Muay Thai at Muayfit

So, I finally signed up to try Muay Thai for real.  Well, not exactly signed up, it was one of those LivingSocial deals I got online. RM28 for a month :P

The closest I got to doing something similar was a few personal sessions with a PT at the gym. Back then, it was a one hr session.  10-15 mins goes to warm up at the treadmill. About 15-20 mins one to one drills with the trainer. Followed by another 10-15 mins of cardio training, and lastly some cool down and stretching.   It was fun.  I like it.  But too costly for me at close to RM90 per session!

That was some 1-2 years ago.  I've asked and looked around for more affordable alternatives, but not so actively since I was bugged with injuries and all.


And this year, a friend at the gym told me that there are some good deals online. He managed to grab a 3 month pass for only RM68.  So, whenthe recent RM28 deal came about I grabbed it without hesitation.  After all, it's only for a month.

So..how was it?

Originally, I was planning to get the most out of the RM28 by going a few times a month.  Muay Thai (MT) is just one of the many types of martial art classes offered in Muayfit, and we can attend as many as we wish to!  There are MT classes on all days (on both mornings and evenings) except Wednesdays.

I was being ambitious by hoping to attend at least twice a week...and may be try some other classes as well.

Hmm..that was the initial plan.

I eagerly went for my first class last Thursday morning, 10am.  It was a beginner class, which sounder errr..easy, right?

I was late, class was about to start when I stepped in.  The gal at the reception welcomed me, took down my particulars and said..."you are not beginner right? your dressing and body tells me that..so you can start immediately..no need intro"

Right...I'd took that proudly as a compliment.

Warm up was running and shuffling around the room (quite big) for a good 5-10 mins, swinging arms, punching air, etc.  Half way through, I was huffing and puffing :D

Then we did some stretching.   Thank God, they stopped, I can take a rest.

Next was this..see below!




The fighter in the video is a professional fighter of course, but the drills that we were asked to do were very much similar.  The only difference is the power of the punches and kicks, obviously.

There were 5 pax in the class that morning.  I was partnered with a nice Chinese dude who had been a member for 3-4 months.  So, he was able to give me some good guidance.  The instructor showed us the moves and we took turns to be the 'attacker' and the'receiver'.  I didn't have much problems as the attacker cos I've done it before, but being the receiver, doing the opposite and taking the blows is another story.  My poor partner had to go easy with his punches and kicks :D  I think we did 3 sets of different drills.  This session was about 15 mins at least, I think.

It was a 1.5 hours class by the way.  So, by the end of this first session (excluding warm up) it was only about half an hour.  I had another full hour to go. I was still 'ok'..but already quite tired by then.

The next session, hmm... was some sparring using just punches focusing on the body. Strictly no face/head shots to avoid injuries, and no hard punches..just soft taps.  Hm..that was something new for me.  It was quite fun though.  We rotated partners..so I got to spar with three different persons..a little guy about 13 yr old, the instuctor and another nice kind chap who was almost too shy to even touch me :D  The 13 yr old commented that I was good for a first timer. Heee.

After that relatively fun session..we went on to the punching bags. So, if you're stressed out and needed to hit someone, this is the time. Imagine this:
- 50 punches
- 25 round house kick on each leg
- 25 front kicks on each leg
- 25 knees on each leg

Go ahead and count..that's like 200 hits.

That's not the end yet.  About 30 mins more to go..*cries*

Next, we were asked to grab some dumbbells, of course I took the smallest available.  Pink ones..obviously for ladies.  By the way, through out the whole class...instructor showed no special treatment to me as a newcomer nor as a female.  He did watch and give some feedback once in a while..but there was nothing like.."you can take it easy" or anything like that.

Ok..back to the dumbbells.  We had the dumbbells in our hands and all of us stood at one end of the room.

We start by doing right and left knee with hand movements (as if you're pulling your opponent's head down) and (dumbbells still in hands) as we move to the other end of the room, and back to the original position (doing the same knee and hand movements), and then drop on the floor to do 15 push ups.  Repeated like 3 sets, I think.  Almost died.


There was more.  Next it was kicks instead of knees but no hand movements but weights still in arms.  Push ups was replaced by pushing the weights up in the air while standing.  Again, repeat 3 rounds.

