Maartje

I've always had difficulties finding the right shoes, but this year it's been really awful. I haven't found one pair I really liked so far, I only found "those will do"-pairs and I'm getting frustrated. I was longing for the summer to bring shoes I like, but last week when we went shopping it didn't look good. Those are not my kind of shoes. Blergh, I'm the kind of the girl who likes to have 15 pairs of shoes, but nowadays I can't even find one pair that suits me!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

And a happy birthday to goddessofchaos!!

We had a wonderful time in Northern Ireland, and I would've loved to have more time to visit other places as well. The highlight for both Michel and me was our visit to the Giant's Causeway. It's so amazingly beautiful there, I just don't have words for it. It just makes me forget about everything else when I look around there... Pictures will never give a good enough idea, but still we took lots of pictures to have something to take with us.

( Click for a few pictures )

We're thinking about going on a short trip to Northern Ireland during the first week I'm off. Leaving on monday, coming back on friday. Staying in Portrush most of the nights, maybe one or two nights in Belfast or Dublin. We're not 100% sure yet, though we've been looking at flights etc. I want to go!!!

Just a few more weeks and I'll be training again with my streetdance groups. First with the demonstration group as they have to be ready at the beginning of september to dance at the handball games (with their new outfits that should be here by then), then the other groups as well. In a way I'm looking forward to it, I'm full of new ideas, I'd love to dance more again and I'm looking forward to working with these youngsters again. On the other hand, I love how I have more spare time nowadays, being able to do something I feel like almost every night I come home from work and having more of a weekend. This year, I'll probably be teaching mondays, wednesdays and saturdays, although there still could be some changes. Anyway, I should try to prepare some classes now so I don't have too much preparation work during the year, but I know how that goes, I do a little, but not as much as I want and in the end I end up complaining that I wished I would've done more... ah well...

Michel had to leave early today for a bigband rehearsal, a workshop and a barbecue with afterparty. He's also staying over the night because that's just easier. So I thought I would have a whole 24 hours to spend on my own, which sounded pretty nice to me. But it turned out a bit different as Bram (my godchild) called me to ask if I could take him and one of his sister swimming. They know that I like swimming and with the weather being this hot and sunny, I actually liked the idea, although I had to get used to the idea of not spending my whole day on my own. Before I went to pick up Bram and Claudia, I went to my parents to have lunch there and pick up my trousers that my mom had to make shorter for me. My brother and his girlfriend were also there, so I asked them if they felt like joining to the pool. Katrien felt like it, my brother didn't, so he stayed at my parents to help them with something and Katrien went along with us. The pool was really freshening and the kids were wonderful. After swimming I brought Katrien back to my parents and brought Bram and Claudia back home. My aunt insisted that I should stay there as they were having a BBQ as well and it would be stupid if I would go home and prepare dinner for just myself and I liked the idea of BBQ so I stayed a little longer. Afterwards I played some badminton with Bram and set a date for his next sleepover at our place.

Now I'm home and I'm enjoying the rest of my evening on my own. I just finished a letter, which is now printing and I hope I will be able to finish the book I'm reading (still The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch). Tomorrow, I plan to sleep until Michel comes home and will (hopefully) wake me up with a breakfast in bed... *lol* A girl can dream, right?

Oh, there's also good news!!

Today I heard we soon can go to the sponsor with my dance team to try and fit the dance outfits! Exciting!! And I also heard that we'll have good training accomodation for all classes as well with the dance team. Last year, one hour a week was in a dusty gym with no mirrors. Next year, we'll be able to use the same big new gym for all classes. :)

We had a great performance!! Woohoo! What a relief, I was so stressed about it, really. I was worried about my girls as we had done a lot of work in the last weeks and I wasn't sure that it was practised enough. But I was also worried about myself. My knees were a mess already and during the last rehearsal I made some stupid mistakes and I was just thinking how I could ruin the whole thing. Anyway, I think we were all pretty stressed, but it kept us focused during the whole choreography and we did it. We had a lot of fun as well, especially during the performance with the different groups together. The choreography of that one was a lot easier because little kids danced along and we were just constantly laughing to eachother. I was proud to show people what we've done with the different dance groups this year. Even my mom said it was amazing. And she's very honest, she once told me it was horrible when just one girl failed during the whole choreography (blackout), and although that happened years ago, I'm still very stressed when my mom is coming to see me or my group dance.

Next week I will be doing some try outs, some of the girls from Kelly's group are interested to go a level higher, but they first have to show they are able to follow my classes and do the steps. There's this one girl who really has it, she's just 13 or 14 but she has the moves, she's not afraid to move her body and she's curious about all the steps. She immediately asked me about several steps she saw in my choreographies so she could practice them at home.

We just got the sad news that my aunt has passed away...