Zumba Fitness

I'm not a ZIN neither a Zumba instructor.

I was introduced to Zumba by a friend of mine to a nearby dancing studio about a year ago. I wasn't sure what was Zumba at that point of time and I do not have any dancing background. I was worried initially. Whether I can do what is taught in the class? Whether I can follow the steps?

In the end, I went and join the class at the dancing studio. It was once a week. I'm really glad that in the class, I do not need to worry about the steps, neither do I need to worry about embarrassment, what I need is all about confidence and just move along with the music.

Slowly, I picked up the steps. I can't do any sexy moves but I suppose this comes with practices. My instructor is very good at giving instructions despite seeing me in a mixed and confused movements. Slowly, I'm in love with Zumba and I am very proud that I could make it through the one hour class every weekend without feeling tired.

One of my favourite numbers for Zumba Fitness is Fiesta Buena. The music is cheeky and the steps are easy to follow. I just love it.

However, my first Zumba instructor had decided to continue his studies overseas and then I've lost directions on where to go to for the search of new Zumba instructor.

Fortunately, I get an opportunity to join a gym club in town at a discounted price. In the gym, there are a few famous Zumba Instructors. I have chosen one who has classes on weekends due to my work commitment.

The class is packed and everyone is very good at Zumba. Guess they are in the class for a real long time. I'm glad to be able to continue Zumba with such a professional instructor. Indeed, I think having Zumba as part of my life, it has helped me to be able to set a target in  my life.

Recently, there is a new number released. Oh gawd! I love it so much! Dale dale.... dale dale.....

Zumba, has brought me certain level confidence. I wish this could benefit me in life.

I love movement. Yes, Zumba.

Malaysian Satay

The Malaysian Satay is amongst the most popular food in the tourists' eyes. Indeed, satay is really delicious. 

This is the recent satay which I've had in Ipoh. Nothing special from the tastes. I am still in search for the best satay in the country.

:)

HTC One Max Review

Phew! This is my first post on the review of HTC One Max. I am myself a HTC user. I've always been a Nokia phone user for almost 6 years. Over a year ago, I have decided to change to a new smartphone and at that point of time, I was deliberating between Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X. They both are amongst the best smartphone in the market. The Apple iPhone is always out of my mind and hence, in the end, I've bought a HTC One X.

And now, the brand of the phone I owned has come out with another phablet that adds to its HTC One series - the HTC One Max.

 

The system of this phablet is of course the well-known Android 4.3 with HTC Sense. I do not have any doubts over the system, instead, I love it very much.

The key features of this HTC One Max inlcudes:
1. Dual-capture mode frames
2. Dual front-facing stereo speakers
3. Finger print scan

The most interesting bit of the phone is the finger print scanner built-in on the phone, which is located right at the bottom of the rear camera lens. It can be used to unlock the phone without any pins. The unique feature of this finger print scanner is that it can recognised up to 3 different finger prints. I'm not quite sure about the technical part of this feature, however, what crossed my mind was the practicality of this scanner.

To be honest, I think that the location of the scanner is kinda weird. It is not quite easy for one person to swipe the fingers over the back if the phone is front facing. Alright, may be I have short fingers. Perhaps, there are people who will appreciate this feature.

Another feature of this phablet which I think it's worth mentioning is the dual-capture mode. The camera of the phablet is not something with fabulous mega pixels. Instead, it comes with the HTC UltraPixel Camera which claimed to be able to capture higher quality than those with high number of mega pixels. Oh well, I can't comment much about it but the photos captured by this phablet is quite amazing as seen in other reviews. At least its aperture reading at F2.0 is a great achievement for a phone camera. I do believe it can capture great photographs. The dual-capture mode is of course giving us a hype in photography. You are able to capture both from the front and rear camera at the same time! Oh wow!

Overall, I think this phone is great but I do not have any plans to give up my HTC One X yet as it is still new and has recently updated to the latest software with the HTC Blink Feed feature. I'm still happy with it anyway!

But, as I said, good stuff is meant to be shared. I think HTC is a good phone with likeable user-interface.

A new light in my life being an instructor

It was 5 years back when I finished my high school, I was deliberating on what are the further education choices available for myself. I did not have a variety of ambitions at that point of time, but instead I had a clear mind on what I wanted to do.

I was a science student and I always think that science is a very interesting subject to begin with. However, I didn't get the chance to pursue further on science due to several reasons. I have a few teachers in my family. They have embarked the idea of teacher is the best occupation for a lady especially when she has a family, to my parents. Oh well, I have always in refusal to accept this idea and hence, I'm ended becoming an accounting student and am continuing it as my job that earns me a living.

Aiks... I shall stop dwelling too much about what was the past.

