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.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

An Unexpected but Super Cool Gift... Wednesday, November 27

My first snowman of 2013 and it was a little one who stood five inches tall and had no eyes, no nose, and not even a smile. He was faceless but not homeless.  One of my younger members had made him outside and brought him to live at Hulk's.  He was a thank you gift from one of my high school girls for the free personal training I've been doing with her.
 
Together, we dotted his face with two marker eyes and a nose, and then I put in my hair barrette for a grin that stretched across his little face.  He was quite the popular new little man at Hulk's.  Everyone wanted to take pictures of him, hold him, and even Pyen Chi got in on the action and licked him. 

The "gift" of my own personal handheld snowman was a sweet gesture but it was also a sweet change from the usual gifts I've been getting from various members.
 
There's a local corner seller who sells "bung-aw-bbang" (English: fish bread).  He has fish bread that are filled with red beans and others that are filled with white cream but these days our club has been filled with both of them as numerous members offer to treat us to a bag full of them.  I'm convinced these days this man's sole customer are our Hulkies because I've seen so many bags of these fish walk through our club door, it's incredible.  Today I counted FIVE bags of these fish bread, that's 25-30 fish bread in just one day! 
 
You know you have a lot of fish bread when even Pyen Chi doesn't react to them... hahahaha.
 
I'm over the bombardment of fish bread too.  Pastries -- anything grain really -- are my weaknesses but the overdose of these carb-filled street food pastries are a bit much. 
 
Coffee and chicken, now those are two things I'll never experience an overdose over... hint, hint.
 
The surprise of one of my high school students putting out her hands and presenting to me a little snowman proved to be the most adorable thing today and I thought it was so sweet.  While I know all those other members thought I'd appreciate their gift of fish bread, which is sold right outside our door and is rather cheap, I appreciated this snowman so much more.  She didn't have gloves on when she made it and she carried it all the way from the playground of her school. 
 
I left work tonight with Mr. Mini Snowman still very much alive and well in our freezer, right beside the chicken where I had placed him.  I don't know how long he'll stay there and how long we'll keep him but tonight I was called and asked about him from the mother of the young high school girl that had made him for me.  Her daughter had told her about how I paraded him around the club and how others took pictures of him.  She wanted to tell me that I didn't have to keep "the silly thing" and that it wasn't actually the real gift her daughter was supposed to bring to thank me.  I really wasn't expecting any gift actually but getting word that they had supposedly purchased me something specifically at Galleria, an overpriced shopping mall as far as I am concerned, didn't interest me.  My Mr. Mini Snowman is way cooler (in more ways than just one... hahaha).

No comments: