Hapkido on Fight Quest of Astro Discovery channel

Every Tuesday at 10pm there is a martial arts reality show on TV called Fight Quest featured on Astro's Discovery channel. This show is about two Caucasian martial arts practitioner's going around Asia learning and competing in Asian martial arts. The first episode showed the two guys going to the Phillipines learning and competing in the Filipino stick fighting martial arts called Kali/Eskrima. After the first show I missed a couple of other episodes featuring other different Asian martial arts style.

Tonight's episode was quite interesting as it featured the Korean art of Hapkido. I am always intrigued by Hapkido because some people say the Korean art share the same ancestry as the Japanese martial art of Aikido, my own martial art style. The mother of Aikido is Daito Ryu Aikidjutsu and it is said that the founder of Hapkido also studied Aikijutsu under the same teacher as O Sensei, Aikido's founder.

Although I have done some research on Hapkido and even viewed some video clips on Youtube, I have never seen a feature length TV documentary until tonight.

As I see it the main difference between the two arts is that Aikido is a defensive martial arts while Hapkido has both defensive and offensive elements. While competition is forbidden in Aikido , Hapkido actively promotes tournament fighting. While Aikido techniques are mainly confined to grappling and throwing, Hapkido techniques also includes striking, kicking and ground fighting.

Looking at the combatants bashing each other in the tournament , Hapkido looks a lot like the kick boxing styles eg. TKD , Mixed Martial Art and Sanshou with lots of emphasis on kicking, punching, clinching and takedowns.

The closest resemblance to Aikido is in the basic Hapkido kata training. I see the Aikido equivalent of throwing and projection techniques eg kokyu nage, shihonage, tenchinage, kotegaeshi, koshinage etc. In the joint manipulating training I see elements of Aikido locking techniques such as ikkyo, nikkyo, sanky0, yonkyo, etc.

The circular movements and footworks are also quite similar to Aikido's except in Hapkido they are more linear and angular.

In my opinion, the two arts were the same when they were practiced as Aikijutsu and as they evolved over the years, each developed in separate ways. While the modern incarnation of Aikido focuses more on personal , moral and spiritual development using vigorous martial arts training as a vehicle, modern Hapkido developed into a martial arts system focusing on competition and personal survival.

Pizza observations from a window-side table

Wife said she was too tired to cook dinner and daughter suggested eating out at Pizza Hut.

"Let's go to Pizza Hut for dinner. Let Amy relish her pizza before she goes back to her UMT uni in KualaTerrengganu soon," dear wife said, always thinking about the children more than herself. Surely Kuala Terengganu is not such a sleepy and economic backwater that you can't get to eat pizza there, I amused myself silently in my head.

"OK we will feast out at Pizza Hut tonight ," I answered cheerfully as dear wife and daughter cast expectant looks in my direction. Actually I am not picky about food and usually go along with the rest of the family on the choice of what and where to eat.

By the time we got to the restaurant, it was already 3/4 full. The waiter ushered the three of us to a table beside the window. After taking a long time to select the food we finally settled for a conventional combo meal, meatball spaghetti and garden salad. After ordering the food and settling down I looked around the eatery.

Most of the tables were already taken although more customers were entering the restaurant. The crowd was a good mixed of young and old, family with their children, couples , teen ages . I saw Malays, Chinese and Indians happily devouring their food oblivious of one another's presence, true muhibbah or simply minding each other's business.

With the fuel price hike I thought that people would try to save money by eating at home instead of dinning out. Daily the media reports people grouching about the escalating cost of living due to price hikes and calling for drastic changes to their customery extravagant lifestyles. Yet tonight I am witnessing the public packing a western style fast food restaurant as if the food is FOC. How odd and contradictory.

Maybe the prices of local food have risen so much that they are almost the same as what the fast food restaurants are charging. Thus instead of patronising local fare, the public is willing to pay a little bit more to eat out in the comfort of these western style eateries. Nowadays if you have a big family, it may be cheaper to eat out than to cook in as the cost of ingredients to prepare food for home cooking has skyrocketed beyond comprehension. On the other hand the flock of people may be from the upper middle class who, hurt by rising inflation and no longer able to afford the luxury of dinning out in posh hotels and fancy restaurants decides to downgrade their dinning experience to convenient foods such as those offered by Pizza Hut, KFC, Mc Donalds, Old Town Kopitiam, etc

Price hike or not, and come what may when your tummy starts to rumble it is time to eat.

The difficulties of life are. . . .

"The difficulties of life are to make you better, not bitter".

I found this message scrawled in cursive writing by hand on a white board at of all places, a mamak shop in a suburb of Rawang called Bandar Country Homes.

The mamak shop occupies a corner lot of a row of double-storey shop house . The white board is hung on the wall at the back portion of the eatery in full display for all to see. If not for the inspiration message on the board there is nothing extraordinary about this nondescript joint. What is so interesting about the phrase is that it is written in the English language, and not in Bahasa as one would expect.

