Merry X-mas !!!

Merry Christmas

Vrolijk Kerstfeest

Feliz Navidad

Frohe Weihnachten

Joyeux Noël

Boas Festas

Santa in Class

I had quite a busy day at work today and I got home late from the Airport. Had to rush to get my stuff, packed my bag got changed and hopped on my bike to go to the gym. When I got there I noticed I just brought my Ipod, but did not bring the connections to get it to the stereo... shoot! Luckily I always bring my CD's so I was able to mix tracks. I had just started the warm up .. and then ... wow... did I get a surprise or what! Santa just walked into my class and he joined us! He sort of looked like he could use some exercise :-). He was a bit chubby hahaha..... He first started checking if everyone was trying their best and then he grabbed his barbell and started doing the squat track with us. He did quite a good job, but I noticed Santa usually tries harder in my class. I think he had put the weight around his waist instead of on his barbell! It was funny element in class today which my collegue Bogdan added by dressing up in his blown up plastic Santa costume. Too bad I didn't bring my camera :-(

Got some pictures from last years X-mas workout though:

Pump, Pump and some more Pump

Yesterday evening I taught my own BP class, this morning I was the instructor had an emergency at home so I did this morning's BP class as well. And tonight .... AGAIN! I wouldn't advise anyone to do so many BP classes so close in a row, but sometimes that's just the way to go for an instructor. Yesterday it was just my regular monday evening. Always fun and pleasure. Also BA and BC. BA we had a special one: X-mas Attack... just to do some pre-work for the christmas dinner next week :-) Me and my collegue dressed up as Santa's. We also did a few tracks of BA55. We have the launch 11 januari, but just as a surprise for our attackers we did a few tracks! We also did some promoting of BJ. Whaaaa, imagine me ....doing BJ, HA. But after a long (very long) practise I managed to shadow 2 BJ tracks and even had it look a little like BJ. I think the people liked it, so that's a good start for the BJ. So far we didn't have BJ on the schedule, so starting 15 jan 07 (when the new schedule starts) we will have BJ as well.
Tonight, I will be joining a friend of mine at Achmea, to do BA & BP launch classes. Looking forward to it. I'll be leaving soon, cause it's quite a drive and don't want to get stuck in the traffic.
On my way I also have to stop at the uniform department from KLM, to finally get my new skirts. Since I started working at the airport I lost some weight and also some centimetres around the hips :-)))))))

Choices you make

Every dream is as real as you choose to make it.
You're as young or as old as you think yourself to be.
Those things you sincerely expect will find their way to you.
Those things you most fondly imagine will relentlessly pull you forward.
The love you give away will always be with you.
Everything for which you are sincerely grateful will grow stronger and more abundant.
Your intentions will be fulfilled when you give them true purpose.
Your goals will be reached when they come from your heart.
This day will bring fulfillment when you choose to allow it.
This life will be rich when you give your best to it.
What do you choose in the innermost depth of your being?
That is what life will surely become.

Set a Goal

A lot of people set goals in life. These could be short term goals but also long time goals. In teaching most instructors also set goals. In teaching you can also have short term and long term goals, but there are more.
There is a self-focus goal. It's personal and it's a valid goal, but within teaching your class it's not the most important goal, as this only concerns you and in teaching the class, an instructor should not put his/herself in first place.
Next to this, there is a group-focus goal. This goal relates to the participants in your class. Something like: I'd like my participants to have fun in this class, or I'd like my participants to feel involved in this class. This way the class won't be like one-way traffic, but there will be communication between you and the people in your class. People will notice a difference between the moment you just teach a class or when you are teaching with a strong/positive goal. They will feel you are there for them.You use words to communicate with people, but it's the energy and passion behind it which counts and actually delivers the message.
And then of course there are the program-focus goals. Each of the LM programs has it's own goal and it's own unique selling points. It's the focus and feel of the program. We as instructors should be able to transfer thesecharacteristics of each program to our participants. Strength & power in BODYPUMP and high energy & athletic moves in BODYATTACK.
Within the programs we also have our track-focus goals. These can be combined very well with the group focus goals. For example: In BA track 1 I'd like my participants to warm up and enjoy being able to work out together. In BA track 3, to have fun, work hard and push their fitness levels in the superman. Good thing is that LM actually helps us instructors to set these track goals. So for instructors, who find it hard to set these goals, listen well to the DVD and read the choreo. It helps you, and that way you will be able to help your members to have an even greater experience than they already have in your class.

Some more Sinterklaas....

I found this on an english website about our "Sinterklaas". It might explain some more about our Dutch tradition....

St. Nicolaas, more fondly known as "Sinterklaas" arrives each year in the Netherlands around mid November. The saint, who travels from Spain by steamboat, is accompanied by his white horse and his knight, Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), as well as several "help" Peters. Legend goes that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet travel over the roofs of the Dutch houses at night. The Dutch children put their shoes (used to be wooden shoes) in front of the fire place. They sing songs and provide a carrot or hay for the horse. At night Zwarte Piet puts gifts and candy in it. On the evening of December 5th, Dutch families celebrate Sinterklaas' birthday (the name day of St. Nicolas is December 6th). For the smallest children, who still believe, a loud knock on the door signifies the arrival of Sinterklaas. Simultaneously, candy is thrown from upstairs by Zwarte Piet. When the door is opened, a large bag full of gifts waits on the front step.

Oh, I can remember the excitement very well!
For the older kids and adults, the tradition takes on a different turn. One way to celebrate the evening is as follows: Each gift is concealed in a "surprise" (pronounced the French way). A surprise is a gag. For example, a small present is hidden in a surprise. You make something from paper or wood or old boxes which really has to do with that person. For example I used to be a swimmer and some one made me a swimmingpool from paper and box with little puppets in there doing Synchro. Once I also got a plastic tub, with lines on the bottom and filled with water. My present was on the bottom and I had to 'dive' for it. It was really made as swimmingpool. The surprise does not have to be big, it can just touch on a weakness or vice of the receiver. The surprise is accompanied by a teasing poem. Around Sinterklaas, even the most prozaic Dutch become accomplished poets! It's a lot of fun.
Another way to celebrate the tradition is a special game played with a big dice. This is the way I spent the evening for the last couple of years. Actually we allready did it yesterday, as we all had different things to do 5 dec. This is the way it goes. You each buy 4 small nice gifts and take 1 gift from just anything you want to get rid of. Something old or ugly out of your house, or something really weird or funny. You wrap all presents. I for example took some old coffee mugs which I never use and which are very ugly (that's why I never use 'm). All presents are put together all you start throwing the dice. Every time you throw 6, you may pick a gift and unwrap it. You might pick something nice, but you may also have bad luck and pick 1 of the 'trash' gifts. This could take quite some time, but it's fun already. When all presents are unwrapped, the game actually starts. All number but the 6 on the dice mean something:
1: You may pick any gift from some else
2: pick 2 names out of the bowl with names: the 1st name has to give a present to the 2nd name
3: pick a gift from someone and give it to another person
4: everyone has to give 1 gift to the person on his/hers left hand side
5: pick an instruction from the bowl with instructions
6: nothing
The clock is set when the game starts (for about an hour), when the time is over you're stuck with the presents you've got at that time. It's so much fun, when you finally think you have the gift you really like, you have to switch seats for example. In the instruction bowl there can be instructions like that, or like give all your presents to your fellow players and you may pick 3 gifts from anyone. Or switch seat with the person on your right side. Or each person has to put a gift in the middle and the first person who throws 6 gets all the gifts. You usually end up with a lot of 'trash' gifts at that time.
We have been doing this game for a few times now. The first time we played it someone brought in a very ugly musical thing. It's a glass horse on a silver bottom and it plays the song it's a small world after all. And ofcourse this year it was there again. Nobody wantsit so tries to get rid of it all the time. We finally ended up with everyone having something they really liked so that was good. It was a fun evening, we were all acting like little kids hoping to get our favourite present.

