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Seems like we just have our gathering, everything is still fresh in memory, but in fact, it has been a year since our last gathering for 2009, sigh...times fly huh.....

The same every year, we could never get a full attendance, some instructors did not turn up too this year due to other function they have, though, there was still a wonderful evening....

Every beginning of the year, l invite all Zero's staffs and instructors for an annual dinner, it is the time for all to meet and know each other, some instructors do not know others because their classes are in different schedule, l am happy to see when they meet together, we are people with passion in fitness and dance, we should know each other and work together, so far, l am proud to say, in Zero, all instructors are united and cooperative, we are really like a family.

Unlike last few years, we did not spend time for game this time, instead, we chat more and took pictures.

Albert is not in the pictures above because he was our camera man and the only guy in the dinner, ha, the sole precious one!

Sharene brought her baby Herlisher along, she is a cheeky and healthy baby, she made us laugh a lot, her look is 100% duplication of the mother.

There is another baby girl Qing Qing in the dinner, she is Yu Li's niece, a cutie cartoon look baby.

Eat Eat Eat, Chat Chat Chat, Laugh Laugh Laugh.....

Every year, l buy a cake for all, we made wishes after the dinner, hope everybody's wishes come true in 2010.

And we exchanged gift as an appreciation and blessings to each other.....

Thank you to all Zero's intructors for their passion in teaching and all Zero's staffs for their responsibility, wishing Zero a wonderful year in 2010!

Yes yes, l love flowers, l could not imagine the world without flowers, but l love to see the flowers on the trees more than in the vase....

There are many different types of flowers in Japan, how l admire Japanese......

    These are peach blossoms as stated in the garden, to me, they are more beautiful than sakura in closer shot, sakura is phenomena but the peach blossom is charming..... 

To me, flowers are the gift of God to the earth, they look soft but they are strong indeed, just like women, hey!

It has been almost a year since my trip to Japan last March, l have so many to share but no time.....l remember my Japan trip again when l started to meet summer sakura in Penang here.....

When sakura blossoms, the world is so beautiful, l could not tell you how beautiful is the scenery with sakura, it is just amazing, now l understand, why Japanese indulge in the beauty of sakura.....

  My friends Eric and Takeshi chatting under Sakura trees, we were queueing to enter an outdoor cafe beside a river bank with full of sakura trees....

I sincerely hope that Penangites appreciate our summer sakura like Japanese because the summer sakura is as beautiful as Japan's sakura, but our sakura trees are too far from each other, how nice if we also have sakura street and sakura garden huh? Sigh....l am dreaming.....

Please look at the right corner, you will see a column 'Sign up now', please click to enter and sign up to be our Zeroers, we will keep you updated of our sharing,latest promotion, events and news...

The new website is almost done, we are at the final stage of 'polishing', do let us know your comment about the new look of our website as well, and we also like to hear more from you about Zero, welcome all comments that could help us growing, thank you.....

What is Zeroers?

The Zeroers are friendly, they are nice to people and they appreciate every smiling face including their own smiling.....

The Zeroers are passionate people, they are always keen to help and happy to share.....

The Zeroers love exercise and dance, they know this is the best way to maintain a good life style.....

The Zeroers love nature, they are friends of environmental protection, they will do their best to help saving our environment....

The Zeroers are optimistic, they stay young forever!

Go Zeroers!

It is Zero's year this year, 2010, there are two zeros in this year, hence, l believe Zero is going to grow well this year, ha!

When l named the studio Zero five years ago, some of my friends worried for me, they commented that the name sound a little bit stupid, ha ha...but l think the name of Zero has become a trend nowadays, many people used it. I saw these big signboards in Tokyo last year:

 This is a Bistro & Pub.

  This is a mall.

     An exhibition of photography with the name Zero.

If you notice, the 'e' on our logo is upside down, l pronounce our studio's name as Z(J)ero, before l started learning Japanese, l did not know they pronounce zero the same way too, ha, what a coincidence, l thought l am the one who invented this pronunciation before l discovered this......

Did you meet the full moon on 1st January? The moon was very round and bright, a round moon synonymous zero, so once again l believe, Zero is going to shine up throughout the year.

Go Zero!

No matter it was good or bad, the time will not stay for anybody.....YES! It is the last day of 2009, l am happy that another year is coming!

I had bad time in year 2009, there were too many bad things happened to me, 2008 was not a good year for me too....but thank God, l had wonderful time on the second half year of 2009, hence l believe, my 2010 will be a GREAT one! Yes l believe!

One thing l appreciate myself is, l have grown a lot this year, l was not defeated by the bad things that happened to me, instead, l have grown...thank you to those who love and supporting me, also to people who hurt me, after all, they all help me to grow, but l pray hard to gain more love and less hurt in 2010!

Zero did not grow well in this year, but we did maintain well, thank you to all Zero's instrutors for their great effort and the passion to fitness and dance, thank you to Zero's staffs who always back up me so that l could conduct classes without too much worries, and thank you to all Zero's members and my lovely students, you guys have helped me to boost my enthusiasm to run Zero!

See you next year!

Our dear instructor of Shaperobics and Yogarobics - Min Yik, will be leaving to Singapore in January, we lost a good instructor again...

Min Yik is a very sweet and gracious woman, l was impressed with her smiling when l first met her. She is working as a lecturer in college for her full time job, some of her students are also Zero's members, they told me she is the prettiest lecturer in the college, and a real good teacher. Min Yik has a good family, l have met her mom and sis, they are all nice persons, l could see that, she was brought up and being educated well by her lovely family, she is so blessed.