Whenever I attend my weekly Rawang project meeting on Mon I normally go to this particular joint for light breakfast and refreshment before the start of the meeting. What keeps me coming back to this mamak shop is not the bland food but the white board and the inspirational messages on it. Every week I come here I would see a different message. At first I didn't pay much attention to the writing, but after a few visits I began to appreciate the subtle lessons of life that the writer of these messages are trying to convey.

On Mon 16/6/08 when this particular message appeared on the board I was struggling inside my head with some thorny engineering issues which I had to resolve at the meeting but have not yet find a solution. I was expecting to be lambasted by the client and was busy conducting trial runs of how to answer the client's questions in my head. Then looking up while sipping teh O (without the sugar) and tucking in the thosai, I saw this amazing phrase flashed before my eyes : "The difficulties of life are to make you better, not bitter"

After paying for the food and drink, I left the restaurant and headed straight for the site office where the morning's meeting was scheduled to be held with a much happier frame of mind than before. I still had not resolved the problematic issues in my head nor had I worked out a appropriate strategy to handle the demanding client. The agitation and apprehension of not being able to answer the client's questions satisfactorily did not seem too intimidating as before.

I am sure most of the locals who patronize the shop don't pay attention to the messages or are aware that the board exists at all. Even if they see the board it would be difficult to distill and comprehend the essence of the messages as the writing is in the English language.

If the reader wants to visit this particular mamak joint in Rawang, look out for Restoran Ghazali Sdn Bhd, the name of the restaurant. I wonder who is the writer of the messages on the white board. The next project meeting is scheduled on Mon 23/6/08 and I can't wait to find out what is the next message on the board.

Father's Day fuel rebate payout

Got my fuel rebate of RM625.00 in the local post office today; after waiting 4 hours, and not within 3 minutes as reported in the press. To be fair, the 4 hours were the time spent waiting for my number to be called.

I and the wife went to the post office at the Kajang Tesco Store at 11.30am. There was already a big crowd of people who was there much earlier than us. There were only two counters serving the public at the post office. There were already 174 eligible motorists in the queue ahead of me. My ticket indicated that I was the number 1223 customer and at that time the counter was serving customer no. 1049.

Filling up the money order form was quite simple. There was a policeman manning the service counter who was responsible for distributing the form. Pasted on top of the counter were some completed money order sample forms as a guide for the public to fill the forms correctly.

While the wife wandered into the store to buy the week's groceries, I headed downstairs for some light refreshment at the Uncle John cafe.

"Don't loafed in the cafe for too long as you may miss your turn at the post office", dear wife reminded me over the hand phone as I was about to sip the hot black coffee. "OK. I won't stay in the cafe longer than one hour, " I reassured her. In my mind it would be another three hours before my turn was called and there was no way that I would have stayed in the cafe for three hours.

After finishing my meals and reading the papers I went up to the first floor to check out the situation at the post office.

The big crowd of people was still there. The ticket clock showed that the the two counters were serving customers no 145 ans 146. My watch told me that the time was 1.30pm. At the rate it was going it would be another one and a half hours before my turn. Decided to joined the wife at the store. Wife was still buying groceries.

3.00pm. Checking out at the cashier's counter after finishing the purchases. The ticketing clock at the post office flashed no. 1217 and 1218. There were 5 more customers before my turn. By 3.30pm the clock flashed my number. Went to the counter. Stamped my left thumb print on the money order form, exchanged a few pleasantries with the clerk and in less than 5 minutes I received the RM625.00 fuel rebate as promised by the government.

The fuel rebate is equivalent to RM52.00 of petrol subsidy per month, surely not enough to pay the monthly petrol bill of RM400.00. Still it is better than nothing in times of runaway inflation and fuel price hikes.

Indon maid in the office

Went to the office to do some work even though today is Saturday. Have been going back to work on many Saturdays and Sundays since the beginning of the year.

As I made my way to my cubicle noticed that the light in front of the lady boss's office was lit up. Saw lots of used drawings strewn on the floor and a young girl in T shirt and shot pants was busy sorting and arrangement the papers. The girl appeared startled seeing me.

Then I heard the lady boss talking to somebody on the cell phone in her office, and short while later popped out of her room to talk to the young girl.

Now I got it. The young girl is the lady boss's Indonesian maid. The lady boss brought along her maid to help clear out some of the used accumulated junk papers and drawings in her office.

Said hello to the lady boss to acknowledge her presence and got down to work. It is the first time in many years that I see her in the office on a Saturday. Though not working on any project but still it is a Sat and usually the bosses don't show up on a weekend.

