Good Lord, my whole body hurts....

Hello~~~ Everyone!! How's life? I'm sorry for MIA-ing for one whole month but i'm currently busy trying to re-organise my whole life. School started and while it's not really stressful, it's freakin' tedious. Particularly this 2 weeks... I joined Judo. Trust me when I say the training is waayyy tougher than back in TP when i joined Taekwondo. Twice a Week - Monday and Thursday.

And I noticed that, including me, there's a max of 7 girls - only 2 of us are girls in a group of 6 newbies. And in total, there are like 30++ members? Wow, 20++ are guys. What's with the severe gender imbalance?

Anyway, The trial session started at 6.30pm during mid January. We have to do front rolls, back rolls, front rolls-cum-splits, back rolls-cum-splits and a lot of other groundwork. We have to learn break-falls (in case we ever fall, which pretty much is going to be a norm soon), and even more physical groundwork. By 7.30pm, I'm ready to throw in the towel. By 8.30pm, i'm ready to wave the white flag. By 9.3opm, I'm infinitely grateful that I'm still (barely) standing.

Directly the next day, there is not one single spot on my body that is NOT sore. In addition, check out the wonderful bruises I have on my shoulders. It's like i gained a pair of purplish-blue wings. Oh, and check out the scrapes on my elbows, wonderful accessories to my pair of wings, i'm sure.

I can hardly move that day.

Over the next few weeks, leading up to yesterday, we do almost the same drills, learnt new techniques and watch the seniors spar... Ouch... Some got slammed to the mats, some did the slamming.

Something new happened yesterday. It was Charles birthday - 21st birthday. And so... The slamming begins...

Now, everyone in Singapore knows that during a person's birthday, there will be a 'slapping party'. The number of times the birthday boy/girl got slapped or hit matches the age.

In Judo, we take it up a notch. Literally. Poor Charles got slammed to the mat 21 times. Sensei (Mr Benny Tan, our coach) slammed him first - 1 time.

The rest of us gets to slam him twice, including us newbies.

Dear Lord... We watched, horrified and yet with a morbid fascination, as our seniors headed up gleefully to slam Poor Charles, who can do nothing to retaliate.

One by one, they slammed him using various techniques, some of which we have learnt and most of which we don't recognise. Me, Theresa and Wan Lin cringed as we saw him hit the mats again and again. Even the Auntie standing on the parapet over us winced.

"How am I supposed to slam him?" Wan Lin asked, staring wide-eyed. "Come on, I can hardly lift him."

My Sentiments exactly, Charles is among some of the bigger sized guys in the club.

"At least Ah Heng-" my friend who is about my size but shorter. "- is slammable. He? No way in hell can i slam him."

When it was my turn, i reluctantly walked up to him and grabbed his hand - and slapped him twice. Come on man, how am i supposed to slam him?

With that, I ran. Or tried to.

"You can't do that!" Velmont, our senior, stood solidly in front of me. "It violating our club traditions. And also, slamming him will train you guys to fight and spar better!"

No defeating his logic there. "But..." I began.

"No worries. Just do it." Charles said from behind me. He sounded exhausted. Can you blame him?

I winced and slammed him twice. It's obvious he let me slam him, because no way can i actually move him. He's bigger, stronger, better and got more techniques.

Good thing is, the club guys bought him a cake to celebrate his birthday.

"My birthday falls on a Thursday!" AH Heng groaned as we ate the cake later on. "I'm not coming on that day!"

"Aww You poor thing!" I mock-sympathised. "Thank god my birthday falls on a Wednesday."

"It doesn't really matter which day." Sensei remarked. "Charles' birthday falls on last Saturday."

Us newbies stared at one another horrified.

"How did you find out his birthday?" Hendry ventured out.

"Facebook." Velmont answered simply.

"That's it." Hendry said without hesitation. "I'm going to delete my facebook account."