken was Yoshiki, fukushou was Yvonne and taishou was Sussan. Pretty interesting game but we won and we got to the finals!! Yey! So even if we lost, we still would get 2nd anyway. =P

Finals for kyu. Aisehman, got to play Melbourne uni and my opponent was the same guy who played me in individuals!! I knew how he played and he played okay. I'm still kicking myself for making the same mistakes I made during the first round. Was pretty pissed at myself but nevertheless I lost 2-0. I think we lost every round. Yvonne got a point for us though but it was still a bashing I will not except the next time we play them.

So, overall UNSW managed to get a 2nd for kyu individuals, 2nd for kyu teams and a 3rd for dan individuals. So, overall it was not too bad considering it was the first unigames for some of us and still managed to get a medal. I'm pretty cool with that.

After that, we proceeded to dinner which we were supposed to have with Monash Uni at this pub near the train station. Unfortunately, 1 1/2 hours into it, our dinner still hasn't come and my head is already pounding with the blaring music. We called it quits and decided to go look for some place else. I was really hungry by then having just eaten a chocolate croissant in the morning and nothing else for the whole day. We finally decided on the chinese restaurant on the 4th floor of our hotel. It was nice I guess since all of us were really hungry. We girls have never been this vicious about food. LoL. Dave said it was dangerous putting a finger in there amongst all the chopsticks. =P. We pretty much cleared everything which was expected.

After that, we adjourned to this bowling pub thing near our hotel while Sussan retired to her room. Everybody was drinking and stuff and since I don't drink I decided to go for bowling. Yvonne, Elaine, Anna and myself ended up playing bowling with some of the Usyd kendokas. I got a pathetic score of 90 (it happens when you play bowling at 10pm..not really at the top of my game). Had fun playing it though. Haven't played for ages! =P

I decided to pull the plug after we couldn't find another place to hang out. I was pretty tired and wanted to get on to Surfer's Paradise the next day so Elaine and I went to bed. Anna was still going strong and went on with the rest.

Thursday, 29/09/2005
I got up late today, was really tired from last nite. Got a bite to eat at McDee at the train station (hash browns as usual) and boarded the train to Gold coast at about 10.53am. The train ride was pretty quiet as everybody was tired from last nite I guess. Then after arriving at the station we then boarded a bus to Surfers paradise and had lunch at the local food court. It was pretty interesting. I had a Mushroom bibimbap (or something like that). We even found a Jackson bibimbap. It was hillarious....Lol, Soory. Then it was the beach. Ahhh...Lovely beach. The waves were pretty strong though. I had my contacts on so I was really cautious. Didin't want to have them taken away by the waves rite? After about an hour or so standing and running about in the waves, we did a mermaid on Yoshiki. It was funny, complete with boobs and stuff. He was a sport for doing that. I wouldnt have agreed to it being done on me! =P Too embarrasing.

Anyhow, there wasn't a proper shower to bathe in so we had to just simply shower then change in the toilets. My towel was real wet (hand towel from the hotel) by then coz I didin't have a proper towel to dry with but then, it's my fault. =P After that, some more shopping before I saw this big advert about a shooting range. Wanted to go try it out but it was damn expensive. We ate at the Japanese shop located on the same level. Too early for my dinner though. Then we head to the games arcade. First up was this samurai game which I played first. It was hilarious coz it had a plastic sword attached to the machine by a rope. The sensors would sense where the sword is though. During the game, I managed to detached the sword from the machine by swinging it too violently,causing the thingy holding the rope to snap. Lol, it was pretty funny swinging the plastic sword with the rope dangling away. =P After that was a race between all 7 of us on the daytona. I played on manual (heh, I love manual) but got 6th. DAMN!!! hahaha..okay..so it was kinda fun. Next up was the horse racing. There was just four horses so 3 of us stood out. I got tired just tryng to make the horse move and whipping it at the same time. We must have looked like a bunch of oversized kids on plastic horses. Lol. After going round a bit, found this bike race thingy. Was pretty interesting until I started to get tired from the cycling. Plus, my bum hurt from the small seat. I got 2nd though so that wasn't too bad. =P I tried the drum machine later but it was too noisy and I couldn't hear the music. Plus, I had no idea how to read the thing coz I only read notes and the thingy on the machine just confuses me!! Yoshiki did a better job then I did though. = (

We headed back to city after that and arrived at South bank. It was pretty nice with the manmade beach and stuff. Took a ferry across the river which took less then 3 minutes. Back at the hotel, they decided to go for a spa and I joined along. The pool wasn't usable though. Too dirty. Sigh, I sooo wanted to get a few laps in. Anyways, the spa had bubbles and stuff which I didin't really like plus it wasn't that hot. I liked the water though and didin't mind as much. I learned a new waterbomb thingy trick with the hand. Might use it on my bro sometime. ;)

Since we already had dinner, we didin't go out for a full on meal. Just a few bites here and there. I didin't get anything to eat coz I couldn't be bothered to eat. I was too tired to do anything anyway. Besides, Anna and me wanted to go check our mails and stuff. Then it was bedtime, after hanging around at Erik's room for a while watching a boxing competition (I fail to find the joy in boxing)

Friday, 30/09/2005
We woke up pretty early this morning since our flight is at 8.35am. Got to the airport at around 7 something. While checking in, Elaine sortof got her names mixed up or something and Anna had to check her plastic knives and other weapons in with her luggage. (What is it with plastic knives????) Other then that, it was a safe trip home. Now, all I need to do is train harder for next year's games which I hope to do better next time round. =)

New Zealand and Adelaide Holiday Trip

2005-09-24T16:55:00.000+10:00

New Zealand

Me and my family went for a trip to NZ just before the school holidays on the 16th of September (coincidentally also my sister's birthday). We arrived at about 9pm NZ time and got to the homestay at about 10 pm. We had dinner and went straight to bed.

