The Oldmeldrum class will restart 12:30 - 2pm Monday 5th January, downstairs at Oldmeldrum Town Hall. All welcome.
For more information contact Scott on 01467 623014 or 07714 267057 or email sallan [at] talktalk [dot] net
30 December 2008
23 December 2008
Sunday 28th December
Sunday class will be from 2:30pm at Neil and Anneke's place, with food and dancing to follow. All welcome.
21 December 2008
Winter Solstice
This is printed on the bell casing at one of my student's houses, where I was supposed to be teaching today. Unfortunately my nose is running its own hydro scheme. So, happy solstice to all! Here's hoping you stay lergy-free and have a wonderful turn-of-year. Remember not to overwind.
15 December 2008
Long Form class 18th December
Just a reminder that this week's class is in the Friendship Room at Kemnay Hall, 7:30 - 9:30pm.
12 December 2008
Seasons Greetings
Thanks to everyone for a lovely evening out tonight: good food and good company - just like a T'ai Chi class !
Best wishes for the festive season to all our friends and fellow students who couldn't be with us tonight, and to Caroline and all her students in the various tributaries of the Great River.
08 December 2008
Cook Book
After discussions with Mark and David at class tonight it seems the time has finally come for the long-awaited Great River and T'ai Chi Centre Recipe Book! We've all thought it would be a great idea, as the food brought to the various workshops over the last 5 years, as well as Barbara's famous biscuits and London's Richard and Janet's muffins, have been outstanding. I will send a proper email to all about it tomorrow, but get your recipes together, and maybe get baking too, as I'll need photos of all the dishes! David will help with the design, myself and a few of the other visual artists in Mark's classes will also do some fun food / T'ai Chi illustrations and we should end up with a lovely little book. I hope to get about 100 printed cheaply using David's insider knowledge and we can sell them for about a fiver each in aid of DWL School (see below). Hopefully we can sell at Taichi Caledonia in the shop as well as to ourselves, T'ai Chi colleagues, friends and family. I would love to raise money take some great educational books out there when I go, or maybe a supply a piece of equipment for the school. Have a think about all the lovely cakes, flans, pies, breads, cheesecakes, salads, stews and soups everyone has made. There's no limit to how many we can put in. If you have eaten something delicious that the maker has forgotten about, remind them! This also includes things that students' partners have cooked and we have brought along...
There's no hurry, I will collate things in February, so that it's ready for Easter. Ideally for each recipe we'd have a picture, the ingredients list and the method in your own words, as well as any variations you suggest, or any other remarks you feel necessary. Personally I can't wait to have all these great recipes in one place. Also, if you have any pictures from over the years of us all eating cake or having a tea break, let me know. I think I have 1 or 2 from my old place, with Diesel the cat mooching about too.
These recipes have been proved over years to enhance and improve our T'ai Chi practice... (Well, certainly to help us sink.) It's time we shared them generously to all who love food and T'ai Chi.
There's no hurry, I will collate things in February, so that it's ready for Easter. Ideally for each recipe we'd have a picture, the ingredients list and the method in your own words, as well as any variations you suggest, or any other remarks you feel necessary. Personally I can't wait to have all these great recipes in one place. Also, if you have any pictures from over the years of us all eating cake or having a tea break, let me know. I think I have 1 or 2 from my old place, with Diesel the cat mooching about too.
These recipes have been proved over years to enhance and improve our T'ai Chi practice... (Well, certainly to help us sink.) It's time we shared them generously to all who love food and T'ai Chi.
