LotusLeaf Tai Chi

We had a great summer up in North Wales.  My Water Worn jewellery went well and seemed to get a good reception, along with Donny’s boards from Still Stoked.  We met up with some old friends and made some new ones and Ocean loved the sea!

The beach at Porth Neigwl, Hells Mouth, is so wonderful,  nearly 4.5miles of sand and shingle where the sea can be as placid as a lake but it can also live up to it’s name!  At low tide there is plenty of room to practice a Tai Chi form or two.

Unfortunately due to the amount in the sea, this beach gets huge loads of plastic and other rubbish brought in on the tides and left by the tourists.  It is such a shame and because plastic doesn’t break down like glass or pot it will remain on the sea and in our sands for a very long time.  The plastic is easy to spot when it is still in bottle form or lightly broken down but there is a lot more that is unseen within the sand itself and in even smaller pieces; “Recently scientists discovered microscopic pieces of plastic can be found everywhere in the ocean, even inside plankton…” (Hands on Oceanography)

The photo above shows one of the smaller tidal dumps of plastic and other waste.

However, humans do occasionally leave less invasive and distinctly more aesthetically pleasing things behind…

Well unless we are being invaded by Maka Pakas……..

I hope everyone had a good August even if it was maybe not the weather we were expecting.  North Wales was as lovely as normal with very little changing up at the top end of Porth Neigwl beach (Abersoch is, of course, a different matter!)

Thanks to (although not the best term to use) Donny spraining his arm, so badly the whole thing has swollen up and so no more surfing for him, we are home early and I have managed to sneak in my last archery lesson.  So…

Woolaston – Classes normal time including 14th September.  Sorry to mess you around.

All other clubs are business as usual. See you all Monday or Tuesday!

A strange question for a Tai chi website, maybe. But I think it is really important to know and care about things that are going on.  My passion is the sea (anyone who knows my son might have guessed that), I studied Marine Biology at university and go to the sea whenever possible.  I have long heard about the oceans being overfished but it was the film “End of the line” that really brought it into perspective and I can’t recommend strongly enough that EVERYONE should watch this film.

The film looks into all the facts about our worldwide fishing industry and how we are bringing into free-fall so many species of fish that it is estimated that if nothing changes we will RUN OUT of fish in 40 odd years.  That means down to eating jellyfish and chips or maybe plankton burgers?!?  Some of the fishing facts are scary for example the  length of line put out each year by long line fisheries is estimated to be able to go 500 times round the planet!  Governments pay out 15 billion dollars  a year to subsidise  fishing and so encouraging over fishing.

I can’t sit back and do nothing and in this case there is something really simple to do and in the words of the film:

Ask before you buy – Only eat sustainable seafood – look for the MSC logo on your packs of fish

Tell politicians – respect the science and cut the fishing fleet

Join the campaign for protected seas – check out The End of the Line website and also The Marine Conservation Society and their off shoot with the Cooperative – Your Seas Your Voice campaign

It doesn’t take long, it doesn’t cost anything and it could make all the difference.  To paraphrase Charles Clover, investigative reporter, when all else has gone wrong and global warming has meant we can’t produce enough food to feed us on land, we are squandering our most precious resource we have – wild fish.

Thanks to everyone who have put in lots and lots of hard work over the last few months, you are all coming on brilliantly!

31st May 2010 – BANK HOLIDAY – There is no session at Joys Green.  I am waiting to hear back from students as to a session at Ross, I will keep you all posted.

1st June – Woolaston Club, as you mostly all know I am partaking in a archery course with The Bowmen of Dean, and need to get my sessions in.  After talking to several of you it was suggested that students would be happy to have a late session on a few occasions to allow me to get in my course.  I would like to pencil this session in as one of those.  Times will be 8pm – 9pm, though don’t go away if I am not there early, please hang around, I WILL come!

15th June – Woolaston Club, no session for the normal 3rd in the month.

29th June – Woolaston Club,  I would like to pencil this session in as another late session, if this suits.  Times will be 8pm – 9pm, though don’t go away if I am not there early, please hang around, I WILL come!

It’s so sad to have students leave after they’ve been with me for such a length of time.  Sean and Vivi are no exception.  They started Tai Chi with me when I taught in Chepstow at Equilibrium Holistic Centre and then came with me to Woolaston.  They have been fab students, enthusiastic with a wicked sense of humor.  I know that Woolaston class will miss you guys and so will I.

Good luck with your new life in Mexico at your Ranch and all the teaching, writing, learning and most of all parenting.  Keep in touch and keep practicing hard.  Maybe see you out there one of these days.

Check out their website  about their place Rancho San Pedro and all their exploits and, if you can, join them for one of their bound to be great workshop/holidays.

Just a quick Thank you to ray for cheering us up with that shirt on an otherwise sad occasion!

Gung Hei Fat Choi or Happy New Year!  It’s now the Year of the Tiger until February 2nd 2011.

We had a wonderful meal at The Dragon’s Den in Monmouth with 12 people coming.  The restaurant if full of lovely carved objects and even the chairs and tables were carved with Dragons and other such creatures.  The food was so well presented it was almost too good to eat (almost, but we all managed to ruin the look!) Thank you to The Dragon’s Den for such a beautiful and tasty time.

Then on 21st February in Saint Mary Street, Chepstow, outside of another lovely Restaurant -The Shangri-La- Yi Quin Martial Arts and Lion Dance group performed a mesmerizing dance down the street.  Ocean and I got great views, on particular close look when the silver lion came and ‘nuzzled’ Ocean in the middle of the dance!  I have never seen his eyes so wide!

It is a great privilege to have such cultural things in the local area.  I can not advise strongly enough to take advantage of these events and go see them.

Talking of Lion Dances, as I have mentioned to most of my students, I found this amazing video of a Malaysian Lion Dance which is well worth looking at.