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For all people who like Tekken or martial arts, it's a must that you have a look at this clip which is a faked Tekken match with actual humans. They've just added the sound effects and the fake blood and added some other sounds.

Although I haven't played Tekken 3 much (or whatever the latest version is these days) I recognized a lot of the stuff from the original Tekken that I played.

The moves they do are alright, especially the final double-hitting kick. Generally most of the moves are quite clear and crisp. I like the way one guy wipes of blood from his face or mouth and that that is animated too.

Pen Rance, who wrote the book Martial Arts that I mentioned about a month ago has now set up a kung fu club in Hertfordshire. It's called FWC Herts

If you live in the Herfordshire Watford area, I genuinely recommend that you give it a try if you want to get fit or you're already fit but bored with the local gym.

UPDATE

This club is now run by instructor Carlo Fernandes

If you live in the Stratford or east London area you should do what I did last night. I went to Shkar Sharif's new kung fu club in Stratford. It's a quick walk from the Stratford station and getting to Stratford is quite easy for me thanks to the Waterloo & City line + the Central line. Doesn't take long.

Shkar and I have been training for many years now together under Dave at the City & Islington club; Shkar a bit longer. Last year, Shkar took his instructor grading and has now started this club on his own (with some help from Dave). He's been running this club now for only a couple of weeks but is (t)here to stay. I genuinely recommend anybody in the area to come along and train there. At the moment he's only teaching kung fu (Fujian White Crane) at that venue but will soon have t'ai chi classes too.

If you want more details about the classes go to his club page See you in class!

Got my copy today! I'm excited to read it.

Martial Arts is a book about martial arts films such as Enter the Dragon and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon etc. written by my "kung fu sister". Within the club you sometimes refer to other people in club as brothers and sisters. Pen and I train both train with Dave in Islington.

Have you seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Do you understand it all or are you, like me, just watching for its fascinating effects, scenery and swordplay? Apparently, all the questions that you've always wanted to know is in the book. I remember asking Pen once: "Why does she jump off the bridge in the end?" To which Pen replied: "Buy my book and you'll find out". So I did. Can't wait!

My kung fu club is this week going to do a major charity event in Islington (north east central London). We start at 14.00 very near Angel tube station this Saturday the 26th. Our aim is to walk like lizards on our bare knuckles from Angel tube station to Highbury corner. In other words, we're going to do the whole Upper Street in relay which is about 1 mile (1,600 metres).

The charity that we're supporting is called the Claremont Project which is a centre for old people in Islington where they can participate in activities such as dancing, drawing and t'ai chi. Since this year, the local government has drastically reduced the budget for places like the Claremont Project. The reason our club (led by David Courtney Jones

) do this particular charity is that we know them well because we train at the Claremont Project building in the evening on White Lion street. (more about that here)

All kung fu students collect sponsorship money for their part in the knuckle walk. If you feel that you want to help out, you can of course sponsor me. All you have to do is to email me your amount (£5, £10 or more) your home address and then post either the cash to me or even better, make out a cheque to the Claremont Project. If you're interested in doing this, email me and we can work out the details.

UPDATE The Claremont Project charity event is over and we had lots of fun, got a lot of attention on the street and collected more than £3,000 for the Claremont Project. Here are the photos to prove it

UPDATE 2

Here's a copy of an email sent from Paul who's heading the Claremonth Project:

What can I say except a HUGE thank you to you and everyone involved! I have just written to our Board to tell them about this and also spoke to the Gazette a little earlier.

With many thanks and best wishes, Paul

My dear Kung Fu sister Pen Rance has now published a lovely little article on the FWC Inter-Club Competition, Dulwich (August 2005)

It's complete yet short (so you can afford the time to read it) and funny too. I like the fact she didn't forget about the dodgeball incident:

"The action was rounded off by a giant game of dodgeball, in which the students took on the instructors," ... "Shot of the game has to go to Instructor Adam Prout, who managed to silence the hall with a direct hit on Chief Instructor Ngo’s ear."

Last but not least my name was mentioned too which I'm not going to quote so you'll have to find it yourself.