Some pictures....

Saturday after work I went to the beach with my dad, and here are some pictures I took. The sea was still pretty rough, even though you can't really see it on the pictures. Usually the beach is pretty big, even with high tide, but now there was only a small part to walk, with lots of dirt from the sea.

Stormy days

Wow, we had quite a couple of weird days. Last Thursday it started. Heavy winds turned into storm later. Windswept of over 130km/hr came from south west. At the airport we all had to work xtra long shifts as we had a lot of flight cancellations. When I drove home it rained really bad as well. When I got home, the sun was shining and I could see bright blue skies (still hard winds, but it didn't look like that). Then I went to the gym to teach and during the relaxation of BB, my colleague thought the mic was making weird noises, but it actually was the building making scary sounds. I could see the lights outside going from left to right. It was quite scary. I heard members say that trees fall down etc. Around their neighborhood. Luckily I had no damage around my house, even though I live on the highest floor of the apartment building. The next day I had to work again. I already heard the noise when I was walking thru the arrivals hall, but when I walked up the stairs to go to the departure hall (where the ticketoffice is located), I could hardly get to the desk. People everywhere. I saw on tv the day b4 how many trainpassengers got stranded at the trainstations as no trains where going, well Schiphol airport looked a sort of the same. We all worked very hard to get the people to their destinations as soon as we could. Sometimes it was difficult, but most people could understand the situation. Some people were even glad they got stranded on Thursday, because they had such a bad experience landing that day, that they didn't want to continue at all at that time. Because the flightschedule was so messed up, with crew making to many hours, flights stranded at other European cities it took the whole weekend to get back to normal. So I was quite happy I had the day off of work today. So far the temperatures have been warm for the time of the year, but for the coming days they predict temperatures below 0 Celsius... :-( I do not like cold weather. Let's keep our fingers crossed this won't go to extremes. I think it's scary that the whole world has to do with strange weather features. My cousin lives in Bahrain. At Christmas time it's supposed to be 20-25 Celsius over there. This time they it was around 8 Celsius. In Moscow, and a lot of other places in Russia it's supposed to be freezing cold, and there it's way above 0 Celsius as well. In the US, there's extreme snow fall. I wonder where we'll all be going.

NZ - Aotearoa

Last couple of days....

Thursday 11 January we had the quarterly club launch. The theme was (2)007. It was great fun and it was busier than I expected. Below you'll see a couple of pictures.

BC: Aubrey and I as James Bond, as we thought BC as we couldn't place ourselves being Sexy Bond girls doing BC. We saw some new faces in BC, so I hope to see the people in the class from now on.






With BP we had Mirelle joining us as James Bond, while Aubrey and I transferred to Bond Girls. Pretty hard doing pump in an evening dress, but luckily the fabric was stretch :-)




And offcourse BA. Bogdan and I were just with the 2 of us. so it was Mr. Bond with a Bond girl. Not in an evening dress, as there would have been no way of doing kicks and plyo's in a long dress, so see the result.




I was also able to join Mirelle and Bogdan for the BB launch. I wasn't very busy as it started at 22.00 and a lot of people already left. But the people who were there enjoyed it and I was glad I had a good practice for my final training day. BJ was quite a hit, and Mirelle and Bogdan had a good performance on that one. It was he very first time we had BJ in the club. So from now on it's on the schedule.

Friday I had an early shift and it was quite a hassle to get myself out of bed at 4.45, as I was home late after the launch. Only had about 4 hrs sleep :-( After work I went to the gym with Bogdan to practice BB. We did that for about an hour and a half. Then I went to see my parents. In the evening I went to Utrecht. We had a little reunion with a part of National team. We ended up with only 8 people, but still had a good time. 5 swimmers, 2 coaches and a teammanager. It was fun to see them again and hear what they have been doing lately. We have decided we should do this more often. We went to a small restaurant and had tapa's. Ofcourse I was home too late again, but at least I could stay in bed till 8. Saturdaymorning I went to Roosendaal for the last day of module training. The training are always split over 2 weekends. When it's a 3 day training, it's one full weekend and another separate day the weekend after. When it's only a 2 day training like BA, it's 2 weekends of 1 day. This way you get the opportunity to practice during the week. Ofcourse they expect something good with the final presentation on the last day. Use the circle of instruction, and CRC etc. If you pass (and everyone did for this BB module), you get 3 months to send in your DVD/video for the International Certificate.
On the way home a got stuck in a traffic jam, as a car caught on fire somewhere on the highway. I stood still for amost an hour and wasn't very amused. I was pretty tired and also hungry.
Sunday I decided to sleep in, but I'm not very good at that, so I was awake at nine. Did some work for LM (assessments), and then watched European Championships Speed skating Allround. I just love to watch speed skating. After that I had to go to work. It wasn't busy at all, but it was a nice and fun evening talking to colleagues etc. We had a few weird passengers at the desk. One of 'm kept coming to desk, he was saying the whole time: I am god and I need to go to America. It was way passed nine, so no plane going anymore. Actually it was a kind of sad, as there was no way we could come thru to him. Finally he was taken away by airport security.
Well that's it for now.