BP Thursday

Yesterday I mixed some pretty old tracks in BP class. I used a couple of tracks of BP43. It had been quite a while since I did these tracks and I think for most people it was a completely new workout. I used the warm up track, Squat track (ready to go), Tricep track (ain't it funny) and the shoulder track (we will survive) all of BP43. I just love pushups :-) so this shoulder track is made for me :-) It starts with pushups and it ends with pushups. Since nobody could remember this track they all had a very nice surprise. The already thought the squat track was pretty hard with lots and lots of singles....... Few people joined me on the toes with all the pushups... good job you guys!
On the 5th december we celebrate "Sinterklaas". You can just about compare it with Santa Claus. 2 Weeks b4 the 5 dec, Sinterklaas comes from Spain with his helpers (Zwarte Piet). Children are allowed to put their shoe in front of the fireplace and the next day they might have gotten a present. Only if they have been nice for the past year ofcourse. All naughty kids have a chance to be taken in the big bag (were Sinterklaas usuaully brings his presents in) back to Spain. The picture you see is last year, when I was one of SInterklaas' helpers, Zwarte Piet. I did that together with my niece at the house of one of my collegues. Zwarte Piet is always a bit naughty and is allowed to do just about everything... haha, we had a great time filling in that role on 5 dec last year. My niece was 12 at that time and for her it was the first time she did it.
Well this story just to tell you, as a few people in yesterday's BP class, just told me Sinterklaas will probably take me back to Spain, together with all the naughty children, since I made yesterday's BP class pretty hard... I told them I wouldn't really mind, as the weather in Spain is probably way better than it is here. At least it will be warmer than it is here in Holland right now :-)

Yesterday evening I also did Bodybalance. I want to take as many BB classes before I get to do BB Module training in January. After BB, my collegue was going to train for his BJ. I'm not a jammer, but I decided to join him. Believe it or not, but I actually had fun. Most moves are way to difficult for me, but I could sort of follow the salsa/latin part. Maybe I'm even going to take a few classes when we launch it it january.

After the gym I had to go to my parents house. My washing machine broke down last week and I heard this afternoon, they cannot repair it anymore. My new one will be delivered saturday. My mom is doing my laundry now for over a week. I'm glad my parents live close to me, as I can't imagine washing all my clothes by hand. I have so much stuff just after one evening of teaching...... Only one more day .....

Energy

Last monday BA was awesome!! I still can't believe how much energy there was in the room. After BC class, I went to change my clothes quickly. I already saw a whole bunch of people coming in and I told them I'd be back very soon. My collegue Bogdan was on his way as well. When we entered the room, it was packed with people. Everyone looked very happy and exited, which gave me even more energy than I already had. I did the introduction and people already replied really exited. Then we just turned on the music ..... it was absolutely great. Everyone was working so hard even the few people for the first time, really came along well! It felt so good afterwards and lots of people came up after class, that they really enjoyed it. Bogdan and I just looked at eachother and said ... Fitness Magic! We both love Attack and it's so cool that there are coming more and more people at the gym who share that passion. It's such an awesome workout!

Mega & Dance 4 Life

Wow, picture time!

Rach teaching BODYCOMBAT technique workshop



BODYATTACK & BODYPUMP





BODYCOMBAT Masterclass: Dan, Rach & Daniel


After hard work it's Party time: Dance 4 Life!!

Me, Josanne, Claudia






That's it for now. I almost have to leave to the gym to teach. 2 Classes will be team-teach. I'm can't wait for BA tonight. We had a great team teach saturday morning with BA, and we will do so again tonight!!!

The story of the Creation

When I was in New Zealand I really enjoyed all the stories about the Maori legends. One of them is the story of the creation. Especially now I have seen Tane Mahuta myself. Here is the story:
In the beginning there was no sky, no sea, no earth and no Gods. There was only darkness, only Te Kore, the Nothingness. The very beginning was made from nothing. From this nothingness, the primal parents of the Māori came, Papatuanuku, the Earth mother, and Ranginui, the Sky father.
Papatuanuku and Ranginui came together, embracing in the darkness, and had 70 male children. These offspring became the gods of the Māori. However, the children of Papatuanuku and Ranginui were locked in their parents embrace, in eternal darkness, and yearned to see some light. They eventually decided that their parents should be separated, and had a meeting to decide what should be done.
They considered for a long time - should Rangi and Papa be killed? Or shall they be forced to separate?
Finally, Tumatauenga, the god of War, said "Let us kill our parents". However, Tane-Mahuta, the god of man and forests, and all which inhabits the forests, thought that Rangi and Papa should be separated. He thought that Ranginui should go up above, to the sky, and that Papatuanuku should should go below, to dwell on earth. All the children, including Tu, the God of War, agreed with Tane.
Tawhiri Matea, the god of winds and storms was the only child who did not wish for his parents to be separated. He feared that his kingdom would be overthrown. One by one the children tried to separate their parents. Rongomatane, the god and father of cultivated foods, tried without success. Haumia Tiketike, god of uncultivated food also tried.
Then it was the turn of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and Tumatauenga, the god of war, but neither Tangaroa nor Tumatauenga could separate their parents.
Lastly Tane-Mahuta rose. Strong as the kauri tree, he placed his shoulders against his mother Papatuanuku and his feet against his father Ranginui, and he pushed hard, for a very long time, straining and heaving all the while. Rangi and Papa cried in pain, asking their sons" why do you wish to destroy our love?"
After a long time Tane finally managed to separate Rangi and Papa, and for the first time the children saw the light of day (ao Marama) come streaming in. Once this happened, Tawhiri Matea, the god of winds and storms, and who had been against the separation of his parents, left for the sky to join his father. The turbulent winds and storms on earth are caused by Tawhiri Matea, in revenge for this brother's acts.
Now that the separation of Papatuanuku and Ranginui was complete, and there was a sky and an earth. However, there was just one missing element, and Tane decided to create a female. From an area named Kura-waka Tane took some clay, and modeled it into a woman. He then breathed life into it, and created Hine-ahu-one - the earth formed maiden.
Tane and Hine had a beautiful daughter called Hinetitama. When Hinetitama grew, she had daughters to Tane. One day Hinetitama asked Tane who her father was, and on discovering that Tane was the father of her children, she fled with shame into the night, to a place called Rarohenga, the underworld. From then on she became known as Hine-nui-te-po, the goddess of the night.

Live your life...

Make it happen
If you wait for things to be perfect, you'll be waiting a very long time.
Instead, go ahead and fill your life with as much love and joy and goodness and positive experience as you can imagine. There are plenty of reasons for not taking action, and numerous things that can go wrong. Be wise, careful, and reasonable to be sure, but don't be afraid to joyfully live. This very day is overflowing with wonderful possibilities. Take hold of the best of those possibilities, and dive deeply into their richness. Let go of your concerns about what others would think. Let go of your far-fetched worries about what might could go wrong. Fill this day with the unique energy that is you. Make a positive and glowing contribution to the world that comes straight from your deepest purpose.
Today is a day to learn, to explore, to build and teach, to love and enjoy. Everything you need is here, ready for you to make it happen.
R. Marston

