Aikido Grading

We recently had a grading in my Aikido Club. As I wasn't grading I decided to steal a shot of the grading in progress. This is a shot of the white belts doing their very first grading. The grading panel is to the right of the picture. It consisted of four men this time around of the senior level dan grades and the chief instructor. It's often tense for the ones being graded especially at the junior levels as it's never easy being scrutinsed.

The Forest Walk

I took a stroll along the Forest Walk, the elevated section of the Southern Ridges trail from Alexandra Road to the Mount Faber walk today across the Henderson Waves. It turned out to be a very good walk indeed. The Forest Walk for those of you who have not been on it is an elevated walk at a height about 2 storeys off the ground on a metal walkway. It's on a gentle incline with a mesh walkway and is really a bridge built firmly into the ground which takes one at a level where the views of the trees are great. I went with a couple of friends and my two dogs in tow. It was a bit crowded as it was a public holiday at least on the way up.

The Henderson Waves bit is made of wood and curves up on one side and on the otherside of the wide wide walkway, are great views all the way to the sea. The kids I saw there had discovered that it was possible to slide themselves up a quarter way up the "wave" bit that curved up and then let go and slide down quickly. Trust the kids to discover a slide where none was meant.

For anyone who would like a walk and take a different view of the forest, it's a walk well worth doing. I really liked coming down at that incline and jogged practically all the way down as the footing was great even with my dog enthusiastically pulling me along.