MY ENGLISH HOLIDAY – 4 Aug 2007 to 20 Aug 2007

I took a little break to England from 4 to 20 August 2007 by myself. The main reason for this trip was the Kodokan Kendo seminar that I wanted to attend as well as participate in grading for my 2nd Dan after the seminar. Unfortunately, Laura was unable to accompany me as she had just recently started at her new job at SAP and did not have sufficient leave days. Needless to say, I was missing her dearly throughout the trip, but stayed in constant contact with her via SMS and the almost-daily 5-minute phone call (yes, the cell phone bill was astronomical)! But, the time apart was good, as everyone kept reminding me. 

My English holiday had a rather unpleasant start: Firstly, I was charged for my Kendo equipment that was not deemed sporting equipment (R4000 in excess baggage) on my flight to London. Next, my flight entertainment unit was not working, so I had to endure an 11 hour flight with no TV. Lastly, and the worst, my main bag with all my clothing got delayed / lost at Heathrow. I eventually only ended up with only bags on the Thursday (4 days later). Anyway, please refer to my blog posting for more of my whining on this.

However, with that said, the rest of my trip was awesome! Upon stepping out of the airport, I was greeted by the warm rays of the London sun! Yup, it was sunny and hot for the majority of time that I was in there, with some slight showers on the last few days on my trip! The first week was spent doing some sight seeing in and around London! In the many occasions that I’ve been to England, this was the first time that I actually visited some of the infamous London sights like St Paul’s, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and Tower of London (where all the Crown jewels are kept – very cool). I even managed to go to a Star Wars exhibition at County Hall in Westminster! Also, I had such good intentions to visit some Harry Potter movie-locations and the only one I was able to see in London was King’s Cross and “Platform 9 ¾” where Harry and co. would board the Hogwarts Express! Some other places that I visited were Windsor Castle (weekend home of the Queen) and Blenheim Palace (home of the Churchill family)! I had such good intentions to visit more place and see more things (such as the British Museum, which I told nearly everyone I saw that I was going to go there sometime), but just ran out of time! But hey, it gives me a good excuse to return!

I also managed to spend quality time with good friends: On the first day, Jax and Don had a braai at their place. The food was awesome and definitely ate way too much! We finished the afternoon with a nice walk around the area since the weather was so warm and sunny! Met up with Jax and Don one other evening for dinner at a pub in Wimbledon. The last night I was in London, Jono and I also went by their place again to collect some stuff to take back with me to South Africa for her family. Don was a bit tipsy that night and I have some rather memorable pictures to prove that!

Jono took some days off to spend some time with me. Was very cool just hanging out and talking a lot of guy-stuff! The one evening, we headed off to Andrew’s place (one of Jono’s friends) to check out his Darth Maul light saber! Way too awesome and that was the deciding factor for me to get one too (or two, or three??)…more on that later! Had a few dinners where I also managed to meet some of Jono’s London’s friends like Vernon and Bonita, Kevin, Gary and Cindy, Warren Ying and Nikkie Q. Was good to see everyone getting into the London-grove! Made me think, “Maybe I should try it out too”? ! Met up a number of times with Jono for lunch in London. It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to meet up with Chants too, as it would’ve been nice just to catch up with her! Jono also managed to “get sick” the one day and join me on my trip to Windsor Castle! I spent many evenings just chatting to Chants and Jono and catching up on old times or just playing on the Wii machine. Great friends such as them are a rare find and I am forever grateful for their hospitality by putting me up in their place, fetching and taking me to the airport, the many free lunches and dinners, and most importantly, the good times and memories.

I was able to meet up with Danni and Paul for dinner the one night too. We went walking around the south side of the Themes River then after walking up an appetite, we dinned a snazzy restaurant that I can’t even remember the name of (the only thing I could remember was that the trains ran over the restaurant)! Was good to see Danni happy with the new man in her life!

During the week, I met Jennifer for lunch the one day on the lawns of St Paul’s Cathedral. That’s quite a big thing for Londoner’s – when the sun’s out, go and spread out on any green patch you can find! Very interesting sight as there were some that were even sun bathing in their bikinis (no complaints on this side). We had take-away Japanese sushi! Was great to see Jen doing so well in London!

I also met up with Nadia the one day. We went walking around in London and later had a Korean dinner. Was good to catch up on old times!

The following week was spent with Scott and Hyemi. They stay in Alyesbury, about 1.5 hrs outside of London and is less congested. Was also good fun! Had a good Taekwondo training session on the one Sunday with Scott and Hyemi that was hard-work but thoroughly enjoyable! Scott’s moves are amazing as ever, so I need not say anymore! Later that day, we headed off ice-skating with Scott’s niece, Alyssa! Believe me when I said my legs were dead by the end of the day. That Monday, Scott took off to take me to Blenheim Palace! It was great having Scott around as he is, as I put it, a walking Wikipedia and my personal tour guild! Later that evening, we headed off for Kendo training at his club, Kodokan. It was hard work, but definitely a good session! My next training session at Kodokan was on the Wednesday. Going to the sessions before the seminar was a good way to get me familiarized with the environment. During the week preceding the seminar, I had also met up with Scott and Hyemi for lunch or diner in London. On the last day, Scott had lunch with me and we ended up in Soho’s red light district trying to find a fish and chips deli! It was great to see the many wonderful attractions and so friendly too! But, that aside, it was great spending time with him. It was good to spend some quality time with Scott and Hyemi on this trip as it is usually such a rushed affair! Just proved to me that even after a long time of not seeing each other, great friends will always be there and it will be as good as, if not better than, the old times!

