Classes with Jamal

Julian spent the greater part of last week attending Jamal's classes,and in the process also spent the greater part of my hard saved cash. Cost me an arm and a leg !!!Boo hoo hoo...:( For those not in the know, Jamal Othman is the current Swiss National Champion and if his name sounded Malay, that's because he is half Malaysian. Google him if you want more info!!

Anyway, Julian made very good progress in his classes and hopefully it will show this week during the competition. Jamal is very meticulous and paid a lot of attention of details which made a world of difference to Julian's presentation.

So, if you happen to see a one armed and one legged woman hopping around the rink- that's me!!! I am also lop- sided cos the cash in the handbag is lessened and so I can't balance properly!! haha...

If you want to catch Jamal in action, he's performing this Thursday 2 July at 5 pm, during the Skate Malaysia opening ceremony!

Lucky wristband

This morning started real early - was at the rink by 6 am. Ryan wanted to practise....I think he is feeling the heat now that the test date is this week. That's a good sign, usually I have to cajole them to get up that early and skate before school. Anyway, since he wanted to do it, I was more than happy to sacrifice a few hours of sleep.

However, the morning didn't start off too well. He just couldn't land his jumps :( It was quite a shame as we were the first ones at the rink and he had clean ice and a clear rink ! Besides, it broke my heart to see him fall again and again, and I worry about injuries. Touch wood!!

It was getting frustrating as the morning wore on and he still was not getting it. Told him to stop but he wanted to try. Then he had a brilliant thought and said that he could not jump cos he didn't have his wristband on!! Rubbish,eh? Or so I thought...but after he put it on, he did a pretty decent program, not clean but pretty decent. That's is the (very) biased opinion of a doting mom! Of course, Coach is not too pleased as it was not clean. Yay...talk about superstitions!! Ok, now we know he has to wear it for the Freestyle test this Saturday. Wish him luck , and to those who happen to read this, keep your fingers crossed for him!!! Hope to bring you good news next week.

Transformers

Today is THE big day for all Transformers fan, and I of course followed the crowd! I was not disappointed - the movie was fantastic, albeit a tad long, almost 2 and a half hours but it was non stop action all the way. The cast was simply great, all roles were reprised, although Shea Labeouf looked slightly older and somehow didn't quite fit in as a freshman in college. He looked more adult here. Megan Fox was just stunning, I can see why Ryan thought she was hot. He is not wrong!!

Okay, okay, I won't spoil it for those of you who have not seen it, but I may consider a second round myself. It's that good. Actually I thought the first movie was better cos it seemed more 'controlled' The second movie, however was so action-packed that my poor old mind was utterly confused in all the non stop adrenalin pumping stuff going on. There is so much for the eyes and brain to absorb. Michael Bay outdid himself here.

Before the movie, there was a little 'drama' outside at the cinema lobby. 2 guys almost got into a fight and a mineral water bottle was sent hurling our way - got water on my shoes! Don't know what the commotion was about, lots of shouting but can't make out what was said , probably over a girl cos one of the guys was pulled away by a girl when the security came. Anyway, made the outing a bit more exciting, sort of a 'prelude' to a great movie...haha. Did secretly wished they came to blows though, just to spice things up!! So evil huh? What to do...my life is so mundane...:( I'm sure if you were there, you would think like that, too!

History of steps

I just realized that despite the title of my blog, I have yet to post anything about steps. I know some people have not idea what step is. Step or stepping is an aerobic exercise done to music and pre-choreographed movements while stepping up and down a board, or several boards. Get it? What is so fun about that, one might ask. Well, if you have not tried it, you will never discover the thrill. Anyway I did a little bit of research and guess what? The founder of steps is a woman...yay...Gin Miller is a fitness instructor who injured her knee and was doing rehabilitation by stepping up and down her porch steps. This was way back in 1978 and she found that this type of exercise not only strengthened her knee but was also cardio intensive as well. So she approached Reebok and step aerobics ( as it was known then) was born!!! Double yay !!! So stepping is now 20 years old!





This is what people wear for steps in the 80's . Would you dress like this now?









At that time, stepping was considered low impact and was done mainly by quote middle aged women unquote.....yikes....how do you macho guys feel about that, huh?? Anyway, the craze caught on and was made popular by Jane Fonda in the early 80's, and that's when people of all ages and both sexes got into the game.

