HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Too many things are happening over the last 48 hours. Will tell you guys later...

Anyway,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ADELINE KOAY!!!!!

Copycat Fitness First in Penang

Finally, A few "little birds"(Jeff Ooi is not the ony one getting help from little birds) decided to drop me pictures of the fake imitation Fitness First in Penang. Thanks little birds!


Apparently they dun like ppl taking pictures inside...

Fitness Studio opened about a year ago at the Gurney, right behind Gurney Hotel. When it opened, it managed to snatch a couple of personal trainers/fitness instructors from Fitness First at Island Plaza. Of course, as Penangites are famous for being super kiam siap prudent, some members also cancelled their membership at FF since FS was offering about 33% cheaper monthly fee. I still remember that time the FF club manager Juliette asking me if I was defecting. Nah... I was happy at FF and I saw it as an opportunity to teach at FF(I just completed my Body Combat training then). Furthermore, cheap doesn't neccessarily mean good- look at Proton if you don't understand that.

Through some locker conversations in FF, I was told that FS is owned by a former Miss Malaysia who just happens to be the mistress of a property developer(Something like he opened the gym for her, but please DON'T QUOTE ME- I'm just telling you what I heard!). She used to work out at FF too, but since FS opened I didn't see her anymore, so there could be some truth in the rumour.

I actually went there to take a look before they opened and the place looked quite spacious to me. The monthly fee of RM100 sounded reasonable, but I was put off by this:



Now compare it to FF:



I have no problem if a fellow Penangite wants to venture into the fitness industry, but PLEASE-LAH, get your own identity! People's name Fitness First, yours Fitness Studio,... The name already sound so alike still wanna copy people's font to mislead the masses.

Neeeeeways... if anyone in Penang is interested to join a gym that's cheap, and you don't mind having not so good personal trainers or instructors competitively priced, why not give Fitness Studio a try? At least you're joining a fitness centre and get to see some pretty girls, I heard that there's this one hot kindergarden teacher exercise and be healthy.

Blogathon: where you can help

This Sat 6 Aug is Blogaton 2005 , where a bunch of crazy people will attempt to blog non-stop for 24 hours in order to raise funds for the charity. Here are some of them:

1) Bloggers Are Morons
A team of morons, namely Suanie, minishorts, Kenny, Peter and Paul Tan(not related), and Shaolin Tiger. They are raising money for the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, Penang Branch.

2)Yvonne Foong
Yvonne and her friends, John Ling and Tan Yi Liang, are trying to help Eden Handicap Service Centre

3)Eliar Swiftfire
Edmund Yeo's charity is Book Aid International.

You can view other campaigns from all over the world here. If you are interested in donating for any of the campaigns, just follow the instructions below:

1. Visit http://www.blogathon.org/
2. On the left menu bar, click on SIGN UP
3. Under the username/password fields, click on the word “register”
4. Fill up the form with your desired user name, email address, name, password, and confirm password.
5. Click SUBMIT
6. Login with your chosen username and password
7. Under Active Campaigns, click on the name of the campaign.
8. Pledge the amount that you wish to donate (minimum is US$1 or around RM3.75).
9. You’re done!


C'mon people... RM3.75 is not a lot of ask for, is it?

***
UPDATE: For more similar effort, please visit Cyber-red's site.
***

Hisham: It's just a symbol

Apparently Pemuda UMNO chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told The Sun that him wielding the movement's official keris- Panca Wawasan -was just symbolic, and not to intimidate any quarter. What do you think of this picture?


"IT'S ONLY A SYMBOL!!!"

Looks quite intimidating to me.

OK, let's say he really meant it to be a symbol... what symbol then? What message is he conveying? I see a few possibilities from the picture:

Maybe he's trying to work the crowd by emulating his favourite WWE superstar?

Perhaps he's trying to keep the delegates awake?



At the end of the day, maybe he just wanted some attention.



Whatever it is, no one should ever under-estimate this PM in the making.

Stripping between Sunway Pyramid and Summit USJ

Yesterday evening I was almost late for my 6.30pm Body Pump class at Menara Summit USJ. I'd left my office near Sec 14 PJ at 5.30pm and normally I would reach Summit by 6.10pm. However at the Federal Highway/Jalan 222 junction, I discovered that I had left my MP3 player in the office. I could've just do my classes with the CDs which were in my bag but I wanted to mix the releases. So, I turned back to get my player.

