54. Calligraphy

I found this great little place to learn the ancient Chinese art of calligraphy. Some girls giving out leaflets to the place introduced it to me. Funnily enough leaflet givers due to the script being in character form don’t usually stop me.

On Sunday it’s a free evening of mess about. I had a pleasurable time viewing some of the artwork displayed, testing my character knowledge on the paintings and trying to draw some later.

The place is so close to my apartment that I went again the day after. There was no teacher so we (I’d met a friend along the way and invited him too) drew characters merrily for an hour before booking ourselves in for a lesson on different days as I was going away.

Once back from my 2 day trip to a nearby beach, I remembered the lesson and went along.

I was to find out that calligraphy is not as easy as it looks, The strokes you have to master to complete what looks on a paper a straight line, takes a lot of practice and skill.

For someone like myself, who is happy to make do, this infuriated me. No exaggeration here, the whole lesson was spent trying to do this horizontal line but for a 30 minute gap where the teacher allowed me to write a Happy Birthday Mum message in Chinese character form,

The teacher spoke in Chinese and I was to hear the words for ‘too big, too small, too long, too short, too tall, too fast, a little slower’ throughout. I listened but the deft touch that was needed was beyond me.

It's not the end of the world. Understanding the characters is a challenge in itself.


I've committed my time to something else though. Getting fit. Yes the balmy nights are making me sweat so much that going for a run seems the natural thing to do. This is all in preparation for doing a Kung Fu course in October. I have signed up and I will begin when my contract is up. This I am mega excited about. Lets hope that I take to it more than I have done in calligraphy!