Next morning dad got a rental and took us to some interesting places like one tree hill (not that American movie). We also went around Auckland city (its around the size of Adelaide. Not much to see.) And it rained the whole day, I got pretty wet by the time we went home.

Next day, we got up early and started off for Rotorua. We bypassed Hamilton and got to the gloworm caves (I fail to recall what the places name is). NZ country really is beautiful and scenic. It didin't matter much that it rained though. The gloworm caves were fantastic. I was really disappointed that we couldn't get on the boat ride due to the cave being flooded by rainwater (Damn the rain!!!) but I still got to see some gloworms even though not as much as I'd like to. They were pretty amazing!
After that we drove around a lot as it was raining really heavily and nobody wanted to get down much except for a few stops where we got down for some really good pictures. Arrived at Rotorua in good time and well before dark but all of us were pretty tired and went straight to Motors Lodge (a motel we booked beforehand) It was pretty cool cept I forgot my swimmers. Darn it. Could've gone swimming but then, it was really cold so maybe I didin't miss out much.

On Monday, we went around Rotorua. Firstly, we got to the CBD and bought souvenirs for friends and family back home. Not that cheap though and since I don't have money (I forgot to withdraw and exchange AUS$. Stupid huh?) I got pretty bored. After that we went to this park in the middle of the city which was really beautiful but boy did it stink rotten!! Okay, so that was the sulphur but it really stank. Took a few photos before the rain started to fall again. God, aren't we 'lucky'.

Next was the buried village at Mount Tarawee (or something like that. I can't remember the exact name). It was okay I guess but the part that I loved was the detour to the waterfall. It had a pretty steep descend and climb so I'm grateful papa didin't come coz he sure wouldn't be able to make it! The waterfall was stunning and we took loads of photos before rushing back to the entrance. It took a lot of work climbing the steep stairs and I'm thanking Kendo for the little stamina I had in my legs. =P

After that, we went to play some games. We got on a cable ride that brought us to the place where the luge ride was. Had 8 rides to share between the three of us so had to make it count. We had to wear helmets for the ride and I wasn't too happy about it. It stank real bad and reminded me of the smell of someone's bogu which made me think about kendo which then made me feel guilty on skipping training the week before unigames. Oh well, can't do anything about it. Bro and me first went on a scenic 1 KM ride down the hill. Yeah well, 'scenic'. It would probably be scenic if I wasn't concentrating so hard on trying to get the corners right. Nearly fell of my luge when bro passing me at a corner. Was trying to cover my frozen fingers, steering the luge and looking back at the same time didin't do my driving skills any good. Anyways, by the time the ride was over, I had no feeling in my ringers and my bum was completely frozen. (It was raining and to top it off, I was going down the hill at full speed). We were really wet by the time we got back up the cable to go for another round. Sis came with us after that and I had to look after her just to make sure she doesn't fall off or anything. I lost her after about 3 minutes. She was just too SLOW. Bro ended up looking after her. hehehe...I'm not a very good big sister..=P

Anyways, after having tons of fun freezing my butt and fingers off, we headed to agrofarm where they had the rides reatured on the amazing race. It was freaking expensive and to top it off the rain didin't help either so we just looked around, took a few photos and went back to the hotel where I had a lovely hot shower and dinner.

Next day, we set out for Auckland and stopped by at a number of stops such as the honey factory and Kiwi 360. We also stopped at Matamata just to see whether we could go see the LOTR location scenes but it was not worht it. Hamilton was next and we spent about 1 1/2 hours looking at the Hamilton Gardens. The guide there told us a tornado went through the gardens during the weekend which didin't do them any good and uprooted quite a number of trees. Still, it was a really nice garden and lovely oriental and Asian feature gardens as well. We arrived at Auckland in nice time.

We went to bed straight after dinner as our flight was at 6am the next day. Had to wake up pretty early for the ride to the airport, about 3am so I didin't get much sleep.

Adelaide
Well, Adelaide was pretty interesting for me. I like old Victorian architectures so Adelaide sort of appealed to me. Plus, its not a big town which kinda reminds me of Alor Setar. Food is not too bad either. We visited the chocolate factory only to be told that the tours are full. DAMN! I really like chocolate and was looking forward to it. Also visited port Adelaide which is a nice port but we didin't stay long. Anyhow, I can't say much about Adelaide cept I prefer it to Melbourne or Brisbane. There may not be much to do but I like the surroundings. Melbourne is just too..erm...crowded for me. =P

Anyways, that's about it I guess. I can't remember much but Nizam should have a full recollection. He's got a bigger brain than I do. =P

Monday nite Footwork

2005-09-13T08:47:00.000+10:00

Yesterday's training was awesome!! I don't know how many haya suburi we did but I sortof bludged on it coz feeling a bit out after 1 1/2 hours of squash before that. Thank goodness I decided to check my watch. We'd have gone on for another 1/2 hour if I hadn't. And probably miss the first section of the class...wakaka.. Lol. Funny how time fly s when your having that much fun!! =P

Anyways, Sano sensei came real early during haya suburi. He doesn't usually come that early. Didin't do my bludging any good though. I always get stressed when he assesses the class for mistakes which inevitably lead to more hayasuburi anyway~waa~.

