I'm melting, meeeellllllltiiing (oh what a world)!

I had another performance yesterday. To be honest, I really don't think it went terribly well.

It was hideously hot outside, and hotter still on stage under all those lights (the theatre wasn't air conditioned, and there was just one fan pointing at the audience). We got the big dressing room with a fan, so it wasn't too bad while we waited, but it was still too hot for comfort. In an effort to save sweat marks on our skirts, we ended up sticking to the plastic chairs!! Endless water was consumed while we waited, and of course bottles spilled on skirts and veils and pants...

By the time it was our turn on stage, (we were the guest dancers for another dance school) we were roasting under layers of shiny, and I felt dizzy. I stuffed up just about everything I could stuff up: I didn't smile; I found myself lookng down, not out at the audience; I was out of time... It was hard to be poised and pretty and co-ordinated when feeling dessicated, and by the time we got off stage again, it felt like most of my makeup had melted off... and I didn't use that much!

I blame the heat for the lacklustre performance. If I'm lucky I'll have blinded everyone with the sequins on my bra, and nobody will have noticed how badly I danced!

Dancing debut

So I had my official bellydancing debut last night. And after last minute panics over costumes, accessories, makeup, bloodnoses, and so on, I thought it went really well.

We were the guest performers for a dance school (so maybe not quite so fun for the audience with all those little kids everywhere) and the stage manager/dance teacher they had was an absolute harridan. We were scared of her! We performed to Shakira in the first half, did a Tribal routine in the second and a shemozzle of a finale at the very end.

Backstage before Shakira, I must've looked petrified, because the other girls kept telling me it was all right, and I'd do fine etc. And I did! (*squee*) I saw Nat and mum in the second row, so grinned like a maniac, managed to get through the piece without watching the teacher, and it was over SO fast! I dropped my skirt in a few places, but accidents happen, and apparently it wasn't too noticeable. With the Tribal, we did the candle piece from Halloween first (with flashy lights, not flames), and because we had to get rid of them backstage and come on for a certain cue, we missed our timing a little, but that was the only mistake I was conscious of Charissa and I making. Others muffed different bits, but I was really happy with the Tribal one. The finale, which they sprung on us on Monday night, was an utter mess. No-one knew the choreo except the person who decided it (said scary dance teacher).

Unfortunately the organisers went off at people trying to take photos ("out of respect for the dancers" - bah, I wanted my photo taken!), so I don't know if our groupies got any shots or video at all, but we'll be getting a DVD of it next week hopefully.

It's going to be weird going to class on Monday without bags of costume!

Je suis un danseur

So. My first performance, my debut as a rakassah, a belly dancer, was on Halloween

It went.... interestingly. They left the huge spotlights on, so he whole effect of the candles was diminished, they stuffed up our music, we got ourselves out of order... I'm not terribly happy with how the photos turned out - I look petrified and watching the girl beside me out of the corner of my eye. I don't think it went as badly as I'm making it sound, though - just my usual pickiness.

My next performance is coming up at the end of next week.

I've spent the weekend making, fixing, adjusting costume pieces. Rest assured I'll never find a career as a sweatshop outworker. Skirts, harem pants, tops, belts, hair thingys, they're all slowly coming together, and what I can't make I've either bought or grovelled for people to make for me.

Now I just need to practice.

(And speaking of grovelling, it seems grovelling, glowing customer testimonials are enouh to win you stuff! Hurrah for random raffle draws!)

Wow - one more rehearsal-thing and then I'm performing. Eep. (Saturday 28th, Seaford Community Centre, $15 per head, BYO supper and snackables)

Actually, Saturday's performance shouldn't be that bad. Waving a bunch of candles around for three minutes is fairly harmless, innit? As long as I don't burn the hair/costume of the girl in front of me.

Mind you, I'm still waiting for my costume pieces to arrive. Damn ebay, why is it taking so long?! I want/need to wear black, and none of my skirts are at all suitable for the occasion. My super-spiffy corset belt is still unfinished as I don't have the strength in my hands to punch holes through so many layers (Naaaaaaat!!!). I haven't coloured my hair yet and at this rate, am tempted to forego it and wear the rat instead, as long as it matches....

And in 3 weeks or so, I'll be performing 2 pieces at the end of year party. I THINK I'm going to be OK with it - there's only one part in each dance I'm not sure about, but should be OK on the night. What can go wrong?

Another year older... still feel young and stupid.