There was another set..I can't remember what we did..may be front kicks.  Similar..to and fro the room, lift weights, 3 sets.


You can imagine what it was like by the end of that?  And we stil had like 10-15 mins left..I thought that's the end.we can cool down and relax.

Not.

50 sit ups coming up! With legs straight out, a partner 'sitting' on the legs to make sure it's straight out, and at the same time, partner 'hits' (with a glove) the abs at each sit up.  Of cos..my partner was very easy on me..but I heard the instructors calling out to the others to 'hit harder!'


It's been almost a week. I'm still recovering! My arms are still somewhat sore and my ankles and back's been hurting too. Trying out Advanced Class..no way!!


I think I will rest till Saturday, since I've got a 'date' on Saturday with another gym friend who signed up earlier.  Gotta make sure I'm a fit partner!



Haha,..and I was planning to attend a few classes a week!

Sigh..I think I'll stay with bodycombat in the gym..looks like my injury prone body can't take all these impact sports..

Coffee in Love

I first blogged about this outlet - HERE in May last year.

Since then, I've been spoilt by choices. Quite a few cafes that serves equally good coffee mushroomed around town, especially within Publika or around the Solaris area.  I admit I've not been to Coffee in Love for quite some time.

Business must be tough with so much competition.

It was nice to be back :)  Check out the cups. They're handmade I believe, by the inhouse artist.
I think the volume of these cups are bigger than the regular cups at other outlets, not too sure. It does look bigger and it took me longer to finish up.  Better value for RM10?

Look...there's a surprise at the bottom of the cup ♥♥♥

They're currently on a buy 1 free 1 promo in conjuction with their 1st year anniversary, not sure till when though.

Check them out : https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeInLoveCafe/info

Post Muay Thai

It's been about 36 hours after my first 1.5 hours Muay Thai class and I just realised that my arms aren't functioning well at all.  I felt some alot of sores and aches in the morning but it seemed ok after some stretches.

Been driving around all day, there were some aches but it was well manageable.

Carried groceries, it was all good.

Did some hand wash laundry, it was good.

Then, it was time for a good shower to end the day..and ooouch.  Basically, huge difficulties performing most of the usual self cleaning actions...like - washing the hair, washing the face, anything that requires the use of the forearm muscles.

So, I'm not very clean now :D

Will elaborate more about how the class was like in the coming post.

Need sleep now..to help the muscles recover!

Sneak peek : It was tough. Real damn tough.  10 times tougher than a body combat class.  The both are not comparable.  They are of different worlds.  BC is a martial arts inspired Cardio Workout.   Muay Thai is Martial Arts.  Period.

Crispy Fried Eggs

I finally got to try this dish.
Learnt about it from a blog post quite some time back.  It's from a Restoran Muar along Tengkat Tong Shin, a few doors away from the Ngau Kee Beef Noodles store.

Here's what it looks like..

Credit: http://kyspeaks.com

I had to steal an image from other blogs cos mine didn't turn out well.

Verdict - it's quite special indeed for such a simple dish.  It's just...Fried Eggs. It's as simple as ...Fried.Eggs.  But it's crispy and tasty. Why? Because a lot of oil was used to fry the eggs and there are some toppings of more oil sprinkled on it with some dark and light soy sauce, if I'm not mistaken.  It's crispy on the outside but yolks are still runny.  Definitely not something that one should have everyday, for health reasons!

Logically, the way to cook it should be lot's lot's of oil and eggs. And not to cook for too long.

Yes? No?

So I tried doing it ...

Ta daa......

:D

Verdict:

One yolk overcooked. 

Not crispy enough.

But definitely tastes better than the previous ones.

Bang.Ding.Ouch.

Firstly, this is not meant as a joke about the unfortunate air crash that took three innocent lives and seriously injured many others.  But apparently, a TV station is being sued by Asiana for reporting wrong and fake names of the pilots.

When I saw this youtube clipping last night I was wondering what the last one stands for:




The following morning, I got out from bed on a wrong footing and fell clumsily.

Then, I saw my brother's reply, the last 'name' stands for Bang.Ding.Ouch.  That's exactly how it sounded like when I fell.

I fell with a Bang, then something else fell off the side table with a Ding, and Ouch, my knee hurts.

Hmm..coincidence?

