A body like Usher's

No I do not have a crush on Usher.

I HAVE always wished though that I had the kind of body he has! Not the fat one I have now... well... at least not fat but i could do without the beer gut I have now :)

Anyway I joined a gym the other day and its a really fancy place (as well it should be as Fonterra is picking up half the bill) and i got a complimentary session with a personal trainer who took my blood pressure, measured the fat content of my entire body and set long and short term goals.

Short term goals were pretty straight forward. Get off your ass and increase your metabolism. And when he asked me what my long term goals were... well I told him i wanted a body like Usher Raymond!

He seemed to find this very funny and he started introducing me to everyone as Usher! I didnt know if i should be offended or...

Anyway I am going to show him up and work at it until I get a six-pack!!! And "work" is the right term too! Boy, is it a lot of work to look like Usher or what? It encompasses everything! Lifestyle, nutrition, diet hanging around positive people... the works!

Now after 2 hardcore sessions, I cant lift my arms! And i keep staggering in the middle of the road as my thighs are so sore! Jose (the personal trainer) assures me its normal and its only my muscles tearing. Thats how you build muscle by the way... you tear them and they heal and become bigger. Jose smugly tells me if i get through the next 6 weeks without running away (or dying) maybe he will put me on Usher's kind of training regime in 6 months!

What a git!

So I am looking for a poster of Usher Raymond to put on my bedroom wall to motivate me (and I have asked Jose if i could have HIS picture so i can throw darts at it every morning before i do my crunches!)

So lets see if I will be able to put a half naked picture of myself on my blog in...(Boo Hoo!) 6-9 months!

//eL

Who Are Those Responsible for Where You Are?

I got an email from Amit the other day and he was telling about the pre-meeting they had with the Chair of International Congress 2006.

He asked them a very intriguing question, "Who are the people responsible for your being here today?" 'Here' being current position and stage in life. It got me thinking...

...and then on Erica Cleofe's blog, she had posts about certain individuals and had all these quirky ancedotes and stories to tell each person's tale.

A lot of blogs these days seem to rant on about the individual in question. But combine the question i got from Amit... and Erica's posts, i think i am on to something here. I have started going through my picture gallery, sitting down in reflection and trying to decide who are those individuals who have made me who I am today? And not neccesarily those who have made me grow as a person but those who have touched my life with their particular brand of magic in the last... 3-5 years?

So I will copy Erica's idea... reflect on Amit's question and try to profile some individuals who have had an impact on my life... and maybe not so much impact but touched me in some other ways!

This is pretty exciting!

By the way... the picture above is the tray of Tequila shots we ordered on Mialy's birthday! 26 in total for 11 people. Supposedly. 4 of us ended up doing the honors. And the scary thing was that after 7 shots of Tequila, i didnt feel a thing!
Dont ask me what this has to do with the subject matter. I am just glad I could upload one damn picture!!! Achtung! I need a computer of my own!!!

An AIESECer in Fonterra

Its Friday and i am feeling all right!

I dont feel like going out tonight. Think I will just curl up in bed and read a good book tonite. But just thought I should share some major highlights of the past couple of weeks!

MIALY BIRTHDAY!
For those of you who dont know, Mialy is my flatmate from Madagascar and she turned 25 on August 26.
Woke her up with breakfast and had a surprise party/dinner for her in a restaurant and then the major highlight of the evening... went to a Korean Kareoke club and sang and danced our hearts out! What a trip!

AIESECer in Fonterra
I started running with some colleagues during our lunchbreak at work and had just got back from one of such runs. A bit sweaty and feeling sticky, I had a T-shirt on that had "AIESEC" emblazoned on the front. I got into the elevator to go down to the showers below the building when this petite looking woman in the lift with me exclaimed, 'Oh AIESEC! I used to be in AIESEC'
I made the right noises and politely excused myself when it got to my stop and thought no more of it. I was scheduled to attend a presentation by the Fonterra Global Account Manager for Nestle (Nestle is the biggest customer Fonterra has) later in the day however and yep... you guessed it! The petite looking woman turned out to be giving the presentation.
As it turned out, she was on the MC in New Zealand some 10 years, is based in Amsterdam, gave AIESEC the original contact that has led to Fonterra taking 8 trainees and boy was she excited to hear that! She insisted she wanted to meet up with all the trainees on her next visit to Auckland.

SKY TELEVISION ON
Yes my flatmates and I finally suscribed to cable TV and now I can watch Premiersip games LIVE! Although... they come up early on Sunday mornings. But hey who cares?!!!

Picture is of Auckland at night. I have a much nicer one but damn computer wont let me upload it.

Nico, hope you are kicking ass in Inbev! How do you say 'I think you are beautiful' in Romanian.

And oh by the way. I miss you too Yatwan.