Okay, besides that, the focus of that training was footwork. We did footwork diagonally, backwards, side to side (made me chuckle to see them do it the first time when I was motodachi. It looked like a random waltz movement from Symphony no. 5 or something...possibly Blue Denube..either way, it sure was funny!!wakaka). Next, we did hiki men and normal men. After a few bouts of that, we put on our men and did more men cuts on each other after kirikaeshi. I sortof tried to not shuffle my feet and the times I didin't shuffle, my posture was like waaaaaaaaaay off. I sometimes don't realise it but I guess I have to improve on it more. I wanted to go for Saturday training but I guess that's not going to happen too soon.

Jigeiko. Played Sussan, Yoshiki and Dino -in that order- . Wanted to play sensei but too many people were queuing up for him *sob*sob*...Anyways, jigeiko with Sussan was really interesting. I tried all sorts of variations in faking (aaahh...looooove faking..Lol), tried to do harai/suriage but it didin't work. Sussan had her kamae quite strong. So, after about an eternity playing with her, she let me get an ippon in. (Lol, it wasn't an ippon but we could've gone forever)

Yoshiki's was interesting. I kept reminding myself not to go backwards and instead try to go for a cut. There was just ONE time when I nearly made it through. Unfortunately I was too surprised to have zanshin. WHO wouldn't be?? (Or maybe he let me through.....hmm..) Anyways, tried to do seme but was too stressed out. My blood pressure probably sky rocketed. It takes me a while to get comfortable playing with any kendoka that I know is REALLY good. My brain tends to try to think of EVERYTHING!! (I still get High blood pressure doing jigeiko with sensei) I wonder if this is just a phase everybody goes through or is it just me??But anyway, he pointed out that I don't have zanshin when executing a cut. Also showed how to go around a strong kamae. Apparently if we push it either way, they will push it back over centre and then debana kote! I've seen that before but somehow I couldn't remember that move during jigeiko. Ergh, looks like my brain ISN't thinking of everything. I think there are other waza's stored at the back of my brain that I haven't looked into yet. Thus, the idea of a kendo journal (I write sometimes when some thing knew comes up!). But I'm a lazy writer as proven by my laziness to write this journal, and I always go off course....as I am doing now..=P

Jigeiko with a tall person used to freak me out but now it doesn't anymore. That'll be a step forward eh?Now I mostly think how to get his/her men but end up going for kote or do. I've realised these pass few weeks I've been practising my kaeshi-do and nuki-do a lot and found them to be useful. I've observed that most people are very protective of kote and men but not so with their do which almost always opens when they go for men. So I try to go for that, especially playing very tall people (their do's are very accesible for me..kekeke). Anyways, that's exactly what I tried to do during jigeiko with Dino....cept after the first few times he started getting protective of it. Hey, now I get it, don't repeat!!!arr.yea...I tend to do that a lot. Then I started to do DO cuts but then my tsuba would hit me after that (due to the shinai swinging backwards)after bout 3-4 times, I now officially have a bruise on my left arm..heh..from my own doing. Geez, is this karma??=P

Anyhow, all in all, it was a very good training and I've learned and got to practise my footwork again. Still, can't wait for Wednesday training. Wonder how many people will actually remember all the bokuto waza??hmm...Will update after training. So, ta-ta for now!

La'er days,

hawQ

Going Ga-Ga ober Bokuto waza~

2005-09-08T09:52:00.000+10:00

Bokuto waza. That's about all that we do on Wednesdays nowadays. Not that I'm complaining! =P. So here's a recap of what all 9 are (sorry if the terms are wrong, some of them I just made them up for my own use~ Will confirm the proper terms later. Specially tongue twister no.9..=P

Kihon men, Kote, Do, Tsuki
Kote-Men
Harai-men
Men-taiatari-hiki do
uchidachi go for men, kakarite go for do to the side.
uchidachi go for kote, kakarite suriagi men.
uchidachi start to go for a men cut, kakarite quickly do a debana kote
uchidachi go for men, kakarite block then go for do. Similar to 5 just with an addition of the block.
uchidachi go for do, kakarite step to side, hit it out of the way then go for men.

Ta-da...and we're done for now. I hope I can remember the sequence. I'll write up all the terms later when I get it confirmed. So ciao for now!

La'er days,

hawQ

Founder's Cup Weekend

2005-08-15T09:49:00.000+10:00

Saturday Grading

William gave Elaine, Fahamy and me a lift on Saturday to Hornsby, supposedly to start at 7am. But being me, I woke up pretty late and being in that lovely hot shower at 6 am didin't make me any faster either. So, as usual being late me, I ended up arriving at Maccers around 7.15 am. Not that it mattered much coz they were all eating breakfast. So we ended up going at about 7.40-ish. Funny thing is though, we arrived at Hornsby REALLY early, about 8.10am. Probably due to the lack of traffic on a Saturday morning eh?