The Rabbit & Turtle Story - Improved Version

Those days, we were told this story as it is.  And we were taught that the Rabbit lost the race because it was over confident and too proud of its ability to race so much faster than the slow turtle who could barely run.

We were taught that being slow, steady and determined like the Turtle will eventually bear fruit.  And more importantly, not to be too proud and over confident like the Rabbit.

Now that we are all grown up and had been exposed to the real world.

Let's re-evaluate by watching this video again:




How true.. don't you agree?

In the real world, let's not even talk about the corporate world, it applies to day to day life in a home or even with friends.

Moral of the story:
It's not about who wins and who is better, best, faster or stronger.  It's about working together as a team, helping each other to finish the journey or race.  Because..at the end of the day, there's no real meaning to completing something all alone.  There's more meaning to achieving something together in a harmonious way.

:)

Practice makes Perfect

When they first started in May, I joked but honestly gave my feedback as a coffee junkie.  

1. I couldn't appreciate the foam, I had to push it away, it wasn't creamy enough

2. I couldn't differentiate the latte and cappucinno, latte had too much foam

Well, I know them personally, so I had to be honest, in a nice way :)

Two months later... I honestly find it as good as one of my favourite cafe (Coffee Societe - I was just there on Wednesday).  And, it comes with my favourite biscotti - baked in-house.

Wheatz & Grainz has just been promoted into my Foursquare's Favourite Coffee Place list

Check out my earlier post on them HERE

Address:

46, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, KL

(Same block as Continental Tyre near Hong Leong Bank)

Opening Hours:

Closed on Mondays

Salomon S-Lab Jamboree Trail Run 2013

When I first saw the event promo, the location attracted me.  Never ran in Kuala Selangor before, it's a trail run, should be fun. At the very least refreshing..since it's out of KL.

Secondly, the "illustrated" running top looked real cool...I was sold.  Unfortunately, the actual product was quite disappointing :(  Well, as with all other "illustration" there was a notable footnote that says "final outcome may differ from illustration".  So, I shall not dwell on that.

I did have some doubts though ..cos the Salomon site wasn't promoting the event much, almost none to be exact.  That reminds me, don't remember seeing any booth from Salomon as described in the event page.  That's fishy.

But in the end I signed up..mainly for the top.  Wasn't really planning to go until I saw some interesting photos of the venue and ML said she's interested.  So, we went.


It was a relatively small crowd.   Even the flag off arch was really small. But they had a good MC, so the 'hype' was there, somewhat.

The run was ok, in my opinion.  Some complained that there wasn't enough trail.  Come to think of it, they have a point.  What you see above is about the only trail road we ran.  Compared to the previous Salomon X-trail at UPM, this is somewhat mild.  Air was fresher though, despite some slight haze.

Scenery at UPM was defitely better.  

We were in Taman Alam, Kuala Selangor Nature Park.

It could be the haze, otherwise view will be clearer

Well, we did see monkeys..LOT'S of them! This is the clearest shot I could manage. The others were blur as I was quite apprehensive.  I was worried that they may charge at me and snatch away my phone!

The toughest part of the run was the stairs.  Glad I managed this without much difficulty despite a mild flu.  

And the REWARD for completing the run was this!

It was..FUN.

Oh ya..there was a medal too.  Quite a cool one.

Ok..now some serious stuff before I move on to post-run activities.

Firstly, my runkeeper (via iPhone's GPS signal) went out of sync.  It detected only 6.6km put of the 11km journey.  See map below..half of a loop went missing (re: black markings on the right).  In fact, I believe the GPS tracking stopped at 6+ km, where the red line stopped since there were no 7-11km markings in the map.

And secondly, a really serious matter.  This is quite a big screw up, there were no clear direction signage throughout the route, there were some helpful volunteers stationed at a few spots..but they missed out the most crucial junction! Still referring to above map, (red circle and arrow at bottom left), many and lot's of runners took a left turn, the faster ones went deeper in and were told later by a crew on a motorcycle to u-turn back.  Whoa...were they mad.  Some runners are really serious about time keeping ..so this is one big deal for them.


Thirdly, another big boo-boo quite a common in most new runs - the finisher medal & goodies collection process, insufficient medals and/or goodie bags, insufficient post run refreshments, etc.  Quite common and yet it keeps happening.  It's all about queue and process management and whatever happened to inventory count, we wondered.  How can there be short of medals when there are clear indication of participants from the registration data?

