Today we had a rehearsal at the Nam Wah Pai headquarter, which is somewhere in Geylang. As all of us are involved in the performance during the anniversary dinner, each of us has a part to play for the opening ceremony.

And i'm going to brandish a saber! Along with several other people, of course. And standing at the very first row. O_o

The HQ had their training as usual and thus we saw a lot of people there, people from different age group. There's the famous NWP Grandmaster, sitting there and eating an apple. Another group of adults doing qi gong, a bunch of teenagers and some small (cute!) kids fooling around. And so we get to see other NWP people who are not from NUS. It was really an eye-opener. i guess training at the HQ is stricter. Most of the young trainees over there already have red, blue belts. A few has gotten the black tips, meaning they are on their way to black belts. i saw a cute little six-year-old wearing the same colour belt as me. o_O

Now i realised that last time when coach said that the kids at the HQ can break bricks, he wasn't kidding.

After the opening performance, there's a skit which is taken straight out of a scene in 'Huo Yuan Jia'. It's the scene where Huo Yuan Jia has to defeat the foreginers who are good in their respective martial arts. It's kinda funny to see some of our black belts donned in chinese traditional and British colonel costumes. Oooh, and our coach Lester is Huo Yuan Jia!

The exchanges between the 'actors' and coach Lester was interesting indeed. It's like watching a chinese martial art movie.

* * *
Apparently the Public Relations people were so impressed by the black belts breaking sticks and tiles the last time we performed during NUS open house, that they decided to invite us to perform at the central forum on the 14th for some event, i think.

Welcome tea's on the 19th, CMAD (combined martial art display) on the 25th, grading is on the 26th, not to mention the rehearsals for CMAD and anniversary dinner. Then there's training as usual in between.

What a nice way to start a busy sem ahead...

So many performances and rehearsals but i have yet to master my short-stick pattern for grading; i like the saber but i'm not good with it (i keep hitting myself), qi gong is as elusive to me as ever... Can i truly envision myself breaking all those stuff? A senior said i have to be confident and believe in myself, something which i've always find it hard. So is this the time to test my self-confidence?

i need faith. i need strength (literally).