There is nothing fancy about it like NY Health and Racket Club but it do serves its purpose - to keep me fit and not be a michelin boy!
I walked in around 8am and to my surprise, there were a lot of people busy being healthy. Some are in dire need of a liposuction and the others, errmmm whatever. The 2 receptionists greeted me well and their faces were beaming knowing that I am the new sucker guy who just became a member where they can squeeze out money from each month.
Let me tell you about the facilities and let's start with parking lot. Okay, its just directly in front of the gym. No need to walk that very far and the cars are fairly safe. I've seen a couple of Porches and loads of BMWs, so what do that tell you? Moneyed and prissy gay guys! so that's a big CHECK! Next, the equipments, now this is a little bit different from what I am used to back in my old and haute couture gym. I tried using one of their machines and stood there for a good 2 minutes doing nothing. I felt like the people around me where watching what this duffus is doing or SHOULD be doing on the machine. So I called one of the staff (Tiffany what a name!~ all of a sudden it reminded me of Britney Spears or Debbie Gibson. Heck! I told myself, Dorothy... we are not UPTOWN anymore. Hahahhahahha There, Tiffany helped me out and told me that I need to actually STEP and MOVE so the equipment will start to turn on. In my head? what? its not completely PUSH BUTTON?! I panicked a bit after hearing that came out of her mouth. Then again, she was nice and I just have to shut up and vent out later after my workout. 15 minutes doing machine cardio, DONE and OVER. I moved to the free weights area. Okay, again, for the Nth time. The machines are quite "manual" compared to my old gym. The paint color for their hardware is purple! Cheesy for my taste really and its not well cushioned. Again, I'm here for a workout and not be pampered in a SPA (Banyan Tree or Ritz Carlton style). Did my routine for an hour and got to observe the other members who are working out. Not really bad actually, they look decent and friendly too. A couple of latino boys smiled at me while im doing my Arnold press exercise. I caught them looking into the mirror, so I smiled back. The other - more "yummy" guy and not to mention wearing a little bit too tight trainers that shows a little bit too much of his "package" under normal wear circumstance kept on smiling. I prolonged my smile and nod. After that, I left the area and did my stretching. Okay, for the first time, I did stretched without the aid of a machine. The gym have this half of a cage type machine where you hang your leg on a rail and do stretches. I even caught the name of the machines as Ultimate Stretch. Like what the hell is ultimate in that where you do not know exactly how to use it. My verdict: ultimate piece of crap collecting a lot of space. Nuff said.
Then the lockers... okay, this is quite shocking for me when I checked in earlier to put away my stuff. In my old gym, the locks were all automatic and you use your membership card to lock it. This one, you have to provide your own PADLOCK and the locker door is made out of metal mesh, you can actually see the contents inside! This reminded me of Catalina Videos - lockers without the steamy scenes! Hahahhahaha To be very honest, this is quite a horror for me because after checking out the locks that the other members were using, It's as big as the ones they use in an armored vehicle! Master, Yale, The Club - all the major brands were present and lined up to protect the members' belongings. To be honest, this is the part where in I am most concerned about - there could be possible breaking in and stealing, you know. So I took out my teeny tiny palladium lock from my LV bag and used it instead to lock my gym locker. HAH! if the thief knows his stuff. My locker will be the first one to get ransacked. Goodbye worldly possessions! Goodbye!
Now for the Pièce de résistance!
The shower -
Okay, there are no solid doors to cover you but a flimsy no non-sense plastic shower curtain that was cut a little less than the shower frame its supposed to cover. Not that I am a prude and ashamed of my body if somebody sees me naked. It's just that I am not used to being seen washing and soaping my private parts where people can actually have a peek. It will feel weird. The standard issue body wash was left untouched. I didn't bother smelling it. I brought mine.
SO there. That was my first day gym experience. I will be back this Monday and see how it goes, again....
