The Show!

Wow! What a night it was! We had rehearsals Monday and Tuesday night, and then were in the theatre all day on Wednesday in preparation for Wednesday night! My goodness, it was so much fun, never have I seen so many beautiful and talented girls in one place at one time!

Top model Alex Leigh hosted the show, (she is stunning by the way!) and then the dancing and singing extravaganza began... (all the while backstage we are all franticly changing costumes, removing lipstick smudges from our faces and keeping a smile intact the whole while) Miss Bettie Dean was sexy as ever, I was gutted that I missed Karina Grigorievas contortionist act, as everyone said she was amazing, I did get to see the fantastic Ailona Lukiyanovas hula hoop act, I would love to be able to do what she does! All the singers were wonderful, and I wholeheartedly loved being one of the "Miss Betties" So much fun, and from a budget of nothing but generosity, we raised £350 for Domestic Violence Victim Support. Next time we hope to raise even more (there will be a next time!)

Needless to say the next day I was absolutely exhausted!!! And ended up spending most of the day nearly asleep! In the evening I did go to another charity event organised my friend Sara for Sheffield Mind. A comedy night, which had me giggling rather a lot! I hope they raised a lot, as it's such a good cause.

The photo at the top is of a few of us after the show, hence the random bits of costume that we have left on, and unfortunately it's a little bit blurred (it was taken on an iphone!)

I would love all of you to watch a video that Jolene made and was played at the start of our show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPIZVEo3uxI

I just watched it again, and I think it says it all really. I'm so glad to have raised money for such a worthy charity.

Much Love

x x x

Graduation and Going Home

I've only been in Sheffield for 6 weeks but I had to make a trip back home because it was my sisters graduation!! I'm so very proud of her, she's been working as a fully fledged nurse already, but to see her being officially congratulated for all the hard work she has done was really lovely. :)

It was also really nice to have lunch with all of my family - mum, dad and sister! It's so rare that we are all able to get together all at the same time now.... we're not even sure we'll all be there for christmas dinner at the same time! haha!

Being home was really lovely, and I got to see my grandparents and my nanna.... and my nanna's cat (technically my cat but she's looking after her for me) Poppy! I'll put a picture of Poppy on here. (My camera lead arrived!! hurrah!) She's still tiny, I don't think she's going to grow much more, she's just a dinky little thing... who loves watching the birds on the bird table out the window!

I only got to see my best friend for a few hours while I was home, which was a bit sad as I miss her very very much, but at least I got to see her for a while :) I'm hoping she's going to come and visit me sometime soon... (hint, hint)

All in all I've had a busy, but lovely weekend home. Now this week, I'm really looking forward to, rehearsals tomorrow and Tuesday, then the show on Wednesday! I've got to work really hard in rehearsals as I missed the ones they were doing over the weekend. :(

I'm very excited though!!

Love x x

Climbing and Dancing

Heeellllooo!

I've been busy the past couple of days, climbing and dancing! :D This makes me very happy!

I went climbing at The Edge on Tuesday, luckily me and my climbing partner are at around about the same skill level so it works out pretty well, (well actually she's a bit better than me! haha!) but it was really cool to go and do some roping as I haven't done any for a long time, and I push myself that little bit more when I am roping than when I'm bouldering... falling off is less scary when you know someone is going to catch you! Sarah is so light too it feels like I'm belaying a feather! haha!

Then on Wednesday, I went off to Manchester to have a rehearsal with a girl I went to uni with. She is putting on a Charity Dance Show OFF! Which is basically a dance show with lots of upbeat dancing, burlesque (she's a burlesque dancer - Miss Bettie Dean!) hula girls, show girls.... it's going to be really fun. It's only in 2 weeks so I was at rehearsals yesterday and Wednesday, and I can't tell you how much fun it was to be back dancing and helping with the choreography! The feeling of being part of a creative process is really rewarding and I'm looking forward to more rehearsals on Sunday.

I also managed to get to my beginners (hahaha) Street dance class on wednesday evening at Hype dance. We had the normal teacher this week, she's really good at isolations and she started teaching us a hip hop routine... and the beginnings of how to wave (no not the type you do when you are greeting someone!) It has to be said.... I am SO not Street! hahahahaha, but it's really fun attempting the moves.... you'd all laugh so much if you saw me in class.

Much Love x x

(Still no sign of the lead for my camera I ordered in the post!)

Hallowe'en and Bengals

So spooky weekends were had by all I'm assuming!! My hallowe'en was rather subdued to say the least, no dressing up this year, no making pumpkins, well I sound like a right old party pooper don't I!! I was a little bit gutted that I wasn't going to be back home for hallowe'en with Laura, to watch Crayfish play.

However me and Sam weren't completely boring, we did go out on Saturday night to a tiny venue called Red Room and saw a couple of cool bands.

