Australia '97-'98

Wow, that seems so long ago. Well it actually is, almost 10 years. I can still remember so much from that trip. It didn't start too good. We had a delay because of the weather and therefore missed our connecting flight in London. We were lucky there was still a flight available in the evening, but only one hour from home we had to wait for over 10 hours. We were supposed to have a full day layover in Bangkok, but that turned out to be just a night unfortunately. From there we flew to Brisbane for our training camp. So weird it was when we arrived. We left in the middle of winter from home and we arrived in the heath in the middle of summer in Aussie. Another drive to Toowoomba our home for the next weeks. For three weeks we worked our butts of from mon-fri and during the weekends we had our free time. We went to Brisbane, we went to the beaches, visited a Kangaroo farm, saw Koala's., stayed a night at Tangaloma Island. We were also there during Christmas and New Years Eve. That was difficult. Even though we were mostly friends, we missed our families a lot at that time. Christmas Eve we spent at a Movie theatre watching Titanic and of course crying. After that we did presents and than phoned home in the middle of the night and cried some more. That probably had to do with the fact we were all so tired of training about 8 hours a day. After 3 weeks we went to Perth, unfortunately didn't do very well in the competition. But had a great time anyways. When we were finished we took a team trip to the Pinnacle's and we also did a trip with a couple of the girls and all the parents who were there to support us to Rottnest Island. Than most of the team went home. Not me, I still had 3 ½ weeks left :-) One of the girls in the team and I joined my parents for a trip from Sydney to Cairns! My parents already flew to Sydney and we met them at the airport. We had 2 days in Sydney, and one thing was so remarkable. I thought is was cold. It was 25 Celsius, but this girl was cold. Well in Perth it was 45 Celsius. Does that explain? Sydney is a nice city. I saw it so many times on TV, but it was impressive to be there in real life. To be honest I just need to go there again. Then we got our rental car and drove into the Blue Mountains. Do go for some hikes, Saw the three sisters. I can remember it felt good to be out of town and enjoy nature. During the trips we usually stopped for lunch and had picnics. On an easy pace we drove to the north, visiting Brisbane, Byron bay, the most easterly point in Australia, the Gold coast. We also did diving and snorkelling trips at the Whitsunday Islands. Awesome! Than we arrived in Cairns, for the last 5 days we stayed there. Did some boat trips, again diving and snorkelling, but also some trips to Daintree. I can tell you; these 3 1/2 weeks went by fast. The relaxed atmosphere, easygoing people, beautiful country, this all made it unforgettable. A couple things that I noticed and was completely new to me: The dogs at the airport searching for fruit instead of drugs and the checks on the road where you have to turn in your veggies and fruits at the border. And then we I got home: 45 Celsius in Cairns, minus 10 Celsius when I got home.... NO fun, but an awesome tan :-) I had been away for 2 months.

My other passion...

... One passion you know all about by now.... Les Mills, sports, especially BA & BP.The other one is traveling. It already started when I was a little kid. My dad had to travel quite a lot for his job and every time he was about to leave, I grabbed the worldmap and had him point out where he was going.. I loved geography in school, learning the countries, cities, rivers all over the world. My dad used to work for KLM as well, so flying is something I have been able to do for most of my life. I'm very much aware that's something quite exceptional, as a lot of people are not in the position they can do that. My very first flight was one of the rare domestic flights we have in Holland, from Schiphol Airport to Maastricht in the south. I do not know my exact age, but I think I was about six months or so. My mom went went to visit her sister and she took me with her. At a very young age I also traveled a couple of times to Canada as my dad's sister lives in Sarnia, Ontario. I don't remember a lot of those trips, except for the fact that I saw my cousin in Canada do synchronized swimming and from that moment on I wanted to do that as well.One of the first trips I really remember was to LA, California at the age of 5. Mostly by pictures, but still memories are there. Most of the trip was about visiting theme parks like Disney, Sea world and Universal Studios. But it was great. One thing I will never forget was the shark (Jaws) at Universal Studios. It scared me so much, that you could see my fingers and nails in my mom’s neck. About 12 or 13 years later I was there again, and I had to laugh so hard, that the thing had scared me so much. We also went to a water park with slides, and it was so cool. I still love those water parks with these enormous slides. Of course we also had our holidays closer to home. I think up to the age of 4 my parents had a boat when they sold the boat they bought a caravan. Every year we went camping during summer for 3 weeks. Either in Holland, or in Belgium or France. That was always great. The possibility to be outside with friends all the time, swim, be out on the water surfing, or go out for walks with my mom and dad, along rivers, into caves, old cities, going to castles. Of course at that young age the lakes, sea, swimming and playing was the best part, but I never mind going to the little towns or other sights in the surroundings of where we stayed. In spring we usually went away for a week by plane. That could vary from Tunesia, Greece, Malta, or some other places in Europe. Then by the age of 14, I started swimming on the Junior National Team and vacations started to be different. Mostly training camps followed by a competition. The last time we were actually able to go on holiday over summer was when I was 15, 3 weeks to the south of France. Camping and a friend of mine stayed on the same camping with her parents so that was fun. I think we spent most of the time at the beach and shopping. At that age that was just about all I was interested in.During my swimming career I have been able to visit a lot of cities all over Europe and some of them even more than 1 time. Rome(3 times), Milan, Loano and Bari in Italy, Barcelona and Sevilla in Spain. Vaduz in Liechtenstein, Vienna in Austria, Wuppertal and Bonn in Germany, Odense in Denmark, a couple of cities in Belgium, Paris in France, Athens in Greece, Zurich and Lausanne in Switzerland. Kharkov in Ukraine. But also Atlanta in the USA, Calgary and Edmonton in Canada and Perth and Toowoomba in Australia. That last training camp and competition in Australia were followed by a pretty cool vacation.
The next couple of posts I will try to tell more about my trips and why I love it so much.

