The next level

Zumba is not just Zumba Fitness.
Actually, Zumba has developed a lot of different specialities like the 'Zumbatomic' - a special program designed for kids (the training I took in Adelaide last year); 'Aqua Zumba' - working out in the pool; and the 'Zumba Gold' - for the elderly. The most recent speciality is 'Zumba Sentao', where you use a chair as equipment.
But, the one I've always wanted to know more about is the 'Zumba Toning', where you use lightweight Toning Sticks in the workout.
So, this weekend I went to another training, this time in Singapore.

I went over a day early, for one to make sure I'd get there, but also to do some power shopping..! :) I spent the whole day, a full eight hours on Orchard Road and I did really well and got nearly everything on my list. Result!

Saturday it was time for training, and the whole day was spent Zumbaing away together with about 30 other ZINs (Zumba Instructors) from the whole region; some like me, had flown in from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. It was a great mix of people, and we had a super day together.
I really like these trainings, not only because you get to learn new skills and get new inspiration for you Zumba, but for the networking and the new friends!

These girls had come from Manila:



My group. Can you spot me?



And here's the whole new batch of Zumba Toning Instructors!



Zumba Toning sure is different to "normal" Zumba. I've realized it's not something I can just start teaching straight away now, it'll take quite a while to practise and get right. It's a whole new ball game, a whole other way of working out. It's not easy, and it demands a lot more from you to provide a safe workout for your students. I'm sure keen to sit down and take in all the information we got at the workshop.
But, I do believe that this might be my thing... Well, time will tell!

It's a hard life

- but someone's gotta do it!





Another lush, relaxed Sunday afternoon at the Yacht Club.
Life is good.

Take-off

I headed to Singapore on Friday for a couple of days. It was a beautiful morning with clear blue skies and I got a nice seat by the window. Also, I had RBA's coolest Captain flying me over! ;)
"Seats for take-off":





I always enjoy flying in and out of Brunei in daylight. You get such good views of the country:



Below you can see the Sultan's palace - Istana Nurul Iman. From the air you can really appreciate how big and grand it is, and beautiful of course, with it's golden dome:

Totally Team Work

Today Lucas took part in a big inter-school football tournament arranged in Panaga (a town an hour down the coast). Quite a few schools had sent teams along, in Lucas' year group they were 8 teams.
It was his first tournament experience, and he came home absolutely beaming after a great morning.

Lucas and his team played very good and did really well. They won their pool and made it to the final where they drew 1-1 against ISB, after extra time. It was decided to leave the result like that, since it had been a very long and hot day.
He got a diploma and a medal that he now has placed "somewhere really safe". It was a very proud (and tired...) little footballer the very proud Mummy got to tuck in tonight!

Here are a few snapshots that Nathan took:











Adam receiving the medals for the whole team:



Nr ONE!!!

Chin up!

At this mornings CrossFit session, our trainer Chu took us outside to do some chin-ups. Ehrm... no, that didn't happen! He forgot that he's dealing with veteran ladies here... ha ha! We all tried, but none of us could even do a single chin-up! Sad... I know...

Instead we did leg pull-ups. This week he let us do these...



... next week it'll be knees to elbows and then feet to bar!
Yeah well... you gotta have goals, right!

Easter Cupcakes

The little chefs of the family has been wanting to bake "something chocolatey" for a while, so why not on the last day of Easter make some Easter Cupcakes!
We didn't have any yellow food colouring at home, but decided it worked just as well with green!
Proud little chefs with their masterpieces:



Very nice looking chocolate muffins with green cream cheese icing and little Cadbury chocolate eggs on top:



Some got packaged for the lunch boxes tomorrow:



Yummy!

SCB Run for a reason

This morning I took part in a 10k event, organized here in Brunei! The first one with proper timing chips and everything for the 10k and Half-Marathon runners. It was the Standard Chartered Bank Run For A Reason race.

In hindsight I'm not quite sure why I signed up for this one. I haven't been running for ages, my last proper run was two months ago, and before that... I don't even remember... My last running training was two YEARS ago when I completed the 10k races in Hong Kong and Singapore.
I guess I got sucked into it by the enthusiasm of the other 12WBT girls! Most of the group was out running one distance or another this morning, and all with outstanding results!

My alarm went at 04.45 this morning and I picked my friend Kim up at 05.30. We were in good time for the start of the race which was scheduled to 06.30.
I must say I'm really impressed by the organization of this race, there was big signs everywhere to get yourself in the right direction and every distance started on time, just as planned.
Here are a few blurry iPhone shots that Kim took pre-race:

Head-to-toe warm up:



Kim in a squat!



It was a sea of blue and green at the start, nearly everyone wore the free race shirt. I purposely had chosen my yellow race shirt, to stand out a bit (also I had asked to get the race shirt in a size 44/XL?? I'm not that size, and have never been actually. Not sure what happened there?!) - and I sure did!







And off we went! Still smiling!



I actually did pretty well on the first half of the race. I have this secret dream to run the 10k under an hour (which wont happen until I do some proper running training, intervals, hill sprints etc and actually speed up...), but at 5k today I was only at 27min30ish, and I thought to myself - I got a small chance of making the hour!
But once we got to 8k, I got a stitch, and was out of juice completely. I nearly gave up and started walking but thought I better keep moving, even though it was very slowly... Kim passed me with a huge smile at 9k and sprinted into the finish line, me not so much.