Mega Quarterly

Wow, that was a great quaterly last weekend. Dan, Rach & Emma came over. Dan & Rach ofcourse did BC. Dan also did BP and Rach BJ. Unfortunately I didn't get to go to Dan's BP, as I also had to do BC workshop and both were at the same time. Rach did the BC workshop. It actually was a technique training and it was quite intensive, but good. I think everybody had to wake up a bit, but by the end everyone was awake. It was good fun. After BC workshop, I went straight into BA masterclass. BA55, great again, and I'm looking forward to start teaching it. I think this time we will lauch pretty late at the club because of christmas etc, so that'll give me a lot of time to learn it. Then it was time to go right into BP class. Again a good release. My butt was sore of the lunges the next day. Awesome shoulder track and absolutely great squat track, it just love it. Well, I think I actually love the whole release and I think my class is going the love it as well. After BP I had a short break, went to put my stuff in our hotel room and then went on to BC class. Wow it was crowded. I didn't really expect something else, as Dan & Rach were doing the afternoon presentation, together with Daniel. It was superb. And special compliment to our own trainer Daniel, as he did excellent next to Dan & Rach. He is really powerfull and a great presenter as well, would love to see him once in the DVD :-) After the classes it appeared to be very busy at the info stand and DVD handout, so I help out for about 2 hours. Then it was time to change, go to dinner and get ready for our Dance for Life party. Dresscode was white. It was really cool to see most people wear white. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. I think I wnet to the hotelroom at around 3. Unfortunately I woke up at 6.30 (did feel too much of a hangover), and wasn't able to go back to sleep again. Just stayed in bed for a while and then 9.30 Bodybolance with Emma. Last week I heard I can go to Bodybalance Module training in January. Looking forward to that. After BB I watched BJ class. I could start to feel my head from the alcohol and not enough sleep, so just watching it was good for me, since I'm not much of a jammer anyways. It just so cool to see and our 4 presenters looked awesome! On sunday I also went to Bodyvive workshop and Masterclass. I had fun during the masterclass, but it's not really my thing. I think it's a very good programme, but not if you're a really fit person. But that's not the goal of the programme so that's good. It's fun to be working with materials like the ball and the tube. Oh Wow, those abs... I could feel those a lot.... I also think it's good that it easy to join the class, for anyone. Simple moves, easy to follow and fun. Working together and working on your own. People can work on their own pace and train with more or less resistance, just as they wish to. I know it will be launched at our club, but I do not have an idea when.
After all of this, I was exhausted , but still had to drive home. I was glad I had 2 collegues with me, as it was 1 1/2 hour drive back home. I fell asleep at 7.30pm last night ...uuuuhhh
Well I'm of to the gym to teach. My first monday since I'm back from NZ. Looking really, really forward to be teaching BA again!! BC and BA will both be team-teach tonight. Cool!!
Get show some pictures of the party of saturday later.

Back home

I'm back after a long flight home. I maybe slept all together for about an hour, which is not a lot in 2 days. I woke up Auckland time monday at 8.00am and right now it's Amsterdam time 10.00am tuesday, which means Auckland time 10.00pm tuesday. Well, just going to try to stay awake the whole day and keep myself busy to get in regular day routine asap. Keeping myself busy won't be a problem as I have lots of things to do. One of 'm is updating the pictures to my blog which I have promissed to do... so here they are.

BODYATTACK, last regular class before filming:


Filming Kick off: BODYJAM


Waiting for the BODYPUMP to begin: Portugal & Holland


BODYPUMP: Glen, Susan and Emma waiting


Chest track


Emma showing clean & press-deadrow combi:


After class: just 'cause Susan really likes her picture taken after class :-) ... not


BODYCOMBAT:


Fabio and me after BC:


My very last BA class, shadowing with Will, Nathan (had to leave early) and Oscar (Spain)


Well guys, this is it for now. My time in New Zealand was again one to remember 4ever!

Last day...

I'm a little sad to go home. I had such a great time again here in New Zealand. But then again on the other hand, it's nice te be amongst my family and friends again back home. I'm so lucky I was able to travel to NZ twice this year. The country is beautyful, the people are great and I got to learn a lot by spending time at LM. It was absolutely great to experience the filming, meeting so many people. When I get home I'll be able to start working on the stuff I have picked up at gym, by talking with the instructors/trainers and doing all the classes. It was great being able to teach and to shadow. I'm looking forward to the Dutch quarterly next weekend!

Paihia & Cape Reinga

Awesome. On friday I went up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Next time I defenitely want to spend some more time there. This time I didn't have much time left as I had planned a full day tour all the way to Cape Reinga, Top of the North. The trip to Paihia was alreay amazing, again beautyful scenery all around, Whaipoua Forest, with all the Kauri Trees. We arrived in Paihia at around 5pm. So I didn't get to see/do a lot there. I just went for a nice walk around the beach, climed over the rockt, trying to find may way around. Sat down a bit a tried to watch the sunste, but I got a bit to cold and there were to may clouds anyways. Saturdaymoring it was a 7am pickup to go to Cape Reinga. To drive was again very nice, thru all these little towns and harbours up to Ninety Mile beach. There we actually left the road and were racing down the beach. The tide was coming in, so we got to ride thru the water for a bit. Pretty cool. Then we arrived at the sanddunes. Got some sandboards and wnet to walk all the way up the sanddune. A hard walk but well worth it. The sun was coming out to, s it was actually a kind of nice out there. First time a went down on the board I found it quite scary. It was steep and I didn;t no what to expect. 2nd and 3rd time was great. After 3 time I was done with climbing up the hill in this very soft sand. It actually was quite a workout... 2 steps up and 1 step down. The we drove on the Cape Reinga, there where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. Then a little further in we had a lunch at the beach and the return trip went via another part of the Kauri tree forest. I also got a nice picture of a beginning of a fern ... you know that part that looks like a koru....

I actually got the Koru tattood on my foot a couple of days ago! Pretty cool he... NZ will always be with me that way :-)

Another filming evening

The kick of was up to Dan & Rach this evening, accompagnied by Oscar and Ivan. They looked cool in their kimono's. Just one part in the warming had to be done for a second time. Especially well done for Oscar from Spain, as he did a very good job teaching in english! After BC I decided to join the BB. I hadn't done BB for a while, but I think it's a beautyfull program and I'd actually love to teach it. Try to get some more info on it when I get back home as I really got inspired by today's class. I also think it makes a great combo with BA and BP to keep up your flexibility this way. Who know's what will happen in the future. I was really calm and relaxed after this class, so I decided not to do BS, but just watch it. They were wearing cool outfits, and were looking great on stage. Afterwards we had drinks and pizza and by the time we were going we ended up going to Denny's to eat. Well I only had dessert... uuhhhh... chocolate fudge cake and icecream... mjummie... good thing I have been working out a lot these days :-)
Well time to go to bed now!

First day Filming

Awesome..... It's so nice to finally see how it all goes. Normally I end up getting the final thing at home, but I never experienced the making of. It's so cool to see that. The evening started of with Bodyjam. I don't do Bodyjam (unless I'd be able start of with a bottle of wine), so that made me able to see the class. It was packed with people, camera's and a bunch of photographers. There were 3 instructors on stage and Dan came up with them to start of with a rap. Pretty cool. I really enjoyed watching the whole thing. G. is an awesome dancer, but still he's there for the people in the class and not for himself. I think that is quite a gift as I have seen BJ instructors who were very good dancers, but really showing of on stage to show how cool and good they are and then end up forgetting about the people in the class. Half way down they stopped as they had to move the stage where the main camera was on, then they continued after about 5 minutes. I think it all went well, at least it looked great, as that's just all I can say about BJ.
When BJ was finished it was Bodyattack time. I took a spot at about the 3rd row, but b4 we'd started someone of LM pulled up to the first row. It took Will about 3 times to do the introduction, which was funny as he was all excited and talked so fast that he ended up messing up words. Finally we could start. Lisa, Will and Fabio looked awesome on stage. I didn't have time to make any pictures as I didn't want to miss anything of the class. Sorry you guys who weren't there. With track four they had a whole volleyball team up on stage, which looked good. After BA it was time for BP. Again I was put in the front row. I quickly changed my stuff as I was very sweaty from BA. This time I had my camera with me as I could put it underneath my step. Susan and Emma had an awesome tattoo painted on their calf. It took a while b4 we started, so I was able to take some pics with the portugese guys. The class went very well and I just love the finally they did on the shoulder track. I think I have a pretty good picture on that one. Ha... I just gave myself the opportunity to take that picture instead of doing the last few push-ups :-)
Sorry guys you'll have to wait for the pictures till I get home next week. It pretty expensive to have my photo's put on CD, so I will do it as soon as I get home. Only one more week.
Tonight will be the BC filming, and also BB and BS.

This morning I was planning to do the step/pump class, but there was a problem with the music, so they had to cancel the class. Too bad, as I was really curious on what that would be like.

