2nd July 2010 Friday. It�s July already!
Dear Diary,
On Tuesday we had sports camp demo where we showed a bit of fencing (scripted of course) and allowed the freshies at the camp to try a bit of foil and sabre (we have no epeeists, and besides two blades are enough for 20 minutes, and we brought up one piste for each weapon), where I saw my JC orientation OG mate too. So coach didn�t come, and those looking for a training, like the Melvin super-senior who comes to free-fence only for exercise who smokes as well (smelly), didn�t get anything. Yes, we didn�t post it up to let everyone know, and the Melvin is probably not in the loop of communications, so ya. We then had an earlier supper at a ok-tasting but cheap pizza place at Sunset Way. Jason had read reviews about it and so decided to try it and chose that place to celebrate his REAL birthday � don�t be punked by his fb birthday again, that�s set one day earlier. Happy Birthday man!
So, yesterday upon seeing me, coach smiled and declared to take me on my first epee class. I was a bit reluctant but you could tell I would still take up the lesson. First thing that was starkly different from foil was the en garde position. I had to hold the epee (I borrowed the club one) high up (but at least still natural) position. Usually I hold my foil lower and straight to my opponent�s chest, my target area, and coach said for foil I can hold low, but not for epee since I was low-level. It took some getting used to as I fumbled a bit a few times when resuming en garde position while doing drills. The epee was heavier than the foil, so my energy drained faster, but what really drained me was all the riposting. I never had to riposte so far so much (yes in foil riposting is easier with a lighter blade and a lower line). I had to stretch my arm fully at a slight upward angle and point my hand slightly down to hit Coach�s forearm instead of a fully-straight line I would form in foil, and even had to go in further to the middle of his forearm, since I was poking the quarter of his arm closer to his wrist. I was also going too far out and hitting the side of his arm, which was wrong. At least for the lunge I could afford to hit his upper arm, which was perpendicular to the blade. I was using muscles I hardly used and felt weak. Coach taught the �riposte the forearm, THEN step back�, something I learned before in one of the foil trainings, but sometimes I stepped back then riposted, a common mistake I made even in foil which is why my riposte could not reach my opponent�s lame. All that riposting drained me that I had to take a good one minute break before continuing the drill, but coach didn�t give me a long time to rest and I obliged and forged on the training despite being tired. The only thing that bore resemblance to foil was the circular parry six riposte, where I finally felt I had the muscles to do it naturally, even though I had to parry further than I would in foil to make sure the opponent�s point was away from my body before I slide along the blade using the guard and lunge at coach�s chest. A number of times that drill I didn�t parry enough before lunging in so I had to do it a few more times before I could end a lap. My arm was so painful, that I could no longer feel the pain except the sheer weakness of my arm, and I found it trying to make every riposte. I was so tired after training, I declared I dieded and needed probably 15+++ minutes of rest to recover. Telling coach how I just had no strength in my arm, he just said something to the effect of �build up the strength lor�. -________-�� now today I can�t stretch out my arm with a load in and out too far too long (i.e. do a riposte movement) without feeling a slight ache, but in normal position it�s just a slight feeling of noticing a muscle when I usually don�t notice it.
At the end of the lesson, coach told me in his �final words� that epee was �simple. The whole point about epee �poke�.� (obviously it�s poke without getting poked), no parrying like in foil. He also during training �beautiful, good, nice one�. Ok the second point is the usual praise one needs and one deserves if he does it correctly as encouragement of good things. But, is he still trying to persuade me to switch to epee? This actually speaks of the whole situation as it is now still. I will still not drop foil fully, and I am still unsure of how things will turn out to be. If I were taking up epee fully, he would not need to persuade me. I will not drop foil fully because Aerene and I are a team and I still like the parry riposting disengaging, all the �hua� of foil. I will not drop foil even though I lost all my bouts that day � I attribute the losses to my own mistakes which can be avoided and improved on. Against Chewy, I did not step back enough when parrying because I was afraid I would get out of piste (when I actually have some room) and I was a bit lazy. I lost to Aerene because my distance all wrong and I chiong-ed. (somehow against the guys I fence better than when I fence Aerene, it�s like when I fence her I drop my guard and lose all my distance and get back all my bad habits. stoopid me. But at least with her I sensed I was getting back a hint of the prowess I had against left-handed fencers. Against Melvin, well I haven�t broken the boundary of his just-any-how-parry-in-all-directions-parry when he retreats then a quick riposte for him to win the point, or him just charge at me and a quick outstretch of the point to score. I score points only by remises. I think I am going to take that out into a tactic to elude him out of his defense and open up an opportunity for me to remise him.
