AAK Super Karate Kids at SM MALL Friday, Sep 25 2009

Fresh from her recent passing her exam for an orange belt, RP participated in her first karate tournament.   The Association for the Advancement of Karatedo (AAK) held the Milo Super Karate Kids at the SM Mall Tournament at the Entertainment Center of SM City North EDSA on September 20, 2009.   Young karatekas from various karate clubs coming from as far as Baguio City competed in two events: individual kata and individual kumite.

It’s an age group competition of 6-7 year old,  8-9 year old and 10-11 year old.  These kids could be the future Philippine national team who will bring honor by winning medals in international athletic meets such as the Southeast Asian Games.

RP competed in both events, in the 10-11 year old individual kata and individual kumite.  Expectedly, having only started last summer, RP faced stiff competition from more senior karatekas.   By luck of the draw, RP won a bronze medal in individual kumite, her first medal in martial arts.

Lars Petersen, already a world champion at 10 years old

The kid in blue belt is the son of Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, a Filipino I consider to be  an epitome of moral courage for bravely standing up and expose the corruptions of the current administration despite the pressure and the threat brought upon him.   Mr. Lozada is also watching this tournament, he’s in the far left side of the photo wearing a pink shirt.    His son competed against a much bigger opponent in this match.

Here’s a close up of Mr. Francisco “Jun” Lozada watching his son in action.

Here’s RP going against a purple belter in the individual kumite.  The more senior karate kid won this match.

RP with her karate buddies.  I had a very funny anecdote with the cute girl at the rightmost of the picture.  Her name is Hannah and she’s one of RP’s seniors in karate.  One Saturday afternoon when we are about to pick up RP after her karate class, Hannah approached me and Beck to tell us that she saw RP sucking her thumb.    She said, “Tita I saw Rebecca sucking her thumb.  That’s a sign of mental retardation.”.   I want to die laughing after hearing this.  When that anecdote happened,  we were with my best bud Richelle who’s also a Psychology graduate like me.   It took us 4 years in college to be able to tell the symptoms of  psychological disorders and then we met a young school girl of 11 who could tell us a sign of mental retardation.   Kids really learn fast nowadays.

Winners all!

RP displaying her bronze medal in individual kumite, with her favorite sensei, Rex Resureccion.

4 Responses »

 

RP’s Orange Belt Promotion Wednesday, Sep 23 2009

RP’s favorite Sensei, Rex Resureccion thinks that RP is ready to go a notch higher in her karate and advised her to take a belting exam.   Joining her in the examination are three other karate kids two adults who are all yellow belts in karate and are gunning for their orange belts.

The belting exam composed of kata, bunkai  and memorization of japanese karate terms. At the end of the examination, AAK Megamall have 4 new orange belters.

A6-year old karateka displaying a good form of the straight punch.

Preparing for the execution of the bunkai or the application of the kata.

Karatekids all, the 4 new orange belters.  Hope they will carry on their sport and represent the country in international competitions.

2 Responses »

 

The Road Trip of a Lifetime Wednesday, Sep 16 2009

On January 1, 1999  legendary investor Jim Rogers embarked with his wife on a Guiness World Record setting road travel crisscrossing the globe passing through 116 countries, covering more than 245,000 kms of highways, dirtroads, deserts, tundra, steppes, urban jungles and war zones.   This trip took them more than 3 years to finish in their custom made, Mercedes Benz station wagon. (The map above traces the route that Jim Rogers made for his record setting voyage)

Being born in an archipelago, I often yearn of doing a loooooong road trip with a distance of at least 2,000 miles (which is nearly impossible if you’re living on an island).  One item in my “Bucket List or Things To Do Before I Die” is to travel the length (or what’s left of it) of the famous, though decomissioned, Route 66.   This highway, nicknamed, America’s Main Street, stretches 2,448 miles and starts from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.     This was inspired by the 2006 animated movie, Cars.  And I intend to do this with my daughter.

Another crazy road trip that I want to embark on is to drive a car/SUV from Tierra Del Fuego, the Southernmost tip of the American continent all the way to Anchorage, Alaska.     It’s an outrageous idea shamelessly copied from Ewan McGregor’s road trip from Scotland to Cape Agulhas in South Africa.

I’m not filthy rich like Jim Rogers or famous like Ewan McGregor to be able to finance or find sponsors for those road trips.     Then one evening, over dinner,  my very good friend Ajarn Pudpadnoy Omglin (a legend in muay thai and considered to be one of the top 3 fighters of all time) shared to me and my family about his plans of doing a road trip from Paris to Bangkok on his 60th birthday (that’s 2 years from now) as an honor to King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.    He intend to do this journey with three friends, two of whom are Thais.  And to my surprise, he said that if it is ok, he wants me to be part of the long voyage.

Those words sounded like a TV announcer declaring my lotto ticket number as the jackpot winning combination.   Of course, I want to join that trip.    The voyage  will be financed by a Thai Billionaire (who must remain unnamed) who has a collection of more than 1,000 antique cars, military vehicles and even a decomissioned Norwegian military submarine!