Apparently, it's a first time organiser.  Noted.  To be fair, overall, it was quite well done apart from those hiccups.  However, it's been over 24 hours, numerous complaints were posted at the event page but the usually active and chirpy organiser had chosen to remain quiet.  Total silence, which is not good at all.  And this kind of confirms my earlier suspicion.  Where is Salomon's involvement?

All we want is an acknowledgement from either, any party.  Anyone?


Alright.  Done with the serious stuff.

Now..to the fun stuff.

We were kind of looking forward to a little food adventure after the run, since we've never really explored Kuala Selangor before this.


Despite being sick the night before, I took time-off googling randomly for ideas of places to eat.  And I came across this blog (HERE). It says that there's this Kedai Kopi Shin Lok in Jeram that sells really good pau and yam puff etc.  The pictures looked really tempting.  Jeram is about 20 km from Kuala Selangor.

I proposed to ML in this way..."well..it's 20km away, we've ran 21km Half Marathon, it's ain't that far, right?"

Well, I have nice fun friends. So we went.  It took us some time to get there, cos we we got confused with my Waze and ML's Siri's navigation :D

Kedai Kopi Shin Lok, is indeed one of a kind.  It's pork free.  There's a small roti canai stall.  There's mixed rice.  There's another stall selling soup/curry noodles.  The kitchen also serve made to order rice and noodle dishes.

But the highlight is the pau corner.  We spotted a Chinese head 'chef' in the kitchen. The other workers are mainly foreigners.  Forget about char siew pau as they don't serve pork.  We ordered chicken and peanutm one each and two yam puff.  Yam puff is really good.  Too bad it's not pork :P

Chicken puff is so-so.  Again, prefer char siew :D  The peanut filling should be quite good, if not for my bad throat.

While we were there, we saw non stop stream of customers coming in to take away bags and bags of pau.  Wow..Jeram is a small town..these paus must be real good!  Apparently, the vegetable paus are signature, but it's not our thing to eat vege pau.

I took away some Kaya paus..tasted real good.  I'll definitely go back again if I'm in the area.

Right..so that was breakfast.  Might as well have seafood lunch since we are in Kuala Selangor.  Agree?

So, we drove another 20km back to Kuala Selangor, without any idea where all the seafood restaurants are.

Good old smart phone.  Good old 3G.  A random search  says that seafood is at some jetty area or Pasir Penampang.  But, strangely..there's no signboard to guide us to Pasir Penampang.  We got to the so called town of K. Selangor, but it's so dead. Almost like a ghost town.  Ermm...and one of the sponsor of the run was Tourism Selangor.

Phones were running out of battery, so we stopped to ask the locals.."where? Jetty? Pasir Penampang?"  Turn out..it's just a short drive over the bridge across the river.  And voila..it's a totally different world over there.  I felt like I landed in Tai-O village in HK.  There are rows of shops selling fishery stuff, biscuits, snacks, etc.  And of course there are several seafood restaurants.  The local houses are quite interesting too.

So. listen..Mr Tourism, seems like Pasir Penampang is where the economy booms? People buy here.  People eat here.  People are happy here.   Signboards please......

We went to Jeti Restaurant.  One of the bigger ones with 'sea view'.  View was quite worth it.

We ordered seafood porridge and fried egg with oysters.  Porridge was yummy.  Egg with oysters ..forgettable.  No pics of food cos phone ran out of batt.  No worries, I'm planning to go back just for food!

Our adventure didn't end there.  We went for a 'stroll' and bought some freshly baked biscuits and freshly cooked stuffed young tau foo and fish cakes.  Too bad I ran out of cash :(


I shall be back.

Fortune Cat

Do you believe in this?

Most chinese retail operators will place one of these in there shops, supposedly to 'invite' more customers into their shops.


My friend who operates a retail food business believe that I'm their living Fortune Cat cos it seems like everytime I visit the shop, business for the day will be better than usual. lol.


I don't know if it's coincidental..but I must say that it is quite true from the few times I visited, a least 3-4 group of customers will walk in after me.


Well, from a logical point of view, it makes sense, especially for new places with relatively low traffic flow, people tend to hesitate to be the only one walking in when the shop is empty.  One tends to wonder..why is the shop empty..may be food not good?

