In The North

I found out late Monday that I had to go back up to the Yukon for work again. I also found out that I was leaving on Tuesday. There was not a lot of time to prepare so it was a hectic day yesterday. I am supposed to fly out on Sunday so hopefully I will be at the Kwoon next week.

Better Late

My post this week is a little late as I have been travelling a lot in the Yukon since Sunday afternoon. I had just finished one project late Sunday and then had to travel 3.5 hours to another site for Monday morning. Last night was another late night and although I was able to view classes, I had to do it while travelling. These are just excuses and I probably could have found the time to blog, but I didn't and that was my choice. That is on me and I own it.

I am relieved as tomorrow morning I am finally heading home. However, I will not be back into Edmonton until 8:00pm so I will miss all classes tomorrow. There is also a good chance I will not be there Thursday as well as I might be heading to Calgary that day. Next week is spring break hence the Kwoon will be closed. This means we will be 7 weeks into the Year of the Dragon and I will have made it to the Kwoon once so far.

I could easily start to get frustrated like I have in the past when I have been away so much, but I knew this was coming. I have to keep that in mind otherwise it will be a frustrating year if I focus on this and not on why I joined the team. My goal remains to do what I can, when I can and just put in as much effort as I can.

4,200 Pushups

4,200 Situps

5 Spear Form

5 Horse Bench Form

100 Sparring Rounds

270 Km's

140 Acts of Kindness

Mental Training

The current site I am at has no facilities for me to use. I basically have my room which is basically a hallway with a bed on one side. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with this but there is not much I can do about it. So my focus has been on the mental side of my training which has been reviewing the grappling techniques and applications and trying to put them together in a sequence that makes sense and flows together well.

I figured I would let all of you know what I do for work and why I am away so much. I travel to sites (active mines, remote communities, abondonesd sites, etc.) which generate or have generated hazardous waste (oil, fuels, acids, batteries, toxics, compressed gases, etc.). Once onsite, I inventory the waste, sort into similar materials or disposal locations, label, arrange transport, supervize loading and then complete all documentation. Typically I will have 1 or 2 people under me depending on the size of the job. Most of this work occurs in The Northwest Territories or the Yukon and involves a lot of places that are fly in only. The farthest I have been is Sachs Harbour on Banks Island and Ulukhaktok on Victoria Island. That may be the furthest North Kung Fu has been practiced.

3,200 Pushups

3,200 Situps

5 Spear Form

5 Horse Bench Form

100 Sparring Rounds

220 Km's

105 Acts of Kindness

Travel With A Plan

I am flying out shortly to Whitehorse and I am then driving to an abandoned mine site about 3 hours north of Whitehorse. I am unsure about internet capabilities while I am away so you may or may not see me for the next couple of weeks.

Even though I have no idea what facilities they may have, I have a plan to start working specifically on one of my personal requirements (a grappling form). My vision is for it to be a two person form that will incorporate applications that flow together and give both partners different aspects to work on. I am also going to be working on another project which I am extremely excited about and hopefully it will come together in the next 2 to 3 months.

I am trying to use differnt situations this year to focus on different aspects of my training. I have only been to one class so far this year so I am hoping my plan works.

Early Struggles

We are two weeks in to the Year of the Dragon and so far it has not been smooth sailing. I am away for work right now and I typically work 12 to 14 hour days everyday until the project is done. On top of this, I am staying in a camp that has limited facilities and not a limited space. My struggle is finding space and/or time to do anything right now. I am still able to do most of the core requirements but not anything with my weapons or a couple of my personal requirements. I knew this going into this year and so it is not a suprise to me.

I also found out that next week I may be there only Tuesday and Thursday possibly and then I will be gone again for at least two weeks. That will give me limited time to get some quality practice time in but I plan to take full advantage of it. I know specifically what I will be working on and when I plan to do it.

Although I am not able to be there in person, I will continue to be there online whenever I am able to. I have also been reading everyones blogs to help stay connected with the team. Hopefully I will see some of you next weeek and if not then in two to three (or maybe four) weeks after that.

Why Join

I was looking at my work schedule for this coming year and it is going to be very busy. I will be start with the GNWT project on May 16th and it will continue into mid to late October. With this schedule I will be gone for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and home for one or two in between. Before this, I will have some projects in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and a couple others including possibly Greenland.

With all this in front of me, I decided this was a good year to join the I Ho Chuan team. Why would I do that? That is a very good question and one that I found really easy to answer. One of my most successful years on the team was when I was away for work a lot during Covid. It kept me engaged and focused on my goals so I figured with another busy year coming up, this will be a great way to stay engaged and help keep me on the right path.

You may not see me a lot in the next few months but I will try to be online as much as possible. This may be hit or miss as well as some of the places I go, do not have a very stable internet connection. However, being a part of the team will allow me to focus on my journey wherever I happen to be.

My weapon choice this year is the Chinese Horse Bench which will be interesting to practice while away and I am also going to work on a spear form from 2016 again.

Crazy End/Start of the Year

It has been a crazy end to the year and it looks like it will continue for a while. I have been doing some extra work when I have been home and it looks to continue until possibly June or later. This means you will not see me at the Kwoon very much over these next few months.

I will continue to connect via Zoom as much as possible and I will be there in person when I am able to. I remeber back to my grading year and how most of my training was done outside the Kwoon and this is a great opportunity to take what I did back then and improve on it.

See you soonish......, maybe?