Started training yesterday at 6 am when I went out for Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Tai Chi was a lovely introduction. It's very restful and requires more grace and balance than power. Qi Gong is a different matter. In Qi Gong you spend your time cultivating your Qi or life force, and there are 4 major points to do this - the palms of each hand, the top of your head and your belly button. In Qi Gong we had to get into horse-riding stance (which puts a lot of pressure on the Quadriceps and calves), put our hand in front of us with the palms facing each other, close our eyes, and move the hands out as we breathed in and in as we breathed out. We do this for about 15-20 minutes. This ... read more

After writing the blog last night, I had a shower, had dinner and went to bed at about 9pm, with my alarm set for 6 the next morning so I had plenty of time to get my train tickets, check out of the hostel by midday and see a little of Beijing. Going to bed at 9pm had its own problems, notably that young people are usually preparing to go out at 9pm, so the corridor outside my room was noisy. No problem, I put in earplugs to let me sleep and dropped off fairly quickly. Genius. NO! NOT GENIUS! I woke up to the sounds of people moving about in the corridor (one earplug had fallen out), looked at my clock and saw that it was 12 already - my alarm of course makes noise ... read more

So I fly to China in 65 hours, but I decided that before I go I should enter a blog entry. So I'm going to be learning Kung Fu in China from Shaolin Monks this time next week, and for the next 2 months. This was always an ambitious project considering training is a minimum of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week at the academy, but made more so by my previously lamentable state of fitness. Everyone has a favourite "Katherine's rubbish at sports" story. Say "sprinting" to my family, it's a funny story. Say "hamster" to my friends, similarly funny story (also interestingly involving sprinting). Even "static trapeze" has its moments. I have always been awful at sports; it was the only class at school I got a detention for. But hey, not ... read more