As you may or may not know, I started taking Tae Kwon Do (TKD) classes here about a year ago. The school I study at is and ATA and WTTU affiliated school. This means that no matter where I am in the world, as long as the tournament, or school is an ATA school, my belt stands. As of now, I have a purple belt. The progression of colors in this school is: white, orange, yellow, cammo, green, purple, blue, brown, red, red-black, black. Progression only moves slower once you are to the red belt level. Full body sparring begins only at cammo belt and at Purple belt, you begin board breaks.
I've been working on my form (a set move of techniques) and have almost got that down. I also had to add a jump roundhouse kick. (Seemed to get the grasp of this yesterday). Did some sparring with legs (no pads - which means you need to have greater control), and thought class was over. Nope, it was time for my first attempt at a board break.
I've been trying to psych myself up for this for some time and was a bit apprehensive. First I was worried I wouldn't be able to break the board and we only get 3 attempts (or you repeat your belt.) Secondly, with the break I was required to do, forearm, if you hit wrong you could break your wrist, elbow or damage the nerve we know as the funny bone. I defiantly did not want the pins and needles feeling or the blast of pain any of those would bring. My classmate did her first break (she's a red belt - had 2 breaks). First was forearm. No problems - she went right through. Her second was a jump front kick - she broke the board no issues, but also broke off a good portion of her big toenail. This is why we are told always to keep the nails trimmed! She was off to get a band aid and it was my turn.
I had about 2-3 minutes of practice. At this point you make contact with the board, but don't break it. Once I was confident with my placement, I gave the ready signal. I made my move, and "Ky-yah" right though the board. I was so giddy! He said to make sure we had some massage or something to ease the soreness that would develop. I was on such a high, I didn't notice anything until this morning. My whole right shoulder and down my arm was stiff. Oh well, small price to pay!
Imagine - what a way to take out frustrations and get exercise with out hurting anyone, but occasionally myself.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sickness in India
Being ill is not much fun. Neither is being really ill. It's even less fun when you live in the tropics.
It all started with a cold for Rich and I. Friday he said he was just worn out. So we stayed home and I worked on Sophia's cake. Saturday he seemed to be doing better. I think self medication with gimmlets helped! Then Sunday he wasn't very good at all. By Monday, he was staying in bed and there wasn't much moving him.
Sunday night - he did not sleep. His coughing kept him up and made him miserable. When he decided not to go into work and was sleeping most of the morning. I decided to call the company Dr. I gave him the symptoms (since to me, he sounded like he did when he had walking pneumonia) and the Dr. sent me a text message with the medications to get him. Also as part of the regimen here, no headbaths (don't get your head or face wet) and no cold water as this makes you sick. I went out and got the medications.
I got to the pharmacy nearest us. I had to repeat myself a couple of times and waited for them to get the requested meds. The lady came back and said, "No TusQ". No sorry or anything. I told them I required this medications and they said "I have three of the four medications you need. No TusQ." To which I replied, "so before I traipse all over this city, could you call the nearest Apollo pharmacy near her to see if they have it?" Apparently this thought never crossed their minds. After about 5 minutes of waiting. The guy comes back and says, they have in Adyar - 7 tablets. I told him I needed 10. To which he replied, "They have 7". I asked when the next shipment was coming in to this location. The answer, "Maybe 8pm tonight." (Translation - I have no idea). I get back into my car and told Senthil I needed to go to another Pharmacy. His response "Kottapuram, madame?" Yup - take me to another village. This pharmacy is connected to an Apollo clinic so it is better stocked and I got the TusQ, all 10 tablets, there.
I get home, we dose Rich and hope for the best. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep well that night either. He felt a bit better, but stayed home from work. He talked to his boss and even he said he sounded awful and to work from home.
Wednesday - he went to work and saw the Dr. out at the plant. He said he has a nasty virus as well as infection. He then added codine cough syrup to the mix. If that doesn't take care of the cough, I have no idea what will!
Here's hoping he's better for our trip to Maldives and that Sophia and I don't catch it!
It all started with a cold for Rich and I. Friday he said he was just worn out. So we stayed home and I worked on Sophia's cake. Saturday he seemed to be doing better. I think self medication with gimmlets helped! Then Sunday he wasn't very good at all. By Monday, he was staying in bed and there wasn't much moving him.