So..when there's already someone in the shop, the chances of people coming in to have a look increases.


Secondly, I do notice that it happens to me quite often in other places.  Not just food outlet..it can be a toilet, an apparel store, etc..the shop can be empty and peaceful in the beginning but the moment I walk in, there will surely be some others walking in after me most of the time.



My friend will call me once in a while to 'invite' me to 'hang around' the outlet...mysteriously so far..it seems to work, haha.  I'll do it for a few more times, to validate the cpnclusion..may be setup up my mobile office there.  Sometimes they offer me free food testing in return.  Not bad eh?


Hmm..living fortune cat for hire here, anyone?

Homemade Porky Burger by Sis

We grew up in a fairly poor household where our parents make sure that they give us the best but careful not to spend unnecessary. I'd always wondered when I was a kid, how come we don't buy new furnitures, how come dad always try to hand-make most of the things in the house like the shelves in the kitchen, the table for mom to do her food chopping, etc.

Mom and sometimes Dad too will home-cook most of our food items..from wan tan mee to popiah to pau to our very own kaya and much much more.

While I used to wonder and wish we could go out and eat ..now I miss those deeply.  Mom's wan tan mee, nasi lemak, yam cake...

Dad's kaya and pau were great too.

They used to go on and on about how cheap things used to be when they were younger..and it's too expensive now..and we will roll our eyes...


Now that we are all grown up, we are saying exactly the same :D

Especially recent years..we are more reluctant to spend on certain food items..especially those that we know we can make our own and taste as good.

My sis tried making porky burger recently.

It was really easy.

All she did was some internet search to review several recipe and then choose and fine tune to her own liking.

Ta daaa..

Minced pork, add some bacon bits and garlic

Fry

The usual sides..tomatoes, lettuce, cheese...(she added some avocado too, which I think is a plus)

And it's done!

If I remember correctly..she said her cost is less than RM30..she made a total of 5 burgers.

How much is one porky burger in the outlets?

I'll have to think twice before I head ot another burger outlet :D

Dark Vader by Bert's Jr. Gourmet Burgers

If you happen to be a burger person and happen to be around Kota D'sara, do check out this place - Bert's Jr. Gourmet Burgers.

Yep, name's a mouthful.  Let's just call it BErt's for simplicity sake.

I thought I've had enough new burger joints.  Seems like everyone is starting their own version in different hoods from Setapak, Sentul, Ara D'sara, Subang, Bangsar, etc, hoping to ride on the craze set by the infamous myBurgerlab.

I don't really go around to try all the outlets but I do pay attention to blogs and comments on the social networks like 4sq or facebook pages.

So far I've only took the trouble to try The Grind, Burger Junkyard, Fatboy and for some peculiar reasons myBurgerlab remains as my personal fav. Second placing - The Grind, mainly for Black Dog and better seating and dining environment.

For some peculiar reason, one day I decided to go try Bert's. It was lunch time on a weekday. It was an extremely hot day.  We wanted somewhere air conditioned and we were quite hungry.  So, I suggested to have some good burgers.   It was either Grind or Bert's, mainly because of their location.  My lunch companion say let's try a new one since I've tried Grind.


We were the only customers.  I mus say we were quite brave to walk in despite the store being empty.  Thanks to a positive blog review that I read earlier.  So, be nice to bloggers!  In fact be nice to all your customers cos what we say and write about you C O U N T S.


Bert's running an opening promo:

Pic from https://www.facebook.com/bertsjr

I took the Dark Vader.  Can't remember description and can't find any in their FB site.  Sorry.

But, it's beef, very very juicy and tasty I must say.

I agree with the the previous blogger who described Bert's burger are more towards street burgers.  Compared to myBurgerlab, despite the similarity in looks (charcoal bun and all), I must say that the taste is totally different.  It did get quite messy towards the end due to the juice and/or oiliness.  It wasn't a pretty sight :P

I don't mind coming back again.  At least I get proper seating here, and I can eat in peace, but be prepared to feel terribly guilty post-meal. Make sure you have a work out plan the next day :)

I'm eyeing the New York Hot Dog next.

My friend took the Baa Baa Black Sheep, see below.

Ya..looks the same..but as she said..it's lamb, we don't get lamb often..so it was a good change. She liked it.

