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.

A small TaiChi competition

Last Sunday there was a friendly small competition organised as a practise for both contenders and judges. like a warming up for the national championships that are held in a month. it all started at 10 am in the morning. I had to rush down to the school but it turned out the times weren't that fixed. the competition was held in the other TaiCHi school in the building opposite our school.

After signing up we started with a warming up. there were lots of judges who were new and had to practise for the NK. I am a student from a school that teaches Yang Style TaiCHi the traditional way. It was intresting to see what other styles were out there and what different opinions there were regarding the differences among the styles. When i went to China I learned the Chen style that has it's own character. There are not many people practising Chen and it was clear that no one had ever seen this form. It was funny one lady was shrieking enthousiastically CHEN!

most of us started in the beginners group Yang. it is one of my not so good qualities , i get extremely nervous when i have to perform for an audience. One of the judges started to question my annoncement that i would do the yang 24 form the traditional way. That was intresting because another student had just walked the same form and then he had not noticed a thing. He claimed it wasn't traditional.NOt soon after the gong the shaking started it was so annoying. i tried to breath and keep my balance. later when i saw the video it looked better then i felt. But it wasn't like i normally walk at all. Too bad but it was a good experience. you just have to push yourself to do these things otherwise you never get over it.

after a break the advanced group started. Being advanced has nothing to do with how good you are but with the time that you have been practising TaiCHi. When it is 3 years and more you automatically become advanced.The Sihing of our school did very well. After a lunch break and a few more advanced students, it was time to show the judges the CHen Form. We walked it together but should have been judged seperately.That was not clear to all the judges. some came to tell us that we better do it apart as we were not walking in a synchronised way and have a different way of walking. but most of them got it right. There were no other people doing CHen and i think it was intresting for them to see something new. I was a little less nervous and it felt almost ,like fun.

Shyness sucks and i am trying to overcome it by forcing myself to do these things. it is nice to compete and learn from it.well the positive thing was that i did not hold my breath this time like last year...

then it was time for Tui Shou. there were only to other ladies to compete. So it was a short game. It was funny the two ladies were excact opposites one was soft but to weak and the other one was strong and tried to push hard. It was fun. I tried to stay gentle. But one of them still thought i used a lot of force. HMMMMMMM i was thinking that it is perhaps good that not everybody goes to China, this lady would be so shocked.

After a bit of fun pushing we went home. I cooked a Chinese Style dinner, and then we had ice cream with warm blueberries mmmmmm that is just the best dessert!