At Level Up Fitness, we have a suggestion box.
To me, it functions a bit like a blog comment box. Except it’s all in real-life.
From time to time, I’d open it up to see what my blog readers customers have to say. Also to find out how I can improve my place.
Just the other day, I stumbled across this gem.
Not something within my control, but I certainly appreciate his honesty. š
So my one-on-one interview with the Black Eyed Peas…
…didnāt actually end up happening. š
My agent told me at the very last minute that they were not gonna do any one-on-one interviews due to their time constraints. It meant all that planning, thinking and plotting for what could have been the biggest interview I was ever gonna do all ended up in smokes. Obviously I was very upset.
However, I did turn up to the media conference to meet The Black Eyed Peas.
The reason why the Black Eyed Peas was here was because it was Arthurās Day. The 25th September marks the 250th anniversary since Arthur Guinness signed the lease on St Jamesās Gate in year 1759, marking the birth of what is now, the worldās most popular stout beer.
A momentous occasion like this deserves a momentous celebration. A series of parties hosted by celebrities was held at five major cities around the world. Here in Malaysia, KL was chosen the only city in Asia to host this worldwide celebration by Guinness.
The only difference is, while other cities got some not-so-famous names to host their parties, we got the band that everybody wanted ā The Black Eyed Peas!
As a result, everybody wanted to go Arthurās Day.
Naturally some people thought I would be able to pull some strings and get them free passes to the event.
Why me? I donāt know. I mean, seriously, who do they think I am?
Arthur Guinness?
Ya. right.
Those of us among the thousands who were there that night at Sunway Lagoon definitely remember what a kickass night Arthurās Day was. And not just because itās the first time we saw the surf beach so tightly packed with over 18,000 human bodies.
It was so packed that even those with mosh pit tickets were unable to get in to the mosh pit area. But no one was complaining. Everyone was there to celebrate Arthurās Day. Every time the emcees shouted āTo Arthur!ā, the 18,000-strong crowd all responded in unison.
Lucky for me, I got access to the VIP zone where not only did I manage to watch the show from a comfortable distance, it was Guinness free-flowing all night long.
That made Tey Cindy very very happy.
If itās true that heaven exists, my guess is that it must be at the Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach inside the Arthurās Day VIP tent.
The entire experience at the event itself was too damn awesome for words. Even the journey from the entrance of Sunway Lagoon to the Surf Beach was filled wth remarkable experiences.
We passed through a History Tunnel showcasing the life of Arthur Guinness, and even managed to get behind the bar and pour our own perfect pint.
But once weāre there, the party atmosphere was electric.
Everyone was in high spirits, sticking their hands up in the air and cheering non-stop. From the moment those inflatable robots popped up on stage, we were going crazy right up to the point Fergie, will.i.am, Taboo and Apl all appeared on stage to their hit song Letās Get It Started.
We were all so hyped up. Each and every song they performed, we were dancing, yelling and jumping energetically.
The Black Eyed Peas performed most of the songs for their latest album and some of their classic hits from the past. A Boom Boom Pow, an Imma Be and a Meet Me Halfway later, we were treated to something we have never witnessed before – an amazing showcase by will.i.am on the DJ decks.
It was then that we realised how much of a musical genius will.i.am is. He was just magic on the decks!
The crowd was already hot on fire, but with will.i.amās seamless blending of beats, freestyle rapping and impromptu track mixing, he managed to get every fibre on the ground rocking to his beats.
will.i.am rocks as a singer. But as a DJ ā damn, he was GOD.
Just as we were beginning to feel exhausted from all that jumping and dancing, the Black Eyed Peas ended their performance with I Gotta Feeling – officially my favourite BEP song of all time. Immediately the whole entire 18,000+ bodies starting bopping up and down again in near unison.
And then, just as we were about to leave the place, suddenly the skies above exploded into a spectacular display of fireworks!
It went on and on and on for what must be like 15 minutes of pyrotechnics that left our jaws dropped in awe.
Just before we left the venue,
I raised my beer up into the sky and shouted out one last time – āTo Arthur!ā
I had fun. And it was indeed, a good, good night.
Arthurās Day was truly awesome. But one thing I must admit – that celebration at Sunway Lagoon was not actually the highlight for me.
My highlight happened earlier in the day, at the press conference at Hilton KL.
After a series of serious questions by serious journalists asking them about serious stuff, suddenly a light bulb plopped over my head and I decided to do something completely out of the ordinary to lighten up the mood.
Letās just say, they were very, very, very amused.
My highlight of Arthurās Day = getting all four of the Black Eyed Peas laughing till theyāre in stitches. š
Since I am already shamelessly neglecting my woefully abandoned blog, I might as well exploit it to the max by publicising some positions I am hiring in my new company.
BODYPUMP & BODYCOMBAT INSTRUCTOR
You hop onto stage, do some funny dance for 60 minutes and make sure 30+ other people in the studio do the EXACT same thing that you do.