My company has added in a new KPI for us - to provide course delivery. Yes, it is elective and I was in dilenma. Shall I continue to volunteer to meet this extra elective KPI as promised earlier? ('Cos earlier I thought it was a core KPI to meet) 

I didn't think too much and I just let things goes by by itself. One day, a L&D manager came to me to ask for my availability to instruct the interns who are joining our company soon. I asked on the timing and I thought it was a good timing and hence I promised and moved on.

Okay, so now, I've committed to instruct a course for the interns. What's next?

An email was sent to me and it reads "Instructors' Training Workshop". Wow! I need to be trained before getting on to become an instructor. What I did was to quickly browse through the participants of this workshop. OOHEEMGEEEE.... *childish thinking* I was in shocked that there would not be anyone I know in the workshop and the worst thing was, everybody else are managers and above!

I was almost the earliest at the workshop. Gosh, that's the obvious syndrome of a younger generation in the company. "The longer you are in the company, the later you will arrive at the workshop." Quotes by an instructor of the workshop.

Now, being post-workshop, I am actually glad that I am involved in the instructors' training workshop. Seriously I do, although initially I was very furious especially during the introduction/ice-breaking session, I could sense that glances are coming from every other participants showing that they are putting higher expectation on my presentation skills once they know that I am the ONLY senior in the room.

I've got some praises from the workshop. I'm seriously very glad. But I know I have some problem in speaking smoothly. Hiccups will be added somewhere in all the the sentence I wish to say. I need to practice more, I know. I haven't talk smoothly ever since I stop public speaking. Is this what happened when we are so engrossed in typing our speeches through words? Blame the computers.

Well, I think I'm pre...par...ed...

Whether or not I'm prepared, I have to deliver on what I've promised, isn't it? Confidence, it is deep in my heart. I need to dig it out to the surface in order to portray myself to become a good instructor and perhaps, become a real good instructor that receive good comment from the participants.

Instructing is different from teaching. At least, instructing is to use adult learning style to instruct the participants and I do not need to worry about how to handle the kids.

Wish me luck!

Restoran Goon Wah @ Jalan Kuchai Lama

Two years ago, I was introduced to try the special XO Fish Head Noodle at Restoran Goon Wah @ Jalaln Kuchai Lama by a friend of my dad.

I've always love to go to this restaurant to enjoy their fish head noodle but their operating hours has been on weekdays only. I will look forward to a public holiday which falls on a weekday so that I could enjoy the meal over there. But sometimes, it's hard... oh wells. And, today, I was on leave and decided to make a trip to the restaurant with my family. I'm so happy! :)

The fish head noodle from this restaurant is very tasty in the sense of the materials they used for the dish. They use sea water fish instead of fresh water fish. This is always at the advantage as some fresh water fish will carry a weird muddy taste depending on where the fish being bred. On the other hand, I love their soup base! Seriously! The taste of sour is just nice. That's awesome.

The noodle comes in two types - thin or thick noodle. I prefer the thick one but today we had the thin one. We could hardly see any noodle from the top. So many pieces of fish today! YUMMSSS!!!

They have other speciality as well, such as Claypot Lou She Fun, Honey Chicken Wing, etc etc. Many more. But we only had the fish head noodle with big portion. Oh, they come in small, medium and big size. The staff there will recommend you on how much to order depending your head count and how many dishes you ordered.

They do serve desserts too! Their desserts menu varies from day to day. We had Barley with dried beancurd today.

Lovely right? It wasn't too sweet. Although I'm not sweet-toothed, but I like how it was cooked.

Here's one good news to everyone who had the same feeling as I do (always looking forward to public holiday on weekdays). They are opening on Saturdays too starting from November 2013!

I saw this notice as I walked out from the restaurant. Wow! I was excited! Nice! I no longer need to wait till a public holiday to come! YAY!!

Restoran Goon Wah
G13 & 14, Jalan 3/115C,
Block KP 2, Taman Kuchai Jaya,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Do pay a visit to this restaurant if you are a fan of fish head noodles!

Good stuff are meant to be shared. :)

Wedding bells.

Lovely wedding cakes. I've just attended a lovely couple's wedding last night. It was really a touching wedding. They have been a loving couple for 10 years and finally they ended their relationship as girl-boy friend to become husband and wife.

Reflecting through their stories, I think being a loving couple relies a lot on each others effort. If one party do not put in the effort to make the relationship work out, the whole thing will not last. Appreciating each other is really important.

Wishing this couple of my friend to have a happy marriage.

:)

Something has gone wrong

It's my usual practice to google something straight from the address bar on Google Chrome. However, I couldn't access to it after several attempts. I thought it was my internet connection error. So I decided to enter into google website by entering www.google.com.my on the address bar and that thing appeared!