From Auckland

After a long long drive with the bus from Wellington all the way up to Auckland I arrived there wednesday evening at 6.00 pm. The next day I went up to Les Mills. I still know my way around for a bit, so it was no problem to get there. I spoke to Susan the day before and she told me she was going to teach thursday at 1.10pm to try out for filimg classes. I hadn't doen BP for a while now, so I decided to be carefull with picking my weights as I wanted to do more classes that day. So I have hardly done BP60 (only few tracks) and now I am already doing BP61. I really like the song of the squat track (I am very bad with songtitles so I'm afraid I am not able to help you out on that one). The triceps is killing and so is the lunge track. Front foot on the step.... I thought it was quite challenging and I can tell you now... I can feel every single muscle in my butt (which is actually nice to know that I have some muscles there as wel).
I also did BC with Dan & Rach and BA with Lisa, Will and Fabio. There is a whole bunch of Portugese trainers. They are all very nice and we get along pretty well. So It's fun to spend some time with them.
Today I started with BP with Mark S. I really like him. Then I did BC with Joe. He's cool too. He actually called me on stage today with a couple of tracks which I hadn't really expected. He asked me if I actually wanted to teach a track is his class tomorrow together with one of the portugese trainers. Sure... I'd love to!!!!! Later I did BA with Lisa and Will. Then I actually wanted to join Dan & Rach's class. I managed to do so for 3 tracks, but then I was exhausted, so the rest of the class I have been watching. I could have pushed my self harder, but I decided it would be better not to, as I want to be fit for tomorrow's classes. Again BA, BC and BP.
Well I guess this is it for now. I'll try to take as many pictures as possible, but I probably won't be able to post them untill I'm home, unless I can find a place where they can put my pictures on a CD. Any suggestions anyone???

Early class this morning

Wow, I thought BA at saturday morning 9.00 am was early. Well try BC at 6.30 am. I was exhausted, but it was cool though. Real good Muy Tai track. I had never done this one and I really liked it. Afterwards I had breakfast and took the bus to the Wellington Zoo. I can tell one thing, visiting a Zoo here is quite a workout too. It's located on a hill side and just walking around gets pretty steep sometimes.
In the evening I took another BA class. This time Sue was teaching. I had a great time and she did one track op BA55. Be prepared you guys at home :-) Tonight I have to pack my bags as I'm heading up north to Auckland tomorrow. Talk to you later.

Les Mills Wellington Extreme

Just a quick update a I am exhausted. Not working out for 2 weeks and all of a sudden working out again. Pffffff... but it was great fun. This morning I did a BC class. Not too crowded but it was a great class and a nice instructor. Maybe because she is half dutch?! No kidding, it was fun and it felt great afterwards having worked out again. I also got a tour around the whole gym, which was quite big and has 4 levels and a lot of stairs to go with that :-). Studio one is also pretty big, but not as big as in Auckland. Nice work out areas and a womens only floor. Studio 2 is during the day a child care place and only used in the evening for classes. The RPM studio holds about 30-35 bikes so that's not extremely big. That number gets pretty close to our own Cycling studio.
During the day I have been walking around town, going to the cable car, wnet up the hill wwith it, went to the cable car museum (boring) and walked around the botanical gardens. Then I found my way down again and very suprisingly I saw the sun coming thru and the sky was clearing up. I sat down at a starbucks cafe for a bit and wrote my travel journal. Then I took a nice stroll along the harbor site and enjoyed the view on the water. At the end of the afternoon I went back to the gym for a BA class. It felt sooooooo good. Wow, now I realized how much I have missed my BA workouts. It's so good the give your body a rest, but I have missed it a lot, so I am happy I was able to work out. Tomorrow I am gonna do another BA class and maybe (if I am manage to wake up early) another BC class.

Koru

Coincidence or not? From the first time on when I was in New Zealand the Maori carving Koru catched my eye and somehow stayed on my mind ever since. The way the sign looks and what it means somehow did something with me.

The koru shape is a scroll shape and is linked to the New Zealand fern plant. The shoot of the fern has a curled-over tip which unfurls and becomes a fernleaf.
The koru reaches towards the light, striving for perfection, encouraging new positive beginnings... The koru, represents the unfolding of new life, that everything is reborn and continues. It represents renewal and hope for the future. Spiral, geometry of life, sacred creation...

I was just checking Les Mills' Kia Kaha and read Steve's post about the Maori signs and checked the Signs and their meanings. For those of you who didn't know ... my favourite program is BA, which is very very closely followed by BP. But check out the sign for BA and the meaning:

The outwardly spiralling koru motif depicts powerful energy being released from within. Shown this way, it also references a collision of growth and change

Wellington

This afternoon I arrived in Wellington. First I planned to stay another day in Whakapapa at the national park, but as the weather wasn't to good I decided to leave for Wellington one day earlier as beside being outdoors and walking, there's not much to do in Whakapapa. It took about 6 1/2 including all stops to get to Wellington. We had one stop in a little town where they had a dutch shop. Ofcourse I went in there to see what they where selling. There is another dutch guy on the bus and we decided to buy some haring (rolmops) at the store. I guess all the other people at the bus thought we were a kinf of weird since we were eating raw fish, but it's something typical dutch and we both liked it. They also sold 'ontbijtkoek', 'pepernoten', 'stroopwafels', 'beschuit met muisjes', 'hagelslag', 'vlokken' dutch cheeses and even dutch 'senseo' coffee. Sorry don't know the other english words for all this dutch food. After that we drove straight on to Wellington. It was again a nice drive. Upon arrival a went to explore the area for a bit and right now it's raining again so I am glad I am here writing my emails and updating my blog. Unfortunately I have to go out again to go back to the hostel. Tomorrow I think I'll be going to the Te Papa museum, which is (according to Lonely planet), THE Museum of New Zealand and something you should not miss being in Wellington. Well I guess with the weather like this it's defenitely something I going to be doing :-).

Tongariro Crossing

Wow, this one the the most amazing 1 day walks I have ever done. I guess I really lucked out with the weather, as the morning started out very cloudy and few raindrops came down. The driver of the bus checked with the weatherstation and the forecast for the rest of the day was supposed to be good. And it was!! It cleared up and doing the trek the sun came thru and we had pretty clear sights at the top. It was awesome. It started out quite flat in the beginning, but pretty soon we came to the 'Devils Staircase'. I can understand why they call it like that. It's a very steep climb up on the rocks. The reward after this first climb was gooed though, a nice view which was quite clear already and snow tops and also real snow right next to me! Then the track continued and the the sky became all blue, the sun was shining, but is was cold 'cause the wind was blowing. Another steep hill came up and the reward was even better. Only a little but further up, could it become even better? Oh yeah it sure did. At the highest point we would reach at this trek the view was magnificent. Snowy tops, 3 bright blue/green crater lakes, clear skies.... I don't know how to describe it.... This is not my picture but one found on the internet, I guess it 'll do for now...... The rest of track was also very beautyful. Passing some hot streams (water running down from the hot springs) and finally ending the track in the forest. This whole area is volcanic area. There are 3 volcanoes in the area, Mt. Ngauruhoe, Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ruapehu. All three all still active. The nameTongariro actually covered all three mountains and means Tonga (south wind) and riro (carried away). At the hostel there was a jacuzzi so it was a good ending of the day, relaxing in this hot water after this 17 km walk. Especially because it started to rain again...

Lake Taupo

At the moment I am in Taupo. Left Rotorua yesterday after a visit at a Maori Village called Te Whakarewarewa. Took me quite some time to pronounce this right, but I think I am able to do so now. It was an interesting visit and very nice to learn some more about the Maori culture. On the way to Taupo we have stopped at a hot water springs. Weird thought that when you put your hand in a river stream it appears to be very warm water. We had the possibilty to go swim in it, which I ofcourse did. We had another stop and some boiling and exploding mud, which was quite neat to see. Close to Taupo the bus stopped at the Huka Falls. Impressive to see how much water comes down these falls. They say it's anough to fill 2 Olympic size swimmingpools every second, can you imagine!
Rightnow I am sitting in an Internet place, but listening to the music I got the feeling I am in a Les Mills gym. I think I've heard about 10 BP and 4 BA tracks. Quite hard to sit still and type my travel journal that way :-) Well anyway, I am gonna go for a walk now. I hope I will not be too cold as the outside temperature isn't very warm. But at least it's not raining right now.
Later!!!

