I got out again for a bit of training last night. The sun was just going down as I settled in to a bit of zhan zhuang, twenty minutes or so. I got through a few sets of CMC-37 taiji, interrupted halfway through by a largish moth that seemed absolutely determined to settle on my arm, or ear, or face, and absolutely was not going to let me deter it no matter how hard I flapped and shooed it away. Eventually I moved a little further into the open, and that seemed to scare it away.

As it got dark, the usual courting couples materialized on the seats in the garden, or standing in the darker corners away from the paths; arms wrapped around each other tightly, they seem otherwise pretty chaste - no face-eating displays here. There is absolutely no private part of campus that isn’t colonized by these pairs after dark, but I don’t mind them, and they don’t mind me, so everyone just gets along harmoniously…

As I worked on the ba da zhang, followed by the wuji long xing set, I became aware of a solitary figure standing under a tree near the area where I practice. I’ve seen him there before, watching. I think he may be filming me on his cell phone. Oh noez, I haz a stalker! Heh.

Actually, I’ve had a few students approach me on campus to chat after they saw me practicing near the sports field, when I was still going there. I guess it’s like anywhere else, they want to learn, but have no opportunity other than joining the student clubs. I’ve seen the taiji group training here and, well, they look just like the student clubs back in the UK! No better, no worse.

So, I don’t begrudge this kid, though I don’t think he’ll learn much from watching me! Still, who knows - perhaps it’ll steer his path onto martial arts in the future…

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