All in a Day's Work

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Joined Sharon in the afternoon to catch the Tae Kwan Do Black Belt grading at Toa Payoh Indoor Stadium.

Before that, though, we had a little feast. :D At Fiesta Japanese Restaurant.

We had a breaded pork set lunch, complete with Miso Soup. sliced watermelon and a salad. Coupled with Simmering hot Green Tea (Free flow! Yup, a great value at 80 cents). But we splurged haplessly on the sushi on the conveyor belt to the tune of six whole plates (And Sharon attributes this to the evil tactic employed by Fiesta to prop up customer consumption.)

Anyway, we were so stuffed, we had to pack the late-meal order of two seaweed wraps to take away.

Off we went to view the Tae Kwan Do grading.

My first impression of the grading was "PWOAH!"

There were around fifty fellas taking the brown to black grading alone!

And there was a single fella taking the Dan 4 to 5 grading...

Was an eye opener to see so many Dan patterns in one day, after my retirement from the sport a decade ago.

A few things I noticed about the patterns:

3 schools have developed, namely

1) Speed
2) Strength
3) Display/ Performance

1 and 2 are traditional schools of Tae Kwan Do, but 3 is a new school that I noticed almost instantly. The practitioners are very Wayang and their strokes are both slow and robotic (Jerking, if you ask me).

There were a couple of violent sparring episodes, with a black belter ('helper') being whacked in the jaw by a testee. So much for being helpful!

And I've realized that I have to contact my previous instructor if I intend to covnert my Poom belt to black. Argh... Will need to spend more time and energy to search for him.

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We did our first Street sales today for the Youth For Causes Project at the Dhoby Ghaut area. In light of the NKF-SATA twin fiascos, I was pleasantly surprised that we did have quite a good show of volunteers and sales receipts.

*Special reminder: Bring Sharon's hairband on next meeting.

A Penny For Your Thoughts? I'll Give You My Two Cents Worth

London: Strike 2

Egypt: Strike 2

The twin terror attacks on the 'hub of the world' and the 'city of peace' has serious implications on security measures and the US-led effort on the war on Terror. It undermines the hard work of International Intelligence Agencies in addition to making a mockery of US boasts of having weakened the Al-Qaeda network's strike capabilities since the Afghan campaign forced Osama bin Laden into hiding.

Now remains the question of who will emerge victorious in the race against time to halt more mindless slaughter by minds far more cunning and resilent than previously anticipated.

I am certainly hoping Strike 3 will not happen in the next decade at least. Now, let moderate Muslims join hands with the rest of the world in the harsh condemnation of extremism and extermination of radical elements within and without. Only a united world can root out the deadly pranks conducted by a handful of vengeful militants.