Anyways, we had practise for kyu grading in the morning and since I was going to go for go-kyu I went for Shoko Bunder's training session which was pretty cool coz I had tons of energy that day for goodness knows why. But I didin't feel like bouncing around like Sussan, just felt really cold and neglected (okay..so maybe not so pitiful). Thank god I was wearing shoes and socks. It really helps as the concrete floor was freaking cold~not nice. So, we did kihon-men, kote, do, kote-men, ya know, the basic stuff that we do. Then a bit of footwork and rest. Afterwards, we had a bit of kirikaeshi, a bit of kihonz with the potential 4-2 kyu-ers, Cecilija being my motodachi. Then, we had a choice of jigeiko or do more kihon cuts which shoko. I chose to practise my kihon though. Being on public display never seems to be my strong point (that solo was a fluke okay?plus, it was a concert, NOT grading~so nobody is scrutinising my every move).

Lunch was korean food I think (or was it Japanese??I'd never know) but I had vegetarian. THANK GOD for these considerate people!=)..Anyways, I felt really full up after lunch and just felt like sleeping rather then going for grading. Unfortunately, going for the lower grades means that we had to grade first so voila, 5 minutes after that I already in line for the garading.

There seem to be a large amount of people going for 6th kyu this time, around 41?That's a lot!!I wonder how many will be left going for 5th Kyu. I was given the number 5-2, (thanks pa!Your name really came in handy~)Anyways, there was this cute lil' kid in 5-1 which I would know later would be of great disadvantage to me having NEVER played with a kid before. First up we did kihon men, kote, do, and footwork (can't remember if we did kote-men). Then after all that we had to come back and do kirikaeshi!!!And I was paired up with the 5-1 kid (he was a sweet lil' thing, bout half my size). GREAT. Besides being right in front of the judges desk screaming my lungs out (I DO NOT do this often. Only when the need is too great), the kid was flinching everytime I struck him with a men cut. Now what the heck am I supposed to do?I don't wanna be a big bully (I've abandoned that job a long time ago) so I sortof didin't go all the way with kirikaeshi which I think was a shame but nevertheless, the kid's cute!=P...

So, at the end of the day, I achieved what I came to do, got a 5th kyu which is pretty good considering the effort I put in. Mandy jumped to Nikyu while Dino got his Ikkyu which is really good! Cecilija got her sankyu despite her broken toe (I'd give her all the fighting spirit awards we had. She's a fighter!!). We had dinner afterwards at a Korean restaurant (I'm not a big fan of Korean food but I was VERY hungry so I pretty much finished most of the food around my place..)Headed home quite early but I arrived around 10.30pm. Dad was fuming by then so I went straight to bed as I don't want the volcano to erupt before Founder's Cup tomorow. *insert sly smile here*

Sunday Founders Cup

Ah yes, Founder's Cup. My first Founder's Cup and I hope not my last. Apparently we're hosting next year so it'll be a pretty busy year for us all. Anyways, back to the present. First up, we had seminar with Master Choi in the morning. There were a few things he imparted on us which I found very enlightening: Footwork is VERY important. Everywhere you go, you must have good footwork in order to enable the next strike. Even after the cut or when doing zanshin. Okay, I know that sensei has alwez expressed that footwork is important but I've never seen it this way. I have always thought footwork was in order to look good during zanshin (WHICH, now I come to think of it, varies with every person)

So we had lunch (the same as yesterday) and I got called down after lunch for height comparison. (I know I'm short. There's no need to drill that home~) Apparently its for Kyu kata (I think Dino and Jackson couldn't get over that laughing thing they've got when around each other. Come to think of it, they're always laughing). In the end, Yoshiki and I did kata for kyu. Heh, way to go. Tell me 15 minutes before the competition starts. Nice. I would'nt say there's much pressure, just that I'd like to have practise a bit longer to have more confidence. But anyhow, I gave it my best shot and still lost. (What the hell is wrong with me???Anything I enter, I alwayz lose) What the heck, I gave it my best anyway but I'm not experienced enough to have that connection thingy going on. Besides I've almost never done kata with Yoshiki. A few hundred times with Cecilija. But anyways, what's done is done. So next thing-womens team.

OK. Last nite I was under pressure because I was the first, senpo (I'm never good at being first), then this morning I got to be third (taisho) Yay, I thought, until reality got to me that the best players are usually third. YEAH RITE, give me all the dan players but then I thought, if I wasn't going to be able to score anything anyway, why not make life hard for them?And try get some cuts in during the process. *insert very evil laughter here*. Anyways, I got to play a Korean taisho which had a very boistrous kiai. Gave her hansouku after hajime (ok fine, that was intentional. Had to get the spirit going rite?Especially since I already know we lost.)I think she was trying to intimidate me with kiai. But I'm not afraid of kiai- anybody's for that matter, for some freaky reason. I'm more afraid of body size (got hansouku 3 times with a girl twice my size. Ploughed me all the way and lost me my point. Grrrrr). Anyways, I think 80% of the match was in tsubezeriai which is okay with me. As long as she's not going for a cut while I'm trying to think what to do next. Heh. Pretty lame excuse but then I've only done this for a year. Not enough experience lah!Then she got a point in. Urgh, now I knew I had to get a point back or at least not let her get one. Grrrr. I didin't even see it coming. But anyways, after I've seen the video, maybe I'll know better next time.

Okay, so overall I'd say UNSW didin't do so well. We got 2nd for Dan kata nad 2nd for Kyu team. Congratulations to them! Yoshiki got a fighting spirit award (which-mind you-is even bigger then the medal. But then again, he didin't get to keep it..kehkehkeh)Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Am late for class as usual. Till then. Bye!

