Its Azzucar's 2nd Anniversary!

Azzucar celebrated their 2nd anniversary on Saturday, 27th March 2010! Its been 2 years already! Did you know that there was a latin dance club on the 2nd floor next to the Clarke Quay central fountain above the Tent restaurant, in front of Mulligans?

Well anyway, it was a successful night with a cosy group of partners, suppliers, sponsors, friends and guests of the club that was filled with their resident band, Cubania's live music, amazing close up magic by Solomon *check him out!*, bartender flaring, cake cutting, lucky draw with 7 great prizes including 2 main prizes of a $600 Body Contours Gold Spa Voucher! *lucky winners!*, a buffet spread and a casino table with baccarat & black jack sponsored by Jack Daniels!

And what was having a latin dance club when you don't go there to shake some bonbons to the reggaeton and salsa beats! Completely my type of music! Dance away!

Zuri *above* came. She is one of my fellow Zumba instructor mates and she brought her husband and friends too! And their cosy little group won 2 prizes!! What a lucky night!

I emceed for the evening, spread a little joy and hope that my guests who spent the time to attend enjoyed themselves and return again soon. :) Too bad I didn't get to take pictures so many of the amazing new people I met that night but I hope everyone stays in touch!! You have my namecard! Here are pictures of my guests that I DID take pictures with... :) Like Gurmit!

Fuyoh! I was honoured that Gurmit took some time off his crazy schedule to spend the evening and join me at the Anniversary celebrations... Thank you! Hahhaa! We look waaaaaaay too cheerful here dude! This guy is hilarious... both in person and on screen...

And some friends joined the celebrations in support, night owls - Jonathen came with friends to spread some cheer... thanks for coming out "in the daylight" to join in!

Group picture with Charlie, Lisa *Azzucar's new Marketing Manager*, Gurmit and Andy.. thanks for coming guys! And whoa! These guys keep on winning at the baccarat & blackjack table! Good practice for IR - looks like its time to check it out! *ruffles coin pouch*

And finally, Ze 2nd Level Team Azzucar! Hahhaa! Me (external partner PR, Design & Special Events), Ricky - Mister General Manager and the ONE to go to for anything needed at the club and Lisa, Marketing Manager extraodinaire...

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY AZZUCAR!

May you have many more Anniversaries to celebrate!

Yes!! I am a Zumba Instructor.

Finally after some years, uncountable cardio dance classes - personal, corporate and gym clients and several instructor certifications... I finally get the opportunity to be licensed for Zumba. Imagine how ecstatic I was when I heard that I didn't need to travel out of Singapore to get my license and that it was going to be held in Singapore. I didn't need to hesitate much to get my registration and I waited impatiently in anticipation for the 19th of March to come around... and then it did.

California Fitness, Level 13 Aerobic Studio Raffles Club.... 30 hours of Zumba instructor training.. spread out over 3 days till the 21st of March, with Levels 1 and 2 conducted, a total of 8 styles of merengue, cumbia, salsa, reggaeton, flamenco, tango, samba and bellydance conducted. 2 Zumba licenses achieved and a hell of alot of personal satisfaction that I've finally have my licenses.

And guess who else was the ZES aka Zumba Education Specialist? International Fitness presenter, David Velez! And of course, we would know also him as one of my main dance instructors for coming to 3 years already... other than Rashidah.

We were so busy training up with the dance techniques and running group drills, experimenting with different variations, directions, styles and music.. we really didn't have much time to capture more pictures or videos.. and below is probably the only video captured where we were going through our reggaeton stomp.

Demonstration by Toby (Supa Street / Reggae Dance instructor @ Cali) and David. And that ladies and gentlemen.. is how you do your reggaeton stomp. (this VIDEO is strictly NOT available for copy or viewing anywhere else other than here on this blog, Dreaming Reality)

Oh and before I forget, turn your volume down so you won't get deaf from all our screaming... don't say I didn't warn you! :) and then we actually managed a picture, dripping waterfalls of sweat after our reggaeton set. Even my cap was soaking and dripping! Crazy! Picture with Toby and Esther!