Do check them out at https://www.facebook.com/bertsjr

Wonderful Day

What a wonderful day.

Phoebe look-alike (re:previous post) reunited with its owner.  I'm so happy for them.

It rained! After 2.5 weeks of extremely hot weather coupled with extremely hazy last few days, it rained today.

I'm breathing relatively clean and cool air right now.  It was so nice that I wind down my car window to embrace the fresh air.

The Haze is a reminder from someone up there to appreciate Mother Nature and Nature's Wonder.      Let's remember not to take good clean air, bright sunny days and cool rain water for granted.  Let's remember to switch off our air conditioners more often and come out and embrace the good nature.

The authorities have not declare that it's over.  Readings still show the presence of haze in most areas.  I believe I'll wake up breathing haze again in the morning.

But..

Lost Dog - Cocker Spaniel - found near One Utama

I'm refraining from talking about what everyone's complaining about - THE HAZE - although I really feel like it's killing me inside out.  Let's just hope that the wind, rain, God, and or Ministers, anyone, anything will do something and blow everything away very soon.

While waiting..here's a pretty lost dog.

A good samaritan at Wheatz & Grainz rescued it from being run over by cars along the LDP near One Utama on Saturday, 22 June 2013.

It should be a Cocker Spaniel.  According to a pet groomer who is temporary caring for her now, she is in good condition, well groomed and cleaned.  Should have a responsible owner who is missing her badly now.

Picture by Wheatz & Grainz

Please help to share this out.  I do sincerely hope that we can reach the owner soon.
She reminds me of my late dog Phoebe, my heart jumped a beat when I saw the post in FB.
While I'm not really ready to take in another Cocker Spaniel after Phoebe's departure....I think I may not be able to resist taking this one in..if the owner doesn't turn up.  So..owner..wherever you are..please turn up!

Here's another picture posted today by Puppy Cottage - where she is being cared for now.

So..

1. please help to share this out
2. leave me a message if you're the owner
3. or..just get in touch with Puppy Cottage or Wheatz and Grainz both located at TTDI



Puppy Cottage
38, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, TTDI
03-7728 7299
https://www.facebook.com/puppycottage


Wheatz & Grainz
46, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, TTDI
03-7732 7981

https://www.facebook.com/wheatzngrainz

New shoes!

Those who know me well enough will know that I spend more time and money on sports shoes than anything else (apart from food and coffee).

I've been looking out for a long time for a good pair to replace the blue Nike Eclipse that I bought in 2011 in Vietnam, which I use mainly for casual wear.  Nike Eclipse wasn't meant for sports.

It wasn't an urgent replacement, so I took my own sweet time.  I was eyeing the Skechers Go Run   that I fell in love with when it was first launched.  It was original priced over RM300!   I waited and waited, it's now at RM299.. I'm still reluctant :P

Then, I thought I spotted something I like from Adidas Originals...again it was over RM300, somehow I'm not that willing to spend so much on a casual shoe.

I rather spend more on proper running/training shoes.like these..can you guess which one I chose?

http://sneakerreport.com

So..anyway, I was saying that I was in no hurry.  Until I saw this!

1. It's pink
2. It's cool
3. It's a brand new version (W730 version 3)
4. There's a 20% disc with a StanChart card
5. It's only about RM200+





And, and, it's not just a casual wear.  If my feet are up to it (less cushioning relatively), I can use it at the gym or running.  While it doesn't really belong to the minimal (barefoot) category, it's designed to be lightweight and flexible.  A word of caution from a very knowledgeable sales rep at the NB store, only use this for high impact workout like running or cardio exercises if you have relatively strong leg muscles, i.e if you're not a regular or a starter, not recommended to start with this as this doesn't provide sufficient cushioning and support.

As you may have read, I do have some problems with ankles, etc. Hence, I had second thoughts about using this for running.  I tested it on Bodycombat though as I found grip of the running shoes were a bit too strong and disrupts some of the footwork during class.

Verdict..hmm..not too bad actually.  I love the lightness and flexibility but I miss the 'safety' and 'comfort' of the running shoes.  Still not too sure for now.

Do you like it?

BODYCOMBAT 56

How time flies, we've hit June.  Where did the last six months went to I have no idea.