Kia Ora

Yeah, I'm back and having a great time here in New Zealand. Friday I arrived in Auckland after a pretty long trip. I was very lucky to travel business class on the flight Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur, so I had a good sleep. When I arrived in Auckland a went to the hotel and arranged the buspass. I planned to travel on Magic bus, but their schedule isn't very good at the moment due still winter times, so I switched to Stray Travel. A bit more expensive, but with a better schedule.
Saturday morning I left right away for Hahei at the Coromandel Peninsula. A beauthfull ride, which started of at Mt. Eden. Unfortunately it was so foggy, there was notjing to see up there, I could hardly see my own arm when I stretched it out in front of me. So I might have to get up there again when I'm back in Auckland. We arrived around 1.30pm in Hahei and I went of for a Kayak trip along the eastcoast. Beautyfull green/blue ocean, the sun even came out and I had a great time. Spotted a penguin and a bird divig from way up in the sky to the fish in the ocean to get his dinner. Pretty cool to see how he did that.
The next day the bus drove on to the westcoast, to Raglan, known for the surfers waves. I had never done surfing before, but I can tell you now, it's awesome. It was very difficult, but I managed to get up 5 times for at least 5 seconds. The feeling when you're up on the waves.... can't describe it. I know I'd like to do that more often :-)
This morning we first went to Waitomo, to see the glowworm caves. Pretty awesome, I'd like my bedroom ceiling to be like that. Would be neat to have these small lights. It's amazing how bright the larves shine. We also went in another cave and have been walking around the area for a bit. Unfortunately it has been raining all day. Not just a little, I was soaking wet and cold as well. Hopefully this is only for one day....At the moment I'm in Rotorua and tomorrow afternoon I'll be leaving for Taupo. Let you know later what's going on there.

One more day....

Tomorrow I will be leaving for New Zealand again. Today I still have lots of things to do, as I still have to go to work tomorrow. Not really for work but for a training, but still, no time left then, so all has to be done today. This weekend was quite busy as I did a demo at the Fitvak convention in Utrecht. We did the LM demo with 3 LM assessors. We had a lot of fun. We had to do the whole thing 3 times a day. It was a combo of BC, BA, BJ, BS and BB. It took a little less than 15 mins. We have met a lot of nice people at the convention and even though we were afraid the days would be taking forever, time flew. I think it's really true: Time flies when you're having fun!

My holiday plans are as follows: I will fly via Kuala Lumpur to Auckland, I wil stay in Auckland for 2 days and then I will be heading south for Waitomo and Rotorua, then I will be going towards Taupo, Turangi and Wellington. From Wellington I will be going up north again to Napier and Mt. Maunganui. I will also be going to Whitianga and Thames. Then I will be in Auckland for about a week. And last but not least I am going up North to Cape Reinga, Bay of Islands and Paihia. I will be leaving Auckland 13 November, to be back in time for our MEGA quarterly 18-19 November.

Start....

If you want to get something done, then start it. That may sound obvious, yet all too often it is that first step that keeps getting put off for way too long.
If you can't decide on where to start, just start somewhere, with the first thing that comes to mind. You'll be much better able to come up with an effective plan once you get going and get a feel for what you're doing.
Yes, you'll probably make some mistakes and yes, there will certainly be challenges. So get moving and get busy dealing with them right away.
Once you start, the momentum begins to build. Once you start, you'll find a workable way to finish.
Take the first step on a journey, and the next step comes a little more smoothly. As each step prepares the way for the next, your momentum begins to carry much of the load.
The way to get where you want to be is to start from where you are. Now is when you can surely begin to make your best possibilities come to life.
R. Marston

Quarterly Club Launch

Yeste4rday we had our quarterly club launch. Theme was: "Touch of Silver". At the club we have 5 LM programs. RPM, BP, BC, BA and BB. Jan 07 we will also start with BJ. For now it was just 5 x 30mins launch. We had great fun, dressing ourselves with a touch of silver. Members also showed up with a toch of silver, so it all looked very nice. I didn't do the RPM, but at 19.30 we started with BC. We did the launch with the 3 of us. Aubrey, Eline and me, all three dressed in black and silver, we showed them some combat girl power. We had a number of new faces, all doing great. It was also good to see some familiar faces back in Combat. After BC it was time for BP. I explained about the new focus and also about the wide rows in the backtrack. After PB: ATTACK time. I can't say anything else but Be There next time if you weren't there yesterday. BA54 again an awesome release. Also presenting with 3 it's a lot of fun. We could see people getting tired, put we pulled them thru! They made it to the end. After BA , it was BB time. We had a couple of people doing the whole evening. Good job you guys!! Hope to see you in class next time as well.

Work out

This morning a went to workout in Leusden. A club over there organized a workout and all funds were going to the Cancer Foundation. Since I like to work out and I also think the Cancer Foundation is a good thing to raise money for, I decided to hop into my car and drive overthree to do the workout. The presenters were our own LM national trainers, so it kind a felt like a quarterly. Unfortunately it wasn't as busy as that club had expected it to be, but I had a good time anyways and it doubles the good feeling that they were raising the money for a good cause.
I only did BP and BA, as I had to work this afternoon, but I was exhausted anyways, so doing a BP or any class wouldn't have been very efficient. I'm glad I'm healthy and able to participate in sports a lot, so if this could help other people to cure from this awfull disease, and be able to participate in life and play just any sport again, I'd be happy!

At our club we have the quarterly launch thursday, 28 September.

19.00 RPM
19.30 BODYCOMBAT
20.00 BODYPUMP
20.30 BODYATTACK
21.00 BODYBALANCE

For all programs we teach 4 or 5 tracks. The theme this time is: 'a Touch of Silver'. Hope to see ya there ...... all dressed in silver !!!

Yesterday

Yesterday evening I had a good talk with someone. At the moment I'm practising really hard to improve myself as an instructor, and I'm not easily satified with what I do when I watch the video's. Some people around me just say, why are you not satisfied, you've got pretty full classes, we get positive feedback from customers, but I still got this feeling I can do better. I know there is more in me and I want to get it out. Sometimes it's frustrating and it can make me real insecure as well. I have been through this earlier, but sometimes when you're so passionate about something and you've got something on your mind, it's so easy to fall back to previous mistakes. Haven't I learned from the past? Oh yes I have, because now I'm noticing it and before I didn't. Yesterday we talked for almost 2 hours about is. Not a lot of people are as passionate as we both are, but it's good to have someone who know's what you'd like to achieve tell you to ease down on yourself. It really helped me. This morning I was watching yesterday's class taping and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Ofcourse still things to improve, but yesterday's talk helped me to watch the tape through different eyes. There are also things I do well I found out. Thanks for letting me know R.

I found this text this morning:

• Focus on something that you do well and find a way to do it even better. The substance of value that you create is never wasted.
• Choose something that you do well and find a way to make the fruits of your efforts available to those around you. By providing real value to others, you expand the treasures in your own life.
• Take something you do well and find a way to make it enjoyable. The more you enjoy what you're doing, the more effective you'll be.
• Find something you do well and teach it to others. The more you can duplicate your efforts, the more value there is for everyone.
  Look at something you do well and consider the real, lasting sense of fulfillment it can bring. Remember that life is about making a difference.
• The things you do well provide you with the opportunity to give of yourself in real and meaningful ways. That's an opportunity you don't want to miss.

And here another one:

For the best
Something did not turn out the way you wanted. And maybe, it was for the best.
Disappointments and setbacks can have a way of becoming positive turning points. When something does not work out, it makes room for other possibilities. Be careful not to attach your sense of fulfillment too tightly to specific outcomes and circumstances. For there are far more possibilities than you have yet imagined. Sometimes you aim too high and sometimes you aim too low. When you do, the resulting disappointments can help guide you toward where you truly want to be. Whether the last few days have seen you move forward or fall back, new doors have most certainly been opened by whatever has happened. Choose now to focus on the most promising of your current options. Go with the assumption that whatever happens is for the best. And you'll find a way to make it so. Marston, R.

