Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Stitchy news - or lack thereof

It's been fairly quiet on the stitching front for me lately, since my last official finish which was the Christmas Bouquet. Since then I have started a project for my mum for Christmas (the project listed as my WIP on the right), stitched 3 small surprise designs which I can't really mention here, and another hush-hush project for an exchange. Therefore I can't really talk much stitching for the time being. Come late December I'll have a lot of stitchy news to share! I also have a few other small projects I want to get done as gifts, time will tell if I can manage it all.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Another calisthenics year over.

We seem to spend so much time working hard at class, learning routines, polishing them for competitions - and once competitions start the year is over before you know it. We did have quite a successful year in 2010, entering 6 items in each of the 4 competitions available to us. We managed to place in the majority of them, winning 15 medals out of a possible 24, as well as a reserve aggregate. The year is officially over now following the club concert on Sunday. As coach, I was given a lovely floral arrangement and a pretty necklace and I also got a pretty bunch of flowers for being the class secretary. I also compete as part of the team - you could call me Jill-of-all-trades (mistress of none!). Here's my flowers, aren't they pretty? (sorry for the bad pic - wanted to take one while they were fresh!)


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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Warrnambool road trip - for karate of course!

DS #2 & I clocked up another super early start, the earliest yet, for another karate tournament. This one was in Warrnambool and run very differently than the usual ones we've gone to. In kata, there's usually a knockout system in place. A random draw is made, and you need to win against your competitor to stay in the competition. This time however there was a points system. Each person performed their kata once and was given a score out of 10, with the highest 3 taking out the prizes.

Anyway, I entered DS into kata, kumite, the older age group of kata, and weapons for the first time. Hey, it was cheap to enter and made the trip worthwhile! Anyway, he took out 2nd place in his age group of kata, only .2 behind the winner. Kumite was next up and DS did well but narrowly lost his 2 matches to just miss 3rd place. Weapons came next, and DS was a little unsure of this as he has never competed in this section before, and it was under 16 so being 9 he was concerned he might come up against some big experienced kids. However, he performed well to take out 1st place! We were both pretty rapt (and surprised!) as he chose to do a bo kata. He has only had one lesson in this weapon, but decorated his own bo and made up his own kata, all within the last week. Not bad for a thrown together routine, with not much confidence going in. Next up was the older age group of kata, with 11 kids in total. Many of them were quite strong and confident, but DS stepped up his kata to take out 1st place. He was last on the mat too, so was able to see the level of the competitors he was up against. Normally that could have been unsettling, but he really pulled out all the stops! This tournament was also unusual in that 1st place took home a trophy AND a medal. All up, he won 2 trophies and 3 medals from 4 events.

A quick trip to the beach for some karate pictures and home we came!


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