Chris Meistre

Simply put, mobilising your joints just means to exercise your joints by “using” them.  This is through simple exercises like flexing your wrists, turning your feet at the ankles, and many more.

One of the biggest complains when people get older, is that their joints are starting to ache and that they have trouble using them.  By taking 2 minutes a day, and just doing a few simple joint exercises you are able to fight against “getting old”.

If you search Google for “mobilising your joints” you’ll find a couple of websites offering you some tips on exercises.

In Tai Chi and Kungfu we always start our warm up sessions by mobilising all the joints.

The sequence is:

• Holding your two hands together, with your finger locked together, flex your wrists up and down create like a wave pattern in front of you
• While doing the above one foot at a time, by pointing your toe towards the ground, lightly touch the ground and rotate your ankle.  First clockwise, and then anti clockwise.
• The next thing you can do is to swing your arms up and over your head, and swing them down again, keeping them on either side of your body
• To work your spine you can hold your arms horizontal to the ground, with your fingers together (almost like hugging someone) and then twist your body from side to side.  While doing this make sure you only twist the upper half of your body
• For your neck you simply lean your head to either sides, front and back
• The hips are quite interesting, as it will look like you’re playing with a hula hoop.  Simply stand with your hands on your hips, and rotate your hips in either direction as if you had a hula hoop around your waist
• Finally you’ll just have your knees left.  Put your feet together, bend slightly and put your hands on your knees.  Now rotate clockwise and then anticlockwise.

Simple hey?  I’m told, and have also read, that just doing the above few exercises every day will help your health so much.  Why not try it, you have nothing to loose, except 2 minutes a day!

On Sunday evening I was sitting in the lounge wondering why the lovebirds are still making little noises so late in the evening.  Normally once they go into their little nest for the evening, they’re quiet until the next morning.

Anyways, I wrote it off as them just being nervous about becoming parents soon.  On Monday morning I checked their food and water, and decided I want to check into their nest as well.  The first thing that was strange as I opened the little nest box, was that they did not fly away like they normally do.  They just moved to the one side and sat and watched me.

I was surprised to see this little ball of pink crawling around the nest.  I had to look twice before I clicked that it’s one of the hatch-lings.  I’m so glad I brought them into the house just in time, because now it’s easier to monitor the progress of the chicks.

When I check this morning again, one of the other eggs also had a crack in it, so by this evening or tomorrow morning there should be another one.  Already one day later, it has a lot more fluff on.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that there were some more eggs in some of the nests.

The lovebirds now have 4 eggs that should hatch any day now.  When I saw the first egg, it looked really tiny, but by the time there were 4, I could swear the eggs had grown in size.  I don’t know if this is possible though, as I haven’t been able to find any information on this.  I’m quite excited about these, because I want to hand rear the chicks.  It falls at a difficult time though, as we will be away soon for a while, so I’ll need to get someone to help me feed them.  Last night I took them from the outside aviary and brought them in using a cage we’ve got here.  It will be easier for me to check up on them eating, and to see when the eggs finally hatch.  While sitting outside and watching them before I brought them in, I noticed the funniest thing.  The female would go into the nest, and as soon as the male wanted to come in she would chase him out.  It was funny at the time, but I wondered if something was wrong though.  She was probably just angry with him for some reason, because later the evening they were both snuggled into the nest, so they must’ve made up!

The new quails I got have 5 eggs that should also hatch within the next week or two.  These eggs are the most amazing colored eggs I’ve ever seen.  They’ve got a gold color with black spots on them.  The gold makes the eggs look like real gold!

The one finch pair also had 2 eggs in their little nest, but I do not really see any of them sitting on the eggs, so I don’t think they’ll hatch.

I’m glad we decided to start with keeping on birds, it’s amazing to see them courting, and how they react towards each other.