-Nurlin-

First Willoughby Training

2005-07-11T11:51:00.000+10:00

Had me first training at Willoughby on Saturday (yeah..took me this long to write about it). Spent a few good hours on the comp. on Friday afternoon in order to get the info on how to actually get there. Seems like I'd have to get the 8am bus (L94) to Wynyard before getting the 208 at 8.50am to Willoughby community centre. It was all good. Quite an adventure (Cecilija and me haven't the slightest idea where to get off...good thing the bus driver was so nice! =P)Neways, we arrived REALLY early at the community centre. My guess is around 9.20 or so. Too early. Next time I'll get the later bus. Then maybe I could sleep more. hehe..

Since it was my first training, I dressed up as quickly as I could. DOn't wanna miss anything now would we?hehe. We did a jogeburi, nanaburi, men in maia, ato, migi and hidari (never did that one before. Took some time to get used to), sayu-men and some sayu-men to the sides. Err..don't ask how many we did. I never counted. Which was probably the only thing that kept me going last week when we reportedly did hundreds of suburi. I was actually wondering why it took so long!=PAnyways, back to the topic, we didin't do haya suburi on Saturdays (was pining for that..huhu) but instead went to a bit of waza's (nidan-waza and sandan-waza). Also how to make an opening to cut during subazeriai(my sp is terrible and I'm not sure whether thats the right term). More like, push right-kote, push upwards- do, push downwards-men (didin't work for me..maybe I'm doing it all wronglike). Anyways, then we straightaway did jigeiko. erm. there was like an hour to go!!But then it was all good. Played Aaron, Sensei, Yoshi, Bober, Douglas (I think), Payne Sensei and waited for something like eternity but couldn't find time to do another with somebody else. That'll be next week! =P Copped a few hard men cuts to the head that left me dizzy for the rest of the day. Had to go home quickly after that. Told mum that I was sleepy (yeah right~) but when I woke up again, it hurt even more!!urgh..Woke up the next day to find a big bruise on my head right in the middle. God that was a really good men cut!!! =)

Finito~

2005-06-30T17:33:00.000+10:00

Heyyaz!

I've finally finished my xms..yippe!!!LOL

STATE COMPETITION
Smlm kan state comp. Hari nih ingatkan ada gak orang nak hantar msg. Sorang pon tarak. Nih mula nak berasa tak sedap hati jek. Dah tuh kol 12 cam tuh zul tepon ckp kolej menang. Sakit hati giler~heh..cam aku lak yg pi comp. Lepaih² tuh aku pon teros tepon Iylia nak dapatkan confirmation. Mustila, mane leh caye kot² la dia tipoo aku. Iylia pon konferm la...sedey gile aku tadi...camne la depa leh menang?????nampak sangat judges bias!!!syial giler ah...argh..walaucamanepon kolej kena bagi performance yg baik untuk nationals. Bawak nama kedah tuh..kenala perform sebaik yg mungkin. Takkan kita nak bagi skola *ahem* menang kot kan?malu lar kita orang utara???haha..ok...dah²..aku takmo ckp byk² dah...

KENDO
Argh...My kote went missing. On the first nite I left my bogu bag in the storeroom it went missing. Great. Just Great. Sussan's kote din fit me coz its too small. Can't imagine how she can wear that. No wonder she's got bruises all over her arm~I want my kote!!!! and I WANT IT NOW!!!It's nicer then most of the kote's in the storeroom anyway. Wait'll I get my hands on whoever took it (if anybody took it). argh!!!! Neways..I think I'll go and search for it again in the storeroom. Might be able to find some that I could wear eh??Today's Thursday so I have to find a pair to wear or it's just watching from the sidelines for me. But maybe this is a blessing in disguise..I mean..like..ever since I haven't got my Men on, I find that I could concentrate more rather then trying for dear life to look through the steel bars. I'm very shortsighted and these contacts aren't helping my eyesight. Ok. Yesterday we did a kata sorta performance and guess who got picked first again?yurp!!moi!!haha..I always seem to be there..huhu..neways, after a few weeks of not practising kata properly, I found myself to be very rusty. especially since I have to initiate every move. It's frustrating as well!!!Neways, think I'll be going now. I wanna get some time and try to find a pair to wear later. Ciaoz!!

Yours truly,

Nurlin

A Real Life Story

2005-06-18T12:05:00.000+10:00

I found the link to this story in a thread at KendoWorld Forums. Enjoy!