A day at the airport

Working at the airport is different every day. With 100.000 sometimes 150.000 travellers a day, it's quite natural you'll see and meet all sorts of people. This is the thing a love most about working at Schiphol Airport. There are people who are nice, angry, crazy, funny, smart, frightened, ugly, pretty, fat, skinny, normal, black, white, dumb, blond, old, young, colourful dressed, business men/women, people who are in a hurry, impatient. You name it and they walk around at the airport. All those people make my workdays different every time. Sometimes you already know what will come up at a certain time of the day. Usually on friday afternoons, lots of Frenchmen come up to desk trying to get on a earlier flight. Most of them have the same kind of tickets and then we are able to change their tickets. On sunday mornings it's usually the englishmen coming in. You can already smell the alcohol from the evening before. Most of the time they missed their flight and the have non changeable, non refundable tickets, which leaves them with nothing but a new ticket they have to buy. Right now we have lots of students collecting their tickets before their flights to Aruba or Netherlands Antilles, where they will be working as a part of their studies. Sometimes delays happen and then we have people stranding in Amsterdam. Most of the time we are able to help out people pretty good, but sometimes there are problems as a lot of people need a visa to enter the Netherlands or other Schengen countries and if they do not have a visa, they sometimes have to stay at the airport for 2 days and wait for the next flight. Sometimes people miss their flight because of their own mistake, then it's even a bigger problem for them as we have to stick to their ticketrules. It's also funny to see that people always tell us: "I don't have money, I am not able to pay a change fee." When we tell them no money no flight.... within an hour, they are back ... with money. I always wonder were they find it..... maybe I can go there as well :-)
Somehow people always blame us for the fact they missed their flight, or the wrong date in the ticket they booked via their travel agent. We also cause traffic jams, train delays....pretty good hey. But ofcourse there are also lots af nice people walking around, even though they might have had some pretty bad experiences. Today I had a couple at my desk and they had quite a big problem, caused in Londen yesterday. I wasn't able to turn things around for them, but tried to help them as good as possible. Later the man came back to me a thanked me for everything I had done. That makes you feel good when someone takes the time and comes back. Then you forget other less pleasant things that happen. Well this is just a part of my 'other life'. I have an early shift tomorrow, so I'm going to bed early, at least I'm going to try to go to bed early :-)

Ps. Put a smile on your face and find out how many people will smile back at you.

AIM - Advanced Intructor Module

Last weekend I went to the Les Mills AIM training in Roosendaal. It was the first AIM training here in de the Netherlands I was glad I was able to go. It's a great training for Silver certified LM instructors. It was quite intensive, because a lot of information is given. Mostly theory and a lot of talking on the first day. Lots of thinking about yourself and how you do things. We also had a few games in between to point out several things. Funny stuff that makes you think again. Second day we also worked out and had to present tracks. AIM actually is a bunch of questions which will be discussed during the training, and these questions will challenge you as an instructor in your way of teaching. Always be there for 110%, be prepared to learn and analize yourself. Focus, dedication and practise. It was great. We had a good team of trainers, which I also think is in important. They really took time to help us with all our questions and they were passionate about the training as well. Good job Else & Remi.

Yesterday evening I have been teaching BA and BP. I was exhausted. I taped my BA class and watched it yesterday evening. Really good to watch yourself and then try to improve yourself for the next time. Last thursday I taped my BP class. Next thursday, or maybe tomorrow as well I will tape BP class again, to see if I was able to fix the things I noticed on my tape. Today I did not have any classes to teach, so after work I went to gym and had my own training. I first did BC for 45 minutes as I have to teach BC again tomorrow and after that I decided to do BA. I had the video with me and taped it again. Just to watch my technique, power and energy. Even though I was tired, I could push myself to go deeper, higher and be stronger. Next time I have to do that in class. I feels good to be working out this way again. Just like the old days with swimming. Practise, watch, improve and keep on doing that. There are always small things you can improve.

Another year older

Yesterday was my B-day. Another year older again. I didn't have a big party as I am quite busy at the moment with teaching, courses, work and other fun things. I had my mom and dad over for dinner and my 2 best friends and later on a few more friends came over. The weather wasn't very nice so we all had to stay inside. Earlier, yesterday I went to the gym to do BC, as I heard on monday that they were gonna c'hange the schedule at the gym again and that I will have to start teaching BC again on monday evening. So far we have been on summer schedule, and they told me at first it would be for 12 weeks, and now they decided to get back to the regular schedule again starting monday instead of 4 weeks later. Wow, I have to rush now with learning the choreo for BC again. It'll be great teaching BC again. Tonight I'm planning to video my BP class, just to assess myself. Tomorrow I will have a training for a demo at the 'Fitvak Dagen' in Utrecht in october, right before my holiday. This weekend I will be going to the Les Mills AIM training. Really looking forward to that. Oh and before I forget, somewhere in between I have to work as well :-).
I'm off to the gym now, to get the video set up etc. Talk to ya later!

New Releases

Yesterday I went to the quarterly workshops. Good sessions for the workshops and awesome masterclasses again. The BP workshop was a really good one and also very usefull information to help participants in our classes. Bodypump is all about great body posture and this release is focussing on activating the 'core'. This will help you to get strong posture and a stable base before you start lifting your weights. I really enjoyed BP, this was the first release done by Glen as choreographer and I'd like to say: Good job Glen. I will have a good time.
BA was good as always. I like it when it's presented by Karin and Daniel. Both are pretty tall and that looks good on stage. Warm up track is "Be there" from which I think it's a good opening, it just tells you you've got to be there for this BA class. Track 3 will bring us to Brazil, which cheers you up when it starts to get tough. "Everybody on the floor" brings us to the first peak, and after that we actually get to go down on the floor for some upperbody conditioning. Then after the running track and the split room, we get to go to the interval track. For the people who do BP as well, it's a familiar one: "Everytime we Touch", but just in a higher speed. It gives lots of kicks followed by the 2nd and final power peak in track 9. You can't do anything else then 'Go deep'. Then some lower bodywork, which you should not forget and ofcourse the cooldown. It was great. Thanks Lisa and thanks Karin and Daniel for a great masterclass. Also the workshop session had some good info which helps us to get better and help our participants improve as well.
By the time I had to do BC, I was so tired and the inside temperature had raised to about 40 degrees I think and we couldn't open the doors because of the noise. I didn't manage to do full BC class, I only had breakfast so far, so after track 6 I could see little stars in front of my eyes. I decided that that wasn't the way to go, so I decided to watch the rest of BC as I had to assess the last BP masterclass after the BC class. Pretty tough doing BA and BC without any rest in between, especially w/o any oxygen in the room. It was actually kind a neat to watch the BC presentation. Claudia and Daniel always have nice presenations together. It's very inspiring. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go the workshop as it was at the same time as BA. I know the workshop had some special attention for the jab, which I think is good as this a move frequently done in BC.

I also think the general workshop on coaching is a good one. It will make us more of a coach instead of an instructor. How to become a mastercoach? What do you think, will make someone a good instructor/mastercoach? What brings you back to your groupfitness class everytime? There can be so many things, but when you have a lousy instructor in front of you, who isn't motivated, doesn't move properly, or isn't able to communicate with you, most people will probably not come back after the first time in class. Well there are 10 things for us as coaches, we need to work on. Some come naturally, some you have to work on, but practise gives results even for us as coaches.

Have fun with the new releases, even though it might be a while before they will be launched at our club. It gives me a while to learn 'm :-)

Bob the Builder

Wow, am I tired or what. 2 Days of working at the house. Luckily I had Bob the Builder helping me. Actually it was my dad who was helping, but that's about the same, except for the fact he doesn't look like Bob :-). A couple of weeks ago I have restyled my balcony and now it was time for my kitchen. Yesterday and today we have been working on it ... and now it's almost finished. I'm very happy with my 'new' restyled kitchen. I'm not much of a cook, so I did not want to spent to much money on a completely new kitchen, and I'm very happy with teh things my dad was able to do. My work was mostly getting the stuff from the store and holding everything on the right spot. Carry stuff back and forth etc .... but still, I can feel my legs. Only a few details left, and some painting to do, but that I can handle myself. When that's finished, I still have another project to go... a new floor in the house. Only that won't be on a short notice....First I will be going on holiday to New Zealand.