Sunday night - he did not sleep. His coughing kept him up and made him miserable. When he decided not to go into work and was sleeping most of the morning. I decided to call the company Dr. I gave him the symptoms (since to me, he sounded like he did when he had walking pneumonia) and the Dr. sent me a text message with the medications to get him. Also as part of the regimen here, no headbaths (don't get your head or face wet) and no cold water as this makes you sick. I went out and got the medications.
I got to the pharmacy nearest us. I had to repeat myself a couple of times and waited for them to get the requested meds. The lady came back and said, "No TusQ". No sorry or anything. I told them I required this medications and they said "I have three of the four medications you need. No TusQ." To which I replied, "so before I traipse all over this city, could you call the nearest Apollo pharmacy near her to see if they have it?" Apparently this thought never crossed their minds. After about 5 minutes of waiting. The guy comes back and says, they have in Adyar - 7 tablets. I told him I needed 10. To which he replied, "They have 7". I asked when the next shipment was coming in to this location. The answer, "Maybe 8pm tonight." (Translation - I have no idea). I get back into my car and told Senthil I needed to go to another Pharmacy. His response "Kottapuram, madame?" Yup - take me to another village. This pharmacy is connected to an Apollo clinic so it is better stocked and I got the TusQ, all 10 tablets, there.
I get home, we dose Rich and hope for the best. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep well that night either. He felt a bit better, but stayed home from work. He talked to his boss and even he said he sounded awful and to work from home.
Wednesday - he went to work and saw the Dr. out at the plant. He said he has a nasty virus as well as infection. He then added codine cough syrup to the mix. If that doesn't take care of the cough, I have no idea what will!
Here's hoping he's better for our trip to Maldives and that Sophia and I don't catch it!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sophia's 3rd Birthday Party
Hello! Sophia had her third birthday party on Saturday the 15th. It was a blast and to make it nicer, all I had to do was bake and decorate the cakes and get the goodie bags ready. This year we decided to go all out and hired Raja's Entertainments to come and set up a bouncy castle, a giant bouncy slide, a ball pit, and a popcorn machine. We also had them do 100 primary colored gas balloons. the put these on strings and we had small pillars of balloons all over the patio, near the front door and over our gate on a wire. They also set up, manned the equipment and tore down. Pretty nice! They also did a great job and were very reasonably priced. For example, I couldn't have bought 1 of the entertainments for what they charged us.
Next we have the caterer. We hired Sparky's to come and do the food - beef burgers, veg burgers, chicken hot dogs, baked beans and country potatoes. It was awesome- oh yeah - they set up and tore down too!
Finally we had the body paint lady, she painted "tattoos" on the kids that wanted them. Some had necklaces, arm paintings, earrings, scorpions, you name it, she did it. Sophia had Fishies and Stars this time, but it was so hot out that she sweated all of them off by the time we sang Happy Birthday.
The cake was chocolate with butter cream icing. I then put a pink princess castle on it. I think it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. In fact, I just took the rest of the icing to a friend of mine so she could use it. I think she ended up eating it on croissants! I also had a confetti angel food cake since it's Sophia's favorite. Lots of the Indian mothers have been asking me for the recipe. This is an issue since I used good ol' Betty Crocker for the cakes. I only made the icing. Oh well, just goes to show - box cakes have come a long way! Most of the cakes you get here from the bakeries don't have much flavor and the icing is pretty waxy. They just aren't the best things in the world. Everyone was so shocked I did them myself and Thom, from Sparky's, said he was going to have me do all of the restaurant cakes from now on. We'll just have to see about that!
Everyone seemed to have a great time. Sophia looked like she had been thrown in the pool because she was so sweaty and she just didn't want to slow down to stop and drink water. We would just go get her - make sure she drank a bunch and then poured some on her head. My goal was to avoid heat stroke and dehydration. She had a blast and didn't want them to take the inflatable castle and slide away. We had to explain these were just borrowed, not bought.
After the guest left, she opened her presents. She got so many lovely gifts and has added to her Barbie collection. There is no doubt, she is like my sister, Barbies and toy cars are her passions! Nicole, I may have to send her to you and Steve, especially for the teen years, do we have a deal?
Our baby is no longer a baby. She's growing up much too quickly, but I have to say, we enjoy it and love watching her grow!