See the pain on my face, just after having finished?



Well, although she did a fab time, Kim didn't look all that either, ha ha...



And - the after photo, not so smiley anymore! :)



Even though I didn't crack the hour (this time, and I'm not sure it'll ever be a next...) I did do a personal best though! A minute plus faster than my last, so not too shabby after all!
(Thank you Yvette for the photos!)

The never ending love

Linnea has had a penchant for face paint ever since she was all tiny. It seems like it's a never ending love story for her.
Today we went to the Yacht Club for their annual Easter Fun Day (yes, just the girls, the boys preferred to stay in front of the TV, go figure...) and of course she got another beautiful face painting! (You can see last years bunny face here.)

Happy Easter everyone!

Fail

Linnea and her Year One will be following an IPC (= International Primary Curriculum) unit of work this term on the theme of ‘Toys’. It's based around specific learning targets focusing on History, Science and Technology.

As part of their ‘Entry Point’ activities they were to organize a fundraising toy sale where all the money raised would be donated to the Junior School Special Education Fund. Us parents were asked to send unwanted toys, books, games etc in to school for this sale. So I went through a bit of the toys and put a bag together, checked with the kids there was nothing they wanted to keep and off it went to the toy sale.

Yesterday they got to bring a couple of dollar in to then buy something from the sale, and Linnea was all excited - there had been a huge donation of different things.
She came home with a book, but not just any book... one of our books that we had donated... Because she "didn't want to sell it anyway"... :)
Fail.

Pimping the guest room

No, we haven't had an enormous amount of visitors out here (sadly...), but there has been some. Even though the spare room is mostly used as a bike room - occasionally it gets used as a guest room too.



I thought it needed something more though, to make it a bit more welcoming. Before Mormor and Morfar got here, I used some cool wall stickers to spruce it up a bit; and after my last visit to IKEA it's now even more cosy for the next set of visitors - it's got a carpet too!





Anybody welcome!

Rock n' roll

Sitting at the pizza restaurant with the Foxes the other week in Singapore, somehow our conversation led into being polite and having manners. Lucas was asking why you need to be polite all the time, and I answered him because it's nice to be around polite people.
I took the example of when one of his class mates had met Mormor and Morfar at school one day at pick-up, he stretched out his little hand and said:
-"Hello, I'm George. Nice to meet you".
Very polite - and very nice! Especially from an 8-year old!

Lucas sighed and said:
-"Ah George, well he's English. Why does the English have to be such gentlemen all the time?"
Nathan then said:
-"Well, Jason is English, and he just farted!"
Lucas responded, without even looking up from the iPad game he was playing:
-"Jason is just too much rock n' roll".

We all had a huge giggle about that and do I have to add that the comment made Jason's... week? :)

Ride like the wind

Lo and behold, look who was out on a bike ride this morning!



It certainly has been a while since last time even though I had the best intentions of making this a regular thing; and I was just as unsure about the whole thing as last time.
It didn't make me any more comfortable that we decided to go up Jalan Muara before hitting the coast road (to pick up Will), but it all went well and the motorists were actually really considerate.





I spent most of today trying to learn which switch controls which gears and I actually think by the end of the ride, I got it all sussed!
I'm still not 100% confident but I did really enjoy my ride today!

Moshi Monster Madness

The Moshi Monster craze has captured Brunei! First the kids all got hooked on the social online game with virtual pets. Now it's the collectors cards.
Nearly every kid at school has a Moshi Monster binder, and they take them to school and trade to get full sets.

Although, when they are young like Linnea and her peers, it's a bit tricky understanding all the rules of trading... so they often get rolled... Hence the mummys has to get involved sometimes! :)



Our two are actually not allowed to take their binders to school anymore, there was just too much drama.
So they are left to trading with - each other. That works too, as they often spend their pocket money on new packets of cards.

Ditch the workout, join the party!

Zumba Fitness is getting really, really popular here in Brunei!
It's like a Zumba Fitness wildfire that is spreading fast, more and more people in Brunei discover the fun with Zumba Fitness and considering Brunei is a small country - Zumba Fitness is huge!



From just one person teaching it in one gym a few years ago when it first got here; there are now several outlets where you can try this fab form of exercise, many licensed instructors (and a few that are not...) are taking classes in many different locations.

My friend Susan opened her 2nd Studio today and Linnea and I went along for the soft opening. The Studio is all shiny and new:





We helped cutting the ribbon, the press was there, lots of yummy food and mingling. We both had a great time with our Zumba friends!





Linnea and her friend Alexia doing silly faces, there were good at that! :)

Easter in da house!

Time flies. Again.
The holidays are over and school is back tomorrow. We have regrouped and re-energized after having had visitors for a few weeks; and - I realized it's Easter, already next weekend!
So today the decorations came out, here are some snaps:

The Cult has got a new Easter "house", thank you Mormor!



Very old and worn out little inherited chicks that I cherish a lot. The kind of decorations that have huge emotional value:



Another new addition. A big Easter rooster!



From new to old - my oldest Easter deco, it's been with me for as long as I can remember as you might see, it's quite worn too.



And then I found this crazy chicken!