Tomorrow I'm going to the quarterly. Looking forward to that. I hope I will have a good night rest, so I won't be as tired as I'm now. I hope I will see some people I know, as I won't be going to Nieuwegein now, but to Roosendaal. Usually I am going to Nieuwegein, because it's closer to home, but next week I have to work so I'm not able to go to all workshops. So I will only be assessing in Nieuwegein. Sunday I have to work again. It's good to have had a few days off of work.

Saturday

Saturday morning I had to teach BP, because my collegue is on holiday. As I had to get up early anyways I decided to go to BA class. My collegue asked me if I wanted to team teach .... sure why not, I still like that a lot. But in the morning BA, wow I still think that's tough. I always need some time to wake my body up. I told the people in class I really admire them, as they get out of bed for BA every saturday morning. They all had to laugh. Saturday morning is not as crowded as monday, and most people that are going to that class know me from monday's class. During upperbody conditioning I could feel the sweat run into my eyes... Everybody worked really hard, tried to jump higher, move further.... good job. Unfortunately there are not a lot of men in BA class at our club, but it was really nice to see that the 3 guys we had in class, were right in front of stage. We called them our supermen yesterday. And tough guys as they are, they stayed for BP class as well.
With BP class or RPM/Spinning you'll see a lot of men in class, but with other classes it's still mostly women. Too bad, but I think a lot of men just think that BA just some 'girly class' . HA... just to tell them BA is a high energy athletic work out, and just like the slogan for BA: 'Everything else is just a warm up' Mmmm, maybe dutch men aren't as tough as they think they are :-))). No I'm just kidding, I hope we will be able to convince more men to go to classes at the gym, because it is a lot of fun and it gives your body a great workout. When I did my BA training, there were 12 men and only 7 women, so I think that's shows it's not just a 'girly workout'.
When I went home yesterday after class I had some bad luck, it was raining so hard and I took my bike to the gym. I did not have time to wait for the rain to stop 'cause I had to work, so I was completely wet by the time I got home. If I had brought some shampoo, I could have washed my hair during my bikeride home. After work I went over to friends. We chatted, snacked, watched a movie and had a nice evening.

Today

This morning I woke up with the radio playing 'From Paris to Berlin...', and because I still like that song I decided to play it as this evenings squat track during pump class. Somehow this song reminds me of my holiday earlier this year in New Zealand. I got to present the track in Susan's BP class when I was in Auckland. I was really glad that I was able to teach day my own BP class today. Actually I had to work, and I had some difficulties to change my shift to an earlier shift. Usually I have a collegue at the gym with whom I can switch a class, but she's on holiday now and I realized that a bit late. I was very happy a found someone last monday who could work for me, so I had the day off today, and I will be working saturday evening. I'm really thankfull to her, especially when I found out it was chaos at the airport, because of terrorist threats at London Heathrow airport. I heard all flights to London Heathrow were delayed or cancelled, so that always gives us unhappy passengers, who usually do not want to understand that this is for their own safety and that we do not cancel flights to just tease them. When things like this happen it always costs a lot of money for the airline, so we are not pleased either. I'll find out tomorrow how the situation was today.
I enjoyed my day off, did some stuff at home, went out to check out some things as I want to fix up my kitchen and the floor in my house. Got some nice ideas, so this will be happening in the next few months. I won't be able to do everything in a short time as I still want to go on holiday as well :-). I went to gym around 6pm, I had to teach the abdominal class (15 min) as well. Pump class started at 7pm. It was crowded, and again I was very happy that I could teach my own class. I don't really like to skipp my own class, but sometimes I do have to because of work. At the airport I have a couple of nice collegues who always try to help me out, so it doesn't happen very often that I have to skipp class. When I started teaching the thursday evening, it wasn't a very full class, but I'm glad it is now. It's always good to see the familiar faces again, working hard and challenging themselves. You can see the faces in pain, working their butts of and then, just by giving them some attention, getting this smile from them. With that smile they just let me know that they haven't died yet :-) Todays class felt good, found an old bicep track with Robbie's 'Let me entertain you' and ofcourse DJ Tiesto is still awesome for lunges. I could feel my own legs riding my bike home. Oh oh and in 2 weeks I have to teach a spinning class right after thursday's BP class. I'm not certified to teach RPM, so when I'm substituting I always teach freestyle spinning. It has been a while for me teaching spinning. so my but will probably be sore then. I have to go check out my closet to find my biker shorts, that'll help being less painfull. Well, I'm off to bed now. Sleep tight.

How cruel can one be?

Today I heard an awfull story of a collegue of mine. I hadn't seen her for a while, but at first that didn't seem very strange to me, since I have been away to the Headoffice for 2 weeks and we work in shifts, so it's easy to miss one another for a while. Well today I spoke to her and she told me something that you do not want to happen to anyone. One of her best friends got murdered in her own house. Can you believe that? I have been thinking about it ever since she has told me. I can't believe that someone could do something like that? I feel very sad for her and ofcourse also for the family of the victim. When I heard about above, it just made me realize again that you must enjoy your life every single moment. Life is just too short to waist any of it. You never know when it's over.

2 Years ago I was on holiday in Peru and I'm very happy I'm still here. We were driving in a bus when all of a sudden a white pickup truck pulled over right in front of the bus. 4 Guys with guns jumped out of the truck and came in the bus. I was sitting in the front seat with 2 of the guys right in front of me. They were pointing their guns at me and my friend and you can imagine, I wasn't very comfortable sitting there. They took us to some place far from the larger road, so they could take their time. They were not satisfied with some money. They have been going through our stuffs for at least 3 hours while were laying down in the sand next to the bus. I will not tell you all details as that will be too difficult for me. In total there were six men and they took so much of our stuff. Money passports, camera's. Then they stabbed the tires of the bus and left. I happened it the first half of my holiday and I decided that since they already took so much of my stuff, I didn't want them to take the rest of my holiday. The whole group stayed and we were of good support to eachother. I'm very glad I finished my holiday as planned. Ofcourse I look back to this holiday with mixed feelings, but I can tell you I still think it's a beautyfull country with also lots of nice people. When I look back I think it was just a matter of timing: being on the wrong place at the wrong time. Ofcourse I have had very difficult time after this, especially with trusting people. When I walk on the streets and a person keeps walking right behind me, it still gives me the creeps. Now 2 years later, I have learned a lot from this experience. The most important thing is, as I have mentioned above... enjoy your life! Do the things you like and don't postpone them. You never know if you will be able to them later. The story of my collegue made me realize it again. Take care.

Relaxing evening

This is the first evening since ... well I don't know how long ago, that I don't have to do anything. Don't missunderstand me in this, I'm busy girl and I like that a lot, but the last 2 weeks I had to go back to my old job to give some assistance. This wasn't really my own choice, but some things just have to be done. Because of that I have been working regular office hours for 2 weeks, which seems to take more of your time off than working in shifts. Good thing about it is, that I have been working extra hours, which gives me the possibilty to get some extra time on my vacation card :-) .... and yessss.... that's good for my next holiday which I'm planning for Oct/Nov. You wanna know where I'm going to? Yep ..... New Zealand again. I had such a great time in March, so I just want to go back. Haven't seen the North Island yet, so that's what I'm planning right now. Again I want to go for at least 3 weeks, cause I want to visit Les Mills in Auckland again. More about that later.
Tonight I first planned to go to the gym, but later I decided it would be better to take some rest. Now I will be going tomorrow morning and do some BA team teaching with Josanne. No tropical out fit this time :-)

What did I do on my evening off? Well.... grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, some other household stuff that needed to be done..... relaxing I said??? Mmmm sort of. At least I could do it without being in a hurry. I have been enjoying a cup of tea outside, and read a magazine. I have put some candles out on my balcony and I looks nice. Temperature outside is better than inside the house, so I prefer to sit outside right now. There's nothing interesting on tv, so there's no reason to sit inside anyways. I still can't believe that the only drops of rain I have seen this month have been falling down last saturday. Which bring me back to the BODYPUMP on the beach, I'm still waiting for some more pictures. There have been a few articles in different newspapers this week as well. They were talking about 700 people .... can you believe that. I could see people everywhere, but so many? And the best thing was ... so many smiling faces all together!!