Like swimming.
Since there are no licensed Les Mills BodyPump/BodyCombat instructor in Kuching, I am happy to hire anyone experienced from throughout Malaysia or Singapore. Whoever wanna go on a free trip to Kuching, e-mail me and Iāll sponsor your flights and stay.
Brazilian instructors who can attract rich tai-tai aunties are welcome to apply. Can do part-time work as gigolo also.
Ideally Iād want someone who can stay in Kuching for the long-term – at least 3 months lah, but Iām happy even if you can stay for a week or two.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATION EXECUTIVE
Since the day my fitness centre opens for business, I find myself juggling multiple balls at the same time.
Huge balls too.
In theory, my position in Level Up Fitness is āExecutive Directorā.
In practice, my position is āExecutive Director / IT Manager / Graphic Designer / Marketing Manager / Front Desk Receptionist / Juice Bar Tender / Cleanerā
In other words, ham pa lang pow ka leow.
This is an ad I designed myself to promote our BLT class. (Donāt ask how I know this exercise is supposed to guarantee a sexier body.)
I need a Marcomm Executive who can help me to copywrite and design artwork for the fitness centreās various marketing campaigns. Youāll be working very closely with me. Some publishing experience, proficiency in Photoshop and fluency in written English is a must.
Since the internet is a core part of my strategy, this is the only position in the company that I shall allow to blog or Facebook during working hours.
That doesnāt mean you can slack during working hours.
I already know about the āset Microsoft Excel as your desktop backgroundā tactic, so donāt even try that (ācos I used to use that tactic before myself).
FRONT DESK INTERN
During peak hours, the front desk is easily the busiest part of the fitness centre.
But itās also the most fun position of the company, because you get to see every member who walks in and out.
Over at my company, being a front desk receptionist is more than just being an attractive young girl in short skirts, greeting members as they walk in.
I am lucky to have hired really fantastic front desk staff with loads of experience. But I reckon thereās room for one more.
This is an intern position that would suit anyone wanting to gain experience in the hospitality industry. Youāll be trained by my manager, whoās worked in so many front desks around the world she could be re-born as a Japanese zhao chai mao.
Interested applicants may e-mail me directly at kennysia@levelupfitness.com
In another news, I dunno why I always accidentally type āBody Pump Instructorā as āBody Pimp Instructorā. š
Oh, Iām gonna take this opportunity also to thank tunehotels.com for sponsoring the rooms for my KL-based instructors to stay while in Kuching, and also to theweddingguide.com.my for sponsoring Stephanie Chai to emcee my Grand Opening ceremony.
No updates for a while because Iām still trying to breathe!
As the winner of the Best Entertainment Blog at Nuffnangās Asia-Pacific Blog Awards…
… itās a crime Iām not able to update this blog for so long.
Thanks for all the support you guys have given me. Imma get back to this blog as soon as the running of Level Up Fitness gets a level up. š
So this is what I have been working very hard on over the past several months.
Itās still not 100% completed, and Iām losing a lot of sleep over it because weāre supposed to open in exactly two weeks from now and there still seems like a lot to be done.
In any case, if you are in Kuching right now, then please head over to my roadshow at The Spring from today till this Sunday.
Iām also planning a special preview session for Kuching bloggers on Sunday next week, so if you wanna take a sneak peak of my place before it officially opens to the public, just drop me a mail at im@kennysia.com and Iāll add ya to my invite list.
Pardon the short blog entry.
One of these days, Iām gonna tell the story about how a comment from a blog reader eventually led me on a crusade to create from scratch – the largest fitness centre in Kuching city.
Meanwhile, I gotta hit the sack to catch 2 hours of nap before I turn up to my own roadshow a complete zombie.
Whoever it was that nominated me for the Asia-Pacific Blog Awards, thank you!
kennysia.com was accepted as one of the finalists for the prestigious awards to be held in two weeks time in Singapore.
With that, this blog now joins such luminaries as Budiey (MY), BeautifulNara (MY), CowboyCaleb (SG) and Girl With A Satchel (AU) in the running for Best Entertainment Blog; together with BeautifulNara (again), Down To Earth (AU), Jehzeel Laurente (PH) and Xiaxue (SG) for Most Influential Blog.
The casting of votes officially closed yesterday, so actually, it’s a bit too late to ask you to vote for kennysia.com. I didn’t mean to post this late deliberately. By right, this entry should have been up many weeks ago.
But it was not.
By right, I probably should also have been more pro-active in campaigning, as many other nominees had, hanging my face on the wall, going around pushing people to vote for me and stuff.
But I did not.
By right, I also should have titled this post “Krrunching My Away To Uniquely Singapore”, as a way to appease the two sponsors for the event, Pringles potato chips and the Singapore Tourism Board, without which this awards would never have happened.
But I shall not.
Was it because I don’t care about the awards? No, of course I do.