Next we have the caterer. We hired Sparky's to come and do the food - beef burgers, veg burgers, chicken hot dogs, baked beans and country potatoes. It was awesome- oh yeah - they set up and tore down too!
Finally we had the body paint lady, she painted "tattoos" on the kids that wanted them. Some had necklaces, arm paintings, earrings, scorpions, you name it, she did it. Sophia had Fishies and Stars this time, but it was so hot out that she sweated all of them off by the time we sang Happy Birthday.
The cake was chocolate with butter cream icing. I then put a pink princess castle on it. I think it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. In fact, I just took the rest of the icing to a friend of mine so she could use it. I think she ended up eating it on croissants! I also had a confetti angel food cake since it's Sophia's favorite. Lots of the Indian mothers have been asking me for the recipe. This is an issue since I used good ol' Betty Crocker for the cakes. I only made the icing. Oh well, just goes to show - box cakes have come a long way! Most of the cakes you get here from the bakeries don't have much flavor and the icing is pretty waxy. They just aren't the best things in the world. Everyone was so shocked I did them myself and Thom, from Sparky's, said he was going to have me do all of the restaurant cakes from now on. We'll just have to see about that!
Everyone seemed to have a great time. Sophia looked like she had been thrown in the pool because she was so sweaty and she just didn't want to slow down to stop and drink water. We would just go get her - make sure she drank a bunch and then poured some on her head. My goal was to avoid heat stroke and dehydration. She had a blast and didn't want them to take the inflatable castle and slide away. We had to explain these were just borrowed, not bought.
After the guest left, she opened her presents. She got so many lovely gifts and has added to her Barbie collection. There is no doubt, she is like my sister, Barbies and toy cars are her passions! Nicole, I may have to send her to you and Steve, especially for the teen years, do we have a deal?
Our baby is no longer a baby. She's growing up much too quickly, but I have to say, we enjoy it and love watching her grow!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Sophia Loves to Swim, but.....
This week was a bit calmer for us. Rich is still busy with work and I had my usual round of meetings for OWC. One of the things I find interesting with Sophia's school is the lack of planning. For example, the majority of the Indian schools had Tuesday the 4th off because of Krishna's birthday. Not Sophia's school since they hadn't published it in the book and hadn't had time to send a note out. Therefore - she had Wednesday off and they called it Teacher's Day.
Yesterday we decided to take another walk on the beach. Sophia was all gung ho on the idea until we got close to the water. For some odd reason she's scared of the waves on the sand. She loves getting wet and splashing in puddles, but not the ocean. We ran through some of the water as it was shallow when the waves were just receding, but she still seemed scared. I hope she breaks out of this cycle when we go to Maldives as the whole week will be spent on the beach! On the upside, we are growing a pretty cool seashell collection!
The biggest plans are set for this Saturday, the 15th when we will have Sophia's birthday party. We have hired a guy from Raja's Entertainment to come and put up a jumping castle, ball pit, inflatable slide, helium balloons, and popcorn machine. We are having Sparky's cater and another lady coming to do the body painting. I think it will be a lovely day. The part I'm stressing about is the cake!
Sophia has been changing her mind on an hourly basis as to what she wants for a cake. I'm beginning to think I'll just draw a castle and write Happy Birthday Sophia on it! We'll just have to see what I come up with and how frazzled my nerves will be.
Yesterday we decided to take another walk on the beach. Sophia was all gung ho on the idea until we got close to the water. For some odd reason she's scared of the waves on the sand. She loves getting wet and splashing in puddles, but not the ocean. We ran through some of the water as it was shallow when the waves were just receding, but she still seemed scared. I hope she breaks out of this cycle when we go to Maldives as the whole week will be spent on the beach! On the upside, we are growing a pretty cool seashell collection!
The biggest plans are set for this Saturday, the 15th when we will have Sophia's birthday party. We have hired a guy from Raja's Entertainment to come and put up a jumping castle, ball pit, inflatable slide, helium balloons, and popcorn machine. We are having Sparky's cater and another lady coming to do the body painting. I think it will be a lovely day. The part I'm stressing about is the cake!