One called The Motherfolkers (haha - made me laugh anyways!) and they do a lot of covers

http://www.myspace.com/music/40670931/songs/69177486

and a band called Mantra Rhythms, who have a room in the building where Sams studio is, I'd put a link to their myspace but they have nothing on it yet (and the drummer said they've lost the password!! haha)

I also did manage to get back into the writing frame of mind on Saturday, which I am really pleased about, I finished the outline of a song that previously had 6 lines of lyrics and a couple of chords scribbled by it! Now, to drag Sam to his studio to get him to help me polish it off! :)

I'm very excited about the fact that I've ordered a new usb cable for my camera today too! Hooray! So I will actually have some pics to show you at some point soon.

ooooo I almost forgot I was at one of Sams friends houses (he lives in a really crazy building actually) and he had the most amazing cat I've ever seen - next time I'm there I will try and get a photo - he's called Monster and he's a Silver Bengal! He's beautiful and his fur was so soft he was super speedy when he's playing too!

love x x

Hype Dance

So I had managed to convince some of my new friends here to go to a dance class with me, and boy am I glad I did! We had SO much fun, we decided to go to a street dance class at a place called Hype dance (I will put a link for them at the bottom of the post) which is down a little alleyway and you probably wouldn't find it if you weren't specifically looking for it! Anyway there we were at beginners class, all 3 of us a bit nervous as none of us had done street dance before and Sara, bless her, at her first ever dance class!!! Then the teacher tells us she isn't taking her class this week but a guy from London will be and he trains with a guy who is one of the best in London at locking.... not to make us even more nervous!

Anyway, this guy was amazing, so much energy, so much fun, he had us doing loads of social dance moves like "the penguin" "funky chicken" "rock steady" and loads of other stuff, although somehow he makes all of this stuff look really cool whilst we are frantically trying to keep up with the pace! However, we all left the class on a mega high, I've not had so much fun for a long time! We're just hoping that next week (as we are all definitely up for going back!) will be just as much fun!! It also has to be said I am aching like crazy today, but I really don't mind as it's that good kind of aching! Hooray!

http://www.hypedance.org.uk/academy/home/home.php

A new beginning!

I know, I am rubbish, this has taken me a while to get it together to write a new blog! BUT so much has been going on, I've been in Sheffield for 3 weeks now, which also means I haven't been working for 3 weeks also! Very strange. Not having something that you have to be up for at a specific time is very strange for me.

However I have got a new job, I don't start for another 4 weeks, but I am looking forward to being part of a new team already.

I would love to upload a picture with this blog but I have lost the lead that connects my camera in the move, and it will be a while before I can buy a new one! The new flat is lovely, I am now used to it's quirks; noisy pipes, sounds of the neighbours, separate shared laundry room. It does have brilliant long windows, and in the living room the light shines in most of the day, which I love! There is nothing worse than a house with a main room that gets no sun - in my opinion.

I have spent a couple of weeks missing people back home, naturally, but I have met some really lovely lovely people here, I feel so lucky to have landed quite so firmly on my feet. The next few (eight) weeks are going to be really tight moneywise, but it's all a challenge right? I'll have a lot of time the next 4 weeks to really practice playing guitar also. I've been to The Works twice now, which is one of the biggest bouldering centres in the world (I think??) and it's really amazing, I feel quite out of practice though! My arms and fingers are getting tired out very quickly.

I have also seen a couple of really cool bands since I've been here, Mean Poppa Lean - who have SO much energy on stage, I can highly recommend anyone to go and see them, and I think they are touring most of the time, so check them out and go see them, I've never seen a venue ALL up and dancing, bar staff included!! And this weekend I saw a crazy band called Na Zdrove -also excellent!!!

It's funny, but it really doesn't take long to adjust to living somewhere new, it will take a bit longer before I think of it as my home. It's not going to take as long as I thought though!

Smiles x x

I've been so busy!

I had a week off, which was lovely! I got to see my best friend for a whole day which is so rare! We ate popcorn and sunbathed while listening to rock music and played with Peggy (the cat!) it was just really nice. I also went to Alton Towers, I had to take my boy.... he'd NEVER BEEN!! We had fun, I was so tired by the end of the day. We then drove up to his aunt and uncles house who live in a BEAUTIFUL place in the Peaks. It was so calm. And they fed us delicious food, which was very very welcome, after our lunch of warm soggy sandwiches hahaha!

Then we were off to Sheffield, our prospective home town. It was really nice actually, not anywhere near as bustly as I thought it would be. I'm a countryside girl at heart, I don't like to be too far away from nice green things. Which is ok in Sheffield because it's really not that far away! :) I met some new people (and a girl who loves cats as much as I do! hooray!) all of which we're really cool and fun.

Coming home was actually really wierd, I'd only been away 2 days and I could feel the different atmoshpere here to there. Which obviously wears off after, like, a day!

I've spent a lot of time learning new things musically also, covers mainly but it's really cool cos I've not learnt any new guitar (or had to) for ages, and it's good as I technically get free guitar lessons from my friend! Hooray! I'm looking forward to getting on stage again in a couple of weeks. :)

Being back at work after my week off was tough too, well initially anyway, but I guess I'm back in the swing of things now!!! heehee.

Well I'm off to watch some tv (no going out for me tonight I'm working tomorrow, party - sorry house cooling party - tomorrow night though!! haha)

Much Love!!

(no pictures this time I forgot my camera while I was away d'oh!)