Alzheimer's Disease is very crippling ; and robs us of our very dignity as a human being

Some time recently I went to a wake of a close relative, and when I was there I met with some of my mother's relatives. Very surprisingly one of my relatives had a stroke of the brain and her memory was wiped clean. 

Dementia and Alzheimer's are becoming something which we must deal with as we live longer lives. The quality of life and the memories of our past are most precious which anybody can ever wish to have.Losing that and you become a shell without knowing it. 

I wonder what are the treatments for alzheimer's as well as other afflications of the brain  commonly classifed as 'dementia'. Parkinson's is another debilitating disease. 

With my late father, my brother John, son Andrew

It was very painful to watch a once vibrant and happy person being reduced to someone who doesn't even know her closest and most loved ones.

While we strive ever onward for excellence in business and career, I am reminded of the harshness of life, that we MUST show care and concern for all those around us.  

Life is indeed unpredictable and fleeting and we must literally use each day as if it were our last day on earth.

The things I had in 1990 ; so analog and bricks and mortar !

This (in my opinion anyways) is a fascinating video, a throwback some 28 odd years where I randomly videoed what was inside my bedroom. There was nothing  to be censored ! It was just what a young man then would keep in his room, also laying out the things I felt were important to me at that time, like the photos in their frames - so last century !   

I am amazed at how technology has changed the products which we used then and now. As I panned the Sony Camcorder 7 around room, I am amazed ad how many things are gone with the wind and how some things still remain the same. More of that later.

I recall I purchased this gem of a 'toy' in  June 1990 when I visited Japan in the Akihabara electronics products district and the salesman promised me then something - he said, product made in Japan, for Japanese market is 100% better in quality than that made outside of Japan ; he was absolutely correct. The camcorder lasted me almost 10 wonderful years and I had many good experiences playing with it and taking (then) numerous meaningful videos and storing them in first cassettes and then I converted them to DVDs.All of this before the age of Youtube and file sharing generation of today.

This video starts with the cellphone, also Sony. With its antenna and a receiving range of maybe 10 meters, it was widely used then. It has now gone the way of the dinosaur. Behind the cellphone was the traditional handset phone. Does any youngster really know how to use such an ancient technology ? 

Next there was a slow panning of the table where I worked in my bedroom, and some of the stationery (there is a magnifying glass, some paper holders, an ink bottle (!) for a fountain pen, a nice portrait of a 27 year old me as well as the highlight of my student life, getting an Engineering degree from the NUS.

Then, there is a colour TV with antenna (Sanyo) also gone the way of the dinosaur. Along the ledge of the wall (the room was extended in the early '80s to add in the balcony so that the aircondition covered it and there was a small bar complete with small refrigerator, beer glasses and a display cabinet (IKEA no less) which I kept assorted stuff.    

The colour TV belonged to my Por Por or Grandmother who passed away in the early '80s and she had the TV for a good 8 to 10 years. I used it till perhaps the early '90s when I moved out after getting married. They don't make the TVs as reliable as those in the early 70s and 80s. That is my opinion. 

You can see the yellow wall and then a blue wall in the background. That is the extension to the room. The old bedroom extended till the yellow portion and the blue portion was the extension of the balcony becoming an add-on to the room. Below the Sanyo airconditioner (manual no remote then) stood the cassette player (!) and radio. This was just before the days of the CD, DVD, Blue Ray and Digital sound ! So I had 2 racks of cassette storage ; 

Panning over to the other side of the bed, on the mantelpiece lay the pager (!), my wallet, a Wolves sweat band, a dual fountain pen display, some analog clocks. 

At the glass display cabinet, there are the trophies (amazingly they never go out of fashion!) and finally to some nice pictures of a tiger family.

This is really a surrealistic throwback in time some 28 years ago !

Make Training Fun ; Introduce New Techniques and Flip over Old Routines

Punching a Block of Wood with a trainee

Today I had the privilege of taking the entire karate class at Tanglin CC ; there were 10 students including me and we normally would be performing the same old structured routines which are :

a) Warm Up, Stretching and Running
b) Basic Stances, Kicks and Punches
c) Idoshyigi which means stances with movement
d) Kata which means the practice of form 
e) More Physical exercises 
f)  Warm down 

Managing the growing class motivates the trainer as well as the trainees. 

With the assistance of another black belt member Ricky Ng, we did things to add in a little 'fun' element into the training. So, I introduced the Ippon Kumite or One step Sparring.

Since the group of trainees tonight were mainly senior belters, of brown 3 level and above, we practised this Ippon Kumite with several forms of defence utilising the Bunkai or Application of Kata from the Kihon Kata Dai Ichi. 

There were basically many different iterations to the blocks and parries and I can safely say that the trainees enjoyed this controlled session whereby they can use what they had learnt 

on fellow trainees and see for themselves whether their blocks, parries and kicks are effective or not in self defence.

At a recent sparring seminar organized by the Shitoryu Karate Association 

To train everyone must, however, to make the training Fun with the element of self defence as the focus is what all of us come to practice karate for.

Never Stop Trying - till the death of Time

Wolves manage to draw level at 93rd minute and they never stopped trying throughout the entire game to scrape a 2 - 2 draw against League 1 Shrewsbury. 

Even with a team with 6 channges, they never ever give up on pushing for more goals. 

The grand takeaway from all this is that we all need to push for that one strike in life to make it that everyone will remember you with, the seminal piece of work which you can and will be remembered for, good, bad or ugly.

Think deeply and tread carefully on this path of Life.   

Carpe Diem

Gather ye the rosebuds while ye may......

Spend some time just thinking about this magnificent scene from the Dead Poet's Society.

The epohcal performance of a lifetime by the mercurial late Robin Williams will always be etched in memory.

Make something out of your life......

Bob Seger - Long Live Old Time Rock and Roll !

Found this in the archives of Spotify ; a great tool to have access to millions of songs at the touch of the button.

Shito Style Karate - Jion Kata

Kata means 'form' ; hence the better your kata the better your competency in the martial art. 

Hence the application of the 'form' is called Bunkai and in the next post I will show the Bunkai for the Shito Style Kata of Jion.

Oss !