Sorry to those friends whom I had contacted but had not been able to meet up with. It gives me another reason to return to England soon!

The Kodokan seminar started on the Thursday. The Kendo seminar boasted three 8th Dan and four 7th Dan sensei’s. The importance of this seminar was that at the end of it, I would be able to grade for my 2nd Dan grade!

The below is an extract from my mail sent regarding the seminar (for those who are not interesting in the martial arts, please skip this part):

“Thursday - The senior grade day-seminar that was reserved for 3rd dans and higher. Fortunately, we had asked in advance if we were allowed to attend. Very intresting as the morning session dealt with the role of a teacher in a dojo and methods on how they should help their students. Was a bit intimidating as I was the only shodan (1st dan) there. The majority were Sandans, Yondans and Godans (3rd, 4th and 5th dans)! There was lunch and a break then the afternoon session that was shinai work. Later that afternoon, all the other seminar participants started arriving. After dinner, we had evening keiko for an hour with the senseis! It was awesome seeing a room full of armoured kendo players (almost 80, including senseis). Once done, the evening ended off with drinks at the 'bar' with some people only finishing off at 4am!

Friday - Asa Gi Keiko, morning keiko, started at 7am for an hour. Fortunately, Sumi sensei decided that we should stick to some basics in armour. So, after a quick warm-up, we started doing something called 'kihon keiko-ho', a set of 9 patterns, similar to kata, but is more practical in the sense that it bridges the gap between shinai kendo and kendo kata! Very very interesting and it is something that we'd like to share with people back home in the dojo! Interestingly, ‘kihon keiko-ho' was developed my Sumi sensei and a number of other senseis in Japan and is now recognised as part of the All Japan Kendo Federation's (AJKF) syllabus. Afternoon session was again shinai work and thereafter a sports lecture. Later that afternoon, the six houses (all 70 kendo players were split into separate house) were split into 2 groups and we did a shiai and refereeing in each group. The refereeing instruction was insightful and definitely a motivating factor to have more shiai's in SA! Since everyone was a bit wobbly on the referring side, the shiai wasn't taken too seriously. In the evening after dinner, there was again keiko with the sensei's.

Saturday - Same format as the day before. However, when the shiai/refereeing came about, it was taken a bit more seriously. Each of the 6 groups fielded a 5-man team. Andrew was in his fighting team had won both his fight during the round-robin! Unfortunately, his team did not win in their pool of 3. Ivor had injured his hand again and decided not to take part in the shiai but rather just refereeing. I had 1 fight in the round robin and beat a godan! Not bad for a litie from SA! Eventually the winners of the 2 groups had a face-off in the finals, with my team, Yugi, prevailing as the shiai winner with a nail-biting 3-2 victory (I had lost my match to a very quick Sandan in the 1st match, but the rest of my team pulled through)! Later that evening, there was a farewell drinks party. Scott and I had bought some Star Wars light sabers earlier to the seminar and Paul sensei requested if he could use them at the party! Anyway, he did! During the party, the lights went off and Paul sensei switched on his light sabers and handed the other to Sumi sensei! The resulting fight was hilarious with Sumi sensei doing his impersonation of Zatchoitchi, a famous Japanese blind swordsman....with a light sabre! Once the laughter died and the presentation underway, my team was declared overall seminar team winners and the team leader, Yamamoto sensei (7th dan) named as the 'winning sensei'! We had celebratory Champaign (I had a sip and passed out) and after a night of partying, headed off to bed to prepare for the following day's grading! It was good fun!

Sunday - Grading day. Morning again started with asa-keiko or kata practice. Only Ivor decided to go for kata practice. Andrew and I decided to sleep in. After a hurried breakfast, we went back to prepare for the grading. All 3 of us passed – Andrew to Shodan, Ivor and myself to Nidan! The entire grading lasted 3 hours and there were ikkyus, shodan, nidan, yondan and godan gradings. The seminar ended with a final keiko with the sensei’s.

The seminar was amazing and definitely one that I would like to attend again soon!”

On the issue of light sabers, I bough three light sabers for the myself and 2 other Star Wars fanatics like myself, namely Jono and Scott! I got Jono the Mace Windu Jedi light saber (that glows purple) and gave Scott the Obi-One Kenobi light saber (the blue one) as I know it is their dream to be a Jedi! I on the other hand, decided to get Darth Vader’s light saber that has a very distinctive lower hum to it! DARTH RULES!

(As a side note, these are typical boy-toys! Girls have no concept of what this means to us, as illustrated by Chantel’s comment “So how much did you pay for these glowing florescent tubes that make a noise?”! Arrrggggg….)

All in all, the trip was thoroughly enjoyable thanks to the hospitality of my friends! A huge “thank you” to those friends and I hope to repay you in kind when you come to SA!

P.S. To overcome the “excess baggage” problem I had when coming over to London with my Kendo equipment, I bought an external golf bag and packed all my equipment in there and got my additional 15kgs free of charge!

P.S.S. Better still, I was compensated for my delayed bag thanks to a very helpful lady in the London SAA branch! The money was in the bank by the time I was back in SA!