Returning to reality.....

Coming back to London was like

coming back down to Earth from the moon

with a huge depressive drag of gravity.

no more husband

no more sun

no more amazing exotic adventures

no more old friends

no more new babies

just regular old life

i wasnt looking forward to teaching at all.

but it turned out to be pleasantly surprising.

In my first class none of my regular students turned up

(did they know holidays were over,

i hope thats the reason and not

that i've scared them away)

but a new little girl turned up,

7 years old.

she has been teaching herself ballet from a ballet

book she has at home.

It was so nice to spend the time with her

for her first lesson and not just to have 

her manage to scramble along at the back

as i'm sure i'll have to do next week

(if my students turn up)

as she struggled with each new movement,

'wow! thats really hard'

she would say,

and then she would try a little harder.

My second class i was just covering for

another teacher. A boys ballet class with two 10 year old boys.

I actually really enjoy cover teaching as

i can be relaxed and not worry about

teaching class 'etiquette' or discipline,

I asked them what their favourite steps

where and they told me the ones that they like

but only get to do sometimes,

so we did all of them.

So nice to see some really enthusiastic 

(pretty good) boys.

\i guess i'll make it through

here without husband a little bit longer.

Pain in the back....

I always thought that when i stopped dancing all my aches and pains would go away.

Turns out its not that easy.

For the last year and a half i've had aches and pains all over!

some of it is my body adapting to a new life style,

others are left over problems that i never properly sorted out.

Mainly i've been having re-occuring back pain.

It comes and goes some days i'm bedridden and other days its back to norm.

Coming from my dance background it s very hard for me to teach without getting physically involved myself.

my husband always tries to tell me that i should take it easy when i teach, no demonstrating full out to 2 year olds! i explain to him they are the worst culprits for needing to be taught visually.

after a bout of back pain recently that just frustrates me more than anything

(im used to being in pain)

the physio finally persuaded me to go to the Doctor and have a scan.

So thanks to husbands private work medical insurance,

i very speedily got a MRI done.

Unfortunately it did show up some disk degeneration and bulging,

but fortunately nothing that has affected the nerves or bone as of yet.

So i feel so releaved to have some actual proof that my back pain isnt just me whining like an old lady all the time.

Looking at all these pretty ballet pictures at the moment 

just makes me think of their poor spines!

Adventures in the ballet class....

Once a week i teach in a nursery

where the class are more of a dance/drama

based class as opposed to pure ballet.

I find these classes great fun,

and love trying to find out new ways to incorporate 

different stories into our dance adventures.

To make it more tricky the classes are predominately 

filled with little boys.

When i've taught this style of classes before

it was easier to think up stories as

you can pretty much just go through the Disney Princessess.

So lately we have been on a visit to the Dinosaur museum

where we have marched like scary T-rex's

and flown like pterodactyls.

We have been pirates looking for lost treasure

being chased by crocodiles,

and on safari in the deepest jungle.

we have sky-dived into Australia and

jumped like the Kangaroos and spun like the Tasmanian Devils.

These little boys have a lot of energy...

it keeps me on my toes first thing in the morning,

in fact the only way i think i am able to make

it through without going crazy

is from having been the older sister to 5 crazy younger brothers.

Now i've got to think of more Adventure stories....

Things....

What have i been up to lately.

Teaching, teaching, teaching.

Pilates,Pilates Pilates,

Teaching -

I've changed ballet schools and i'm really enjoying my new school.

Its a very different environment,

the students at my new school have more professional

aspirations (even at a young age)

so i can treat them like young professionals,

and they actually responding well to it,

so rather than thinking to my self all the time,

are they 'having fun' are they 'being stimulated'

i can focus on

are they learning? are they progressing? are they improving?

hopefully the learning and improving is what stimulates

them and makes it enjoyable,

i know thats what ballet always meant to me

and thats what i want ballet to be to my students.