I started in the late 90's and even then, stepping was not like what it is now. Choreography was much more simple and a 2 board routine was considered advanced. It has since evolved into something really awesome now, with complex choreography , great music, multiple boards and is simply adrenaline pumping. No one will ever call it low impact anymore!!! ( It's still done by middle aged women - ME!!) But boy, is it ever fun , not to mention addictive !! Nothing like a solid hour of stepping to get an all natural adrenalin high. To those who have not tried it, you don't know what you are missing. So give it a shot - I promise you will not regret it. To my fellow stepaholics....way to go :p

St Mary's

An email by SK has me going back down memory lane...at Jalan Tengah, KL to be precise, down St Mary's corridors. Of the great times we spent there, and the fantastic friendships made, nurtured and maintained to this day.

SK and a few others are the St Marians I still see today. Imagine, how many people can boast that we were friends since Std 1 and still keeping in touch regularly now. To give an inkling of how long it has been, well, we left St Mary's after Form 5 in 1978, so go figure!!! And we still keep in touch with some teachers. Hi Mrs Sheo, Mrs Monteiro!!

Our kids grew up knowing each other, and LK aka the Alien ( cos she is too good to be of this world)'s kids are in the same school as mine, both Secondary and Primary.

St Mary's really has given us a lot of memories, the one that stands out most is when we locked Mr. Lee ( Add Maths and Physics) teacher out of the class, demanding for a free period. Of course, we opened the doors immediately upon his threat to tell the HM !! Spoilt sport. I bumped into him when I first started working and I don't think he was too pleased to see me. Nightmare revisited!!! :) The other one was of LK who passed the 1st Add Maths test in Form 4 when the whole Form failed. ( That's the reason why she is not of this world , and therefore an alien) To add salt to the wound, she had an A and was pestering Mr. Lee to give her another half mark cos she claimed he has mis-marked her paper. To this day, we still talk about it and I guess she will never be allowed to forget it.

If only the school walls can talk, I guess there would be plenty of stories to tell.....both the human and non human kind!! Yeah, the toilets had ghosts...what self respecting old building didn't have a resident ghost? Especially one that was used by the Japs during the WWII. Although this fact was never proven, we always scared ourselves silly whenever we stayed overnight in school.

Any St Marian reading this, do drop a comment and say Hi. Share your stories. Keep in touch and re connect :p
PS. I 'borrowed ' the photos from the St Mary's Facebook owner, so must given credit to her ok?

My hair story...the 'after' part

My good friend and fellow Mama blogger , who incidentally is also my inspiration to start a blog, commented that my hair story is not complete without an 'after' photo .
So, ah fun, this is for you!!! See what I mean about subtle differences? Who would have thought I had to make such a big decision to cut my hair!!! Anyway, I am so seriously thinking I'll go short...:P

Hair today....gone tomorrow???

This is not a scene from 'The Ring' although it could well be...





I have wrestled with the idea of cutting my hair for some days now, and have had feedback from various friends and relatives. My dear sweet nephew suggested that I cut to Victoria Beckham's style. Oh , the folly of youth...I wished I could cos I have neither the face nor the body of good ole Vic to go with it!!! But I do love him for thinking I did!! Hehe...thanks W !



Most have agreed that I should have a hair cut, and so I did. Thot I'd better get it done before I chicken out. Anyway, it was not as traumatic as I thot it might be! For those who have not seen me with short hair, this is the first time I have ever managed to grow my hair so long, so the hesitation was due to a tinge of 'um seh tak-ness' ( can someone tell me what it is in English? Gee, my 'engrish' very rusty already...no thanks to a healthy diet of HK tvb series!!)
So, off to the stylist, who have not seen me for a year. You bet he was very surprised and determined to make me succumb to all sorts of treatments to lighten my wallet!! Pay back time for not giving him business for a whole year!! Anyway, I agreed to a cut, not too short cos I want to have an option to re consider, and a highlight.

Result: A layered look but not too short that it was noticeable that I actually had a hair cut. In fact, everything was so subtle that even the hubby did not notice. He is ever so going to lose brownie points! Actually, I regret now...should have had a very short cut to create an impact. And colour my hair pink or green!!! I love shock tactics...remember when I had a blue Maybe I will go back this week - didn't quite like the layered look - made me look old. So it's either a rebonding to straighten or a drastic cut...hmmm....thinking...thinking......still thinking.....