"I can carry my memory back to the days when all samurai wore the two swords and used them as well when necessity arose. When quite a boy I accidentally witnessed an exciting duel to the death between a ronin [an unattached samurai] and three samurai. The struggle took place in the Kojimachi ward, in the neighbourhood of Kudan, where the Shokonsha now stands. Before proceeding with my narrative I ought to explain for the benefit of my foreign listeners [there were two of us present besides another Japanese gentleman] the usage that was commonly observed by the two-sworded men of the old feudal days, in order that the incident I am about to describe may be better understood. The sword of the samurai, as you know, was a possession valued higher than life itself, and if you touched a samurai's sword you touched his dignity. It was deemed an act of unpardonable rudeness in those days for one samurai to allow the tip of his scabbard to come into contact with the scabbard of another samurai as the men passed each other in the street; such an act was styled saya-ate {saya = scabbard, ate = to strike against}, and in the absence of a prompt apology from the offender a fight almost always ensued. The samurai carried two swords, the long and the short, which were thrust into the obi, or sash, on the left-hand side, in such a manner that the sheath of the longer weapon stuck out behind the owner's back. This being the case, it frequently happened, especially in a crowd, that two scabbards would touch each other without deliberate intent on either side, although samurai who were not looking for trouble of this kind always took the precaution to hold the swords with the point downward and as close to their sides as possible. But should a collision of this description occur, the parties could on no account allow it to pass unnoticed. One or both would at once demand satisfaction, and the challenge was rarely refused. The high sense of honour which prevailed among men of this class forbade them to shrink from the consequences of such an encounter.
So much by way of introduction. The episode I am going to describe arose in precisely this fashion. The parties to the duel were a ronin and three samurai, as I have already said. The ronin was rather shabbily dressed, and was evidently very poor. The sheath of his long sword was covered with cracks where the lacquer had been worn away through long use. He was a man of middle age. The three samurai were all stalwart men, and appeared to be under the influence of sake. They were the challengers. At first the ronin apologized, but the samurai insisted on a duel, and the ronin eventually accepted the challenge. By this time a large crowd had gathered, among which were many samurai, none of whom, however, ventured to interfere.
In accordance with custom, the combatants exchanged names and swords were unsheathed, the three samurai on one side facing their solitary opponent, with whom the sympathies of the onlookers evidently lay. The keen blades of the duelists glittered in the sun. The ronin, seemingly as calm as though engaged merely in a friendly fencing bout, advanced steadily with the point of his weapon directed against the samurai in the centre of the trio, and apparently indifferent to an attack on either flank. The samurai in the middle gave ground inch by inch and the ronin as surely stepped forward. Then the right-hand samurai, who thought he saw an opening, rushed to the attack, but the ronin, who had clearly anticipated this move, parried and with lightning rapidity cut his enemy down with a mortal blow. The left-hand samurai came on in his turn, but was treated in similar fashion, a single stroke felling him' to the ground bathed in blood. All this took almost less time than it takes to tell. The samurai in the centre, seeing the fate of his comrades, thought better of his first intention and took to his heels. The victorious ronin wiped his blood-stained sword in the coolest manner imaginable and returned it to its sheath. His feat was loudly applauded by the other samurai who had witnessed it. The ronin then repaired to the neighbouring magistrate's office to report the occurrence, as the law required."

This anecdote was recorded by western judo pioneer E. J. Harrison in his book The Fighting Spirit of Japan, published in 1913. The speaker is Sakujiro Yokoyama (pictured above), one of the greatest judoka from the founding days of Kodokan Judo. This is a fascinating eye witness account to an actual duel of samurai.

Thursday nite training

2005-06-10T11:19:00.000+10:00

We had 2 visitors today at training and they were women!!!Argh..it's so hard to get to do jigeiko with them, someone else alwez takes them up just when I finish. Wonder if they'll come next training eh?=/...Neways, we did kote-hiki-men (I think thats the right terminology) which was easier then the block-men-do cuts we did last week (no I can't remember the term, I'm hopeless at this which is maybe why my japanese suck as well..heh). It was pretty confusing at first coz I was trying to apply the timing we were practising on Wednesday and Monday. My timing has been incorrect ever since I started doing kendo but I've only realised it the past week when sensei told me. Argh...time to go back to basics again. I've got a good mind to skip Thursday advance classes and stick to the basics on Wednesday and Monday..hey..I think I'll do that..maybe I can start over again and try to correct my timing, cuts and kamae all of which are starting to go downhill lately. Or....maybe its because of my finals coming around the corner??Argh..too much on my mind now.

On another note, I've noticed that my enthusiasm for kendo has been going downhill..the spirit just isn't there at the beginning of the class but by the end I'll be like..'Let's do that again!!' while everybody else wants to drop dead. Am I just a lazy kendoka or just a late bloomer???huhu...It does annoy me coz I want to get as much out of training as I possibly can but sometimes the beginning just doesn't appeal to me. I've got to do something about it..mayve skip a few lessons or something. Never skip a lesson on purpose though...ergh..I like kendo..there's just too many things on da mind at da momento. Might chill off a bit later..

Kayz...gtg..xm's around the corner..no..make that next week...Accounting~blwek!..CIAOZ!

B-HAWQ

Monday Nite Training- 6/6/05

2005-06-07T11:35:00.000+10:00

ARGH...we did men cuts today concentrating on footwork and timing of the cuts. Needless to say, I SUCK big time. Didin't even realise that I've been doing the wrong thing all this while. Few things that need to be reminded for next training:-

Must bring Tenegui. Using a friends is never the same.
Try not to sound surprised when sensei lets me get the men (Was it that obvious???)
Don't stress when jigeiko-ing with sensei (that obvious???=/)
TIMING, TIMING, TIMING, TIMING......
Just do it~~
Don't start bouncing all over the place
Turn quicker and cleaner
ZANSHIN!!!
Practise a few waza's in jigeiko.
Must not start laughing during jigeiko. esp. against the other girls. Not disrespect, just funny~(they do it tooo!!)