Last Sunday I volunteered at a charity gala held by the

school at the Royal Opera House

where the children performed and auctions were held.

They raised over £300 000 to be used for dance scholarships.

It was just parents watching week...

i hope i survived it....

Pilates

I'm thoroughly enjoying my teacher training with Alan Herdman Pilates.

I know some of the other students on the course struggle with

the style of teaching, but it suits me to a T.

Every week i come away feeling i ve learned so much.

I worry about when i have to go out and actually start finding a job,

its a whole new industry to me,

hopefully i can make the cross over.

Life gets in the way.....

Whooopssss.

been in blogging limbo.

Its not that nothing has been happening,

in fact a lot has been happening.

Long story short but whilst i was away having a lovely 

holiday with husband a few work emails

came in that gave me a distinctly bad feeling that

things weren't going good.

(it spoiled my Christmas a little)

and in fact after arriving back in the country and

calling my boss everyday (to no avail),

it eventually turned out

that they had decided to give my job back to the

girl who i had taken over from

and effectively unemploy me.

GREAT!

they gave me a bunch of reasons that 

they had decided to do this....

but this was the first time i had heard of any problems,

as i explained to them,

if you were unhappy with my work 

surely telling me so i could do a better job.

To make matters worse i found out this information

from my assisstant, 

(who forwarded me the updated schedule

which she had been given a month previously...

reason that i hadnt been given it was because my name wasnt on it.)

and eventually got the boss to contact me...

via text message.

Well, it knocked back my confidence a lot...

i wondered what i had done wrong.

How could i go from thinking i was doing a fairly good job 

(does anyone actually think they're doing a good job when they teach?)

to being unemployable....was i really that bad?

I negotiated some work till the end of the month 

to give me time to find new work.

But i'd lost my footing and was second-questioning my every class.

Then i went in and assissted a new girl that they had brought in 

to take over one of my classes.

and from the second the class started i realised she 

was a terrible teacher, and i'm

fairly sure had blagged her way into the job.

And i thought to myself,

i've got stuck in the middle of some, 'office politics'

and somehow pulled the short straw.

And starting next week i've got myself a new job.

That i'm really excited about,

at a high calibre school here in London and i'm excited

about working with the school as the Director is quite

inspirational to me...

and i think its going to be a better fit to my style of teaching.

So here's to fresh starts.....

My man....

This is my husband...

flying

my very own superhero

and i miss him,

and leaving him behind after 15 days together 

not knowing when we'll meet again

makes me sad.

Coming back to London,

a place that never feels like home to me

makes it even harder.

Being messed around by your work

so that you've got from being

part time employed

to virtually unemployed

makes it sucky.

But he reminds me 

that our future is bright,

he reminds me that the time apart is important

for our future time together.

and he reminds me that this

was my own decision

and i can change it at any time.

sometimes i wonder.....

Still in London.....

i realised that i havent written about why i'm still in London even though my ballet teaching course is over.

its because i'm onto course number 2, which will run for the next 9 months.

so husband is still away sailing at sea and i'm still mining my way through the streets of London.

i'm doing my Pilates teachers course.

I looked into a lot of Pilates Teacher training courses, there are so many of them out there.

I've always enjoyed Pilates, 

i used to go to a class once a week when i was between the ages of 15-18 

in Edinburgh. My mum sent me when she heard it was good for ballet.

It was,

it changed the way that i thought about movement

and it progressed me as a dancer in so many ways.

that was 10 years ago,

i havent really done much pilates since other

than occasionally doing the few exercises that i could remember.
in fact i've really struggled to find a Pilates teacher who taught in a way that inspired me in
the way that my old teacher did.
Theres a lot of things called 'Pilates' out there that really aren't.

but for years i've been saying that when i stopped dancing i wanted
 to take up Pilates

more and think about teaching it.

So i am.

I picked a course here in London 

by the guy who trained my Pilates teacher all those years ago,

His name is Alan Herdman and he was the first person to bring Pilates to the UK.