Though it’s still two years from now, the route and date of the voyage is already planned.   We will leave Paris during summer (Of course!  The bitter European winter will definitely decimate the bodies of 4 Southeast Asians accustomed to tropical weather) then go up north to the European capitals Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm then down to the Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), then to Minsk, Moscow, across to the Russian tundra,  down to the former Soviet States Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, then eastward to Tibet, China then go down to Laos and finally, to Bangkok, Thailand.   There’s no estimate yet of how long the journey will be.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement.  But I really have to prepare for this trip because I will be the youngest person in the expedition.   This early, I am already preparing by studying first aid, navigation  and the geography of the route (this is my forte) and of course, I have to study even just the basic of several European languages.

Two years is enough time to prepare, but given my situation,  having a full time job, a family to support plus other engagements and commitments, I’m concerned that it may not be sufficient.  I’ve also been asking some of my friends in religious services (either as priest or pastors) to pray for this trip to push through and for the health of King Bhumibol, in whose honor this voyage is being dedicated to.

But whatever happens, I will still live by one of my principles.  That is prepare for an opportunity even though there’s no assurance that it will come rather than an opportunity coming and I am not prepared for it.  Looking forward to June 2011.

10 Responses »

 

Two New Angels in the World Monday, Sep 14 2009

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.”- Anonymous

I really, really, badly need to read and follow David Allen’s best selling book, “Getting Things Done”.   I guess, the delay in updating my blog is a self-explanation why that book must be in my reading list.

Two people who are very close to me are born on the ninth month of the year.    First is my Mother in law who celebrated her 76th birthday last September 2 and my sister who receive birthday cakes every 8th of September.

Two new angels were born in the first week of September.  On  the 1st of this month, my friend from La Union, Ray Duclayan became a first time father when his lovely baby Hannah Kendra was born.   My wish for the baby is for her to grow up and fulfill the meaning of her name.  Hannah is of Jewish origin meaning “Grace” while Kendra is of Old English origin meaning, “Magical Water Baby”.

Beck’s friend, Mrs. Philippines-World Donnabel Deinla gave birth to her second child, this time a daughter and was given a very unique name, Qristine Vernadeth.   This early, it can be seen that beauty does run in the family of the Filipina beauty queen.

Congratulations to the two of you, my friend Ray and to Ms. Donnabel!

Baby Hannah Kendra Duclayan

Baby Qristine Vernadeth Deinla

The new baby under the loving arms of her mom, Mrs. Philippines-World Donnabel Deinla.  With her are Beck, Mrs. Universe-1st Runner up Camilla Kim Galvez and fellow Mrs. Philippines finalist, Dr. Karen Mauri.

4 Responses »

 

Forever Young Thursday, Sep 3 2009

“The basic things are losing their value
And the pace of life is so complex
The people around me feel the pressure
But I’ll remain forever young
They want more than they need and
They give more than they could bleed
They feel they’re next in line yet I’ll
Remain forever young

I control the hands of time- much to the
Majority’s dismay
If you’d leave me behind- im a picture
Painted in black and gray
But my colors are inside- when it’s just
Too difficult to see
And I just feel alive- this means so much
To me

Young!! young!! – holding on and taking
Grasp
- a vow that I will last
- ive learned so much from the past
- I’ll remain forever young-  Bob Dylan, Forever Young”

The dreary world of endless routine-work, reading/studying, eating, going home and sleeping- prevented me from writing, despite the many thoughts and ideas that hover around my head.    And I just realized that its been almost a month since I last made an entry to this online journal.   Perhaps by serendipity, while waiting for my daughter to finish her karate class in AAK Megamall, I chance upon an art exhibit sponsored by Gallery Genesis featuring Toti Cerda’s watercolor paintings.  It’s a collection of art works that evokes memories of one’s childhood.  The exhibit is aptly titled, Forever Young.

Each painting in the exhibit seemed to be mirrors to vividly remembered childhood events when life is extremely simple and the world is a lot different.  Perhaps this is the artist’s way of communicating to parents and grown ups that we should allow our children to enjoy childhood, in the same way that we enjoyed it when we were young.    I may not be able to cite statistics but I know a lot of parents today have put considerable amount of pressure on their children by expecting them to achieve things at an early age.   Children will only be young once, then its lost forever.  Parents should learn how to balance between training or ensuring that their children will have a bright future by “starting them young” and by letting their kids be kids.      Also, perhaps the paintings are Toti Cerda’s way of reminding parents that the environment and surroundings that they grew up with are fast disappearing and that we must find ways of preserving them so that their children can also enjoy it.

My favorite painting in the exhibit is the painting of five young kids walking along a grassy plain, titled “Tutubi Gang”.  First, except for the human figures, the grasses were painted almost in the style of Monet’s post impressionism.  (Claude Monet is my favorite painter).  Second, I have countless fond memories of crossing grassy plains with my childhood friends in search for dragonflies, firelies, and spiders.   We have no care whether the grass will make us itchy or for any thorns or broken pieces of trees that could scratch us or for anything that we might step on, be it mud or animal dung.

The painting below is Beck’s favorite, as this brings back memories of her younger years when she and her two siblings would use the wall of their house as one big blackboard.

Very often, I would pity my daughter for not experiencing the simple joy of playing in the rain.    I think this is one of the privileges enjoyed by children born to poor families, myself included.   Middle and upper class parents would not let their children go out in the streets and have the pleasure of playing in the rain.

6 Responses »