中秋节快乐！

Or in other words, happy moon cake festival (mid-autumn, yeah ok) 

outrageous expensive but I love moon cakes!

And the moon is up there shining even in a little cloudy Amsterdam sky:

the moon over my home

Another good moon for others good memories…

moon and memories… all great now



On the Aikido road

Sunday morning, on the bus that was taking me to the last session of a very good Aiki-wizard Jorma Lyly seminar in Trondheim, I suddenly realized a strange fact: since I left Stavanger (April 2010) I have never attended an Aikido seminar in the same city  where I have been living at the time…

I have been on the road for a really long time (ok, mostly flying!)..

my “Lost Highway”

I AMsterdam

On the move again.. it makes me thing to my past transfers for either work reasons, studying, or just interest:

1. Biella (Italy) to Trondheim (Norway)
2. Trondheim to Oslo
3. Oslo to Stavanger
4. Stavanger to Hefei (China)
5. Hefei to Shenzhen
6. Shenzhen to Biella again, looking for a job in Germany, but it did not work out and it ended up as:
7. Biella to Utrecht (Netherlands)

..and now we got:

• (8) Utrecht to Amsterdam

…another little step, quite natural, given that most of the time I went out in the evenings it was in Amsterdam and I already practice in Aikido Amsterdam dojo!

“8” is a lucky number in China (in East Asia in general I think..) but not especially for me, since this one will not be the last move.. I can predict 2 more internal in Amsterdam, and it is the first time I move inside a city! 🙂 One is already totally organized (beginning of January), from East to De Pijp, both extremely nice areas in Amsterdam, and the second has a time label (end of April) but not yet a destination and I really hope to find a more permanent location (I’d love to stay longer in one of these 2 areas, but my hopes are not high).

I cannot make strong predictions about my future but I certainly hope and plan to spend the coming year in Amsterdam and know much better this interesting city.

For now, I’ve started my second move inside the city…

I Am(Will)sterdam… sort of! 🙂

 

What a beginning of 2016!!

Thanks to dear [Aikido] friends in Trondheim, I will teach for the first time a weekend seminar (even a paid seminar, even if the thought was scaring me..!)…

No, wait a second, it is not true!! The true part is that for the first time I will teach a weekend paid seminar, and this makes me indeed a little nervous, but in China I used to go at least once per month to Hangzhou (my dream city, the place where I should have moved to in 2013!) for weekend seminars, and quite demanding ones!!

Aikido weekend in Hangzhou

Anyway, back to Europe, in the weekend 9-10 January I will be on the mats of Trondheim Aikido dojo practicing with some local old and new Aiki-friends, warming up for hopefully a good year and a little earlier kagami biraki, 鏡開き..

Seminar in Trondheim (click for info)

Given the common background with most people in Trondheim (as written in the Norwegian poster, Endo shihan, and the Swedish Vanadis “team” Nevelius – Lyly senseis have been both for my friends up there and myself a constant inspiration and help in Aikido growth!), I will actually work more in my most recent Aikido developments, or, better said, slight change of direction: the Aikido of Irie shihan and the practice I am having in Amsterdam Aikido dojo with Tom Dijkman sensei, a good student of Yasuno shihan.

I hope we can work together and have fun with some different Aikido from what they are used to, and I also hope maybe to stimulate some interest toward different teachers that also visit Europe.. so maybe I can get some good company when travelling to their seminars! Yeah, selfish as usual!! 😉

But, the most important thing is that I hope they will be as happy as I will be to practice in Trondheim, or just to practice Aikido together!

For now, happy new year my friends! And see you soon!

PS The money is of course for the dojo or for a common use in pizza 🙂

Good luck, baby…

2 years have passed.. your new dream life has finally started.. all the choices have finally been rewarded.. all dreams coming true.. 安迪 2.0 has probably succeed in his project.. and he will be rewarded as well.. time to keep the memories of a real couple of months and forget the fake following years, stop asking myself what was the point in not being honest from the first minute, we would have both been happier.. but you are right, I will always be a big baby.. and there are no answers..

Ciao

Am I back in China?!?

This morning I was biking to the train station, quite early for me (just before 7 am) and not far from my place, just on the curb on the side of the bicycle line, there was a middle-age Chinese man doing some morning gymnastic, sort of typical morning Tai Ji forms I used to see when back in my beloved China!

Hefei

Hangzhou

Coffee memories..

Talking with a Japanese friend about morning habits I have been thrown back a long way in the past, and got a little nostalgic:

My first morning in Hefei, China.. with the Italian coffee pot and the Soputh Park coffee cup, my loyal fellow voyagers in so many places of my life..