I notice I hadn�t had that feeling much that I was upset about my horrible foil fencing that I was so thwarted with in year 1 and some of year 2. Now I sense a hint of it coming back, and it is a good thing in a way because it means I may be driven to improve because of my discontent, or it could mean a bad thing because it could be another painful self-inflicted psychological attack on me again.
After the epee class, Flo asked me, �Are you switching to epee?� I told her, �No. **some words forgotten** so I will still be free-fencing foil.� Nope, I won�t be giving up foil. So at least Flo can still fence foil against me.
---
Ah yes. On my way to supper while walking out to the bus-stop, I stepped and my feet went through quite a deep course of a downward step as I heard a cracking sound � a sound I never want to hear. I turned around and saw what I didn�t want to see. I had stepped on a snail shell and broken its home. I was sad and very sorry for the snail because I had broken this harmless animal�s home, an animal that actually helps the environment without being a disturbance to me, and without its home it would surely die as its mucus dries up. And all the sorry-s could not save this creature, and there was nothing I could do. So I faked a sniffle but KY, being who he is, kept pointing out that in my sobbing I was smiling. I never noticed I was smiling, it just so happened that the line of my mouth I pulled turned up at the ends. But I was really sorry for killing the snail and I don�t want to be a snail-murderer though I won�t mind killing the mosquitoes and flies and cockroach nymphs and small spiders that wouldn�t run away with my shoe. And as KY was being KY, asked if I was going to blog about it. So there you are, I just did.
And yes, Jasper has a very nice EZ-link card holder from Abercrombie & Fitch.
Also, I still thinking if I corner Nick with a joke which might dig his grave :P
---
Lastly, today I read the email Mum forwarded to me from Auntie Helen. Frannie, her mother, passed away. Reading the email and the eulogy did not fail to bring tears to my eyes and heart. Her family was close to our family, a bond made since my primary school days. We visited her in Adelaide and our whole 3-generation family stayed at her house in the hills, amongst other adventures. It is such a wonderful place and more importantly, such a wonderful family. It was heartwarming and good to know Frannie was so well-loved by her family and her family spent time with her in her last days. Her granddaughters who are slightly older than me even would look after her, staying with her for a few days and drove her to her concerts instead of going clubbing, a favourite young Australian�s activity. Also, the family members supported each other as they went through that time, as demonstrated by what they did at the funeral. I need not say more. I only met Frannie on two occasions, once was when our family visited her at her home when Joey her border collie was still alive and I swam with her great-grandson Angus in her pool, and the second time at the Christmas/engagement party when MP and I went there on our own.
To borrow the phrase Auntie Helen wrote and I can�t think of any better: while Nike is �just do it.�Frannie is �Do it- with style� Seriously, no one can out frannie Frannie, as uncle Paul said and we all can�t help but agree. She wore 4-inch heels to school while she teached, she loved looking at Vogue with Pippi, she gave ME a FRENCH MANICURE kit by Manicare, which, when I asked how I was going to bring flammable liquids home, told me to smuggle it in my luggage. I did so, and I opened it for the first time, 4.5 years later, to paint my nails for my birthday for fun with the help of MT when I uncovered it amongst all the things in my drawer.
To Frannie, no one can out-frannie you, no one can be like you the amazing woman. You Go Girl.