Special BP workout

Okay, I know it's almost a week ago, but last Thursday I had Susan T. team teach with me for my BP class. It was great to have her again since the first time she was at the club a year and half ago. It was great class and it I can tell you, it feels a bit weird to have a great trainer like her standing next to me, teaching my class with me. Last time she was at the club it was an official workout arranged by the club, with a whole bunch of instructors and I was very happy to shadow with her. But this time it was different as it was just a regular class. After BP she joined for BA class. Both classes were filled with energy, fun and enthusiasm as always. Afterwards we went for dinner at the club and finally got some time to chat.

Some more good news for me. At KLM we finally will get the opportunity to get a new contract. When I started working at the ticketoffice the only option was to work 5 days of 6 hours (75%), while I was always used to work 5 days of 8 hours (full time). Ofcourse it's quite relaxed to work only 6 hours a day, but still I have to go to work 5 days a week. And the schedule is sometimes pretty tough as we work 4 days, have 1 day off and then work 4 days again. Now we can start working 90%. So not quite fulltime, but almost get a fulltime salary. The schedule is great. Always 2 days off in between the 3 or 4 days work. Will get paid way more, because the payment for working irregular shifts is also way more!!! I'm very happy with this, as we have been fighting for this since the beginning. The exact date we do not know yet.
I will have to go and see if I can still teach 3 days a week, but 2 I will defenitely do. I just can't live without my classes!!!! Maybe a bit more freelance instead. Just have to wait and see. Will give it a try for sure!

Quarterlies coming up next month. Again assessment and ofcourse my own classes. Will be busy but lots of fun again. In about 2 weeks I will be assisting a BC module training. Deng, will have to learn the whole new choreo and I don't have the tape yet. Hope I will get it soon.

Well the weather has been better the last couple of days, so I have tried to enjoy the sun for a bit and work on my tan. My NZ trip is planned oct/nov and I hope the weather in NZ will be better than last year, or I might have to go to the Cook Islands or so. Any suggestions anyone?? Ofcourse I wil try to join the filming classes. It was awesome last year and this time there are going to be some Dutch trainers, so that's going to be pretty cool as well.

Grrmpffff :-( :-( :-(

Don't you hate it when you're @ work and computers, printers, machines and/or any other technical stuff doesn't work. Well I DO!!! Same thing goes for the gym headsets, batteries, old CD's or the stereo, these things just must work properly!
Well monday was one of those days where it didn't :-(
In the middle of BA track 3 the music stopped and the headset stopped. Tried to make the class go for a bit while trying to get the thing to work again. Can tell you BODYATTACK without music is no fun and it's even harder. All of a sudden the thing started again and it was the end of the track. Same thing track 4, and again track 5. In all of this I already switched from Ipod to CD, but the problem stayed. By the time we were at track 5, I had figured to keep on going and try to stay with the timing and near the end of the track the music started again and we finished with music. Track 6 & 7 were fine and it started again with 8, again I kept going and again when the music started again it was the exact right timing. Wow, I was kind of proud of myself for staying in the right speed! Well this kept on going. The people worked really hard, but it's such a bugger when things like this happen and you're not able to solve the problem. I heard In the BODYJAM class they had the same problem too, so I was glad it wasn't just me. But with classes like this the music is soooooooo important, and it takes so much away when it isn't there. I was really glad the people stayed motivated and did such a good job. Thanks you guys.
After I was finished I spoke to the group fitness coordinator and I can tell you: He knows I wasn't pleased by this. Spoke to him today again and they now think they know what the problem is. The thing was overheated... someone left the stereo on all day after the morning classes. %#$*)(*#(@ Well I think I know another problem .... it's old and maybe it's time for a new one. The weirdest thing was ..... I did not have a single problem during BP class after BA, but maybe that's because you stop the music after each track. Well let's hope it's all solved by tomorrow.