Druk White Lotus School
Next July I am hoping to visit the school in Ladakh, India, where I sponsor a girl. I haven't been there since 1991 so am very excited at the prospect, as I found the beauty of the cold high lands and the warmth of the Tibetan Buddhist native Ladakhis completely wonderful. I have just been sent an invite to their 'Thankyou' Winter Fayre on 3rd January, where HH Gyalwang Drukpa (the spiritual leader of the Kindom of Ladakh) will be giving a talk. If anyone is interested in the School, and would like to come along, let me know, as I can bring a guest. The school was designed by UK firm Arup Associates and won awards for it's ecological soundness as well as fine use of local materials and skills. Boys and girls are educated equally and together, quite a contrast to the norm in Kashmir... For Information and lovely pictures go to http://www.dwls.org/07 December 2008
Website Update
The Great River website is now fully updated, with only a few typos left to change... I have put up many new photos and have completely rewritten every bit of text. Mark kindly lent me some of his text until now, for which I am very grateful. I finally felt able to put things in my own words this month, whilst I was at home a great deal with the nasty bug that was going around. All that remains to do is choose a couple of photos of Dr Chi, Chiang-Tao, Yang, Cheng-Fu and Cheng, Man-Ching, for variation's sake. Also, if Aberdeenshire instructors have any of your own class details needing changing any time, here's what to do. Have a look at the format that I list the classes, and cut and paste a paragraph containing new content with updated dates and times, etc. Pop these in an email to both David and I, and they'll get done as soon as David has a mo. If Neil would also like to list his Finzean classes too, feel free. Lastly, Dave has added a tiny little blue school symbol in the URL bar, and I am unexpectedly delighted! Still, tiny things...
05 December 2008
04 December 2008
I received my first Christmas card today (thanks Ev!) so in the spirit of returning the energy in good time rather than leaving it til too late...Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to all Great River students north and south, past, present and future!
Here's a find from my drawing visit to the British Museum two weeks ago. This vase from 14th Century China has a wonderful triple spiral pattern, similar to those so beloved of John that are to be found carved at New Grange, in Ireland. I particularly like the leaf/ heart shaped surrounds to the spiral motifs. I will scan some of my sketches soon and post them.
02 December 2008
Sword tassels & weapons - update
As people want all kinds of different tassels, and no discount is being offered, best to order your own after all. Then it'll be delivered to you, hopefully in time for Xmas.
I have ordered everyone's weapons (bat head swords, wooden swords and staffs) today, the 2 companies will be posting them tomorrow. We received good discounts. To save postage costs for you, all deliveries will go to Davina's, so check with her when they arrive.
For your reference and to look at good photos, the suppliers of staffs and wooden swords are www.legendma.co.uk and for swords we use www.shaolin.co.uk .
I have ordered everyone's weapons (bat head swords, wooden swords and staffs) today, the 2 companies will be posting them tomorrow. We received good discounts. To save postage costs for you, all deliveries will go to Davina's, so check with her when they arrive.
For your reference and to look at good photos, the suppliers of staffs and wooden swords are www.legendma.co.uk and for swords we use www.shaolin.co.uk .
.2009 dates for Aberdeenshire
I have just booked the flights for my first two weekends teaching next year, namely January 29th - February 2nd and March 19th - 23rd. The intervening February dates with Mark will be confirmed at a later date as travel requirements will be arranged with him over Xmas. As you can see from the dates, I will be teaching the Thursday night group for Long Form, 121s on the Fridays, and 2 workshops per day on the weekends, or maybe 2 on Saturday plus a long traditional Sunday class plus a 121 on the Sunday, it's up to you. I was just about to book the April dates too but noticed that although they do not fall on a public holiday, they are at the end of the general Easter period. Please could you let me know if you will definitely be away on Thursday 16th April, and the following weekend, then I can book my travel plans accordingly. I cannot change the dates of this weekend, however, as I work around avoiding Mark's dates, Wang Hai Jun's dates, times when Scottish students are away and public holidays. This leaves very few windows of opportunity which is why I arrange my dates a year in advance, as well as to give everyone plenty of notice to arrange their diaries.
I will be teaching in Scotland every calendar month in 2009 except the August and December holidays, either on my own or with Mark. At the moment, for reasons beyond my control, I cannot travel up to Scotland for Thursday evening classes on the months when Mark comes to teach. I hope that you feel that the Long Form workshops he gives more than make up for the lack of a 'teacher' at your Long Form sessions. Perhaps you could all make sure that at these sessions you find any queries and bring them along to the workshop. I am, of course, working on solving this travel issue so that I can travel on a Thursday every month.
