Wolfmoon, skating and blauwgrond

After making it to the TaiChi Class were it was almost just as cold as it is outside(there is no central heating in the building) or maybe even colder because outside there was lots of sunshine, we first went to have some lunch and then walked off to the park.

It was supposedly the last day to skate so i just had to try the ice; my friends had no skates unfortunately. A long time ago i used to do figure skating but it must have been 8 years since i last skated. Way to long. I stopped because the city council closed our beloved the ice rink and with that, our skating club went down. I was never any good anyway (should have started when i was 5) except in doing pirouettes. But man did i feel like bambi on the ice yesterday. My skates were a bit blunt and felt so strange to my feet not to mention all the stuff on the ice, little twiggs etc. Hmmmmmmmm but it was fun and after a while, it felt a bit better. Definetely have to go skating again! We drank some tea that we brought with us and then set out to practise in the music pavilion overlooking the skating people and swimming ducks.

Stretching was no good in the cold so we did some Bagua walking; we are learning the steps to another friend of the Kung Fu school who also went to China. Doing the mudwalking step is not easy and is a great excercise for your balance. You have to step a bit inwards with your outside foot and in a straight line with the foot on the inside, that way you walk in a circle. Then ofcourse there are the 8 different postures that aren' easy either. With these postures you train and stretch your body and ligaments. It is very intresting to see that when you have the correct posture you can see what you train, when you do not have the correct posture or do not keep the right shape the effort is in vain. It looks like some quiet walking with your arms up in the air but it is a serious fysical exercise ( and then we are only talking about the outside effect) , it makes you so warm (but without getting out of breath) that you just have to start taking your coat and jumper off. Even if it is freezing you dont need gloves. When you are halfway, even a t-shirt will do. It is quite amazing. When you stop you have a warm and good feeling allover. Then it is time to wrap up again. There is a circle of dirty foodsteps that you can just spot now... After that we walked through the 24 Chen form. It still gets dark very early and we did not bring our campinglight this time so after that it was time to leave. We went for a hotdrink and some soup in the Surinamese Restaurant called Blauwgrond. It is very close to the park at a roundabout. I have passed it so many times in the past always thinking it was a snackbar, take out kinda place. Only recently i discovered it is an excellent tropical style place with delicious surinamese food and an always feel good atmosphere. The prices are very decent and afforable and you get so much food that you will not need breakfast the next morning. On Sunday, there is lifemusic that makes it feel like an eternal summer. You cannot sit still even when you have no sense of rythm like me you are moving on your seat. They play some kind of i think salsa music. If you are ever anywhere near Leiden i can definetely recommend this restaurent if you like spicy food you wound be dissappointed. MMMMMMmmmmm especially the masoesa vegetarisch is supergood! Even my non-vegetarian friends love it and prefere it above meat! The restaurant is located at the Wassenaarse weg at the roundabout. It is very big and i think the outside does not do the place justice. It is absolutely one of the nicest fun places i have been to recently!

 

And then ofcourse there was the moon.



It was the Wolfmoon as native Indians call it if i am correct. Luckily, it was so cold and with the clear sky the moon was perfectly visible. It looked so enormous and bright. I took some pictures but they don't do the moon any justice. It was beautiful. I hope everybody got to see it.