Chinese New Year 2012

When it comes to the Chinese New Year, without exception it's about family reunion and the reunion dinner on the eve of the New Year. Here are the pictures from the dinner this year.

Malaysian Hospitality

It goes without saying that we Malaysians are well known for our hospitality. Usually if the season is right, we bring our foreign friends to have a go at the King of Fruits aka the Durian, and usually the results are hilarious as you can attest from the above video.

This time round we have our friend Prof. Thiago 'Monstro' Borges who hails from Brazil. Despite what you see in the video, I am sure deep, deep, deep, deep down he really likes Durians and can't wait for the next time we have another go.




It also goes without saying that Durians will energize you like nothing else. It even gives you Capoeira skills...hahaha.

Wedding Song

Me & the missus attended a wedding this morning at Pantai Baptist and I want to share this song with all of us. Don't mind the shakes, the song's good and the singer's good too

Merry Christmas Folks

It's that time of the year again. To all my friends and and family I wish you nothing but joy and happiness.May the Lord continue to bless you with good health and shield you from harm.

To those of us who have lost a loved one, may their memories live on in us forever.

I miss you Stephen Lee

3 Black Belts in the House

December 4, 2011 marks another milestone for Escobar BJJ with another seminar, this time with Prof. Alan "Finfou" Do Nascimento, Prof. Victor Costa and our very own Prof. Marcos Escobar. The seminar was split between a no-gi session and a gi session. There were some crazy moves in the seminar (see video below) but I particularly enjoyed the basic ones especially in the gi session eg controlling the opponent in setting up the submissions. For me it's the basics all the way.

All in all, it was well worth the time. Thanks Fight Zone Malaysia/Checkmat Malaysia/ EscobarBJJ in organizing this one

ps - if you check out this video, you will be able to see one of the craziest back takes ever (which was taught at the seminar) at 2:44, bugger me!

FightZone Rio In Da House

Just a short post. Today I had my 1st roll with BJJ Black Belt, Leke who hails all the way from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Leke fights with the CheckMat team and is an instructor at FightZone Rio.

Of course it goes without saying I gassed badly and used everything in my 'arsenal' and got owned pretty badly. Felt like the first day of BJJ class all over again. The fantastic thing about it is that I think Leke was only using 10% of his skills against our 100%. All said and done I can't wait for the next roll. It's when you get pummelled that you learn I suppose. (I think I might have learnt a new sweep). Nothing beats rolling with a black belt.

Of course, after class it was makan time. This is Malaysia after all.

That's Leke on the right

p.s. - Leke will be with us for a month, so if you are in Kuala Lumpur, swing by the academy for classes. It's an opportunity not to be missed

Click on this link for the academy's location via google maps:Persiaran Mahogani,Petaling Jaya,Malaysia

Posted from my iPhone

Impromptu B'day Party at Mandarin Oriental

Today we had a simple celebration of sorts of Marcos' birthday at the Mandarin Oriental. It didn't start out as such as Richard invited us over for dinner after open mats. As we chatted along, suddenly out of nowhere a sax player showed up and the birthday song was playing and out came the birthday cake.

All in all it was a great nite out with a great bunch of guys.

Ai Vy's birthday

Tonight we had a small makan at Carnaval in Damansara Jaya to celebrate Ai Vy's 50th birthday. It was also a sort of farewell/have a safe trip party for Marcos and Anna who will be leaving for Brazil next week for their annual 'I need to get the hell out of Malaysia' holiday.

Here's a short video of grandma Ai Vy's cake blowing and some pics.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Jalan SS 22a/1,Petaling Jaya,Malaysia

Dr. Escobar PhD

Just a short note. This is our very own Dr. Escobar Phd (in house doctor, BJJ coach, father, mother etc to all of us at Escobar BJJ academy ) draining the ears of 'Pok Cik'. Looks painful..heheheh..but that's the price to pay

These Sabahans Arrr...I Tell You

Well the Leo Vieira seminar has come and gone over the past weekend. Besides being a weekend of jiujitsu, it was also a special time for me personally as I got to bond with some of the guys from the academy both from our main branch in KL and also from our Kota Kinabalu branch.

I must say I especially enjoyed clowning around with the KK crew especially with Darren, Allen aka Frodo Baggins, Angie & Andy. Below are some clips of the bunch of us setting up the mats prior to the seminar. As you will see, we managed to squeeze in some sort of a bowling tournament while waiting for the black belts to inspect our handywork

Manila 2009

Team CheckMat Malaysia/Escobar BJJ left for Manila last weekend to attend the 2009 Pan Asian BJJ/No-Gi International on the 2 - 3 May 2009. It was a good time all round for the team as it was an opportunity for the entire team get some competition experience especially for us newbies. Fang, Alex & I have previously competed in Singapore and since that was our first time, we thought it would be a good idea to do it again. More importantly Manila presented the team with an opportunity to bond also.

I also got to catch up with some old pals like Albert who is now fighting out of Sarawak and whom I have not met in more than 2 years I think. New friends were also made and hopefully we can keep in contact (through Facebook)

Of course I would like to thank Alex for taking me & Sumi out for a short sight seeing tour around Manila. It is much appreciated bro.

Anyway, I've not had the time to edit the videos and so for now here's just a simple slideshow of the trip.

Uncle Ben Drops In For A Visit

Today Uncle Ben paid us a visit at CheckMat Malaysia for a few friendly rolls. For those of you who are not familiar with Uncle Ben, he's the surfer dude from Down Under who is currently residing in Bali. From the look of things, he hasn't lost any of his ground skills and was consequently making life miserable for us on the mats today. But jokes aside it was good seeing you again and hopefully we'll get to see more of you either here in KL or in Bali.

p/s : Uncle Ben, I lifted the pic from your FB account. Hope you don't mind that I display your ugly mug for all to see

A Night Out For Durians (Translation Needed)

Last night the few of us decided to take Chico & Marcos out for durians. For weeks we've been talking about it since Chico's arrival but after a few false starts we finally went ahead and did it. The place we chose was of course the durian stall in SS2 (http://www.durianss2.com).

Anyway Chico was first up and true to form he liked it and had several seeds. Next up was Marcos and as you can see from the video, he was having a difficult time with the durian, his most difficult opponent since ADCC...hahaha.




Of course subsequently, we proceeded to the hawker stalls nearby to have a taste of the local delicacies. All in all, it was a fun night out