So far the course has been everything that i've wanted.

i'm learning so much and the dynamics of the 

course suit me to a T.

Its great, i have the excuse to spend all my spare time in

the Pilates studio practising! 

Re-post

So I wrote a nice long post last night and my phone died just as I was about to hit the send button....

The overview of it was last weekend was pretty awesome, this week has been an absolute NIGHTMARE, but hey ho it's nearly over and I can put it all behind me and its going to make a good story one day.

I've just discovered the blogger app so I might blog a bit more frequently on my iPhone on my daily 1.5 hour commute across London each day.

In the mean time Instagramme is probably the best way to catch me. (Rgiboin)

Here are a few snaps from husbands visit at the weekend. We went to Cambridge and husband punted me along the river which was highly entertaining.... We found a nice spot on the river to have our lunch and watching others having a try at punting too.... It's pretty funny.

 We also got stuck in Cambridge which is a whole other story.....

Commuting....

London life is busy.

I just feel like i dont stop.....ever.

on friday night i came home and was fast asleep by 8.30.

commuting is a killer,

it just seems to take so long to get anywhere in london.

i live in London and it takes me longer to get my

course each day than some of the girls

who live much much further away!!!

I miss husband.

little things like how nice it would

be at the end of the day just to sit on the sofa next to him.

or how i just want to tell him about everything all the time.

The course is going pretty well,

and i've made a few new friends which is always goood,

also been spending time with old ones too.

At some point i'll get round to blogging about

what i've actually been up to...

but for now i'm going to catch me some

zzzzz's

A lovely little movie....

I went to see this lovely french movie this week,

its one of the most enjoyable movies i've seen in a while.

I truly felt like i was watching an Audrey Hepburn movie from the 50's.

Recommended!!!

It's been tough going from being a boatwife

to full time school....

these early morning starts are not fun!

and London is sooooo BIG!

Husband comes to visit this weekend...

cant wait!

Back to school....

I'm on the fourth day of my course.

I'm attending the 

Royal Academy of Dance Professional Teaching Diploma course.

There's lots of lovely people on the course and

lots of information to take in.

Its good to have fellow students who you can talk to,

i cant tell you how many times we've said to each other

at certain times,

'Oh my Goodness i'm glad that you feel that way too'

(mainly when we are lost and dont have a clue whats going on)

Its quite a broad variety of people too,

all from different backgrounds with different strengths and weaknesses.

For me i think its going to be hard to transition from 

think about how i would do a step as a dancer

to changing my thoughts to how would i teach that step as a teacher.

its a long day and busy schedule

and London is so big

i spend half my time commuting.....

Luckily some of my favouritest people live in London too

(two of my bridesmaids)

i've been trying to squeeze in some social time with them too.

Turns out before i came to London 

my husband emailed my friends and ask them to look

after me as he is worried about me being here without him.

What a sweetie....

good to know that he is taking care of me from a distance

He's my Hercules. 

London life....

arrived in London a couple of days ago and 

Its already rained,

 a lot...

I dont particularly have fond memories

of my previous stay in London

(nearly 2 years)

but at the time i was an unemployed destitute ballerina,

so hopefully things will be a bit different now.

I've been busy getting things sorted,

apartment - i'm living with my sisters so not too scary

moving and unpacking - getting everything out of storage,

after having limited space on the boat i feel like i have so many possessions now!

Getting a phone - i have been phoneless for the past year,

to be honest its been kind of liberating, having the smart phone in my pocket now i'm 

always wondering what messages i've been sent and checking and rechecking,

rather than just walking down a street or sitting at a table and enjoying the scenery.

paperwork - BLah!!!!

starting my dance teachers course on monday....!!!!!!!

Back at the museum.....

I'm slow at the moment downloading my pictures from my camera to the computer.

so here are some pictures from our trip the 

The Natural History Museum in London

a couple of weeks ago.

We've been going on lots of lovely little day trips around Dorset too.