Hmm...the 10 things I noted during yesterday's training...Will remember the next time...It's getting harder on me heel tho. I think I've been doing the fumikomi all wrong. Argh..everything is wrong with me...It's alwez wrong when I dun bring my lucky tenegui...huhu..why do I feel so faint yesterday??was it because of that muffin I ate before training?..hmm..could be..but I was feeling pretty hungry..and I hate training with a growling stomach.urgh..imagine trying to hit men with ur tummy kiai-ing with u..argh..not good..

Ok lah donk..gtg and start studying..Dunno why I keep putting it off..Really have to start. Haven't started a bloody thing yet..so..ciaoz for now!

-BHAWQ-

Friday, week 13

2005-06-03T17:10:00.000+10:00

Wazzap y'all?Argh..the last time I posted was like..erm..week 2??and now its already week 13 and I'm StReSSING out for the finals..okay..just stressing out in da head. Haven't actually done any SOLID revision yet. Make that not TOUCHED the books yet. OK. I'm in big trouble..but then..WHO CARE's??yet~haha..ok..enough of me rambling bout me studies.

KENDO WAS AWESOME last nite!!!We did the do-thingy waza..(argh...I sooo hafta learn up those terms..the only thing stuck in this head of mine is kirikaish, chodan no kamae, jodan..I think thats about it..the rest are just ~thingys to me..huhu) Neways..I found that hitting do wouldn't be so hard if the person cutting men isn't so close..it doesn't make the do cut good..I wonder if I stepped back a lil'...would it work??aargh..another question for sano sensei on monday!(with hopes I dun forget by then) Neways..had totally mindboggling lovely uchikomi geiko. Not that I did it properly though. I think my form was like blwek and I think I kept leaning forward for kote which I absent mindedly alwez do. ARGH...can't get out of da habit. Neways, during the first uchikomi geiko, I sorta fell..ahaks..embarrasing~~~urgh..and me bum still hurts...all that fat for nuthin' geez...neways, then did some more. I sorta found that the shinai gets heavier when u start trying to hit hard and fast at the same time. Anna makes it look so light! She wez flying away at sensei!!It was awesome! plus we get to cheer as well..hey..I like cheering!haha..that's the most fun part of any sport!Neways, I figured I've got lots more to improve..soooo much more! there were some waza's that we did last week I think, that involved hitting the shinai outta da way (no..I dun know wut the term is..so much for studying Jap)..I so couldn't do it..once I hit it, it just kept going allthe way to the right then forgetting to come back to cut men. It's so retarded and since I've got patience levels below zero, it doesn't help either. ergh. Will Vow To Practise More and keep my rage at bay - yes I get angry often..but nobody knows coz kiai alwez covers it..kekeke-

KaYz..I soo gotta go..supposed to be D/L me tutes Q's and solutions. Will be back soon ~I hope..hehe~ till then...PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

Mabel's B'day n Nittagai goodwill keiko

2005-03-12T21:26:00.000+11:00

MABEL'S B'DAY

hehehe...I actually dunno wut to tell at first...mabel's b'day or the goodwill keiko..but then..decided to tell both coz both rock!!hahaha...okok..neways...mabel's bday was really cool...I think it's cool anyway..we had lunch at little snail restaurant where mabel, not surprisingly, ordered snails for entree..(gee..brings back all those memories of squashed snails...ewwwwwww)...neways...We were really loud i think...but it was good...we had the most cutest waiter waiting on us and then we find out that he' s gay...so THAT"S where all the cute guys go...to guys!!!argh!!...huhu..neways...after lunch..(we had a very long lunch no thanks to Dennis who came late...) we went for karaoke at karaoke world..it was pretty awesome except for the fact that it was only 2 hours and everybody was trying to hog the microphone..hehehe...ronnie had a really nice voice and I rendered out some scratchy tunes of five, SO7 and maroon5...(wussap wif all the fives anyway???)..but alls well ends well..so in no time we had to go home..of course I had to go home..I had to study coz I'd be pretty busy the next day as well...which kinda sux...

Goodwill keiko
okay...for those of you who have no idea wut keiko is...lemme say that it's basically just a joint training between Sydney kendo club members and a Japanese troop from Nittadai Sports university...we had jigeiko and shiai..and some pretty interesting new warmups..neways...first up..we had the shiai..so...there was supposed to be teams of 5..a womens team, 2 dan team's and a kyu team...I unfortunately was seated at the front of the dojo and so was facing the behind of the head judge...it pretty much blocked my view...so after two rounds of trying to look at the players..I ditched my men and went over to cecilija who had a bird's eye view of everything...needless to say..I could've sworn I had memorised the writings at the back of head judge's hakama..it was the only thing that was in front of my face the whole two rounds...huhu...but that was cool...coz he was the only japanese player that I actually recognize..no..make that the only hakama worn that I recognise...hahaah...this is so bad...(for those who have no idea wut hakama is...its the pant's that we wear for training..we usually have our names printed at the back..but since i dun read jap characters YET...i have no idea wut the guy's name is..so ...sorry girls...can't help u out there!!! =P)...
now...jigeiko was interesting...(this is the part where I could actually take part in).. I played against a sydney player who i must say is pretty good!..I can't really avoid most of her cuts..and another two japanese girls who were very friendly despite the fact that there was a communication breakdown...the first one hit me on the do (waist) right after sonkyu (how to spell that???)..was taken quite by surprise...she did lots of cool trix which tired my arms out..geez..but it was good coz I copied wut she did and scored a MEN!!!hahaha..so proud of meself..but I think she just let me get that men (head)...huhu..neways...i think her name was umi (for englis ppl...in malay it means mummy...which is pretty cute i think~~)neways..dat's all i guess...went home with CC..huhu...soo tired..lazy to write..going..going...gone~~