And this deserves such a mention. I was pleased to be training side by side with a phenomenal legend... international presenter and group X superstar, Juan Carlos Ferron. You can check out his website HERE. His wealth of group dance instructing experience is impeccable and impressive. And I was completely in awe and humbled when he shared a personal method with me on really effective but simple music mapping to break down dance songs into aerobic sets to choreograph my future classes in just minutes!

Amazing! And he took the Zumba program WITH us.. with his years of experience.. being a master trainer of so many other programs, he could probably show us even more distinct and intricate dance technique than what we covered but it really shows that theres really no end in a persons learning journey... but that being said.. I felt so honoured to be training with some of the best.

Up next for me in April 2010 is FitBall Instructorship training & Core Stabilisation! So... look out for that new class up on my schedule from June onwards...

Speaking of the best... we also had a lady, Angeline Tion who was one of Singapore's Aerobic Champion (International Level!) who took the program too! Okay, so it was many years back but it is still an amazing achievement in itself! Who can say that they have that kind of achievement? Plus she was an aerobic instructor for over 15 years too. She was in such a peak during the Jane Fonda era and she was the main face for ... guess what?!

THE GREAT SINGAPORE WORKOUT!!! You can check that out HERE.

Oh Gawd! I burst out laughing (not at her though) when she told me that because it was such a memory! Can you remember it from the early 90s?!?! And the scary thing was.. I can so remember the lyrics and even the tune.. whaahahahahaahaha!!!

Did you know that the outfit "leotard" plus white shoes were COMPULSORY for aerobic instructors back then? She told me! and I was like... "are you freaking serious?!" Damn Oh biang can?!

Singapore should have another "Great Singapore Workout" Zumba style!!! Right? How fun would that be?!

BUT was great having them in the program and you can see how humble, without ego each of them were... *hand to heart touched*

We even had 2 ladies who flew in specially for the training from Brunei! Susan and Claire! Whoa! Those two were such sweeties!! and you could tell that they really enjoyed themselves. I'm hoping to stay in touch with them too!

And I met Valerie, whos also a spin instructor at California Fitness. (*sidetrack: I look so crazy exhausted here!) She is one uber friendly chick.. it was such a pleasure getting to know her and chatting with her in between sets and after training... and finally... a picture on the 3rd day of training.. everyone severely fatigued, managed to take a picture with Ayesha who also instructs Body Combat & Zumba at Cali...Esther and Zuri! Too bad we didn't get a group shot for the whole group of level 2 participants but everything was memorable nonetheless. Thank you everyone! It was such a pleasure training with you and it was indeed filled with a little blood, a hell of alot of sweat and tears.

Seriously.. some parts were damn bloody painful... *flicks tears aside & continues a body cramping cumbia hip rotation while being pressed down on the shoulders* "I don't care! I can do it! I can do iiiiit!!" *grits teeth*

So thats it for now! *Cheers*... Yes... I am officially a licensed ZUMBA instructor... Olé! *Swishes arm ala Matador style* ZUMBA!!!

Poh Piah!

We made Poh Piah on Sunday! Preparation was easy.. just remember to gather all your ingredients!

Whats in it...

Fresh Poh Piah Skin *Ordered from the wet market - SGD$16 per kg* The lady who sells beansprouts orders it over the phone and it gets delivered fresh 1 hour later! Who knew it was so easy to get them..

Filling - 1 large Shredded Turnip & 1 piece Carrot.
Shredded into a pot, stirred occassionally with low heat till vegetables are soft. Season to taste.