19 August I will be going to our quarterly here in Holland. Still one release behind as I just read the filming is done 13 august for BC 30, BP 60 and BA 55. We will be getting BC 29, BP 59 and BA 54. I'm wondering if there would be any filming in November since I'm gonna be in NZ around that time. Would be nice to experience that once.
Well I'm of to bed, since I have to wake up early tomorrow morning. Good Night 2 ya all.

Winter and Summer

First photo's...

This is just a first impression of the workout. I do not have any pictures from BB or XCO yet, but I will probably get some later. Just by watching the pictures I get this great feeling again. Tomorrow I will play the BP tracklist again during BP class.

Today I went to my parents' boat. It was pretty cloudy in the morning but later on it was really nice. I still can't believe, that we managed to pick this only one day of rain we had during this summer to do our workout. At least near the beaches we didn't have any rain in July so far. I was watching the news this evening and only about 150km from here, they were able to use their kanoe's in the streets because it had been raining so badly this afternoon. Strange country isn't it?! Yeah that's our own little Holland.

The day after....

Awesome!!! I can't tell how amazing it was yesterday. There were people everywhere. I did not have enough fingers and toes to count them :-) Right now I don't know where to start to tell you how it was. Maybe the beginning, but it will be a pretty long story.
I woke up pretty early yesterday as I had to be at the beach at 9.00am to help out with the last preparations. It was a bit cloudy but very warm already. When I got to the beach we fisrt had a cup of coffee and later on got started working. Putting up the flags, getting stuff from the car etc. Then we started to make the goodiebags. The sun was shining at that time and it was hot .... no complaints from me, cause I love it. It took us about 3 hours to fix over 700 goodiebags, with T-shirts, caps, toiletbags, flyers and blue ice. Eveyone was working there butt's of in the heat. We had to drink a lot and when we were finished we went to eat something. We could see more and more people coming in. They even came in with full busses from the other side of the country. Cool hey! At around 2.00pm big clouds came in ..... uuhh... that's was not completely what we planned..... at 3.00pm it started raining. Can you believe that.... sun for over three weeks... not a single drop of rain.... and 1 hour before we start our beach work out ... RAIN. At 3.30pm there was a XCO workout planned....that one was moved. The guys from the beach club told us that they saw on the radar that most rain would be gone by 4.00pm..... and they were right. It was not raining anymore when we started the workout. Few people left, but luckily most Bodypumpers are tough people who do not get blown out of the field easily and certainly not cause of a few raindrops. Thank you all for staying !!! During warm up, I can;t tell how cool it was to see everyone moving at the same timing. There is this transition from upright row to overhead press. Wow!! First we saw all the heads of the people, then we could see the ellbows move under the bars and after that it was just bars in the air. Amazing. Everyone could feel the vibes, happy smiling fases everywhere... and about fitness magic ...... it was all over the place. Spoke to a lot of people afterwards and they all had a great time. No one was talking about the rain, most people forgot about it because it was so good to be a part of it. For us as presenters it was an awesome experience as well, but our main concern was to bring all thes people an amazing event and we succeeded. Special thanks to Harry who did all the work for this event. Good job!
Ofcourse after BP it was not finished yet, there was the XCO workout and after that the Bodybalance. I did not do the BB as I wanted to see how it look like fro higher up. Beautyful to see all these people. The six girls on stage did a good job with keeping their balance. The platform wasn't that steady but they all stood there. Unfortunately there weren't as much balancers as there were pumpers, but still it looked really good.
After all the workouts there was BBQ and belive it or not .... the sun came out!! The party was outdoors and we danced and danced and it was a great day!!!

Tracklist for BP:
01 BP 50 Scream for More Kate Ryan
02 BP 50 Celebrate Good Times DJ Bobo
03 BP 43 Enter Sandman Metallica
04 BP 44 Heaven DJ Sammy
05 BP 39 Let's Get Loud Jennifer Lopez
06 BP 43 The Power H Block/Snap
07 BP 41 Silence Delirium feat. Sarah McLachlan
08 BP 39 Operation Blade (Radio Edit) Public Domain
09 BP 44 Just A Little Liberty X
10 BP 56 Angels, Robbie Williams

Pictures wil come up later.

BODYPUMP on the beach!

Right now it's 8.00am, I'm eating my breakfast and I have just packed my stuff for this afternoon. The sun is shining and even tough it's still early it's already warm outside. I was looking to the weatherforecast yesterday evening and there are possiiblities that it will rain and that there will be lightning .... uuuhhh .... Please no!! It's really amazing that it's only 22 july, and we already had so many days of sun. Lot's of people are complaining about the heat, but I think they are the same people complaing when it's raining like usual during a dutch summer. Well.... I love this kind of weather and I hope it'll go like this for a long time :-)
I have to be at the beach by 09.00. We're gonna do some music tests, prepare the stage and everything. It's going to be so cool this afternoon. Tomorrow or monday I will tell you more and I hope I'll have some pics by then as well.

Almost to the beach

It's almost D-day, 2 more nights. I'm still really excited. I saw the weather will still be hot, but there's a slight chance for a few drops of rain.... unfortunately. Please keep your fingers crossed, that they'll fall down somewhere far away from our spot on the beach.

Schedule for saturday:
16.00 BODYPUMP
17.00 BODYBALANCE
18.00 BBQ & Party

8 More days...

Next saturday.... The big event: BODYPUMP on the beach. I'm really looking forward to it. Still keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be nice and sunny, just like we have had the last couple of weeks. Every night I say a little prayer and I hope that'll work. If you want some more information or you'd like to take part in this event, just click here.
We have got the tracklist ready and I can tell you one thing about it .... it's GOOD!! If you want to find out more about this list, just be there 22 july 2006, Bloemendaal aan Zee!! Otherwise you've got to wait till the day after.

Hope to see you there!

Is everything possible?

It's too hot to be outside, It's too hot to be inside and didn't know what to do anymore so I started to sort out a few things from my days in Synchro. Didn't come very far, as I started reading old stuff and looking at pictures and just started thinking of the good times I had in Synchro. I found this text in between my stuff:

Anything is possible,
If you think it is worthwhile
If you're willing to go the distance,
To go the extra mile.

With determination and effort,
You can often achieve more
Because you don't always get what you wish,
But what you work for.

Dreams can become challenging,
But no matter what the cost
Strive to complete the task before you,
And you'll never end up lost.

So bring with you your goals,
And leave your doubts behind
Whether you think you can or can't,
You certainly will find.

You'll be right either way-
-so never quit, and this is why:
You'll never become a failure,
Until you fail to try.

When I started reading my diary from our National Team trainingcamp in Canada in 1995, I could hardly believe all the things we had to do and that we actually did all these extremely hard things. It seemed almost impossible... but indeed ALMOST... we managed to do it, so it was possible! We just had one thing on our mind's and that was to improve our skills and try to qualify for Atlanta '96.... Together with our whole team we worked our butt's of, but unfortunately we didn't qualify. Still, reading above, I don't think we failed as we did not quit as a team and we tried our best. We never gave up.

I always thought I would not be able to be a groupfitness instructor. Why? I don't know, that's just what I used to think. Then I decided to give it a try .... That has just been one of the best decisions I ever made.... I gave it try and I managed to do it and the best thing: I'm loving it.

Don't give up b4 trying something..... you might even like it.

Below some pics of my last year in synchro at European Cup In Bari, Italy. We got National Champions with the team that year and were selected to represent Holland at European Cup A in 2001: