Chatter Of The Squirrel

Today we had the Enbu event for the year. An Enbu is a choreographed ‘fight’ for each student to showcase what they’ve learnt so far.

It’s what we’ve been practising for the last few months. My partner is a Nepalese with very hard bones and deficient accupressure nerve points. His blocks were more like attacks against my arm. Suffered painful forearms the last couple of weeks and I could literally feel my ulna reshaping itself in response to the constant trauma.

And he failed to show up at the Enbu today.

We were far from ready, and I was almost wishing that he would not show. Well, be careful what you wish for…

I missed out on the chance to win some medals . Also, Hosoe sensei had written up warm and humorous introductions for every participant. And since my turn never came, I also missed out on finding out what he thought of me.

Ah well.

After the Enbu, we had our annual dinner at the rooftop BBQ restaurant. There was beer, Chiraz, good sushi, and lots of ‘drinking’ stories of what happened at previous gatherings.

I was unable to refuse a mug of Carlsberg, and we made multiple toasts to my absentee Enbu partner.

Also met a number of the membership’s families. Most unexpected was Hosoe sensei’s wife… who had a fashionable, manga-ish hairstyle and coloring.

At the end of the dinner, I was stuck for a bit cos my car batt ran dead cos I had left the lights on. Had no luck jumpstarting, probably cos I bought my jumper cables for cheap, and they were useless. Thick cables, but only a tiny core of copper inside that couldn’t move the amps needed. But later did manage to push the car down a slope and started it that way.