One Down, One Hundred to Go

So, my hawks and doves, I have completed one of the many items on my List.

Attending a burlesque class was number 80 on my list, and it was achieved, finally, today!

MotH is the source behind my wanting to try it. Until he brought me along to a show at La Cheetah, I had never seen it before. People can debate back and forth about burlesque vs stripping, and does it matter, really? No. I think there's a different mood with burlesque. It's cheeky, teasing, makes me want to giggle. There's a light-heartedness about it, even though it is an exacting dance form :)

Ash McTease runs Show Girl Sessions in Glasgow, and I was fortunate enough to find a voucher from one of the many voucher/discount sites available for 8 classes here. I tried my first one today, Burlesque Combo.

I had misgivings to start with. Primarily because I've developed a nasty chesty cough which is causing me to wheeze rather un-gracefully and un-sexily every so often. Is it really sensible to be doing a dance class when one is unwell? But I got there eventually and donned my heels and gloves and off we went! Exercising in heels is murder on the thighs, by the way, just sayin'! :P

There was a warm up (chairs were involved) and we worked through a dance routine. I felt awesome. Tired and sweaty, but awesome! I wanted to use my voucher on different classes as well, so I'm trying a Bollywood class next week, along with Burlesque Bombshell and Glamourcise. I think by this time next week I may be very, very sore :P But I will have had a lot of fun! Honestly, it's one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time. I didn't even really feel self-conscious. There were women of various ages and bodyshapes there, I didn't feel threatened or insecure, and it was nice, and it was FUN!

As I left the venue I overheard a couple of the other girls say they were going to cancel their gym memberships. On the subway back I saw a poster for a gym here in Glasgow, with a typical January promotion blaring across it. “Why tread-the-mill when you can dance?” My inner voice (one of a few, I admit) said to me. I'm inclined to agree with this particular voice. It usually errs on the side of delightfulness. This may explain my addiction to choux pastry as well, hehe.

I will end this blog with a note of thanks to MotH. I am never really that awake in the mornings, but this morning I had forgotten that my keys may had slid OUT of their usual spot in my bag and ended up on the floor when I came home from work yesterday. Meaning that when I came home this evening, I was utterly without keys. Unfortunately for me MotH was ALSO out today, to a sort of “battle of the bands” event in the city centre. This he very obligingly left (temporarily) to come and let me in to my house (so I could eat my pastry, mmmm). He didn't have to, I left my keys so really I should have gone back in to town to meet him, but he came to my aid without batting an eyelid. Chivalry is not dead, not by a long shot!

Now.. How Long Until Easter?

Hello again, Friends!

I hope everyone has had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and New Years Eve. If you haven’t, then chin up! There’s plenty of time to make it better for next time round! :)

I had a most excellent time back with my family who live in Norway. My mum has three dogs, each with an enormous capacity for cuddles, so needless to say I was covered in dog hair for most of the trip. Luckily I don’t care about that sort of thing :)

As per usual Christmas included the development of the additional Christmas Stomach. There is no logic or science behind this, but it is clearly the only way that much food can exist inside a person. Now, for me the stuffing of my face is partly due to the fact that I can’t get some of this food in Britain. At least not without taking a picture of a pig to a butcher and going “yes, that bit!”. It’s a bit more effort than I normally would make, so Christmas (or any trip home really) is an ideal excuse to eat ALL the food I can’t get here, from roast pig to snacks and yes, even a type of breakfast yoghurt! 

Our dinner table on the 24th (when we celebrate Christmas in Scandinavia)

Apart from the dogs and the food my trip was excellent, which made the idea of going back to Edinburgh and back to work all the worse. But I survived! As we often do, despite the end-of-weekend/holiday fear. 

New Years Eve was also lovely! My Significant Man Person (we’ll call him SMP for short, shall we?) came through to Edinburgh and we had a lovely dinner. It was not the dinner I had planned, but it was still delicious! Breast of chicken stuffed with slices of chorizo, with fried potatoes. Cheesecake and ice cream for dessert. The New Year was laughed in with stand up comedy DVDs and snuggles. New Years Eve doesn’t really do much for me as the first of January doesn’t really feel very “new” :P SMP and I slung back and relaxed with excessive violence, watching Starship Troopers and then onwards to the cinema for a showing of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Excellent film, but there were scenes that made me very uncomfortable, and it is most definitely appropriately rated at 18. Having said that, I can recommend it, both Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara did very well, and I love Stellan Skarsgaard, so it was two thumbs up from me! :)

New Years Quests

Resolution. Res-o-lu-tion. Rez-uh-loo-shuhn. 

According to the Dictionary, the definition of the above is as follows:

1. A formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organisation, a legislature, a club or other group.
2. A resolve or determination.
3. The act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method or procedure, etc.
4. The mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
5. The act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts. 

Yes, there will be a short test later! Hehe. 

If you add the word New Year’s before Resolution it essentially translates in to: “Stuff I told myself I would do last year which I never got round to because I was so busy doing that life things”. Or perhaps, like me, you were exceptionally vague in your last years resolution that you aren’t satisfied with the result and need to repeat the experience. An example from my life is putting “Lose weight”, but never adding the pressure of stating how many kilos or pounds need to get trimmed off before I stuff my face with Christmas food again! 

Sometimes I get an overwhelming sense of deja vu and I think some of it is partly due to magazine headlines. This time of year they are all the same! “How to stick to your resolutions!”, “How to drop a dress size by Valentines Day”, “Tone your flab so the ladies will love you” (I’m obviously (or hopefully) paraphrasing). Without fail these headlines appear in publications both frivolous and supposedly serious. Maybe they should be honest and write “We know you hate yourself a little right now, so here’s how we can re-inforce this by pretending to help you!” What a boring way to spend my year! I’ve decided to keep important lifestyle decisions separate to jolly New Years wishes. I’ve also decided that I am renouncing the depressing resolution style that reads “I wasn’t good enough at something last year, I need to do better this time”. 

So, in keeping with the blog in general, I am making some New Years Quests instead. These will be fun things that will require some effort and money on my part, but I am certain I will enjoy! If I enjoy them I am more likely to actually carry them out, hehe. 

A few of them include:

1. Host a Christmas party (so I have some time to plan, haha!).
2. Complete the cross stitch pattern I bought because it reminded me of a friend (I’m not telling too much so it’ll still be a bit of a surprise! :P).
3. Go on a Scottish holiday with SMP.
4. Take at least three singing lessons - because singing is great and makes me feel good.

I haven’t finished thinking up all the fun things I’d like to do, but it’s certainly enough to start with. I want to make 2012 fun, not kickstart it with a guilt trip about the pretty good year I have just had! 2011 was good to me, but I suppose it helped that I was good to me too! :D

I am going to finish off now, with best wishes to you all for a fabulous new year. Live it wonderful and live it well, we'll never get a 2012 again! :)