I hate sewing!!

I have been lucky in Norway and China where I always had someone close good at sewing… because besides hating it, I suck big time at that!!

But no help anymore so today, waiting for my neighbor to unlock the building door since this morning I forgot my keys inside, I did sew my hakama, a long postponed job (that I had planned to do in the lunch break, reason why I had all the necessary with me!).

sitting outside with a needle in my hands…

Not a great job but I hope it will survive for Franck Noel sensei seminar in Stockholm.

Wonderful weather though for sitting outside.. let’s see how it will be in Sweden, but with friends and Aikido all will be perfect anyway!

another beautiful day

..now I am inside.. finishing packing then going to the airport.. Stockholm, I’m coming!! yeah 😉

Yamashima sensei: center center center!!

Really inspiring weekend in Stockholm where I met for the first time Yamashima sensei, 7.dan Aikikai: I had heard a lot about the practice with him, recommended by different teachers and aikidokas here and there. And my first impression has been extremely good, looking forward for a chance to practice with him again probably in the Netherlands later this year.

Vanadis Aikido dojo

Of course for me being in Stockholm is always special, always bring extra good feelings, it can be for Aikido or not.

Of course it is even more special when you have the chance to practice with people like Jorma Lyly, Vanadis Aikido dojo, and Peter Spangfort, Järfälla Aikidoklubb, both amazing 6.dan Aikikai, with so much to give to any partner always in an accessible and special way. And I cannot even start naming all the other wonderful people on the mats, some of them practicing Aikido for more than 50 years (one session was at Stockholm Aikikai, club founded in 1964!!).

Of course I always enjoy discovering “new” teachers (for me), after having heard much about and then having a chance to “feel first hand” (never better expression used in Aikido!).

Stockholm! Yeah!

Back on the way to Stockholm tonight, for meeting a new sensei: finally I will practice this weekend with Yamashima sensei in Sweden. This teacher have been suggested from so many other practitioners that I really look forward to this trip.

Elegant and effective Aikido, and according to several practitioners he is still the sensei closest to Yamaguchi sensei:

And from the main source, Yamaguchi sensei:

Another trip to Stockholm: memories of Aikido but also memories from another kind of visit are always coming back to me. Pleasant memories even when involving people disappeared from my life. Because at the end I had to decide what to keep in my mind and how, and fight the sadness and the demons. I decided to keep the good memories, the kind that one day in the future I might also allow myself to miss… or partly miss, because I will have soon more new memories to compare those with.. with new people and special people. They might also disappear from my life, but they will be remembered, because it sucks to have just bad memories! Too much wasted energy: better fight the pain with good thoughts!

Leave out the fights, take in the smiles!

On and off the mats, keep the good, get rid of the bad..

..that reminds me though that I still got tons of pictures to edit and post.. and now that the memories are less and less scary might be a good time to start this process!

Lillsved

Tonight I’ll fly to Stockholm to join for the first time the summer school at Lillsved, a usual event for a very big part of my “Aikido family”. I am very happy yo finally managing this seminar, even if it is the last long holiday I will be able to take this year.

No big deal, since I got no other lovers to spend time with: I can focus all my energy on my biggest, oldest and, at the present time, only love, Aikido 🙂

For sure there will be lots of tai no tenkan practice, like the previous wonderful Aikido week in Czech-Slovakia:

triple tai no tenkan in Puchov, by Jana

..and more training with another branch of Aiki-family..

This is the kind of week I need during this summer in order to properly recharge batteries and reboot my mind to collect enough energy for the coming winter.. with only the little disadvantage that, like for the previous Aiki-holiday, I get a rush of good emotions and motivations and I meet people I really would like to see more often, and then I am back home and there is a little of depression and longing..

But I know, as for the last bunch of Aiki-bros and sis’, that soon or later I will cross again their path on the tatami of some dojo around the world. This helps to fight the post-seminar depression!

Did I lose it?

Two months into 2013 and I basically did not updated the blog (or the picture for what it matters). But I do not think I lost the interest in sharing my little insignificant life with the rest of the world. I still have many meaningless thoughts that want to get out of my constricted brain and find their way to the blog-o-sphere..

I have started updating the 2012 annual wrap up that will be posted during the weekend and some more thoughts..

Because if my finger have been idle on the keyboard, the rest of me hasn’t. Not only my underused little brain of mine, but the oversized body, during February especially, has been quite stressed, but in a good way!

I spent my Chinese New Year Holidays traveling to Europe: a fast as usual visit at home for an early celebration of both my father and mother’s 70 years birthdays followed by 10 days of great Aikido in Northern Europe (weekend in Helsinki, Finland, and 1 wonderful week in Stockholm, Sweden). No time to visit my beloved Norway, but soon probably it will be possible! In Finland & Sweden I had the pleasure to see several old friends, very close ones, and even make new friends. Among the old friends, Jacqueline (Stavanger Jūshinkan Aikido) graded very well to 1.dan and also Erlend (Oslo Sentrum Aikido) graded to 2.dan. I can say more about Jacq grading only because in the uke turn I ended up with her (even if I started first as uke of Patrick from Umeå and then enjoyed also being thrown around by Sara from Berlin!) 🙂

Very active days, starting from one session in my home town at Valdengo Aikikai dojo and then continued with an average of 2 sessions per day with either Endo sensei or Lyly sensei or Nevelius sensei or some other very nice instructor! And what can I say about the training partners? Just that both my body and my mind really missed (and misses) this kind of practice. I have to complain less because here in Shenzhen at least I have joined an active club with 3 sessions per week, but the Aikido style/level is nowhere close to what I really love.. but that is life and choices, and nobody is keeping me here with a gun pointed to my head.. At least also here the people is nice..

Once back, balancing with the job and the stuff to catch up with, I still managed to put one extra seminar, still with Endo sensei, this time closer to home: still about 3.5 hours (by metro + train) but the stage was in Hong Kong, and it was nice as well to meet new Aikido people just from over the border. And at the same time seeing again Ulrich and Francois “from” Shanghai (German and French, respectively 😉 ).

For now no more seminars and some compulsory overtime in order to catch up with all the extra days taken for Aikido. Some work, some quite interesting new management stuff to learn and an idea forming in my mind about the following months.. with one big Aikido seminar already planned for the 1.May holidays.

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – I do not really know if it is the weather, my mind, bad luck or (I put here my money) the general level of stiffness in Shenzhen dojo, but when practicing up to 3 times per day in 12 days in Europe I had no joint troubles and during my first session back here in China, last Thursday, I felt some annoying pain in one knee and all the body was struggling to relax properly. And then I had to buy extra supplies of Feng You Jing and the tiger patches since I had given away all I had during my trip to Europe!

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY, 2 – Last week, the Italian political election took place and the results have been quite a shock for most of Italians. A sad and worrying shock. It leaves a quite negative environment and future prospect for Italy, whose economy is not that good already and now the country is facing a strong political uncertainty as well. Actually one party has won (not the “left”, not the “right” but the “we hate politics we are not politicians but still please elect us”) but the prospect of their intents is scary (the real ones, not the program that is actually a very.. left wing one!). Curios to see what will happen.. but stay abroad as well 😉