Sophia has been changing her mind on an hourly basis as to what she wants for a cake. I'm beginning to think I'll just draw a castle and write Happy Birthday Sophia on it! We'll just have to see what I come up with and how frazzled my nerves will be.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Labor Day Beach Party
So - what do you do on Labor Day in India? Well, usually just go to work. We don't get the US holidays! This year though, Rich thought since most of the other ISE's on his team were taking the day off to be with their families, so would he. (The American International School here does observe US holidays.)
We got up and took Sophia to school. She was so proud to show him she walks to class by herself and knows the way. Then we went off in search of good red apples. This can be a fun trick since all of the Red apples Sophia likes are Washington Reds imported from the US. Which why is it I can get them cheaper here then in the states at times? That's one I've yet to figure out. Then a quick stop at Another shop where we got her some sand toys to take on our trip to the Maldives at the end of September. A cup of cappuccino at Cafe Coffee Day and then waited for the Chief Minister and his entourage to go past us on his way to a meeting in Mamahallapuram.
Sophia was so excited to see us! She screamed Mommy! DADDY! We then played on the playground for a bit. Went home changed clothes (for her) and went to have lunch with Robert. From there began the search for auqa socks. Something we have found doesn't exsist in this city. The idea was to get these for Sophia since she freaks out when she has sand in her shoes and we wanted to go down to walk the beach in front of our house. After many stops and all afternoon in shops, we finally found a pair of shoes that would work and in her size (that's often the next trick!)
We got home and got her a small bucket and off we went to the beach. We had to walk to one end of our road to get beach access and go through a small fishing village. It was at this point I wished we had a camera. Children came flocking from everywhere to say "Hello Uncle, Hello Aunty" and look at Sophia. When we finally got past all of the children there was a group of men who were in awe of Sophia. Usually this involves a lot of snapping and clicking to get her attention and then out come the camera phones to take pictures of the blonde girl. Usually she's pretty good about it, other times crabby. They all want to hold her too...This is something she was not going to allow.
We had a blast looking for shells - especially when we went down to the waterline where the beach was cleaner and the water could come up around our feet. Sophia walked part way and then Daddy had to carry her because she was afraid of the water coming in and out. He stood and let the waves wash up around his ankles while holding her and you should've seen the look on her face. She went from "Mommy! Don't let the water take you!" to "Go out and get that shell Mommy!"
The walk truly was relaxing and somethingwe weill probably do again and again. My advice, if you're ever stressed out - go for a walk on the beach!
We got up and took Sophia to school. She was so proud to show him she walks to class by herself and knows the way. Then we went off in search of good red apples. This can be a fun trick since all of the Red apples Sophia likes are Washington Reds imported from the US. Which why is it I can get them cheaper here then in the states at times? That's one I've yet to figure out. Then a quick stop at Another shop where we got her some sand toys to take on our trip to the Maldives at the end of September. A cup of cappuccino at Cafe Coffee Day and then waited for the Chief Minister and his entourage to go past us on his way to a meeting in Mamahallapuram.
Sophia was so excited to see us! She screamed Mommy! DADDY! We then played on the playground for a bit. Went home changed clothes (for her) and went to have lunch with Robert. From there began the search for auqa socks. Something we have found doesn't exsist in this city. The idea was to get these for Sophia since she freaks out when she has sand in her shoes and we wanted to go down to walk the beach in front of our house. After many stops and all afternoon in shops, we finally found a pair of shoes that would work and in her size (that's often the next trick!)
We got home and got her a small bucket and off we went to the beach. We had to walk to one end of our road to get beach access and go through a small fishing village. It was at this point I wished we had a camera. Children came flocking from everywhere to say "Hello Uncle, Hello Aunty" and look at Sophia. When we finally got past all of the children there was a group of men who were in awe of Sophia. Usually this involves a lot of snapping and clicking to get her attention and then out come the camera phones to take pictures of the blonde girl. Usually she's pretty good about it, other times crabby. They all want to hold her too...This is something she was not going to allow.
We had a blast looking for shells - especially when we went down to the waterline where the beach was cleaner and the water could come up around our feet. Sophia walked part way and then Daddy had to carry her because she was afraid of the water coming in and out. He stood and let the waves wash up around his ankles while holding her and you should've seen the look on her face. She went from "Mommy! Don't let the water take you!" to "Go out and get that shell Mommy!"
The walk truly was relaxing and somethingwe weill probably do again and again. My advice, if you're ever stressed out - go for a walk on the beach!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
