Training and Show

Meal at Rhodos

Heide Park

Rope Games

Exxon and Milk Bar

Last Day

Training and Show

Monday was our first training day and the day of the show.  There was a bit of a surprise for one of our new Kobudo students, Richard Asquith.  Richard had achieved his first belt in Kobudo earlier in the month but due to his work commitments had not been available to receive his certificate and belt.  This was rectified by Thorsten who awarded him his belt and certificate.

Dave McNalus, Darryl Garrick and I had the pleasure of being involved in training the children while Thorsten and a fellow karateka worked with many of the adults.  Our German has not improved since last year and Dave and I were extremely grateful that one of the parents agreed to interpret for us. It was pleasing that Tobias joined Darryl to work with the children.  The training from Thorsten was excellent with Thorsten making us wonder how his kicking techniques get better every time we meet him. 

As always the highlight of this day is the show at the end.  From England we had prepared demonstrations involving traditional kata, musical kata, traditional Kobudo, Kobudo bunkai and a street fight sequence. It was great to have some new faces involved in our demonstration - Sean England, Adam Bottom and Lisa Turner to name but three..   

Our German friends had prepared traditional kata, self defence and bunkai demonstrations with once again, the 'piece de resistance' being a demonstration by Thorsten and his team.

They performed several kata under fluorescent lighting in pitch darkness. This looked really impressive and I hope the photos below go some way to reflecting that. We later learnt that Thorsten et al had spent four hours darkening the sport's hall just for this 5 minute slot.

One sad note to the day was when our good friend Lisan landed heavily during training and broke her foot. We were then pleased to see her later in the week with a huge smile on her face and learning how to use crutches as kobudo weapons!

Meal at Rhodos

In the evening we all went for a meal at the Rhodos Greek restaurant.  What a great place to eat this is.  The manager/owner treated us like royalty and even agreed that Dave McNalus could marry one of the girls (Martha) in 20 years time or, if he had a million euros, immediately! 

We all have long memories Dave and look forward to the year 2027. The food was excellent and the atmosphere electric.

Heide Park

Tuesday was Heide Park day. The rain hadn't ceased so it meant that the park was emptier than expected.  This also meant that many of the rides could be accessed far quicker and we all took advantage.  The new ride 'Desert Race' which launched you at G force was very popular with all. As with last year the group split into 2 - the wusses and the non-wusses. 

The only difference between the 2 groups this year was that the wusses didn't ride on 'Scream'. Looking at the picture of my face shooting out of one of the slides you can see why we enjoyed it so much!!!  Obviously the discussions on the ride back to the hotel were focused on the day's events. 

In the evening many chose to enjoy the local fayre.