A Hot Day - but fun at times

Today's blip - 2 pictures and a short video, all concerning our Tai Chi course.
The first picture is of Jan and Birgitta during one of the longer breaks. It was, by our standards, really hot today, around 30°C, with very little breeze. Towards the end of the day we were all feeling the heat, and we actually finished a half-hour early. Physically we could have carried on training, but our minds were not up to taking in any new information, so we stopped.
During the pictured break both these people lay down, in front of two fans, in order to shed a bit of excess heat.
The second picture is of our instructor, Ulf, on his way to completing "single whip", one of the classic Tai Chi positions. He is a brilliant teacher, but also beautiful to watch when he demonstrates Tai Chi. He is both concentrated and relaxed, and his whole body is coordinated.
The short (5:33) video I mentioned is here and the subject is the concept described by the Chinese word "song". Tai Chi and other martial arts practitioners use the Chinese word because there is no English equivalent. It is a very special form of relaxed awareness, or sometimes relaxed action, or even relaxed inaction. Like I said, difficult to understand/explain. The video, with Susan Thompson, demonstrates "song". Today we were playing with ""song" in a similar way to Susan in the video, and it really was a magical experience. Using the concept we were very hard to move, not using it we could be easily pushed away. It was fun!
You may have experienced "song" if you have ever tried to pick up an unwilling small toddler. They use "song" naturally and suddenly they are very hard to lift or carry, suddenly very heavy!
Tonight we are home, watering our garden and renewing our supplies of ice. Up early tomorrow to return to the fray in the heat. Hopefully tomorrow is the last day of this extreme heat. It's due to get cooler, maybe even to rain in the next few days!