The gym just launched the latest releases for the new quarter.
My favourite program, Bodycombat's is themed "Fast & Furious".

Check out the intro video here and multiply the intensity that you feel from this 1:07 minutes video by 50. 100 may be.




While the theme this time is Fast & Furious but the impression I got after doing it five times is  - it's really quite lengthy.  Warm up itself was about 8 mins.  Shortest track will be 4+ minutes.  Like I said imagine doing as per the above video for 55 mins non stop.

And there're so many moves within each track.  A very serious and effective work out for agility, strength, all in one.


I won't say much about it, actually I just wanna share this video, don;t you think it is cool?
I believe, most regular 'combaters' expected each new release to get tougher each time.  But what's amazing is...it always seemed tough and difficult at the beginning but if we don't give up, after one or two sessions..it actually gets easier!

Kampar again

I was in Kampar again.  It's been quite some time since anyone took my dad back to his home town, I've been thinking about dong it for some time.

Decided to just do it last Saturday.

So, I drove 160km for almost 3 hours.  It was a public holiday and the school's mid term break, so there highway was very busy.

Almost arriving, my dad gleefully said that he wants his Kampar Ice Coffee :D

So, that's the first thing we did.  Local Ice Coffee with some economy fried noodles, yam cake and a type of kuih.

Then we walked to the other stalls to see what else is there to eat.

He spotted some pau..being an 'experienced' man..with one look he can tell if the food is good, apparently..so he bought some pau.

We sat down at one of the busiest spot and ordered a bowl of ABC (Air Batu Campur i.e Shaved Ice with Mixed Ingredients - I believe this is a Malaysian specialty)

I ordered the infamous Kampar Noodle with additional ingredients.

Nothing to shout about for the noodles..but the ingredients are so so good.  Cannot ever find the same taste in KL town.

Dad's paus were very good too.   He bought another 4 to take home :)


The weather was very hot, we were full and the roads are too congested for us to travel further to Ipoh. So, we decided to head home.

Ya, quite crazy to drive all the way just to eat.

I was hoping to get to a waterfall that I saw on foursquare but the road was too narrow to drive in. Too bad.


So..it was all the way home.  It was quite tiring..and the hot sun really made it quite difficult to stay awake.  I actually dozed off once for a good few seconds.  Very dangerous indeed.


Well, it may sound like a waste of time, petrol and toll charges..but I think it's worth it.

Riverside Janda Baik

Nowadays, we (kids and adults) are so caught up with our modern way of living.  On longer holidays we spend on  more luxury vacations overseas or resorts out of town.  On normal weekends, most parents bring their kids to shopping malls and restaurants as  weekend activities.  On normal days, smart phones, computers, cable tv are our daily entertainment.  Some urban kids don't even get to go out and play with neighbours due to security issues.

Gone are the days where kids get to climb trees, catch insects, swim by the river etc etc.

I didn't get to do those too as I grew up in a flat, but I had my fair share of creative indoor games and activities in the absence of digital entertainment.

What do you do with your kids now in this era?

Kidszania, Universal Studios in SG, Disneyland in HK, Legoland in Johor are some of the many popular spots.

We stumbled upon Riverside Janda Baik.  Only about an hour from the city.  A quick hide away from the urban 'sickness'.  Here..kids and adults will get a detox from our addiction from the internet, Tv series, etc.

The mind automatically slows down and relaxes to the natural environment and of course the soothing sounds of water flowing, birds singing, etc.

(Well, there will be bugs and mosquitoes..bring some insect repellent!)

 You can opt for just a half day picnic by the river or stay overnight.  There are several types of facilities and pondok for rent at very reasonable prices.  Bamboo pondok, cement pondok, elevated pondok, kampung style chalet, semi-D chalet, camps..all available for rent.

Go here or here for more information.

We chir chatted with a family who rented 2 chalets and an elevated pondok.  They were very well equipped..brought lunch, and will have barbeque in the evening!

We also saw some kids having fun floating on tubes along the river.

Here's one of ours having fun in the water.  Soon he was all over the water catching water spiders.  Full two hours..no mention of "what do I do without the computer/Ipad/Iphone"!

We only brought some sandwiches and snacks for a short picnic.  They charged us RM20 for using one of the pondok, fair enough.  We asked the neighbour for a mosquito coil, there were quite a lot of them.

