A Zumba kind of morning

I got invited to a lush breakfast this morning by some of my favourite Zumba girls.
For once when they started their marathon photo session, we didn't have glowing red faces, wet hair and sweat running down our neck!

Thank you girls, it was a lovely morning! Glad we could catch up one last time!

A Zumba farewell

Right before the holidays, I did my last Zumba class at the Studio. I know, I know, I haven't left yet, but I know time will fly in the new year, and I didn't want to commit to doing my class, and then have to cancel all the time.

I had a fantastic turnout for my last class, around 40 people came to see me off! A lot of the Zumba babes I hadn't seen in a long time made a special effort to be there, which was really, really nice.

We had a great class, lots of fun and full power. Then it was time for photos, and my most faithful participant Peggy had organized some food and a gorgeous cake for all of us too! I'm sure going to miss all these lovely ladies...

Z is for Zumba

We're on the second to last week of school for this term, and since there are no CCAs the last week - yesterday I had my last sessions of Zumba Kids.
I'm so enjoying doing these Zumba Kids sessions at school. I have done both a Pre-Prep and Prep session this term and the kids are all so into it! Big smiles all around every time.

Yesterday we did a Z for Zumba to finish off our term!

2013 Party in Pink™

October is well cemented all over the world as the month to raise money towards research to prevent breast cancer, so even here in Brunei.
Three years ago Zumba Fitness launched their Party in Pink™ charity campaign in the fight against breast cancer and last year Susan's Fitness Studio organized the biggest Zumba® charity event to date here. We had a three hour long Party in Pink™ Zumbathon®, with nearly 1000 tickets sold!

Today we wanted to repeat the success, but the event didn't get as big this year, we only had about 300 people joining in this morning. There had been other Party in Pink™ Zumbathons® organized by other instructors throughout the month already; plus it was also a busy fitness day here in Brunei, with a big "Ballbreaker" hash event (20k!) going on, and a running race.
All us instructors were wearing this years PIP t-shirt, in white. Here's Leigh, the newest addition to our Studio, and myself before we started:

Even though it wasn't as big as last year, it's quite impressive as an instructor to look out over this sea of people all dressed in pink, and lead such a big crowd through their workout! We had a great time! Love Zumba!

I only did one track today, one of my new MJ tracks. I still managed to get caught on camera!

And after the Zumba, the never-ending photo session started, almost as long as the Zumba session! Camera flashes everywhere and people who call you over to have their photos taken with you, it's like being on the red carpet! Ha ha!

 

The colours of the rainbow

I work out at least five days a week. Currently I work out twice on Tuesdays and THREE times on Wednesdays (Zumba, Zumba, Zumbaaa!) - and occasionally I even squeeze a workout in on the weekend too.
I never used to be a sporty person. I have tried in the past, but always failed to persist, or maybe never found anything that I enjoyed enough. Since moving to Brunei, I've tried many things new to me: kickboxing, swimming, tennis, yoga, netball, hashing, mountain climbing, hiking, CrossFit, Zumba... you name it. Some things were more or less a one-off or a fad, but some have really stuck with me.

One thing I've realized through all the different types of training is - it's all about the look! ;)

Here you can see my CrossFit shoes, some Zumba shoes, my Hash shoes and more Zumba shoes! Happy feet!

Mega Masterclass

This weekend Brunei hosted yet another B1 Zumba Fitness training for Zumba fans wanting to become instructors. It was a full training, again, and now Brunei has over 100 licensed Zumba Fitness instructors! So cool, Zumba is certainly growing in this country!
Far from all of them will proceed to actually teach Zumba though, many participates in this training just because they love Zumba; or because they want to learn more about it and want to have two fun  Zumba-filled days with like-minded Zumba freaks!

This time the ZES was George Lu, one of the international Zumba Education Specialists. He also did a Master Class at the Bomba on Saturday night, and once again - the hall was jam packed!
Close to 500 people were there to shake and shimmy away together and we sure had a blast during this 90 minutes Master Class!

Me on the floor..:

Me on the stage..:

(Last three photos courtesy of "Mr Supermario", thank you!)

Some pics from this week

As I said in my previous post, this week has been a "normal" week with all the usual happenings.
At CrossFit we have got a new toy - a big, BIG tyre!
So we have been working on tyre flipping..! Yeah, makes you feel really strong!