While everyone was busy watching South Africa’s new president’s inauguration on 9 May 2009, we decided to go and take a hike.  We haven’t done something like this in quite a while, and for Bernadette to have suggested it was quite surprising, as normally she doesn’t like to go hiking.  I took this chance to find out more about The Island, which is run by the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve.

I came to hear about this through a GPS game we play called Geocaching.  This was a few months ago, and ever since then I’ve been wondering about the place.  It’s right on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth, just around the corner from Seaview.

So on Saturday morning we were there at around 08:30, paid the R25 per person fees and started off on the trail.  It’s split up into various circular routes ranging from 30 minute walks right up to 6-7 hour walks.  We decided to do as much of the trail as possible.  As we haven’t done this in quite a while I was wondering how far we would get.

The first section drops about 150m into a value, while you’re walking through the forest that makes a canopy all around you.  As it was still early, it was quite damp and we got to see 2 bush bucks.  At the end of the first loop, we were met with a choice of going on or going back to the start point.  There are boards all around to help with “escape” routes.  At this point we realised our legs were covered in ticks.  And not just the normal sized ones, but tiny tiny ones that you can hardly see.  Luckily this, nor the fact that we’d already walked through a million spider webs put a damper on our spirits and we headed on.

Another 45 minutes of walking and we camp to a tunnel that goes underneath the main road that we came in on.  This took as to the other section of the reserve.  Even though the sun was out at this point, it was still a bit chilly, and we appreciated the few times we got to be in the sun.  We saw so many Knysna Loeries flying around that we lost count.  I find the colors on these birds amazing.  It’s one of the most beautiful sights looking up and seeing the red on the underneath of their wings as they come over.  We also encountered a lot of doves.

On the way to the Beacon, we were startled by the commotion of a monkey close to us.  This came as quite a freight as I was wondering the whole way throughout the trail of there are any baboons or monkeys in the area.  Cautiously we carried on because I didn’t know whether there would be more.  When we reached the Beacon, we decided it was time to sit down to have some lunch.  I climbed up on top of the beacon and looked around.  It was amazing how far you could see.  On the one side was Sardinia Bay, and on the other side you could see as far as Lady Slipper mountains.  It was amazing looking down onto the forest canopy, as the beacon was on a slight hill which allowed you to looked down onto the forest.

After a few buns and some cooldrink, I had a look at the map we got from the office when we arrived.  It’s not really clear what is going on on the map, but at least you get the general idea of how the area looks.  We decided to skip the last 20-30 minute loop and started heading back to our car.  This was about another 3km walk, but we did it quite quickly, even though Bernadette’s knee was giving problems by this time.

The Island also has very nice picnic sites, and it’s lovely to see the grass and trees around the picnic sites so nice and green.

A couple of years ago I came across the book Tao of Jeet Kune Do.  This is the book that was put together from Bruce Lee’s notes while he was on his back for a couple of months due to a severe back injury.

When I read this, I was quite younger, and perhaps it’s a good thing I picked up the book again a few nights ago to read through.  It’s amazing how many of the words I read still seem so familiar, but what’s more amazing is that reading it this time around it makes more sense to me.  Perhaps it’s because I’m a bit more older or wiser, who knows.

It’s not a book in the traditional sense of a book, but rather just a compilation of notes that Bruce Lee called the concept of Jeet Kune Do.  Jeet Kune Do roughly translates to Intercepting Fist.

He really is brilliant if you sit down and read how his mind was working.  What Jeet Kune Do is all about is that in order for you to really be a martial artist, you need break away from any form or techniques that you’ve learned.  Don’t just do the moves and techniques because you’re copying them from someone else, rather understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.  That way you make it YOUR style.  This is what I take away from it anyways.

There are various principles that I’ll write about later.  But for now, if you want to get this awesome book why not check out Loot.co.za.  I don’t think it will just apply to “fighters”, but also to people that want to understand themselves a bit better.  Even if you’re just curious about Bruce Lee as philosopher and not as a fighter as we always see him, it’s worth the read.