Quite stressful for the adults watching over the kids..but it's worth it I guess.


May be we can go back for BBQ night?

Village Life - after 3 months

I started playing Village Life in February.

As with all games the main objective is to level up as you progress.

For this game, the way to level up is by keeping the villages happy, and they will play with the various games hence producing Happiness points to the Happiness Shrine.  Once the shrine is full, we go up by a level and will be rewarded with one key and some gems.

Keys and gems allow us to unlock more items for the village.  We can also opt to purchase gems using real money in USD, not sure who will want to spend real money on a game.

The problem with this game is that the progress is way too slow.  It's the way the program the game, the villagers are not easily satisfied.  The reward system of 1 key and 20 gems per level are not enough to satisfied the demands of the villagers.

After a while it became such a bore, I just couldn't be bothered,,I just give whatever resources I have regardless of whether they are happy or not.  In fact , I nearly quit, if not for my sis and her hubby who are still in the game.  And they are doing well..my b-i-l applied some kind of strategy and it seemed to work. I didn't bother to understand further.

Anyway..my perseverance brought reward today.  Or may be the programmers changed their settings :D

My villagers are suddenly very happy today and started participating in all kinds of games and entertainment that I've 'worked' hard to build for them :D 

They were dancing away...

Dirty Dancing

Playing 'nude painting'..

Naughty Painting

Even the old folks are enjoying themselves!

Even the old folks wanna do Dirty Dancing!

Now..if they go on like this, I'll have another set of problems. I don't have anyone to do the work! Cos if I assign them tasks while they're having fun..I don't get happiness points.

Haha.

What's your motivational profile?

I never really mentioned here that I'm actually a 'qualified' Unit Trust Consultant.  I took up the path sometime last year for two main reasons:

1. To give moral support to a friend who turned full time and shortly after her daughter became very ill
2. To give myself a chance to learn a new skill and explore if the new path will lead me to something new, be it economical or personal related

It has been more than 6 months. It didn't really take off.  The drive is just not there.  From a practicality point of view, it's not that difficult to earn something out of it, but successful ones will want to build a sustainable business and the eventual goal is to have a comfortable flow of passive income.

I've got some success with a few friends, and it did seem easy enough. A couple of signatures, submit some forms and commission in the next month.  Much much easier than sitting at the desk for hours looking at numbers?

However, for whatever reasons..I couldn't find motivation to build further.  I don't even pay attention on my own portfolio.  It's just not my cup of tea.  Economic graduate so called.  No wonder I didn't do well :P

So, long story cut short...I think this is not my forte.

And I wonder again...what motivates me? What kind of work turns me on?

Well, to some extend I enjoy data churning, problem solving, learning up new tools / software...(I swear, I'm not saying this just because it's part of my job for the last 15 years).

I enjoyed helping to promote the MADE charity event. 

I enjoyed helping to setup and manage my friend's bakery Fb page.

Sigh..so how now?

Apparently there are a few factors to consider when trying to understand our own motivational profile, according to http://www.yourofficecoach.com:

Achievement - prefer tasks that have a clear beginning and end, rather than process jobs

Interaction -  value relationships, may extend co-worlers relationship to friendships

Creativity - dislike repetition, enjoys finding new ways to do same tasks

Leadership - enjoy leadership roles, prefer interating with higher managers

Service - motivated by opportunity to help others

Problem Solving - enjoy providing advice to complicated issues/problems

According to the same article, by using a 5 pt scale from Very High Importance to Very Low Importance, rate how important are each of the above is to you, than do the same to your work.  Compare the two results, to see if there's a gap.  I did it ..boy..what a huge gap I have when compared to how I see myself vs as a UT Consultant :(

I also did this Quiz : http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Determine-What-Motivates-You-Motivation-Style

haha..I'm nuts, I know.

Will share results in next post. Gotta go now!

Nailless

It's a toe nail.

Finally, it  fell off, nearly two months after the Half Marathon in early April.

It has been loose and dangling about for last 2 weeks, very irritating.

Like many runners, I get this problem whenever I run long distance, only on this particular toe.

It blackens, and then fall off eventually.  

It happened when I did the Penang Bridge Half back in 2010, and it took soooo looong for the nail to grow back.  

Now, I'm nail-less again.

I wonder if the other regular marathoners have any nails :D