Can you tell we were all girls at the Box this specific day...?

It's been great to be back to the Zumba Studio too, I've missed my trusty Zumba freaks!
The other day one of the girls had a birthday so her friends brought her cake.

At the Hash on Tuesday we honoured one of our members who sadly passed away in an accident four years ago, it was the 'Roadrunner Memorial Run'. Quite an emotional shout-up, a couple of poems were read out, we had a silent minute and we shared some memories of her with all newer hashers that didn't know her. It was a lovely evening.

And as every year at this run, we enjoyed Lee's favourite treat meal: fish & chips from the Kasbah! Mmm!

biG

'The Borneo Insider's Guide', or as it's commonly referred to - 'The biG magazine' is a great quarterly magazine we have here in Brunei. It aims to share with it's readers the best there is to offer on lifestyle and travel in Borneo and beyond. I always try to get hold of the latest issue, because it truly is a great source of information, even for residents. Lots of interesting articles and tips on where to go and eat etc.
And, the best things is - it's distributed free all over the country!

In the latest January-March 2013 issue, they have an article about the fitness bug that is spreading in the country and in the article they are interviewing four big fitness personalities in town.
Recognize anybody?

Yes, it's "my" Susan, talking about Zumba - AND on the same page our CrossFit coach Mike, pictured at the Box. Great interviews of both of them, and fab pics too!

Jump up!

This is the second year I'm doing Zumbatomic at school as an ASA. This term I've had 18 little Zumbatomic Starz in my group, and we've been busy the past few weeks preparing a routine for them to perform in front of their friends.

This morning at Assembly it was our turn, and they were shaking it out to "Mover Music", from 'Imagination Movers'.

Linnea is to the far right in her ZA pants and a white t-shirt:

Zumba Fitness Party in Pink™

Today Brunei saw the biggest ZUMBA® Fitness Charity event so far -  a 3 hour long Party in Pink™ ZUMBA® Fitness-Party!

A Party in Pink™ is a special charity event open to the public, to raise funds and awareness to help end breast cancer. This time of the year hundreds and hundreds of these events are organized by ZUMBA® Fitness Instructors worldwide:



A lot of work had gone into making this a successful event and it all culminated this morning in a huge pink sea of people, dancing the morning away to awesome ZUMBA® Fitness beats! There had been over 1000 tickets sold for this event here in Brunei - over ONE THOUSAND! Very impressive! (Don't forget, we are a small country with a population of just over 400 000.)

Here's Susan and I before it all kicked off, I had added some extra pink touches! :)

Us instructors and other helpers met at the National Indoor Stadium bright and early, to welcome all the participants, the doors opened already at 6.30 for the 8am event!
Here's the entrance area, lots of people were ready to check tickets, hand out pink ribbons, free water and goodie bags:

I was put on ushering duty, and "shoe-police" to make sure everybody had proper foot attire for exercise. But mostly we had fun taking pictures..!

Since we were anticipating so many people, there was two "guards" placed at the entrance. Big, muscly guys - but look, they had a soft heart and let us decorate them both with ZUMBA® wear, and pink ribbons!

One last pose before we got started! (And I got to ditch the wig and the tutu..! :) )

I don't think all the 1000 ticket holders actually showed up (...) but there was definitely enough people in the Stadium to create a great ZUMBA® Party atmosphere! A massive pink sea of ZUMBA® Fitness lovers! It was a 3 hour non stop event, all us instructors took turns in leading tracks so there was quite a broad mix of styles to suit everyone's liking!

When we weren't leading some were shadowing or team teaching on stage. Some were up in different other areas in the Stadium doing ZUMBA® Fitness - there was just moving and shaking going on everywhere in the arena, high and low!

Almost everybody was wearing the 'Party in Pink™' t-shirts, or at least something pink. Some people, like my friend Peggy, had gone to great lengths with the pink theme..:

During Susan's 'Opa Gangnam Style' track, some kids got invited up on stage, and they were so cool, and sooo good!

And here... we have me! I'm in full action, during my second set of songs. A bit blurry, but you get the picture!

Even at the end of the 3 hours, there was still a pretty big group of people going steady at it in the Stadium. Kudos to those who kept it up for the whole Zumbathon®!

Group photo of the team, after finished event:

What a great morning! What a great event!
ZUMBA® Fitness in Brunei rocks!!