By 6pm I was still somewhere along Federal Highway. Earlier I had called the Group X coordinator to inform him that I might be late, but I didn't like the idea of being late. Around 6.05 I was already past Sunway Pyramid and on the final stretch of the road to Summit. Unfortunately, for those of you who are familiar with the traffic there, it's jammed with lots of vehicles and we had the police managing the traffic at the junction 1KM away. I was sitting in the blood sucking Civic sweating and getting really kan cheong. So I was thinking of ways to save time... and the idea came: Why not change into my workout clothes in the car since the traffic wasn't moving?

To cut the story short, I was on the extreme left of the road. On my right was a huge lorry. I looked around and noticed that all the motorcycles were going towards the other side of the road because the gap between the Civic and the lorry was very small. I looked behind one more time to make sure nobody' looking and I started removing my clothes, starting with the shoes and then my pants.

As I was putting my workout shorts, I saw a bike coming from behind and I thought the motorcyclist was going to go pass the left side of the car... "*X^+$%&!!!he/she might see my undies!" I quickly pulled up my shorts as hard as I could(it was a pair of padded cycling shorts which was rather tight) but still I was not able to pull all the way up. Just when I thought my dignity would be compromised, the motorcylist turned to the right and went on the other lane. *Phew*.......

Eventually I managed to pull my shorts up and also changed from my shirt to my sports tee before the traffic got moving. At the end, I actually reached the gym 10 minutes before my class started. Should've just changed at the gym!!

I've learnt my lesson: in future, should I forget my MP3 player again, JUST STICK TO THE CDs!!! No more taking such a risk again for me...

Anyhow, there won't be any problem for me today. I've got 2 classes again, but it's at Menara Axis... 15 min's jog away from my office:P

Let's get fat fit

Jackie Chan in town!

If you were at Mid Valley Megamall during the weekend, you might have noticed the commotion on the 3rd floor. He was there to open the country's first California Fitness Jackie Chan signature club. Even the Youth and Sport Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said was there for the the opening.



So California has Jackie Chan... Big deal. We at Fitness First also got our own ambassador what....


Simon says, "Join FF..."

I think it's a great way for Cali to promote inself because of the vast appeal of Jackie Chan. It will be interesting to see how Cali intends to eat into the fitness industry currently dominated by FF. A couple of years ago, there were only a few fitness centres like Clark Hatch, Gold's Gym, etc... then suddenly you see fitness centres mushrooming when FF entered Malaysia. At the moment, there are 2 Cali against 9 FF in the Klang Valley. Next year we'll see even more new ones as both Cali and FF have stated their intentions to open more fitness centres in the Klang Valley. Not forgetting, there are other new players around like Celebrity Fitness and True Fitness as well.

From where I come from in Penang, you can get FF at Island Plaza and an imitation FF called Fitness Studio at the Gurney. The reason I call it an imitation is it uses the EXACT font like FF to spell out it's name(Serena, Mike, Danny, Leslie...please take a picture for me?). However, come October, Celebrity Fitness will be opening their centre at Gurney Plaza. Got that? 3 fitness centres in Tanjung Tokong/Pulau Tikus!!!

Anyway, speaking of Celebrity, it is quite odd the way they promote their gym. If you look at California, you'd probably see Jackie Chan or something like this:



For Fitness First, you may get this:



In both instances, you see real people working out, right? Now check out Celebrity's website:


sex hormone driven fitness centre...

If you happen to be driving around One Utama (maybe soon around Penang's Tanjung Tokong), you'd see their billboard posters with unhealthy-looking, anorexic slim, gorgeous ladies staring at you too. That's right, folks... the moment you sign up with Celebrity Fitness, you're gonna get nothing but hot mommas walking around in the gym. Forget the workout- here at Celebrity Fitness, you don't need to work out!! Just go for the chicks!

Nothing much

That's right, folks... nothing much to blog about today.

Had to print the company's 2004 invoices for the court case with our former bumi agent and man the call centre at the same time the whole morning. Afternoon, I'll need to sort the invoices with their respective delivery orders.

it's been a frustrating Mega Sale Carnival for me... I went to 3 major shopping centres in the Klang Valley, and 3 times I kept looking at cross trainers that didn't fit me. I probably could've gotten a pair of jogging shoes but I'm using the shoes for studio group exercise classes- cross trainers is a better choice because of the lateral support.

Alternatively, I'll just hang on for another 2-3 months before I get my sponsored shoes from Nike. So far the last 2 times I only got bottoms, wrist towel watch and socks.... *sigh*

OK, lunch time is here!