-nuRLin-

week 2-day 4

2005-03-11T11:02:00.000+11:00

wahahaha...last day of uni for the 2nd week...i'm sooo excited!!! (yeah rite~)hmm...had another jap tute in the morning to compensate for the one hour that i missed..not surprisingly was late for class again...9 am classes never go well with me..anywez...had lunch with mabel, and another lecture at 2...DAMN that was boring...i nearly dozed off..but we got off 1/2 hour early so that was okay...neways...went home, blablabla...then it was time for kendo!..hahaha...i was expecting more starfish and that robot thingy again...was fun!!(okayler..its just a warmup)..after changing i came up and who was there to greet me? the great Li Fei!!(a.k.a. vera)eheh...she was supposed to come and pick up her book I borrowed from her but I think she's got other agendas in mind...*wink*...neways, i think she got bored just from warmups..i dun blame her..i'd feel the same way too if i wasn't doing it myself..i had my boardies on so my movement was kindof restricted...no more freedom kendo for me from now on!!I prefer to feel safe with boardies on just in case my hakama slips down too far...my gi isn't that long enough. eheh..aler...gtg argh...got miz tingz b'day to attend..i wonder where the present is~~

-nuRLin-

day 3 - week 2

2005-03-09T22:44:00.000+11:00

konbanwa!!! (its nitetime now)

I had my first jap tute at 2. Found that jap culture is really interesting. Apparently the more words u add to the phrase, the more polite u become!!How kewl is dat???Awatla melayu x cam tuh???kan senang idop aku??neways, after a lot of bowing and introducing ourselves, we finally came to the end of the lesson. Apparently I had another jap tute after that. YURP! 4 hours of straight jap. Dont get me wrong..I'm no jap freak or maniac or wutever. It's just that my lecturer in charge is such a genius and put me in two jap tutes one after the other IN THE SAME ROOM!!!nice?no no no...not nice at all. Anyway, the second tutor was a native while the first was an Aussie ( He looked like someone out of mardi gras. SERIOUSLY!! but he's an awesome teacher!)Anyway, she started introducing herself using the phrases we learnt earlier and I found myself just staring blankly at her. Apparently I was supposed to have understood wut she said but the only thing i got was doozo yoroshiku which I'm not even going to bother to translate. (ok ok.. I have no idea wut it means). I went off scot free after an hour coz I had a lecture to go to. yea...5 hours of nonstop learning...I nearly slept during legal lecture. Dont get me wrong, the lecturer was really..erm...interesting..but the subject is like soo old skool for me. Anyway, after that I had to rush to training. Those extra haia-suburi that aaron keeps for late comers keep coming back to haunt me. Ok Okay, its not that scary, in fact thats not scary at all. But a few less haia-suburi would go a long way for me. So, with that in mind, I practically flew down to unigym (i was at matthews before). Wednesdays are okay i guess..not much..neways..i gtg now...so..till next time..ciaoz!!

-nurlin-

first monday of week 2

2005-03-09T11:54:00.000+11:00

DOWH!!!..huhu...I woke up in the morning with an extremely red nose..yup!!..the flu again...this sucks..really...i think it must be the sweater that i havent washed for 2 months...must be it..well..it was just sitting there. I might as well just wear it. Not to mention that the temperature was way too low for my comfort. (okay okay...22 degrees is not supposed to be cold..but why am I freezing my @ss off???)Had training that nite. I remember clearly not wanting to put my bogu on. But then I'd hate to answer questions that would follow..even more so when I din feel like talking much. Swallowed a few pills before going to uni. Was hoping that it would help the cold..WHICH IT DID NOT!!no thank you!..anyways..so in the end I put my bogu ,which I left after thursday training, on. OH MY GOD!!! THE STENCH!!! I cant really say that its my smell..i know i alwez stink..but this beats it..but anyway..all I could do was wrinkly up my nose and bear with it. AHHH...one thing I discovered that nite..I have uncovered a liking for kote (pikiaq straight na!). Men seems so far away while kote..hehhehheh...so close and reacheble..not that I like to hurt other ppl..but I experimented and found that I could get a few cuts in. WHICH made my spirits soar sky high!!then...I crazily wanted to do jigeiko after 9..which i was planning to skip earlier..but..I felt like I wanted to experiment more..the person I chose was cecilija..SORI CC!!!huhu..i hope i din hurt her too much...not that I could do much damage anyway..hehe..ah..i played with anna after that..she gave me many good pointers which I must really remember..(I'm very forgetful incase u dont know)..THNX ANNA!!!neways...i think thats it for today...I've got training again tonite..so..probably rite bout it tomorow then..ciaoz!!

-nuRLin-

b0r3d0m

2005-01-03T11:41:00.000+11:00

hmm..yesterday sent Amirah back to Malaysia...damn boring after she left..not much to do than clear my room tho...haha...New Years Resolution?...do nothing...not much of a new year fer me..slept thru the WHOLE fireworks display..haha..ironic...slept in front of the teevee actually...got another 2 months of hols....no..make that 1 and half months...got geneds to do during summer...geez...wonder if nizam wants to go surfing later...hmm..better ask 'im...ciaoz then!!