Author: Kim Anh Kenneth Eastman

Once again I’m a bit late, but it doesn’t detract from an incredible visit from The Grandmaster Of The Shaolin Art! This was his 2nd visit to our small school in Cork City, Ireland. He was Welcomed with Great excitement from the long lived & brand new students!

I nearly brushed off the call at 4am in the morning from California thinking that it was only a misdial. Thank Goodness the notification for a message sent to voice mail was loud enough to wake me from my sleepy daze so that I can jump into action!  Grandmaster The’ left a message saying that he will be coming a day earlier because the airline decided to cancel his flight! There was a bit of a scramble, but it was well worth it as it afforded us the opportunity to spend  an AMAZING time exploring the  National Botanical Gardens in Dublin  (http://botanicgardens.ie/ )! With the extra day, the Grandmaster was able to rest up  after a 10hr flight and adjust to the 8hr time  difference. So on the Friday he was fresh and eager to take the ferry and spend another Fantastic day exploring Garnish Island (http://www.garnishisland.com/ )!

On the Saturday  we had a nice morning walk and saw the Ogm Stone at UCC, then a stroll through Fitsgerald Park to see Cork icon “The Shaky Bridge”. After lunch we  had our grading. Congratulations to Nava, Gabriel on their advancement to Brown Belt, & to Luisa, Frank & Ruby on their advancement to Blue Belt! After dinner we treated The Grandmaster to some Traditional Irish Music Session where one of our very own black belts, Conni Dawson, also known as “The Street Harpest” brought our her harp and played for us all!

On Sunday we learn a FANTASTIC form! The Tai Chi Short Stick ( The Stick That Subdued The Dog) was Unbelievable! I can speak for all my students that attended, we were all in awe! The students, myself included, learn so much and heard some Great stories! There are just not enough endearing words to describe the AMAZING weekend!

It was sad to see The Grandmaster leave. We all can not Thank him enough for  taking the time out of his busy schedule to come to our little Island to visit our modest school!

Yes, I’m late in posting this! Regardless there was GREAT fun had at our Pub Quiz & Raffle to raise money to bring Grand Master The back to Ireland in October. We even had a good turn out from “career” pub quiz competitors! The raffle prizes that were donated were AMAZING! They included a dinner for at the Quay Co-Op, 2 GORGEOUS cakes made by Ruby & Ava, a gift basket by Frank, treat bag from Hendrick and many more! Sure the questions were hard, so they tell me, but they were hard for everyone so at least the playing field was even! All said  and done we managed to  raise enough money to pay for the Grand Master’s accommodation while he is here! Unfortunately, so busy with my feeble attempt at quiz matering that I totally spaced taking photos. I had to nab the photos of the cake from the ones who won them!

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED, PARTICIPATED, CONTRIBUTED!

WELL DONE!

What an Amazing turn out for Beginning Belt class on Sat 27 Jan 18! I can go on and on about how proud I am of the students and how honoured I am to be their instructor. Through out the last 10 years like many other schools we’ve had our ups and down while being processed through a meat grinder. There were times when I thought I would have to close the school. There were days that not a single student showed up. But on Saturday all the trials and tribulations that this school has been through was all worth it to see a record number of students show up. I know that the road is going to rough, but I’m confident in the students to navigate through the bumpy bits. Here’s the biggest shout I can give on line to all the Shaolin Martial Arts Academy Students past present and future!

WELL DONE!!!