Learn to ...

Learn to love the challenges, and you will grow stronger.
Learn to love putting forth effort, and you'll find yourself becoming more capable and effective.
Learn to love making a positive contribution, and your life will grow richer.
Learn to love being around people who are different than you, and you'll gain many valuable new perspectives.
Learn to love discovering what you do not know, and your knowledge will greatly expand.
Learn to love truly listening, and your wisdom will increase.
Learn to love giving, and your life will be blessed.
Learn to love being thankful, and you'll know real abundance.
Learn to love the ordinary moments, and you'll find each day filled with warm golden treasures.
Learn to love simply being, and you'll rise to a whole new level of awareness.
Learn to love something about each day, and your days will bring rich fulfillment.
Learn to love, and you'll know how to live. (R.Marston)

Bodybalance Module Training

Last weekend I had the first 2 days of the BODYBALANCE module training. It was great. Really different from the 3 other programs I have done so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. I really had to switch the button. I'm quite an active person, or maybe I should say very active :-). Always busy, always moving and, yes for the people who know me well, always talking. Can you imagine how hard it was to find this switch? But it's cool. I know BB is going to help me to improve as an instructor/coach, also in the other programs, and it'll help me to keep my body fit and flexible.
One of the things I learned last weekend and which I like a lot is SBS (set-up, breath, silence). I find it difficult to use this, especially the last part :-), since I'm so much used to 'bring it home' and motivation. It's all quite a challenge. Last weekend I had to present track 5, hip openers. I can tell you, you do not want to feel what I felt on sunday morning. I was quit surprised I had so many muscles around my butt and hips, which I wasn't aware of. I could feel my butt with every move I made. I had been practicing this track the whole evening to get this swan pose and half lotus well. Warrior's, down dog's etc I could do pretty good and also deep, but the swan pose and half lotus I find very hard. Practice, practice, practice that's what I'll do. Next week I will have to do track 1, Tai chi Warm up. I really like this track, and I hope I will be able to do well, as it'll be my examination track for the temporarily certificate. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

2007

To start with:
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! I hope it'll be a beautiful year for you in which all your dreams may come true.

What have I been up to the last days of 2006.
First day of Christmas: Early shift at work, then I went to my parents house as it was my dad's birthday as well. Lot's of family and friends and a couple of 'm stayed for dinner. We had a nice time and my mom made a great 5 course dinner :-)
Second day of Christmas (yes, in Holland we actually have 2 holidays): Slept in for a bit, did some work for LM, went to Grandma's birthday. Unfortunately she's in the hospital, but we still had a small birthday party over there. She's doing pretty good at the moment. At the end of the afternoon I went to a friend and we had a relaxing evening with an easy dinner and we watched 2 movies. Just girls, so girl movies ofcourse :-) The other days were just working, teaching classes and I spent time with friends.
New Years Eve I went to my cousin in Amsterdam. No big party's, just fun at home. Talked, laughed listened to the top 2000 on the radio. We were we 8 and had a great time. At 0.00 lots of fireworks in the street. Awesome to watch, but I'm always a bit scared that something will happen. We had lots of champagne and ofcourse other things to drink, so I was glad I could stay the night and did not have to drive back home. We went to bed around 4. This morning we had breakfast all together, but maybe I should call it a brunch :-) In the afternoon we went out for a short walk and I got home a little while ago.

2Morrow normal life will start again! I will put away my Christmas stuff and start preparing for my BB training this coming weekend. Friday I will give a training for healthcity instructors together with a colleague. My job will be mostly explaining about stuff I learned from the AIM module. Tonight I'm not going to do anything. I will make myself something to eat, take a shower and relax. It'll start now :-)