In 2008, after the fuel surcharges, the flight prices doubled for the days I tend to travel. Also, If I teach in Aberdeenshire on Thursday nights, I cannot teach at Amnesty in the afternoon, so David covers for me, which is excellent of him. The expense over the last 3 months had actually been too great to absorb, but from the New Year, and by booking a long way ahead, I hope to overcome that every available month. I am sorry that I haven't been able to teach a regular monthly Thursday class this Autumn, but I am sure you will all attend as much as possible and pool everything you have learned in the good spirit that I see whenever I visit.
Lastly, I hope any of you who want more hands-on teaching will book 121s with me when I come up and can get to Thursday class and any appropriate workshops. The lack of a regular teacher is actually a great opportunity. Do arrange to train with a T'ai Chi brother or sister regularly: this can even be better than the drip-feed one can get to rely on from attending class. Mark had no teacher for 9 years, and had spent many years training very regularly together with his colleague Heron. Through of his own effort and spirit of enquiry, he became the Master that he is.
A few words on self-training. When I had no one to work with, as you know, I travelled 1200 miles every 6 or 8 weeks to train with Mark paid for by ebaying most of my possessions! As soon as I could I started beginners classes, so that I had regular T'ai Chi in the week, whatever the band and home life brought up. Whilst these students steadily improved, I met a couple of guys who'd done plenty of other martial arts (Richard Nicol and Michael Downie) and agreed to teach them everything I knew of T'ai Chi at the time, in return for training push hands so that we could improve together. We used to have joint two-to-ones with Mark to get pointers on what to work on. When David came up to live in Forgue for 6 months we trained together, though purely due to my fault and home reasons, not as much as I'd hoped. These days I do occasional sessions with David, Colin (who has trained for 20 years in other martial arts and T'ai Chi), as well as other folks both from Mark's school and elsewhere. I tend to train with guys, bigger and stronger than myself. This really helps with my tendency to try to win or use force: it just won't work in these circumstances. If I do anything 'good' it's from letting go. For those of you who instruct, if you don't do this already, I wholeheartedly recommend asking a keen and promising student if they'd like to train extra with you, perhaps for free, in return for being your 'experimental helper'. For instance, maybe there's a kind of push that always gets you, or maybe when an opponent's hands come up to your face, there's still a flinch reaction. These are exactly the kind of thing that are best worked on in collaborative learning with a trusted colleague. You can ask them to repeat the 'problem' until your response neutralises it, and you are free from reactivity in relation to that push. There are also many T'ai Chi people from different schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray, several of whom I have met over the years, who I'm sure would be delighted to share skills and push hands, just for the experience. I am sure you will find either a colleague from class or someone from elsewhere if this way of training appeals to you. Good luck.
I will be teaching in Scotland every calendar month in 2009 except the August and December holidays, either on my own or with Mark. At the moment, for reasons beyond my control, I cannot travel up to Scotland for Thursday evening classes on the months when Mark comes to teach. I hope that you feel that the Long Form workshops he gives more than make up for the lack of a 'teacher' at your Long Form sessions. Perhaps you could all make sure that at these sessions you find any queries and bring them along to the workshop. I am, of course, working on solving this travel issue so that I can travel on a Thursday every month.
In 2008, after the fuel surcharges, the flight prices doubled for the days I tend to travel. Also, If I teach in Aberdeenshire on Thursday nights, I cannot teach at Amnesty in the afternoon, so David covers for me, which is excellent of him. The expense over the last 3 months had actually been too great to absorb, but from the New Year, and by booking a long way ahead, I hope to overcome that every available month. I am sorry that I haven't been able to teach a regular monthly Thursday class this Autumn, but I am sure you will all attend as much as possible and pool everything you have learned in the good spirit that I see whenever I visit.
Lastly, I hope any of you who want more hands-on teaching will book 121s with me when I come up and can get to Thursday class and any appropriate workshops. The lack of a regular teacher is actually a great opportunity. Do arrange to train with a T'ai Chi brother or sister regularly: this can even be better than the drip-feed one can get to rely on from attending class. Mark had no teacher for 9 years, and had spent many years training very regularly together with his colleague Heron. Through of his own effort and spirit of enquiry, he became the Master that he is.
A few words on self-training. When I had no one to work with, as you know, I travelled 1200 miles every 6 or 8 weeks to train with Mark paid for by ebaying most of my possessions! As soon as I could I started beginners classes, so that I had regular T'ai Chi in the week, whatever the band and home life brought up. Whilst these students steadily improved, I met a couple of guys who'd done plenty of other martial arts (Richard Nicol and Michael Downie) and agreed to teach them everything I knew of T'ai Chi at the time, in return for training push hands so that we could improve together. We used to have joint two-to-ones with Mark to get pointers on what to work on. When David came up to live in Forgue for 6 months we trained together, though purely due to my fault and home reasons, not as much as I'd hoped. These days I do occasional sessions with David, Colin (who has trained for 20 years in other martial arts and T'ai Chi), as well as other folks both from Mark's school and elsewhere. I tend to train with guys, bigger and stronger than myself. This really helps with my tendency to try to win or use force: it just won't work in these circumstances. If I do anything 'good' it's from letting go. For those of you who instruct, if you don't do this already, I wholeheartedly recommend asking a keen and promising student if they'd like to train extra with you, perhaps for free, in return for being your 'experimental helper'. For instance, maybe there's a kind of push that always gets you, or maybe when an opponent's hands come up to your face, there's still a flinch reaction. These are exactly the kind of thing that are best worked on in collaborative learning with a trusted colleague. You can ask them to repeat the 'problem' until your response neutralises it, and you are free from reactivity in relation to that push. There are also many T'ai Chi people from different schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray, several of whom I have met over the years, who I'm sure would be delighted to share skills and push hands, just for the experience. I am sure you will find either a colleague from class or someone from elsewhere if this way of training appeals to you. Good luck.
01 December 2008
Tassels
After a wonderful weekend of teaching from Mark I am now home before heading off to class tonight. Davina has found these tassels for our swords online, which are much nicer than the tiny generic ones I had seen elsewhere. These will help us with the figure 8 exercises Mark showed us yesterday. Have a look at the links below and let me know if you'd like me to order one for you. You could order them yourself, but if we club together we will get a postal discount and I will ask for a school discount too.
Big ones: http://www.oriental-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/Tassels.html#aHW2078
Smaller ones: http://www.oriental-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/Tassels.html#aHW2270
There are also these custom made ones: http://www.masterforge.co.uk/acatalog/Sword_Accessories.html
Thanks to all the students for their good work this weekend.
Big ones: http://www.oriental-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/Tassels.html#aHW2078
Smaller ones: http://www.oriental-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/Tassels.html#aHW2270
There are also these custom made ones: http://www.masterforge.co.uk/acatalog/Sword_Accessories.html
Thanks to all the students for their good work this weekend.
Inverurie and Turriff classes
Turriff term ends today, 1st December, and the new 10-week term will start on 12th January. Please contact the Gateway Centre direct on 01888 562562 to enrol.
The Inverurie class continues until Wednesday 8th December. The new term will run from 14th January to 18th March, and may be extended to 1st April. Current students have already been given enrolment details. Otherwise, please contact the Garioch Centre on 01467 620353 to enrol.
For more details on either class, please contact me davina [at] greatrivertaichi [dot] co [dot] uk
The Inverurie class continues until Wednesday 8th December. The new term will run from 14th January to 18th March, and may be extended to 1st April. Current students have already been given enrolment details. Otherwise, please contact the Garioch Centre on 01467 620353 to enrol.
For more details on either class, please contact me davina [at] greatrivertaichi [dot] co [dot] uk
Aberdeenshire - weapons practise session 6th December
Thanks once again to Mark and Caroline for a great weekend of workshops to round off the year.
Our regular monthly sabre practise session will be 7-10pm this Saturday, 6th December at the Masonic Hall in Inverurie. We'll also work together to revise what we learned this weekend with the staff and straight sword. Jasmine tea will be provided, and price will be a share of the hall hire. All welcome.
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