What had happened? Google, please resolve this as soon as possible!

Nine to five

In the past one and a half week, I've been going through a nine-to-five working life. Okay, fine, that's not nine-to-five but at least it wasn't as long hours as my usual working hours.

In Australia, the government actually require the citizen to finish work at 5pm sharp everyday in order to promote work-life balance. How I wish I am living in such environment as well. Unfortunately I am in Malaysia. Yes, a country where employers promote work-life INTEGRATION.

I guess my employer has kinda successfully input work-life integration into my life and I prefer working late than to finish work at 5pm. Oh well, reason being that cars in Malaysia are getting more and more, or maybe is it because the place I am staying is over-populated? The jam is terrible. I'm getting old and my feet hurts when I am stuck in the jam and pressing on the brake while waiting. I feel so tired of that. At least when I finish work late, the traffic has recovered and I can just reach home without wasting much of time.

Oh well. What am I thinking?

Work-life balance? or Work-life integration?

Relationships

More often than not, quotes mentioned "Life is fragile". I think so do a relationship.

Relationship often happens when two parties attracts to each other when they both have something in common and this is usually being thoughts of view. However, will the same thoughts of view be the same all the time?

Recently, I've got two couples of friend experienced a broke up. I am certainly surprised to their outcome. They are both lovely couples to be seen. Oh well, like I said, relationships are fragile too.

The first couple grew up together and get into relationship some time during high school. They both went into different eduction path after high school but their relationship stayed strong. I thought they were really lovely. However, as soon as the girl started working, things has started to change. The viewpoint of life of the couple has changed and both started to have nothing in common. Arguments were then started more and more frequently. And in the end, they both decided to give up the relationship.

Another couple, getting to know each other during work and got together lovingly. Everyone thought they were cute couple. Really they do. However, they both decided to give up the relationship after one year. The reason being they have different view point towards life when one party has changed one's view point and thus they can't continue life together with each other.

Why change can cause such a drastic effect to a relationship? We can't adapt to change? Or we can't change together with the change we facing?

Grieved.

Sony Nex-3N

Being an amateur photographer, I've recently upgraded to a semi-pro camera - Sony NEX-3N.

I've been practising photography few years ago but I've been using ordinary digital camera. My first digital camera was bought when I was 16. Subsequently, I've been using three other digital cameras thereafter by slowly upgrading them through the specification which I wanted. The reason being for not having an upgrade to a better camera is that I can only afford digital cameras. 

In recent years, semi-pro cameras are getting lower price and hence, I've finally gotten a great deal from a camera shop to get the new Sony NEX-3N, a Sony Alpha camera. The package comes with kit lens (16mm - 55mm) and zoom lens (55mm - 210mm).

This camera comes with 16.1 megapixel Exmor™ APS HD CMOS sensor which deliver images of DSLR quality. The quality of each photo captured does satisfy me. 

There is another advantage of this Sony Alpha camera. Sony Malaysia provides workshops and events for Sony Alpha camera user. As this is the first camera of mine which uses manual settings, the workshops provided is an advantage for users like me!

Picking up photography is a skill that has a very abstract learning space. I wish this camera will help me to progress well into photography and of course one day later I will upgrade into a full DSLR camera. 

Flickr

Flickr

I was recently been introduced to Flickr by a friend of mine. I was told that I could get a lot of inspiration by looking at the photographs shared by people around the world.

For the first time I logged in into Flickr, I used the mobile app on Android. I was truly amazed with all the photos shared.

Creating an account in Flickr is easy too! Just login using Facebook account or Google account. You can also login using Yahoo! account. 

Amazing app, amazing people, amazing photographs. Good stuff.

Hello world.

It was at least 4 years since I last blogged. Yes. 4 years has past.

Why I stopped blogging? It was rather being I was out of time and there are many more social media available for myself to update my daily activities, etc. Lame excuses? Oh well, practically I was pure lazy.

2 years ago, I have planned to re-blog and apparently it didn't work out. I started working two years ago and my life turns out to be quite hectic and I always in search for time for myself. To relax, to day dream. I miss the days where I could day dream about everything under the sky. Oh! Those good old days.

Today, I've decided to start up this blog, to blog again, hopefully I'll get this space updated occasionally. As the title of this blog, The Pony Ride, it symbolises a pony wondering around throughout his life, seeing through various experiences and shares his experience wherever he goes. I wish to use this blog, to share my experience, my view point on certain things, etc. Nothing great but I appreciate comments and complements to help myself to improve and to be a better person as days goes by.

With much of appreciation,
thepony