1 bottle and poured as necessary Bhuddha Sweet Sauce (for Poh piah)
1 bowl Chili Sauce

1 head Small lettuce leaves
3 Chopped Boiled Eggs
$.50 cents Cooked Bean Sprouts
1/2 kg Cooked Chopped Prawns
1 pack Cooked Chopped Seafood Crab Stick
1 large piece Chopped Fishcake

1 bowl of the following dry toppings:
Ground Peanut
Hae Bee Hiam
Crispy Bits *Can be purchased with the poh piah skin* Looks like just fried flour bits.
Instead of fresh garlic, we used deep fried garlic bits.
Fried Onions

FYI - 1/2kg of Poh Piah skin is sufficient for a family of 5 with everyone eating around 4-5 rolls each..

Fill your poh piah skin with all the above... roll up as desired and voila!! A lil' bit of heaven in a wrap... *drools*

DanzaFit

With Immediate Effect for those who know and attend my existing ZumFit dance cardio classes, please note that my classes are now called DanzaFit from henceforth.

Please note the above ladies and gentlemen! :) Its time to... Danza.... (spanish for Dance). Adios!

Important: Please note that DanzaFit is NOT ZUMBA. Please note this. I believe that some people have been confusing it as it is also a freestyle latin mix dance class but as most of my students will know.. DanzaFit also sometimes incorporates a mixture of circuit training, resistance training, mixed dance routines and may sometimes be turned into a full Aerobic 101 class.

For those keen on ZUMBA classes in Singapore, please approach California Fitness for their classes.

We made Curry Puffs!

My momma in law and I made curry puffs today. My sis in law brought over a recipe for the skins and we set out making them. I forgot to take down her recipe but this recipe I found below is pretty close to what we did so if you wanna try, this should be just about it.

For water dough
200g plain flour
100ml water + 1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs margarine

For oil dough
100g plain flour
75g margarine

For filling
220g cubed pototoes
100 g diced onions
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon fried chili paste
Salt, Sugar, Light Soy sauce, Pepper to taste.

5 eggs, boiled and sliced into 8 slices.

We made 2 separate bowls for each dough and separated them into equal sized balls. We then boiled the potatoes, peeled and diced them. I fried the potatoes with all the dried spices in a little oil and left the mixture to cool.

We boiled the eggs and sliced them into 8 pcs per egg. When the potatoes were cool, we rolled out the dough balls onto sheets of plastic so it was easier to pick up and peel off instead of sticking to the table.

Rolled out the water dough first, then oil dough into circles. Put the somewhat circular flat oil dough layer ON TOP of the water dough, used an average sized rice bowl and used it as a mold cutter for a round shape. Why do you need 2 different doughs you might ask..well what we could observe was that the oil dough kept the filling moist and chewy inside and the water dough was what made the puff crispy....

If you have a big round cookie cutter, it would work too. Fill the dough combo with a teaspoon of potato mixture and add a slice of egg, fold over the dough in half and pinch together to seal.

Wrap the "prepared puff" with the plastic wrap and use a fork and press down on top of the plastic to seal the openings on the dough inside it to give it a patterned crust. Unwrap the plastic and set aside and continue.

If necessary to label the puffs, you can use red food colouring and mark it. When done, deep fry till golden brown & VOILA!! Curry Puffs!! *Yums!!* Good Luck! Oh and no.. this is hardly carb friendly for those running a low carb regime.. its all flour and potatoes.. :) But Oh hey.. it was gooood... :)

Guess Whos Back!!!!

Its Rashidah! My friend, inspiration and my dance instructor.. it was she who brought me into the world of Zumba.. made me love it and gave me the inspiration to make it a big part of my life.. over the years I've known her.. I went from participant - trainee - instructor with alot of influence in my classes still coming from her.. her choreography is first class.

I was miserable when she left.. devastated more like it... HERE. She then left Singapore... went to the US to work/study etc for over a year and well.. now..SHE'S BACK!! Taking up classes again locally. Not at California Fitness but at other locations.... I went over to one of her cardio groove classes the other week when she re-started her instructing stints and was extremely happy to have her in action again...

For those who know her, you can catch up with her at her blog. Welcome Home Rashidah... we've missed you...