Poi, Poi, Hello Kitty and Maya

Finally got myself well-balanced poi from JR. They come with free lessons, too.

With that I found my way to the UP CHK last Saturday for a poi session with JR. Philip of FlipSpin and Clair joined me there for the poi spinning. Two girls who had previous poi lessons joined us. I think their names were Jane and Arlene, I'm not sure though, O_o;; forgetful me (sorry ladies...). Oh, and it was like a reunion of sorts since JR, Clair and I all come from the UP School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS, formerly ILIS, formerly ILS).

The poi I bought and the practice poi we all used were different from the poi we were used to. We use balls on ends of rope at home for practice and though soft they still hurt when they hit us. The pratice poi was of the beanbag-type so the force is dissipated. Of course hitting yourself in the nuts (beanbags hitting beanbags :p) still hurts a lot but we can manage.

JR said that the more the merrier. So if anyone is interested, why not join us every Saturday? Just message me and I'll text you the details.

Anyway, Philip and I think this is a nice way of cross-training for those like us involved in skill toys / arts. The move set and basic actions are similar to 2A (double yoyos) style of yoyo play so we were a bit familiar with the movements. Can't wait to learn more and try it out on the fire poi. :D (Jeez, this despite JR showing us his burns for moves gone awry.) But heck, we all only live once so I'm definitely going for the fire play!

It was tiring, ngalay we call it. Arms hurt like hell. But I found my way to Greenhills after that. My old Questor officemate Tak (Takako Takimoto) is in town. Her husband Joel Gammad (now Atty. Gammad) shuttles back and forth between Japan and the Philippines, but for the first birthday of their daughter Maya the whole family took the trip to the Philippines. Maya looks so much like a mini-Tak. The birthday party was held near our old office along Ortigas, near Roosvelt St. Some of our old kendo clubmates were also there. It was nice to see Ralph, Patrick, JM and Joan. Patrick's bigger than all of us now since he's 2nd year high school. He used to be the smallest at 3-ft tall when he was just in grade school. Now he could beat the crap out of all of us.

Tak and Baby Maya

Ralph and Patrick

Ralph getting a Tekken tattoo from the face painters

Jolibee... without the scandal...

Tak, Joel and Maya

Tak and Baby Maya

Ralph with Baby Maya

Ohhh... And I got this cute Hello Kitty plushie from the UFO Catcher at Time Zone in Glorietta on my way to the regular Saturday yoyo training camp meet of FlipSpin.

Crossposted: gokitomo.com, gorilla.multiply.com, gorilla.vox.com.