At exactly 7:50pm I was told I had ten minutes to get ready. “Get ready, I am kidnapping you” Snickers said. “Get ready for what?” was my question. I had no idea what Snickers was planning but I knew it had to do with a comment I had made earlier. Earlier on in the day I had complained about being so consumed with my boxing. I love boxing, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’d be nice to be able to escape it, even if for a day. Right now I’m definitely feeling the pressure of my upcoming fight. Meeting up with friends for coffee is a no go on account that I’ve started to restrict my liquid intake, like wise with heading out to a restaurant. I miss the days when I used to get dolled up or even put on heels and make-up for that matter. Now days I eat, sleep and do boxing. I wake up and head out for a morning run or sit with Snickers to go over the video footage of last night’s sparring session. I train like a beast at boxing, especially now that I have sparring every day, so I spend a good part of my day sleeping, storing my energy for my evening of intense training at the club. Then there are emails and random drop-bys I need to do with various sponsors, clients and regarding the 63 Day Fat to Phat Challenge I’m hosting via Flipside Fitness.
These days I seriously envy normal people, and by normal I mean anyone and everyone who isn’t doing what I’m doing, preparing for a fight. I don’t crave junk food and I don’t drink but sometimes, when I’m walking home late from training, all sweaty and exhausted, I see people in the window of local pubs. They’re downing their beers, chewing away at fried chicken and ketchup-drown French fries, or so I envision them doing and I envy them. They seem to not have a care in the world and natural things to them, like eating what they want and doing what they want, continues on without a second thought.
My actual boxing training may only take two hours of my day and thus my “work” schedule doesn’t compare to the average person’s 9-5 work day, but sometimes it feels the very opposite. I can’t just clock in and clock out of work now with a fight scheduled. And that's the thing, it's never a set thing that I'll get a fight. I continually train so hard in hope of getting a fight. I love boxing but sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. I’ve got sponsors invested in me, a boxing club’s image to uphold, hell I’m the only registered foreign boxer in this country so I’ve got that on my shoulders, and then there’s the fact that I’m totally going against the natural flow of what mainstream Korea thinks it means to be a woman and they always seem so obligated to remind me of this.
Anyways, back to the initial story I was writing about…
So I figured Snickers would be taking me on a long drive somewhere because he threw some of his snacks into my purse and brought Pyen Chi along. Two and a half hours later we showed up at one of my favorite places in Korea – Daecheon Beach. He had taken the scenic route to get here and had made a special music CD for the ride, very sweet.
We walked along the beach, allowing Pyen Chi to go wild and free, which meant she ate the sand and ran in circles around us. It was rather chilly out on the open beach but it was nice. It was nice to just get away.
We love the beachside restaurants with all their fresh seafood but with my fight just around the corner I couldn’t indulge. Snickers felt bad for being hungry but I insisted he eat. Thankfully he ordered something I don’t like – noodles. Unless the noodles are drowned in some kind of spicy sauce or are outnumbered by chicken, I don’t like noodles. At the restaurant there was a little dog, her name translated into English was Pearl, so I distracted myself with playing with her while Snickers ate.
On the way home we leisurely took our time but when we were just a mere 20 minutes from our house we ran into quite the roadside scene. There just feet in front of us on an open massive road was a road barrier shattered into a million pieces. Up ahead was a white car beside the continuing road barriers and a woman kneeling down beside its’ tire. We ended up turning our car around, parking it facing the oncoming traffic and jumping out to help the lady. As it turns out, she had fallen asleep and crashed into the massive barrier. Mind ya, because the barriers are filled with water they’re now frozen because of winter, so it totaled the front of her car. She was all shaken up so I tried to comfort her while she called her mother. Snickers scrambled to drag the large pieces off the road but other cars ended up being tied into the situation as large chunks of the barrier got stuck under their car while others swerved and hit other cars. Within a matter of minutes eight cars had become involved. It was quite the dramatic ending to our sweet beach date – my kidnapping.
As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).
After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.
Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.
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