Goodbye to winter skin

A few weeks ago I discovered that South Thames College has a beauty salon staffed by students that does treatments for fantastic prices. As my skin looks absolutely awful after the winter/surgery/lurgy combo of the last few months, I booked myself in for a £7 facial.

I had to go for the "special facial" which involves all sorts of gadgets, so I was quite nervous about leaving with my face intact. However, I had nothing to worry about. The treatment was really nice and much more relaxing than I thought it would be. The worst bit was the comedone (AKA blackhead) extraction which really hurt. The pores on my nose look much better though and my skin as a whole looks much smoother!

For £7 I don't think you can go wrong. Admittedly, the salon is a bit like a hospital ward, and a lot of the students stand around chatting while you're being treated. If these things don't bother you and you like a bargain, I would definitely recommend giving your local college beauty salon a try. I'm considering booking a massage for my week off in April!

Dance musings

I'm having a bit of a dilemma at the moment about how best to carry on with my dancing. I'm obviously going to keep going to my ATS class, but I'm not sure about going back to Egyptian/Cabaret for now. I'd like to do two ATS classes next term (basics and beyond basics), so a third class would probably be too much (both time-wise and financially). The plan I am tending towards at the moment is doing my two ATS classes and practising my Egyptian style at home with DVDs. Once I feel I don't need to attend the ATS basics class every week then I can consider starting egyptian classes again. I also think using DVDs will allow me to focus my learning on areas that I know I need to improve on. The weird thing is I feel kind of angsty at the thought of neglecting egyptian style in case I get worse at it! I suppose as long as I keep doing technique drills, I can only get better. I just have to be disciplined, which means getting over the desire to flop down on the sofa as soon as I get home from work.

Last night was the final class in my ATS basics course. I think I am getting a good handle on the basic moves but another term (or two) should help consolidate them. The highlight has been discovering that I can actually play zils while dancing! I always hated doing zils in egyptian class but as it's such an integral part of ATS I couldn't really escape them. I've found the less I think about playing them, the better I seem to get on! We also did a bit of leading and following last night, which was fun (and scary at the same time). I felt like my head was going to burst when I was leading, as I was thinking about hips, arms, hands, zils and leading all at once - eek! I really need to practise transitioning between moves at home, so I can get more of a feel to what works and what doesn't.

The clouds have passed for now...

I haven't really felt like blogging over the last few weeks. I had a bit of a low patch, so I did my usual hiding away from the world until the sun came out again. Some weeks I just let work, London and all sorts of other things get on top of me. Thankfully the beautiful blossom and blue skies of Spring have helped cheer me up over the last few days.

There have been lots of goings-ons though. The highlight being Graeme and I booking our trip for my 30th birthday. We decided on Peru in the end, and we've picked a really exciting itinerary! We're going to trek the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which is a dream come true. I visited an exhibition when I was young called "Oro del Peru". It was at the City Arts Centre in Edinburgh and the cover of the exhibition catalogue was a photo of Machu Picchu. It really captured my imagination then and I've always wanted to go. In some ways, I find it weird to think I'll be going as it's turned into some semi-mythical location in my mind! I'm not sure I can believe that I am going, to be honest. I'd better get a grip soon as I need to get myself walking boots etc and arrange for us to get vaccinations!

I've also been doing a lot of ATS workshops as well as my weekly class. I'm totally in love with it! I adore the moves, the costumes and the connection with the group. It really is a breath of fresh air after stalling at intermediate level egyptian bellydance. That's not to say that I'm going to give up egyptian style, but I feel that ATS is feeding what I need right now. I think ATS is much more "me". The thought of being able to dance with anyone who knows the FCBD cues and moves is just so exciting. Also, the costumes are more my style - black and rich jewel colours with loads of jewellery. Perfect.

I'm probably going to write a lot more about my dancing on this blog, so consider yourself warned!

Metal-lurgy

I have a cold for the first time in ages :o( Started on Friday with a really sore throat and now my nose is running like a burn! Decided to come into work as I didn't feel to horrendous when I got up this morning. Now, I feel dreadful and wish I'd kept me and my germs at home. Trouble is, we're off to see Metallica tonight and I'm not sure I could have justified going after taking a sick day.

If I still feel rotten tomorrow, maybe then I can justify a sick day...