As usual I am the only staff in the structure section working today. Which is fine as during normal days I hardly get the chance to concentrate on work without the distraction of endless phone calls and other disruptions

Dry taps

When I called her on my hand phone during lunch time, dear wife complained that water service in my neighbourhood stopped soon after I left for work in the morning.

When I come home from work at 7.0pm. The water service was still not restored. As a result I got a tirade of woes from dear wife frustrated by cooking and washing difficulties. Fortunately she did manage to collect two pales of water before the taps dried out completely.

Usually water disruption in my area would last for a few hours to half a day and it is always preceded by notification from SYABAS. But today the disruption came without advanced warning and as at 9 pm the water supply has not yet been restored.

We have just finished our dinner and the dirty crockery is left in the sink due to no water to clean up.

I hope the authority will restore the water supply before dawn tomorrow. In the meantime I will have to take a quick bath with whatever water that is still left in the water tank.

ONE BIG FAMILY

Read this astonishing story in today's nstonline about a 49 year Kuala Terengganu grandfather with 3 wives who is about to marry another woman half is age. The ages of his current three wives range from 25 to 46.

According to the news report he has fathered 25 children ranging in age from 4 months to 25 years with his three wives.

Can't figure out why a man wants to complicate his life by marrying so many women and why a woman might want to share his man with other women. Posing together in the picture they all look so happy and at ease in one another's company.

On the other hand who am I to pass smug judgements on others? In some cultures polygamy is a completely acceptable practice so long as the man can provide adequately for all his women.

At the very least these women are legal wives in the eyes of the law of the society that they belong to and they can display their affections for each other openly without suffering from the public disdain of contemporary society. In contrast, the poor mistresses or kept women of some wealthy men who have no legal and social status and have to hide their illicit relationship from society really got the worst deal.

If they are so really delighted with this kind of arrangement bless them all!!!

Wishing them good health, joy and long life.

Death-wish motorbikers on the road

This morning a crazy and speeding motor cyclist almost collided head on with my car. I was signaling and slowing down as I turned into a side road on my left when out of nowhere this biker came at me from the back like a rocket. Of course I didn't see him directly in the car mirror but I thought I caught a fleeting glimpse of a blurry object whizzing by.

Instinctively I jammed the brakes to slow down the car. If not for my instinct the biker would have rammed straight into my car. Luckily he just grazed the left front fender and did not crash onto the road surface.

Seeing that the man is not injured and his machine is not damaged and considering that my wife and daughter were also riding with me in the car, I decided to let it go and continue on my way. As I pulled away from the junction, I saw from the reflection in the mirror the guy had already dismounted and was glaring angrily in my direction menacingly.

I don't know who is at fault. What is important is that a fatal accident had been avoided and nobody got hurt. As for the MyVi I would have to fork out a tidy sum of cash to touch up the four lines of scratch marks on the fender.

There are two types of drivers that I am most wary of on the road: drivers of big vehicles eg trucks and buses and bikers. Of the two, bikers with an attitude are the most insane because of their maniacal driving and death-wish tendencies; as often times like this morning, when zigzagging along the road you can't see them until it is too late.

Cutting spending on non-essentials

Last night Fri 6/6/08. 8pm. Yamada Sensei's Aikido seminar at Rakan Muda Pertaling, Puchong.

Including myself, there were about 30 people attending the seminar. What is so surprising is that of the total about one third of the total were Singaporean practitioners.

Considering Yamada Sensei is such a high ranking teacher coming all the way from Japan to conduct seminar for MAA members, the small number of local participants is quite a let down for Sensei. If not for the Singaporeans who make up the number the cool reception given by the locals is even more embarrassing for the organiser and the association.

Where are the locals I wondered? Maybe after the shock of the drastic petrol price surge of 40% few people are in the mood to pay RM120.00 to come to the three day seminar, beginning on Fri. Still suffering from post petrol-price-surge depression I myself initially wanted skip the seminar, but decided to go anyway in support of Sensei, and the work of the organiser and the association in organising the seminar.

Petrol depression

The price of petrol shot up from RM1.92 yesterday to M2.70 today. A horrifying 40% hike. Everybody at the RSGC renovation site meeting this morning was grumbling and whining about the petrol price hike.

According to the minister, the government will monitor the world price of petrol on a month to month basis until Aug when all petrol subsidies will have been completely abolished. Reading between the lines it means that this is not the last petrol price hike, but more of an appetizer of what is to come. Will we see the day when Malaysians will have to pay RM5.00 per liter of petrol sooner than we think?

Last night on my way home from Nilai to Kajang, I saw all the petrol stations along the way packed full with motorists desperately filling up their tanks with the then RM1.92 per liter petrol. This big mad rush to top up caused massive traffic jams and inconvenience to other motorists.

Don't quite understand the kiasu mentality of people. How much can one save on a full tank of petrol considering that your car engine will be running and consuming fuel while one is waiting for more than 1 hour before one' s turn to fill up?