Surprisingly I didn’t get much sleep on the Thursday night! I curled up in bed at around ten and I don’t think I actually drifted off until about two in the morning. I just kept tossing and turning and eventually woke up (and got up) at about half five as I was clearly not going to get any more sleep. I had packed my case and done everything the night before so I had to just wait painfully to set off. We hit the road at about half ten, and apart from my interesting navigation of Exeter services roundabout and almost hitting a car going up a hill, we got into London Docklands at around half six without too much hassle.
After having a shower and a lie down we headed off for some food in a cracking Chinese restaurant (same as last year) and had some great food and some very powerful Chinese spirits, Ouch! The Yi-Ban is one of my favourite restaurants even though I have only been there twice, but the food, scenery and live music is really nice and I look forward to going there almost as much as Seni itself!
After a good fried breakfast we headed over to the Excel complex for day #1. First up we had a good look around the various stalls. We found the Bruce Lee exhibition pretty quick, which contained some of his old costumes and other memorabilia including the original scrift of his fight with Chuck Norris in ‘Way of the Dragon’!!! We then checked out some of the various demo’s and displays, including Muay Tai, Kickboxing, Wing Chun, The Royal Marine’s and even a few odd ones like ‘Cane self defence’ hhmm ? Got to say the Shaolin Monks were again probably one of my favourites, mainly because of their whole lifestyle and total dedication and commitment fascinates me as much as their art. Totally inspiring.
That night I was so tired I didn’t really contribute much to the evening, I just ate our evening meal in relative silence and crashed out super early as I was shattered. In a way I’m glad I did as I woke feeling fresh and ready for day #2.
Our main priority was to watch some of the fight and weapon competitions having watched most of the displays and done most of the shopping the previous day. Unfortunately it did mean standing around for long periods of time watching people warming up and stretching etc. It was worth the wait in the end as I saw some awesome things. First we watched some of the various Jujitsu bouts and then turned our attention to the various sparring and weapon team events which were a little more associated with our TSD and Viper Squad training. We were familiar with a lot of the teams such as the ‘Mad Dogs’ and ‘Team Fusion’ and one of the referees was Jacey (2fast4U) Cashman who is one of the best point fighters in the country. Shame he was only reffing!
The main highlights were a couple of guys from Team Fusion with some great weapons performances and freestyle forms. But I think the most impressive for me was a young chap called Luke Scott. He can’t have been older than about nine but I can’t say I have ever seen a kid with as much talent as he has for his age. His bo-staff display was absolutely astounding! The future of Martial Arts surely lies here.
After another long day it was time to hit the road. Apart from a brief stop at Exeter for some food we pretty much just hammered it all the way home. I was shattered today as I had work this morning and have struggled to stay awake all day, but now in the comfort of my home and a whole night to myself I can relax and reflect. The only downside to the weekend was that we were missing key members of the team which subsequently left us all feeling a little incomplete, but a great time was had by all and it was still one of the highlights of the year.
Fantastic weekend!
