Fitness First Kings Cross - The Greatest Gym on Earth

Woah woah woah. Now before y'all go shouting at me about Fitness First (because I know you're about to start) I want to tell you a little bit about my experience.

I started my ahem... "relationship with fitness" at Fitness First in Neutral Bay (in the aforementioned step classes) and quickly moved onto St Leonards where I did aerobics with the now-famous Shannon Ponton (Biggest Loser). He was a bloody hottie and all the Mums at the 10:30 aerobics class would be swooning and pulling sex faces at him... my mother and I included. Tip: His happy visage now appears on 99c water bottles you can buy at Priceline. That's a bloody hydrating bargain.

I moved through the Sydney Fitness Firsts of Dee Why, North Sydney and Darlinghurst to settle on what has to be the best, Fitness First of all time. The BEST, Fitness First of all time (cheers Kanye). Fitness First Kings Cross is a dance party. On a Saturday morning you can find an aerobics crew fresh from ARQ ready to get busy. There's clapping and whooping and dancing... The excitement in the room is palpable and the communal energy of everyone drives you to perform harder and harder... I defy anyone to try a Saturday morning Body Attack class and not have the time of their life. And when you're done with the aerobics head upstairs to drool at the masses of beautiful men pumping iron. Kings Cross Fitness First is the place to be, and be seen. Two words:

FABULOUS

DARLING

DANCE

I don't know why in my 32nd year of life the urge to dance has suddenly reared it's interpretive head.

As a child my well meaning father pulled some strings to get me into Brent Street Australia's Leading Performing Arts School ("the way to the top") and I remember two things:

• being terrified 
• being asked to leave or join the babies class

Fucking snobs! I was just some kid who'd never danced before save ballet in kindy which I only did for the piece of chocolate we got after the lesson. In fact, my whole performing career has been a bit of a fail, I sung at the Annandale with an ex-band of mine and we all thought it went great. Until some idiot decided to film the gig... Once my band members heard my caterwauling from the audience's perspective they promptly asked me to leave too. Arty snobs are the worst snobs.

I digress. Fast forward to 1998 and a friend of mine asked me to join her for a Step class at Fitness First. I was terrified and uncoordinated but I kept at it. I moved onto aerobics which I believe can teach ANYONE to dance. It's simple moves, it's repetitive and you can see yourself in the mirror so you know if you look like a dick or not. In fact, my 14 odd years of aerobics training finally led me to a dance class, which I comparatively smashed compared to my abysmal earlier efforts.

So now I'm looking to go pro. I want to do one dance class a week and be able to hit the club without clearing the D-Floor. If aerobics took me 14 years to master I'll give myself 20 for dance. See you in da club circa 2313 x

Romancing The Pole

So after an alcohol orientated Australia Day I was knackered enough to watch a free program on my SBS iPad App on the Miss Pole Dance Australia competition.

Firstly, I didn't know there was a Miss Pole Dance Australia and secondly it was kind of sad in a few ways. The winners father had passed away some years back but she spoke about his complete support for her and her pole dancing, and her sorrow that he couldn't be there to watch - whilst another competitor bought a ticket for her (alive) father to come and watch but he didn't... He blamed the breakup of the family unit on his estranged wifes determination to 'be happy', and saw his daughters dancing as a one way ticket to happiness abandonment. Ironic. Love your children people!

So if you or me would like to give pole lessons a try check out Bobbi's Pole Studio - it was the focus of this documentary and they have 3 locations in Sydney. This image is of Felix Cane, a truly talented kiddo who has won the competition so many times she's retired.