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My kung fu club is this week going to do a major charity event in Islington (north east central London). We start at 14.00 very near Angel tube station this Saturday the 26th. Our aim is to walk like lizards on our bare knuckles from Angel tube station to Highbury corner. In other words, we're going to do the whole Upper Street in relay which is about 1 mile (1,600 metres).

The charity that we're supporting is called the Claremont Project which is a centre for old people in Islington where they can participate in activities such as dancing, drawing and t'ai chi. Since this year, the local government has drastically reduced the budget for places like the Claremont Project. The reason our club (led by David Courtney Jones

) do this particular charity is that we know them well because we train at the Claremont Project building in the evening on White Lion street. (more about that here)

My dear Kung Fu sister Pen Rance has now published a lovely little article on the FWC Inter-Club Competition, Dulwich (August 2005)

It's complete yet short (so you can afford the time to read it) and funny too. I like the fact she didn't forget about the dodgeball incident:

"The action was rounded off by a giant game of dodgeball, in which the students took on the instructors," ... "Shot of the game has to go to Instructor Adam Prout, who managed to silence the hall with a direct hit on Chief Instructor Ngo’s ear."

Last but not least my name was mentioned too which I'm not going to quote so you'll have to find it yourself.

My good friend Richard Wagstaff has started a kung fu club in Clapham (south London). At the club they do Fujian White Crane Kung Fu which is a soft hard style (not a hard soft style). This is Richard's first setup in the area and I can assure you he's good at it. If you're in the area, do go down to Soho Gyms and give it a try. The club is affiliated with my club in Islington. Richard is, like me, a student of David Courtney Jones

Classes are held on Monday and Thursday evenings. Visit his club website for more info on exactly when and where.

For those computer people out there who don't know who Eric S Raymond is you've got a long way to go on what I'm about to write about. If you're not even into computers I can say that ESR is an old time computer hacker (not cracker which is something different) who is known for his views, publications, books and the fact that few people know as many programming languages as he does. He's simply pretty damn good with serious computer usage.

Anyway, in his How To Become A Hacker I read some interesting things today. The most striking one is this:

"Points For Style
Again, to be a hacker, you have to enter the hacker mindset. There are some things you can do when you're not at a computer that seem to help. They're not substitutes for hacking (nothing is) but many hackers do them, and feel that they connect in some basic way with the essence of hacking. [...]
Train in a martial-arts form. The kind of mental discipline required for martial arts seems to be similar in important ways to what hackers do. The most popular forms among hackers are definitely Asian empty-hand arts such as Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Wing Chun, Aikido, or Jiu Jitsu;..."

Yesterday, Saturday, we had a money raising charity event at the City & Islington Fujian White Crane kung fu club.

The money we raised was for the Claremont Day Centre (aka Claremont Project) which is a day centre here in Islington for old people. Sadly the council has cut their fundings dramatically this year and that's almost where we come in. The thing is that we train kung fu in their building on Monday nights, Wednesday nights and saturday mornings. By having a charity event we could raise money to go towards this charity.

I came back from Sweden the day before yesterday late after having spent a long weekend on the west coast of Sweden for the FWC Competition. We arrived in Varberg on Friday and all the competition events were on Saturday. I won two gold medals; one in heavy weight semi contact sparring and one for suan yang (t'ai chi).

After the events we all went down on the town to have a wonderful dinner. A few of us actually went for a quick swim in the sea as we came back to the youth hostel.

Both the whole Sunday and the whole Monday was spent in Gothenburg. On the first day we went to Liseberg and on the next day we went to Universeum which has a really cool webcam of the shark tank

Anyway, here are some photos that I have uploaded:

• Varberg
• Kung fu
• Gothenburg

Here you can download the latest little video summary of the FWC competition. If you're quick you can actually spot me once or twice, but only once without a black hood over my head.

In Kung Fu there is often talk about Yin and Yang, and with time I've started to appreciate the notation more and more. First I thought it was "humbug" just like I think about many other medicine disciplines, but now I understand more about it.

It's not rocket science, it's actually a very simple concept. All things are in harmony of two opposite sides. No side is more "important" than the other and one side can't exist without the presence of the other. For example, there can't be a front if there isn't a back.

This site explains it very well. I read all of it. What shocked me though was the on the "Supreme Ultimate" symbol, Yang is the white part and Yin is the black part. I've always imagined that it was the other way around. Damn!

"Yin and Yang may be the most important theory in Chinese Medicine"

I also found this nice page about Qi Gong which I will read now.

I just found out that I have passed my latest grading that I took on the 11th of Jan (2004). Now my highest pattern is: SI MEN DOU DI - Four Doors/Five Elements. Cool!

See this blog about the previous grading.

This weekend was great. The Fujian White Crane Kung Fu club held a competition in Guildford just south-east of London. In fact, it was my club, the City & Islington (of Dave Courtney Jones) that hosted it. The reason it was held outside London was that it would have been too expensive to have in in central London.

Our club performed really well. We collected seven gold medals which I think is pretty good compared to the other clubs. I personally collected 2 gold and 1 silver. The two golds were for the senior Suan Yang form (looks like T'ai Chi) and the demo (a group effort, we performed like a play). The silver was for heavy-weight semi-contact sparring. I won my first two fights but had to stop the third fight because I got a kick above the eye and another blow could break more blood vessels and that could be very dangerous for the eye. Black-eyed

All together I am very pleased with the competition. It was loads of fun despite all the nervousity and the light injury. (last competition I broke a toe and received no medals so it's clearly an improvement). I made many friends and this kung fu hobby of mine is not only about self-dense in a dark alley but also a very prosperous social club.

I will try to collect more photos and put them here. Sadly I ran out of batteries in my digital camera.