Galapagos -Giant Tortoise

Seconds off the plane from a 27 hour trip

and husband whisks me off to see the islands

most famous inhabitants.

The Giant Tortoise.

I tell you, there aint no better cure for 

jet lag than these little beauties.

They reminded me so much of my wee Del-Boy

(who currently lives with my mother-in-law

who spoils her rotten and hand feeds her each day)

the same characteristics 

only much much bigger.

So adorable.

I think my favourite one may have been the 

one who was in the swamp.

Mainly because she reminded me of 

Morla the Aged one from Neverending Story,

yes there may have been quite a few 

quotes and re-enactments going on there

(luckily i recently introduced husband to the movie so

he is no on parr with my brain waves)

I can also tell you that their favourite food

is Guava, it makes their faces very pink!

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.

Later Gators....

I feel like i only just saw husband,

its funny how seeing him a month ago counts as recently....

At any rate its my turn to go and visit him.

In the Galapagos Islands.

A once in a life time trip.

I will cherish these amazing times i have to travel at the moment

and explore these exotic far off locations

with husband.

Funnily enough,

currently both husband and i have 

both day dream about settling down 

and just staying in one place the two of us.

Feet firmly on the ground.

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!