The actual day was low-key, but we went out to dinner to celebrate, at a lovely place called Heavenly Pancakes. Dodgy service; divine food. And the haul of loot was most excellent.

Today... today was the Ride to the Island. Because we'd arranged to meet people there for breakfast we parked our bikes deep in amongst the throngs, and ended up being in the lead group of about 150 or so riders (stop-start, with some prats weaving in and out and trying to knock others over) who made it to Phillip Island first. Consequently, we got a good parking spot. Long ride, considering the last time I was on the bike was probably 2 years ago at the same event. I took photos on a little "toy" camera, but the memory wiped itself when plugging itself into the computer. Grr. Next year, perhaps...

Oh, and I never did perform at Kismet. The stage was too small for more than 3 people, and I decided I was too unco this time round. But Halloween is coming............ .

Hoopy Frood

I bought myself a hula hoop yesterday. Just because.

I figure that it'll help with co-ordination, isolations and so on that I so desperately need to work on, and it'll be a fun form of exercise. If I can keep the wretched thing around my waist. (Like most un-co-ordinated people, I have issues with gravity: it wants to play with my hoop and won't share. )

So. A belly-dancing, hula-hooping, un-co-ordinated geekgirl. Life sure has got interesting lately.....

Hips Don't Lie

Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoing dancing, lately? :)

There's a performance coming up in September, which I'm almost 100% certain to be in, and I'm having fun.

I spent the weekend making a mock-up of the costume in a lightweight fabric - totally the wrong fabric for the pattern, I might add - which Nat's mum ended up fixing for me, and which I wore to practice tonight.

It flows well, hides bad footwork (eep) and spins and spins and spins and spins! Course, it's also incredibly heavy, and because it was unhemmed, I kept tripping over it. But it's all fun. :D

We've also been threatened to dance with candles at the end-of-the-year thang. Given that it's me, and co-ordination and flamey things aren't two things that I'm exactly reknowned for, expect *foomp*.

On the road again...

Well, we're back.

In case anybody has been wondering, we have, actually, been away for the weekend. Up to the little cottage in the mountains.

We got there Friday midday, after a leisurely drive throught the forests and hills. Mum was up there keeping the fire warm and the birds fed for us, but after lunch she went home and we had the place to ourselves.

It was lovely and relaxing. :)

We took heaps of photos, and began our traditional experimental cookery that night (coconut pudding with cream - theoretically; apple and cinnamon spiced wine - more successful), before settling down to watch movies. We did get briefly serenaded by the resident wombat back for another season (but as mum had boarded up lots of holes under the house, he was either trapped and trying to get out, or locked out).

We both slept like the dead Friday night.

Saturday it rained. And it rained. And it rained some more. We took advantage of being housebound by veging, reading and generally relaxing. I think we both needed it. Nat bought me a fondue set a couple of weeks ago, so we used Saturday night to experiment with it, too. :)

Today, Sunday, we'd planned to get up and leave the house early, as we had to drive halfway round the state to Bondigo to pick up a car. Of course, we slept in, and after packing, cleaning up, feeding the birds and breakfasting we finally got on the road after eleven. It was a long drive. From the cottage, to the car to home, I think it was a seven-hour trip, through windy country roads and highways; from rainforests to scrubby goldfields and beyond.

*phew* I'm exhausted. Next time we have to go across the state, we'll find somewhere closer to stay before the heinous trek home.

The kittycats were glad to see us home, though. :)

Do not Feed the Animals

We went to the zoo yesterday. I can't remember the last time I went. Of course we picked the coldest, rainiest day of the weekend to go, didn't we?

8 of us travelled in convoy to the place of the animals, where we loaded ourselves up with coats and cameras and backpacks full of food, all on top of sturdy walking shoes, then off we went!

We all took heaps of photos despite the rain and sensible animals hiding in warm burrows - I used up my entire memory card and battery long before the day was over!

It was a long, tiring, but good day.

And I slept in the car on the way home.


Piccies can be found here.

Bellydance extravaganza-fest!

I talked Charissa into seeing the bellydance extravaganza-fest with me (she was a bit ambivalent about the whole thing). I'm glad she came - I wouldn't have gone by myself. And I think she's glad she came, too.

When we got there, we were immediately mistaken for performers because we were dressed nicely (long skirts, tight black tops, etc as opposed to jeans). Would have been nice to get in for free.... but we fessed up.

