Back in the game

Last night I decided to go to my local gym for the first time in months. I'm able to go to this gym for free because I use my old staff card. It's always saved me from paying for a gym membership, which is so cool. However, at reception when I handed in my card, she swiped it (it usually doesn't work anyway, it only works at the club where you work in - and I never worked in this particular club). She then warned that I would need a brand new staff card. I agreed and quickly moved away from the area, hopeful that everything would be OK and they wouldn't do something drastic - like call this gym and find out if I was on payroll. But it was just my mind playing weird tricks.

I had gone back to the gym to do a Body Combat class which I hadn't done since February back in Argentina, when I was teaching the class. I promptly was reminded of the major differences between group fitness classes in Australia and Argentina. There is more 'personality' and 'life' in Arg. Instructors will ask a fun question and will usually get a smart assed funny answer from the participants, which makes everyone laugh and lightens the mood. There is a lot of coldness and distance with the classes in Australia. In Argentina, it feels like you're in a concert - people yelling and cheering and just being plain happy to be there. They go more for the social aspect of a class - meeting up with your friends, having fun etc. It's a bit more hardcore here in Oz. You have members taking it all so seriously and have a lack of banter and communication between the instructor and the participants. If only I was able to tape the classes I taught in Argentina to show you all. They were outstanding. I would like my classes in Oz to be like that. For the moment, I don't have any classes, so it's not something I have to worry about anytime soon. Maybe.

I entered the group fitness room and it was great to be back. You still had the same hardcore participants as always in their preferred spots. Last year I had 'stolen' this woman's spot in every Pump class I did. She was there. But when she found out I was an instructor, she backed off! The instructor, Megan, came up on stage - she's the one I used to teach with in the good old days - and she remembered me by name, re-introduced me to the class and said I could join her on stage for a few tracks. However, as stated above, this was my first class since February. I had done my first Pump class on Sunday and I struggled getting through that whole class. If I struggled through a weights based class with little movement involved, it's only going to be worse with Combat, a cardio based martial arts class. Or so I thought. I decided to play the role of participant, staying down below and not joining Megan. While she introduced me to the class, she had mentioned that she tried calling me last year and this year to cover some classes for her (but as you know, I was overseas for 9 months) and I had disconnected my phone - only telling my close friends that I had done this. Mental note for next time: tell prospective employer's of number changing!

I went well with this class. Pretty well for someone who hasn't done it for 4 and a bit months. Being the competitive person I am, I was comparing with the other participants and my technique is still brill. It's just my endurance - naturally. But with cardio fitness, this is quick to regain. Quicker than muscle tone. So I was very happy to have had such a successful comeback to Combat. After the class I spoke to Megan, who told me that she had been promoted to Group Fitness Co-ordinator (the person who allocates classes to instructors, who finds covers in emergencies - and there are a fair few emergencies when it comes to instructors and their ability to rock up). She was happy that I was back because it means she has another instructor she can rely on for covers. Combat instructors are still hard to find. She had called in the past to see if I was interested in taking on a permanent class - as she knows me, she knows how I teach (as we have taught together), plus the members know me and know how I teach - and have given Megan good feedback about me. The group fitness timetable has just changed, so it's too late for me to have a permanent class, but she said she was going away next month and needed covers - and with me living just around the corner from the gym, I was only too happy to put my name down. So I'm back in the game! Just 5 days after arriving, I'm still on a roll :) Very happy!

Today I woke up with not as much soreness as I did after my Pump class on Sunday. Must have been the stretching, or the fact I'm getting used to the DOMS. Both are good reasons. I felt really great. I went to meet up with a high school friend in the city, my first time going into the city and catching a train since I've arrived. Still busy, the main shopping centre is still confusing (but they are opening up a cupcake shop soon!) that I got lost in there! The train announcers are still the same, the people are the same - and I wouldn't change any of it - except maybe the cleanliness of the trains, but it's all changing soon. On my first day, Mum told me that the company running the train network has been given the royal ass. There have been too many delays and cancellations. A company that takes care of the train network in Japan has won a contract to help improve Melbourne's train system. So I'm hoping we'll get cleaner transport, punctual services and Japanese sales ladies walking up and down the carriages offering food and drinks - and then bowing as they go from one carriage to the other! It's great - I love Melbourne! But I heard today that the main problem is with the tracks and their quality, so no amount of clean trains will help account for the delays. But I guess this company will cross that bridge when they get to it.

We had dinner at a place that looks like a bar, which I thought I had never been to. Turns out I have - last year when my best friend told me she was going to ask her boyfriend to marry her. She showed me the ring she got him at this restaurant/bar place. It was nice to go back. I had forgotten though how big their bloody servings are. I just got an entree soup and it was a huge bowl with bread on the side. It took me around an hour to finish it. Service is slow though, but it's not like we were hungry. It was nice to catch up with this girl who I have always randomly bumped into in and around the city.

Got home early and am realising how cold it gets in Melbourne, particularly in my apartment. But the good news is that in Summer time it's an absolute dream. There is no air con, but according to my Mum, you don't need one in this place. So I am looking forward to the end of the year!

I still have more catch up plans with people. Tomorrow I am supposedly helping my friend out. She is going to do her Pump training to become a Body Pump Instructor. I did this training 3 years ago and she wanted my help with teaching tracks, which is part of your 'make or break' assessment. These are tentative plans, but if they don't come to fruition, I am planning on going to the gym I used to work at (the one I grew to hate) in Carlton to a) try and get my group certificate so I can do my tax and get money to buy a Mac and b) do a Combat class with Chris, the instructor who has helped me out so much with giving me classes and being cool. She was the one that had a brain tumour re-surface, yet she was still way fitter than me and still teaching classes. It would be nice to see her, although I didn't leave things in the best of ways. I was just sick of working there and had to leave and I ended up resigning a month earlier than expected. Hopefully things are still fine. I'll look up the group fitness timetable to see if she is still teaching, but from memory she always took Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday's Combat classes. We'll see if things have changed.

It really is great to be blogging again! I'll soon be blogging the Spinach and Lamb Cobbler recipe I made yesterday. Delish!