Corus Paradise, PD

Spent the weekend at Corus Paradise, PD last Saturday with a few office mates. Left on Friday evening to begin our weekend of R & R. We reached PD at exactly 5pm and was able to collect the apt (Corus Paradise Apartment) key before the office closed. It was my first time staying there. The apt looked more run down than what I had expected. Nonetheless, it only cost RM50 per entry so no complaints. All expenses were borned by boss so no complaints either...ahaks.

Only a handful office mates were able to join this trip and only one of them brought his family. The rest are singles. I have to admit, beaches around PD are not clean. Nothing to shout about. Anyway on Sat, after breakfast we adjourned to Teluk Kumang for a day at the beach. My office mate drove like a F1 driver...weaving in and out of traffic on the narrow streets of PD. Crazy! Ooi...want to die, die alone lah...don't involve others! But I think we didn't get enough of speed...hehehe...cos we ladies decided to take a boat ride which cost RM60 per boat for 4 pax. Quite thrilling since it was my first time on a speed boat.

Other than that, the rest of the trip was spent makan-makan. We had BBQ on Sat nite...full of food...yummy. The highlight of the nite was of course, the gossiping....ahaks. Heard so many stories that our eyes popped open at the gossip sensations.

After the cleaning up, we went down the beach at 1am to catch crabs. Yup, small little crabs. Armed with our little torch lights and gloves, we proceeded to the dark beach and began our little adventure. We managed to catch close to 5 little crabbies before I decided to give up. Sleepy like hell. Later, I was about to fall asleep in my bed when I heard noises downstairs and sounds of food frying. I pretty much guessed my colleague was frying the crabbies :-) The next day, I heard he got so much thrill out of crabs that he and wifey went back to the beach to hunt for more crabbies.

We left PD on Sunday around 2pm and headed back to KL. On the way back, we dropped in to Ulu Bendul, Kuala Pilah. Go see see look look. Ended up, nothing much to see. To compensate for the miserable sights there, we bought ice cream cones from one of the peddlar......yummy....brought back nostalgic memories of the past.

Tough love given on a Thursday

Yesterday was tough at the gym. We have a mat salleh replacement instructor for Body Pump and he did a number of older tracks which was absolutely tough. Lunges and squat in the same track? That was plain murder. Luckily I was using the lighter bar or else I think I would have died standing already.

The reason I was using the lighter bar was because I wanted to add 1kg for tricep and bicep...need to train those areas more. There was no way I can pull this off using the heavier bar. I knew I would have slight difficulty during tricep especially if there are single reps involved but I didn't realised that my left arm was so much weaker compared to the right arm. During the last set, I couldn't control the bar well and it was practically swinging everywhere. If this was FPI's class..sure kena sounded already. I was surprised the mat salleh never commented anything. Bicep was much better but had to pause a few times. Hmm....never mind, must persevere.

From Body Pump, it was off to Yoga next. Studio 2 was freezing cold so Mr.Yoga decided to shift to Mind & Body Studio instead. So much better, warmer a bit. I thought Mr.Yoga would take it easy considering that it's Chap Goh Mei, but no....this was another tough class. So many chaturangas followed by updog positions...not an easy feat especially after a Pump class. Arms and shoulders already so fatigued from earlier Pump....but I braved myself...pushed myself and I think I think pretty darn well. Bravo!

On other note, will be going to PD this weekend with few office mates for a little R&R (rest & relax). Maybe will come back a little more tanned too...ahaks. Initially quite a number of them wanted to bring their family along but at the last minute, the number of participants dwindled down. A good thing also....now can R&R more peacefully. Why PD? Nothing to see wat, people say. We chose PD becos our company has an apartment at Corus Paradise so no need to spend so much on lodging. Besides, Mdm Wonderful Boss donated some $$ for this trip...so can say this trip is practically "free" la. Yahoo! I love sponsored trips :-)

So many distractions

Last nite's pump didn't turn out that bad, although it could be better. My legs weren't wobbly during back track as anticipated....something which usually happens upon my return to the gym after a long hiatus. Maybe it has something to do with the lighter bar that I used last nite. FPI was absent and the class was replaced by another instructor, Darren. I'm confused by this guy. On one hand, I think he's a new instructor because if my memory serves me correct, he shadowed FPI once before. On the other hand, the tracks that he played are not familiar to me. Only 'senior' instructors have access to the older tracks. So...ya...I'm quite confused.

The sound system + mike at the main studio had problems....again. I'm amazed how frequently the system seems to be breaking down, as of late... considering that it went thru a major repair late last year. A lousy mike + lousy sound system + an instructor with not so good cues + some other distractions = a difficult class to follow. Eyes always have to be on the instructor at all times, which put extra strain on the neck especially during chest, back and tricep tracks.

I was also quite distracted by a few members or maybe it was just me being unable to focus solely on the instructor. There was the first timer who didn't squat correctly. The guy in front of me were pumping singles faster than a bullet train and not following the instructor's timing. The lady in front of me, whom I thought were quite "terror" cos she carried 3.5kg for warm up were unable to follow the instructor's rhythm for most part of the class. The mother/son couple were constantly chatting during intervals, which I found rather annoying. Add to that the constant annoying screeching sound coming from the sound system...which if it had continued til the end of the class, would have caused some ringing in the ears. Of course, being such a regular gym-goer, I knew that the problem was because the faulty mike was turned on at its max...but the poor instructor was clueless. Doesn't FF teach their instructors how to troubleshoot mikes? What a nite!

Ok, let's see if Thursday's pump will be better than monday's. Another replacement instructor. What's happening to all my regular instructors??

Post CNY

CNY came and almost gone....3 more days left. Family came and left. How time flies. I haven't been blogging as of late; mainly due to the laziness syndrome. Anyway, here's some updates of what's been going on.

1. I rejected the job offer by ex-boss. The list of cons simply outweighed the pros. No regrets.

2. Spent a relaxed CNY with family in KL. Did quite a bit of shopping plus a trip to Malacca. Bro was in his shutterbug mode and was happily clicking away at everything in sight with his newest digital camera. Nephew helped to burn all the pictures into DVD but unfortunately my PC can't read them....so nothing to show here.

3. I finally fulfilled a longtime wish to purchase a shelf for my shotglass collection. Got it at Ikea for RM299 + a RM65 delivery charges. Very pricey overall, IMO. Bro and BIL helped to assemble and fix the shelf. Very happy that I no longer have to box up my shotglasses.

4. Went to Putrajaya Hospital to visit a colleague who lost her 13days baby on that day. He was born premature at 7th month at just 1kg. It was a very sad scene at the hospital. My condolence to her and family.

5. Had skipped gym for 2 weeks and only returned back yesterday for a Combat class. Very out of breath by the 3rd track...so I cannot imagine how today's Pump class will turn out, considering that I do not have a good history with Monday pump.

6. Yesterday I discovered that I have cyst again (benign, no doubt)...sigh. Experienced it before in 2005 which the doctor said I can just leave it in there but for a peace of mind, it was removed via FNA (fine needle aspiration)...a very simple painless non-surgical procedure. Dunno if I should go for checkup or just leave it as it is for now. Hospital and police station are 2 of my greatest phobias cos once upon a time, I visited them so frequently, especially the latter. Shudder..

The year of the RAT is just starting. Here's hoping there are better things to come and let's just live life to the fullest, while we can.