There were a lot of good performers (and a lot of average ones who forgot choreography - we appeared of a similar skill level to some!!), a lot of different styles - tribal, caberet, bollywood, drum solos etc - so I learned a lot just from watching. Our "troupe" led by our teacher looked good in a slow medative tribal number with swords (plus they had shiny glow-stick things too).

We left a little early coz it'd been a long day, tomorrow will be longer with cooking and quizzing and we were tired. Would have been nice to stay til the end, but I wasn't driving.....

But just think; next year/next time that'll be us.

Fush n chups

We inherited some fish tonight.

Aparently they're evil dastardly killahs.

They killed Charissa's prized siamese fighting fish.

Murderers.

So despite, or perhaps because of, our track record with fish, we got a call this evening, asking, nay, begging to have a home for them.

We are now the proud owners of some orange stripey tropical fish. One is called Balthazar. I don't know which one.

Any bids for how long this lot will last?

Physio.

I fell yesterday. No idea how it happened - whether my knee gave way, whether I slipped, whether I rolled my ankle - but I fell. In Borders, of all places, I found myself scrabbling at bookshelves in an attempt to not bowl over the other people in the aisle. How embarassing.

Woke up this morning, knee feeling right as rain. A few tentative squats elicited absolutely no pain whatsoever - typical!

The physio poked and prodded and asked "Does this hurt?", and each time I answered "Not now, but yesterday..." And after all that, he came to the conclusion that my kneecap isn't in the right place. Should've take a left turn at Albequerque?

So it's been massaged and ultrasounded, it's taped AND strapped (in something that actually allows circulation, as opposed to my brace), I've been given some muscle-strengthening exercises to do which should help, and I go back on Wednesday.

And I can still do yoga and dancing, as long as I don't do exercises that'll aggravate it. *yay*

And then we wait.

*taps foot*

Gimpy.

Ugh. Just call me the walking wounded. This yearis shaping up to be my year for Things That Go Wrong.

I've done something heinous to my knee. It crunches, it grinds, it pops and it hurts. And it's only been happening for six weeks or so, while I've been thinking "I'll see if it gets better before going to the physio..." I mean it only hurts if I bend it or put weight on it, or.....

The physio appointment is this weekend.

I blame the stairs at work - they're everywhere, and climbing stairs is meant to be good for you, right. *crunch*pop*ouch* Not really. And it's getting worse.

Hopefully the physio will tell me to just strap it, take it easy (especially at dancing which I am loving), and do XYZ exercises and it'll get better on it's own. I don't want to contemplate a worse-than-that-scenario. And I certainly don't want to give up dancing just now - we're about to start wrangling multiple veils!

I'll hop.

Heh. Who's have thought I, the poster girl for uncoordination and sloth, would be worried a knee injury would stop me from exercising and dancing?

Shimmy, camel, shilly, wha..?

Belly Dancing Lesson Two wasn't as "bad" as last week's. We went through all the steps in the routine slowly and made sure we got them all right before putting them together. It was HARD working out which bit was meant to undulate while this foot was moving and that hip was circling (like a vulture?)! But we got it. And we're all as un-coordinated as each other, especially in such a small class and when we pass under the eye of the teacher. But we got it.

The Advanced girls came in again mid-way through, joining us in the veil routine. I was quite chuffed when one after another dropped out until there was only one left dancing with the teacher. Snobby looks be damned - they're not much better than us!!!

Hip scarves are on order, we're already talking about co-ordinating our outfits for the inevitable performance we're going to be talked into doing...

It's fun.

Shimmyshimmyshimmy

Just back from Bellydancing, Lesson One. Actually, it was Lesson Three/Four for the other beginners, because we enrolled late, but you get the idea.

There were seven of us in the class, and I didn't feel as unco-ordinated as I thought I would (that may be the cold/flu medication, though), starting out with a few basic steps as a warmup, then getting into a routine involving undulations and veils, in which both Charissa and I got thoroughly mixed up.

The Advanced class joined us halfway through, and (amidst snobby we're-better-dancers-than-you looks) we did an intensive workout involving all the standard steps. Shimmies, turns, hip circles, chest circles, chest shimmies, you name it. *whew* What a workout! (Although most likely I worked up an uber massive sweat because of this horrid bug)

I'm exhausted. It's much more of a workout than when I did bellydancing with Sal.

*floomp*

Shake that booty

Miss No-rhythm signed up with a dance class this week. Not just any dance class: Bellydancing.


It's at the local community centre, on a night when I'd usually be floomphed in front of the telly by myself, and I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun, as long as I can remember my left foot from my other left foot, right?