Which is nice because i've never been in this part of the country before.

Its one big new adventure.

Carousel....

 I've always said that i wanted a Carousel at my wedding,

turns out it cost £3000 to rent one for a day.

i know cause i checked.

and although it would be fun,

it would not be practical (ok ok...i mean affordable, who cares about practical!)

Last weekend i met one of my lovely Bridesmaids Sarah 

(who i havent been in about 3 years)

and we went round a little Vintage Fete that was going on in her area of London,

where i found some lovely Antique table decorations for the wedding.

And she also surprised me with a Carousel.

Tim is glad that i've got it 'out of my system'

hmmmm.....it was just so dang fun!

We were the only people over the age of 8 on it!

There was also a Helter Skleter, but the clouds opened

and it rained a bit so we headed to somewhere to sit down and have a natter.

London Life....

I'm still in London.

dont know what i've done with my camera....

Here's a few things that i've been up to lately....

Gone to an antiques market...ended up knee deep in mud so it felt a bit like a cool music festival,

even though i was walking around looking at old stuff.

Gone out to re-buy wedding dress material...

again and again and again....

it breaks my heart a little bit everytime

sat on friday night and took the whole dress apart...

went to see Singing In The Rain at the theatre...

amazeballs, but i missed Gene Kelly...no one can replace him.

hung out with my a couple of my bridesmaids,

one who i havent seen in years,

its so lovely when it feels like we saw each other yesterday....

had a wedding  'make-up' test with one of my bridesmaids,

turns out i know nothing about make-up,

putting on mascara in the morning and 

always forgetting to take it off doesnt count.

Sung in the rain.

Went to Alan Herdman Pilates Studio

 to enquire into their PilatesTeaching Course,

me likey.

Spent a heck of a lot of money.

Shopped a heck of a lot 

(those two may be related)

Finding Shoes that Fit....

Well, hanging up my ballet shoes didnt last all that long...

being in London i popped into the famous Pineapple studios to do a ballet class.

I t took me back to those days when i used frequent the studios here daily when i was living in London and looking for wrok and auditioning.

Back then it was a drag....a thing i had to do to survive.

 Now it was purely for pleasure.

Looking around all those young fresh-out-of-ballet-school girls

 i didnt envy them one bit.

But i did enjoy myself.

i've struggled for the last couple of years to enjoy the ballet classes in Egypt

 because the Russian Style of the classes was just so far from my roots and my training,

 and so it felt a bit like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes today....

it fitted much better.

(i think the shoe reference is coming from the fact that i got blisters from wearing a pair of new shoes whilst walking around London today....they were too small, and OOOWWWYYY!)

London Baby!!!!

I'm in London.

Its cold and rainy,

i had to go out and buy myself some trousers and a pair of shoes that weren't sandals.

But i LOVE it, 

been living in a drought for too long now.

Hung out with 2 of my London Sisters today,

and i'm soooooo excited because i bought an Engagment Ring today.

(more on that later)

I also bought myself a honeymoon dress....which is basically a mini-wedding dress...

ummm maybe cause i'm an over-excitable Bride-To-Be...

Christmas and Cupcakes...

Just one more post about my fleeting trip to the Uk...

I mean who wouldnt be excited by such a HUGE Christmas tree

and GIGANTUOS Christmas baubles

A trip to London is never complete

without a visit with one of my Besties, Steven!!!!

After a lovely lunch we headed over to The Humming Bird Bakery in Soho for some cupcakes.

My sister has their cookbook at home so i was pretty excited...

to be honest i wasn't all that impressed,

sure it was delicious,

but we got there at the end of the day and there were only 2 options of

cupcakes chocolate or vanilla....how dull!

I also begrudge spending so much on a cupcake....

i know its London and its a cupcakes are all hip and in at the moment...

but honestly,

give me a four pack of chocolate chip muffins

from Tesco's any day for 99p and i'd be happy...