And she has a lovely son Ian, who is a 'sweet heart' of all staffs in Zero, Ian always follow her mom to Zero, while Min Yik was conducting class, Ian hang around with us at counter, everybody loves this boy.......Ian will start his standard one in Singapore soon, l do believe that Ian will be a good boy forever as he has such a good parents.

Goodbye Min Yik, thank you for being a great instructor in Zero all these years, we wish you better life in future and hope you will remain your sweet smiling always....

Have you ever noticed, when a kid is in fear, he will keep breathing in rapidly, but he could hardly breath out?

I read this from an article, it shares of the importance of breathing. When we talk about breathing, we usually focus on inhale, sometimes, we breath out randomly without paying attention on it, in fact, it is very important to parctise to breath out!

When l practised yoga many years ago, one of the yoga masters told us when we breath in, we should think of to collect good energy from universe and deliver them to our body, when we breath out, imagine we are throwing away the toxin from our bodies. I really like this concept, l believe the philosophy of imagination, the so called 'mind control'. When we practise the breathing solely, l think it is important to make it slow, with deep inhale and long exhale. Another skill in breathing is to feel the expanding for inhale, and release for exhale.

In dance, l usually tell my students to breath naturally, unless the movement requires them to take deep breath, for instance when we practise slow camel in belly dancing, the breathing technique helps effectively. In workout class, l have to remind students to breath faster and frequently when we do high impact exercise, this is to obtain more oxygen for stamina and to help for fat burning. In fact when l go fast, l shouted 'breath out' more than breath in, as l realised to remember breathing out is an easier way for breathing, our body knows how to breath in automatically when it demands of oxygen, but it will forget to breath out sometimes. If you do weight lifting, you must breath out when you need energy to lift or push, and this is the same in practicing kung fu too. Breathing out can be poweful, yet a relief for mental training.

And there is an interesting step in belly dancing called 'flutter', it is actually a belly vibration which requests very fast and strong breath out to perform, it is interesting but, ha ha....really hard!

To me, breathing out means---let go! Don't you think human like to carry but forget to let go most of the times?

Oh talk about the article again, the writer reminds all parents to keep one's eyes open for their kids' breathing, do not frighten your kid, if the kid is always in fear and do not breath out properly, he will contract asthma!

Why worry? Breath it out la!

Yes, this is the day that always in my mind, when l am tired, when l feel bad, l remind myself of this day.

l was embraced by the mountains and green green paddy fields, the wind blew gently on my face, the sun shined warmly on my body and the drizzle nourished my hair.....The little pinky brought me from city to countryside, from noise to peace.....

I have promised myself, may be l will not go back to the same place again, but l will create more and more beautiful days like this in my life, to love the nature, to feel the nature and to enjoy the nature is so called 'life', what l am working hard for, is life.....

Most of my dance students are positive in learning, but few of them are very negative, l do not know why they want to perfom negatively to others, but l guess they might have some bad experience that have influenced them. To me, l would say l could understand my students' character from their moves and attitude in class, l think, it is not difficult for a teacher to discover this especially an experience teacher like me, ha!

And l am learning from them actually.....

A negative student will comment to me this way:

I cannot do it! Never!

It is so ugly!

I think l have no talent in dance at all!

I hate this!

It is so boring!

It is too tiring!

I look bad in this step!

They comment with a serious frown face usually, honestly l was affected last time, it is not easy to handle my mood when l am tiring teaching with heart for long hour and a student blaar her negative feeling to me....the worst part is, sometimes this negative student affects other students too, and the energy of whole class will go down immediately!

Do you know it is scary to face many frown faces at the same time?

I believe there are challenges in learning, no matter what you learn, it will not be easy, or else you do not have to spend money and time to learn from the experts, right? As an adult, l believe they know this. And l do believe they do not intend to react negatively too, but they are used to do this, if they react this way in class, l could imagine their attitude in work and relationship too.....see, they are always related.

I always tell the class, relaxation and concentration are the two important points in dance, if you do not know how to relax your body and mind, you cannot dance. If you do not concentrate on your body and mind, you cannot dance. Now l have to add this, if you behave negatively, you cannot dance too!

Dancing is a positive art, in ancient time, it was commonly used for celebration, will you tense or angry when you celebrate?

I know, most of the times, the student acts negatively because she is angry to herself as she could not cope with the new step, she is too much concerning of others' attention or my attention, the thing is, nobody is paying attention on her because everybody is busy on the step too, and as my situation, l knew it is difficult for them for the first time, and l also knew they could do it after few times, so l am not worry.

Some of my students have no talent in dance, but they are so positive, they told me: Oh l don't care Conny, l enjoy the dance and your class, l don't intend to be a professional dancer, l just want to enjoy danicng, l know l am not good, but l am happy to dance and looking forward to your class every week.....

My noble salute to these students, they are the one who own the dance spirit!

If you do not have the talent, don't ever think of to be a professional in this line because it is not your thing, you might not be able to go far as a career, but you could still enjoy this as a hobby, like how l enjoy playing my Gu Zheng. Why are you rushing to conquer the dance when you are not relying on this to survive? You have your own talent where you could handle and develope right? There is the place you may need pressure to grow, not here! Or may be you have some talents in dance, it is still not your professional, why stress?

And even this is my career, l prefer to enjoy the challenges in leraning, l have never commented negatively to any of my dancemates and my teachers. I think, this is a choice of our character, you have the right to choose! If you are willing to open your mind to be a positive person, you would gain improvement in whatever thing you do, that simple......