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.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

A Feel Good Day... Sunday, February 18

Jumped in an Uber and headed off to Elorde Kapitunan, the first boxing club I trained at when I first came to the Philippines.  When I first started training there, it was expected I'd only be there for three months and then I'd be moving back to Canada.  

Almost a year later and I'm still here in the Philippines.

I've been living here for 354 days.

I walked into Elorde and was greeted by one of the girls I coach with Empowered and then I started to recognize more faces.  Fellow fighters who are now trainers, very cool.  Two of my sparring partners were there -- Coach Rocky and Coach Waldo.  Originally I was training with Coach Gary but then I switched over to Coach Arman.  Both weren't there when I walked in but then a bit later Coach Arman walked in.  At the sight of him, I screamed out and then greeted him with a huge hug.  It was so great to see him again and I was so overly excited to be there.  It felt like my home gym; I loved it. 

I miss training with Coach Arman and training here at Elorde but I've been very blessed with the other training opportunities I've had.  Coach Bogs at Elite is great and I love his contagious energy.  I now train at the Philippine Army Gym with Coach Roger and as much as that club has really grown on me, as ghetto as it is, my only complaint is that I wish they had proper equipment, like speed bags and double end bags.  They had one speed bag and it's more or less just a deflated bag hanging.  The coaches there are from the Philippine National Amateur team so they're super legit but coaching there is just a part time gig for them, something they do for extra cash.  They're from the National team but they're also soldiers, that's their main job, so I see them from time to time walking around in their uniforms.  

As I finished training at Elorde today and walked outside to grab my Uber, I said by to everyone and then Coach Arman stood and waved from the second story window as my Uber pulled away with me in it.  I rolled down the window and yelled out to him "Mahal kita" ["I love you"] and he giggled.  

Driving out of town to Elorde felt like I was driving to Whitby in Canada -- heading to my hometown.
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