Shimmyshimmyshimmyshimmyshimmy!

Cabin fever. Cat sitting day 10

Woke this morning to the purs of three cats - Taury in bed; Rizz on our feet and Bobcat cuddled up to my face. Cecna, I think, was under the bed, but not 100% sure...

They're all having fun, although I think Bob and Cecil are going stir-crazy and batting on the glass windows as a result of not being allowed out properly. Sure, they have the run, but they want to play in the long grass, chase bugs in the sunshine and settle wherever they want. They all play together, though: Rizz and Cecil were both playing with a faux-mouse now and Bob and Taury have been sneaking up and pouncing on people, cats, anything.

And apparently they all like fennel.

Sharks and Eurovision - Catsitting day 7

We spent the day in the City, yesterday. There was a One-Day-Only book sale on, to which we make a pilgramage every time it's on. And we spent hours and a veritable fortune on books and CDs. From fantasy to chick-lit to non-fiction to the piece de resistance "This is Sweden Calling" : the indispensable guide to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Following on from spending a fortune, we wandered around the Melbourne Aquarium for a few hours. We'd planned ahead and taken our cameras with us, and took hundreds of shots. if there wasn't an Easter Holiday progran for the kiddies, we could have spent hours more there and taken hundreds more shots.

It was a good (albeit expensive) day out.

Kittycats are still surviving, AND playing together, so they're all settled in now. Of course, Cecil stops playing as soon as he realises he's being watched - mustn't lose that cool/aloof demeanour he's got going!! Bobcat comes for cuddles in the evenings, and Manic-Taury and Rizz poke them both at every opportunity. Rizz also plays "fetch" with her mousie. :D

It's all good. :)

Day 4 of Catsiting...

So far so good. Apart form a few hissy fits (Cecil and Taury, please raise your paws) and girly-paw-swats (Bob and Rizz...), the kitties have been pretty good. No escape attempts; no fights to mention; no.... nothing, really of note.

As well as jealous cuddles galore, Bob and the kittens touched noses and played chasey this morning, while Cecil (grudgingly) shared his plate with a kitten-who-thinks-he's-big-enough-for-grownup-food. Not with Rizz, though - he seems to have issues with girl-cats.

But all in all, it's all good. You can stop worrying now. :)

Cat Lady - Day Two

(see a pattern?)

So we survived the night. Wearily, listening to jingling and subdued growls from the black monster under the bed, but we survived the night.

I've given up trying to seperate them at mealtimes - as long as they eat something, it doesn't matter if the kitties eat the cats food and vice versa!!

They stayed settled most of the day, thankfully, although Cecil still hisses and huffs (behold he shall be know as The Huff), and Bob still tippy-toes around the kitties. Rizz just wants to play with them, I think (*poke*), and Taury isn't quite sure what to make of the whole dealie.

There was an Incident with the neighbours cats this afternoon - namely a fluffy black thing, a lovely orange one who looks like the Evil SheDevil and a siamese - who happened onto our property and right up to the back door, scaring poor Bobcat no end. Was the EvilSheDevil following him??? Luckily all is well, now, and after cuddles all is OK.

Cecil tried to chase a bird. Through the spare bedroom window. *THUD*. Very hard not to laugh.

They've just had dinner (Bob wanted to eat at the kitty plate), and seem to be accepting that the others aren't going anywhere in a hurry, so if they can tolerate being in the same building (not necessarily the same room) as each other, it might just work...

Cat Lady

Some interesting times ahead.

Four cats, one house, me in the middle.

Placid, mellow Cessna hissing and spitting at anything that moves, tough Bobcat slinking warily past two kittens, Taury hissing back whenever anyone has a go at his sister and little Rizz stalking cats twice her size... although whether to fight or play is anyone's guess.

With four cats in the house we may be relegated to sleeping on the couch.

IF they get along. Otherwise we may be found shredded by four full sets of claws and devoured because we forgot mealtime.


Update: night one.

Afternoon went well - all cats slept. Slight altercation (evil eye/slink off) as Bob and Rizz tried to claim ownership of me.
Mealtime came and went, but Bob and Cecil too edgy to eat. Food gladwrapped to save from Rizz and Taury.
Currently three cats in the run; Taury's whereabouts unknown. (Rizz blocking the other two from entering).

Tonight will be interesting....

My Muse is a Gecko.

I have another lot of silver on order.

I've been sketching furiously the designs that are sitting in my head, trying to get them to look just right. I know what I want, I can see the finished product, but ... here's the part when I remind the world just how bad my drawing skills are.

But I don't care. I'm having fun. I'll make a few prototypes in clay before I get stuck into (waste?) the silver, perhaps working with a larger scale model and shrinking it down, fine-tuning it as I go. I know I can do it, and I should be able to get it to look how my mind's eye sees it.

I haven't felt this creative in a while. Let's not jinx it.

Kinky Boots

Went to the movies with Charissa last night. We saw Kinky Boots.

Inspired by the true story of a man's fight to save a family business, Kinky Boots stars Australia's Joel Edgerton as the Oxford Brogue-shod Charlie Price stepping up to take the helm of the generations-old family shoe factory after his dad snuffs it.

When he realises there is no market for the thousands of shoes in the Northampton storeroom, and he's threatened with having to sell the place, he pounds the pavement back in London to find a buyer, and there he meets his angel in six-inch stilletoes: Lola the drag queen cabaret singer.

Lola's footwear becomes a source of inspiration, and soon she is installed at the shoe factory as the designer of not just boots, but "three feet of tubular sex" in time for the Milan shoe show.

A heartwarmingly, touchingly funny film in the style of Billy Elliot, touching on issues such as prejudice, tradition, duty, and materialism, filled with fabulous footwear and real, likeable characters.

A fun film. :)

Creative genius

The other week I went with Charissa to a jewellery-supply shop and I found silver clay, which I'd been hunting for for quite some time. Yesterday I ventured to open it. Now, I've never been particularly good at making things out of clay, but I think I've made a fairly creditable pendant out of the silver.

Click for bigger pic

The cat tags I tried to make didn't go as well, with one of them half melting away when we fired them, but you live and learn, right?

Click for bigger pic

But it's all pure silver. 99.9 (more pure than Sterling).
It's kinda fun to watch it all bubble away under the blowtorch.

A few little accidents...

We had visitors for a little while tonight; B and J and their two dogs. We're introducing the kitties to the dogs in small doses - Christmas, every now and again, and they're totally not fazed by the whole ordeal.

The dogs on the other hand... From day one they've been bailed up by the two balls of fluff, scared and shedding and at the mercy of two cute widdle kittycats.

Heh.

Tonight Taury-cat accidentally got a little too close to Haylee-dog. Teeth, yelps, gone.

Like I said, the cats are pretty mellow in their dog-reaction. The dogs are not. Hayleedog snarled and pushed the cat away; Veefadog yelped and climbed onto my knee for safety. The cats scarpered at the noise; Haylee-dog was scared enough to leave a couple of little accidents on the lino. And the bed.

So we go to find where the animals are, to make sure everyone's OK, and I slip in a puddle and go splat. Of course.

Skulking dogs, wounded pride, and a load of washing. And finally impetus to mop the floors...

It's never really dull here...

I should update this more often...

... but the likelihood of that is slim-to-none. Not much happens in this neck of the woods.

Friday night, Sneaky-McSneak had plans that turned out to be of the dinner-and-a-movie type. A proper date type dinner-and-movie. A table at a lovely restaurant; a long, leisurely meal; a total chick-flick movie.

He wouldn't let me pay for anything (not even drinks) and didn't tell me what we were seeing until the opening credits. (It was Memoirs of a Geisha - brilliant film, but not one I'd have thought he'd have ever volunteered to see!!)

It was lovely.

I like surprises like that.

==

Sunday was a bit odd - I hooked up a headset to the computer and chatted (verbally, not typing to a faceless Internet Entity) to a couple of Internet friends from Canada.

It was both strange and cool to put voices to the faces and the comments that I've been reading for so long. Neither sounded anything like what I thought they would and I expected it to take longer to get into the rhythm of the speech and the accents than it actually did. One of them told me that MY accent shocked her, because she'd assumed I was local to her, too.

Nothing like making the world smaller, eh?

==

Kitten wise, the little balls of fluff are becomeing sleek, affectionate little beasties. Taury (aka "Stretch") is nearly tall enough to reach the bench without jumping; Rizz has a habit of waking one up at 6am, alarm or no alarm, with raspy licks to the nose.

They've been trained to sit and come when they're called, but fortunatrely nat's no having much luck with "attack". They're dangerous enough as it is! You never know when you'll come between a cat and their toys!

==

Work-wise, I've moved to an office with windows that open. I have plants and plan to lure birds to my windowsill. :)