Anyone can smack together some HTML code and call it a “so-and-so” awards show. But it takes an agency like Nuffnang with 5 branches in 4 countries to be able to organize one that has some level of pedigree associated with it.
Was it because I do not want to win? Heck no, of course I would love to. Throughout my 5 years blogging, kennysia.com had never won any blog awards, except for one.
It was 5 years ago when Project Petaling Street was the de facto blogging community of Malaysia. kennysia.com won the Blog of the Year after some nomination and voting by peers. That was the only time PPS held an award before it was taken over by some religious nutcase.
My “trophy” was a T-shirt, which I never worn, but instead kept in my cupboard till this day.
So yes, I am over the top over being selected as a finalist. However, I did not campaign, nor did I do anything to appease the sponsors.
Instead I decided to do away with the glitz, the glamour and even the hint of commercialism that’s associated with the blog awards, so that I can write this entry, straight up from the heart.
And I want to say with all sincerity – thank you.
I know my nomination, in particular, for the Most Influential Blog was frowned upon by some other bloggers. Some figured since I have enjoyed my share of the limelight, the lesser-known blogs were not given a chance to shine.
The fact of the matter is – I never claim myself to be the “top blogger” nor the “most influential blogger” in Malaysia, let alone Asia Pacific.
The “top blogger” in Malaysia is ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir. The “most influential blogger” in Malaysia is perhaps ex-ISA detainee Raja Petra. Kenny Sia is nothing close to being as influential as those two.
Of course, those are controversial socio-political bloggers. In the category of personal or lifestyle blog, yeah, while I do enjoy some success both in terms of popularity and commercially, it does not mean that I do not help propell relatively unknown blogs into prominence.
That was one of the reasons I created “Short Talk”. That’s the small subsection of text you see above before my normal blog entry. The reason behind its creation is so that I can promote other bloggers in my “Blog Plug of the Day”, or charities in my “Karma Point Collection” or just link to anything I find interesting on the web.
For the sake of creating a healthy blogging community, I think it’s important that we keep linking to each other.
It’s important that bloggers with high traffic do their part in promoting good-quality lesser-known bloggers, even when they are not obligated to. Popular bloggers become popular only because they were supported by others in the blogging community back in their heydays. Now that they have enjoyed success, I reckon it is only right to give back to the community.
In any case, while the top-most influential blogger ain’t me, I’d like to think that at least I have played my part in promoting a healthy blogging community and a positive blogging culture within Malaysia.
As I spend less time on blogging and more time concentrating on running my new business, that’s the kinda impact I hope I had left in the Malaysian blogging community. š
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Because I’ve been too busy to blog a proper entry, I’m gonna leave you with two more of my episodes from Jojo Struys’s Project Alpha.
This episode, I shared with Jojo about the people that inspire me.
I spoke about my so-called love life (or rather, the lack thereof).
Everyone, meet Ericka.
They said the cameras put an extra 10 pounds on a person.
I think thatās a lie.
Why do I look like Iām 500 kg heavy on TV?!
Despite my heavy frame, I’d like to believe that I live a pretty healthy lifestyle.
Not saying that I’m a major health freak lah, but generally I watch my diet, don’t do drugs, never smoked a cigarette in my entire life and take part in sports regularly.
One crazy thing I do is that I wanna complete a 42km marathon every year in a different city. It started three years ago at the KL International Marathon.
Continued running the following year at the Penang Bridge Marathon.
Last year I competed in the Singapore International Marathon.
42km is no small distance. Whenever I tell people that’s the distance I run, the reaction I typically get is a loud “WHAT! FORTY-TWO KILOMETRES!?” and then followed by one of the following remarks.
a) “You crazy ah!?”
b) “Possible meh!?”
c) “Want to die, you know got easier way one right!?”
Running 42km continuously may sound like an impossible feat for a lotta people. But like many things in life, nothing is impossible if you’ve got the discipline. In this case, the discipline required is to train regularly for the 3 months leading up to the event. No slack.
I needed something to work towards so that I can be motivated into exercising regularly and staying healthy. Else, I’ll just be sitting on my lazy ass in front of the computer 16 hours a day.
The reason I do this is because I know it pays to stay healthy. Just like that PRUhealth ad, “rewards you for being healthy, covers you when you’re not”
The problem, however, is that it’s NOT always easy to stay healthy even if I wanna.
My next 42km marathon race is actually happening this coming Sunday. But thanks to illegal fire burning in Indonesia, this is what Kuching city looks like for the past 3 months.
Badly polluted and heavily enveloped in haze.
And if it’s not covered in haze, then it’s like this.
Raining like we’re living in Waterworld.
Because of those reasons, the amount of time I spent training for my marathon is ZERO. And how the hell am I supposed to run 42km with no training without dying? I have no idea.
So, it’s not that I don’t wanna stay healthy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.
The haze in Kuching was terrible. It was so bad…
…even the Kuching cat statue had to wear a mask. FML.
