Not long after this I asked if I could join Karate. Our Shihan was a old family friend who had known my mums family since she was a teenager and holidayed up there (we will call him Matt). My told me later in life that when my father lived in our town every time Matt found out or suspected Dad of hitting my Mum he would beat him up. It wasn't hard to know when this happened as she was so bruised.
Matt took me under his wing. He was extremely hard on me. He loved us like his own kids. I did martial arts for a very long and quickly climbed the ranks within our dojo. The dojo was an old tin shed when I went there with blue carpet on the floor. It smelt like sweat as when we were there we worked hard. Everyone was so nice and they became like my second family and I always felt safe with my gee on and my second family around.
On one of the last gradings we went to a seaside down (this was a few years later at this stage I was about 14 (turning 20). It was a 3 day grading. We were woken every morning at about 3am before the sun came up and our day didn't finish till at least 6pm.
This particular grading we all had to do 3568 power techniques into a bag within an hour as one of our masters had broken this many ice blocks in the time.Most of the girls used their palms but not me I used my fists. At the end of this my cipher knuckles were raw and bleeding. I did not want to stop I was so focused martial arts became my life and settled me down a bit. We then had to fight 52 rounds of 2 minute fights with black belts. This was full contact. We had pads on our shins and forearms.
I was defending during my first round and Matt stopped the fight. He came over to me and said " this video is going to Sydney so you can be graded, you need to fight" I was a bit of a smart arse (but not too much as I had to much respect for Matt) I responded " I am fighting" I was not happy that I was told what to do. Matt stated that if I didn't fight I would not be graded. So I entered the ring and was furious. The guy I was fighting had no idea what was coming. He stepped in to punch me and as he did I punched him in the nose. Blood went everywhere. He covered his face instinctively. I ran in to make sure he was ok when Matt yelled out "Emily! Get to your corner and kneel down". I turned around and went to my corner. You had to face away from your opponent. He was taken away from my ring and another person was brought in. Again I was just defending and again Matt told me the same thing. I don't know why I got angry at this again or didn't learn from the last time but I'm sure Matt knew exactly what he was doing and it was getting me to win. This time the guy that was in the ring came at me and I did a roundhouse kick that hit him on the hip area. He dropped to the ground. I went in to check on him as all I heard was a crack. Matt yelled again " Emily! corner" so I again turned around and went to my corner. He was taken to the hospital as I had dislocated his hip. The rest if the fights I attacked and defected and they went past pretty quickly.
The next day we got up and went down to the beach and had to stand in the water waist high and do punching techniques and our carters in the water for about 2 hours. It was freezing, as soon as we got out we had to got for a 15 km run to a massive hill called heart break. One of my best friends (we will call her Kylie) was with me and a girl I used to call Sis as everyone thought we were twins. We got on so well ( we will call her Melissa). We all ran to the top of this enormous hill. When we got there Matt yelled to us "back down when you get to the top" so Kylie and I decided to run as fast as we could to the bottom without falling over. Just to put it in to perspective a lot of cars couldn't make it up this hill as it was so steep hence the name "heartbreak". When we got to the bottom we were out of breath. Matt yelled again "back up" well lets just say we didn't run that fast down that hill again because everyone else was only halfway down that bloody hill and turned around to go back up and we had to go ALL the way back. This happened another 3 times but we had smartened up and took our time going down. When we finished this we had to run all the way back to camp. Wow that was a big day and we were exhausted.
That night I learned about boys. I had a crush on one of the black belts and he kissed me. We kissed all night (no Matt did not know as it was in our tent) Kylie liked another guy but he got with Melissa. This camp was amazing. We ate good food and laughed a lot but boy did we work out.
Weeks later our grading results came in and I had skipped 1 full belt. This happened twice to me during gradings I was so very proud. The grading was videoed by Matt and my mum still has this video to this day it is a VHS tape.
I was pretty sporty when I was younger (Barry didn't really like sport all that much he would rather be out playing war games with his mates).
My mums family where hockey players. Two of them where representatives. I used to play hockey every weekend. My Pa was a hockey nut. He would always be there when we played. Games started at 9am and we were there all day. Before we played Pa would make sure we warmed up and stretched. He would watch very game and during breaks he would make sure that we had oranges and didn't drink to much water. He would run through the game and what we did wrong and what we did right (he never criticised us he just pointed out the obvious). When the game finished he would lay a towel down on the ground and rub our legs down again. When I was 13 I was playing in the under 15 A grade side.
My Pa was approached by one of the coaches and asked if I could fill in for the A grade women's team. Pa knew I could so it but he asked if I wanted too. I said ok and from that day on I played in the A Grade women's team as you couldn't really play for more than 1 team for a whole season.
Karate was my first love but Hockey was I my blood or so I was told. One freezing cold wet day I went out to play a game with a team I had been warned about. They were really aggressive unfortunately for one of the ladies she hit me one to many time with he stick. One particular lady was tripping me over all game and when we came back on she tried it again, however this time I swung my stick and hit her across the face (not nice but I was so young and stupid and a tad angry at her) it knocked her mouth guard out and 1 of her teeth, I was sent off. Pa was not happy with me at all. He said "Emily! No matter what happens out there you make sure you keep your cool, you are better than that. Go and apologise NOW!". It was killing me to apologise to this woman but I did as I was told. I did feel sorry I had done afterwards though as Pa's words sank in.
Between Karate and Hockey I was pretty busy but I always had time for my friends. We had a tight knit groups which consisted of 10 kids. Some lived in town and others lived out of town but we always managed to stay at each other's house. My friends loved my mum but not my step father and not because I said anything but because when they were there he was always drunk and he tried to be cool.
Nigel lived in town and we always spent time together. He was from a broken home also. We used to go down town or ride our bikes. Mum brought me a horse something I always wanted and I used to ride my bike down to the paddock one handle bar had a bucket of water and the other a bucket of chaff. Nigel would meet me there and we would talk for hours. He was one of my best mates. I told him everything and he told me everything. His mum was really nice but always chose the wrong guys. One of her boyfriends used to beat him really badly all the time. Nigel would escape and come to see me so we could chat. He was the only one who knew about that night I had to sleep in Barry's bunk bed.
Kylie was also always there from me. I used to love going to her house as she lived on property and had horses and motorbikes. She was the one who taught me how to ride a motor bike. It didn't turn out well when I first rode the bike as she told me not to get to top gear but I went all the way to the top of a hill and turned around to come back and I forgot what was the brake and what was the clutch and ran straight in to a gate and crushed my fingers. We were not game to tell her dad as he was an ex military man and was very firm. This man was so wise though he once told us (they were dropping me home one night after karate) " you will only ever make one true friend in your life so cherish them when you do" I will never forget these words and he was so right.
Getting ready to start high school this is when my life was to change again...
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