Tiaras and Tutus

What a week! London Amateur Ballet has to be one of my favourite things ever.

I have just spent six days living the life of a ballerina. Arriving at the studio around 9:30am, warm-up class (Pilates or floor barre) from 10am and full ballet class at 11am.

That in itself would be wonderful, but it was followed by three hours of learning and rehearsing choreography with fabulous teachers and amazing friends. The ballet of choice this time was La Bayadere. I haven't seen the ballet (apart from a few snippets on YouTube during the week), but certain sections of music and choreo will be stuck in my head for a very long time!

The other great thing about LAB is meeting other people who are as crazy as you. In the normal world it seems odd to say that you enjoy ballet dancing, but here I was surrounded by lovely people who feel the same. A huge mix of backgrounds, careers, etc but all with a common love of dance.

I did struggle a bit, even though I was three months post-surgery. It turns out that scar tissue isn't very stretchy so I pulled it a bit too much. The result was me taking a "rest day" where I did very little dancing. I also chose to learn one less piece of rep than everyone else. As a result I was still able to dance and enjoy myself and perform on the Saturday.

I am totally floating on a ballet high right now. I hope it doesn't wear off too quickly!

Poppies

A couple of weeks ago, we finally headed to the Tower of London to see the poppies. It was already 15th Nov so the volunteers had started to remove them, but mostof the 888,246 were still on display.

It was as beautiful as I knew it would be.

HDR image

The return of the quad

Things have been crazy busy again this week, both work stuff and life stuff, but it's all turned out well so we finally have a more chilled and relaxed RainStorm back! (I plan to enjoy it because never lasts for long!)

For the first time in ages, we were able to head out to join the London Friday Night Skate crew for their Sunday Stroll. Out of all the weekly events that that run (Wed evening, Fri evening and Sun afternoon), the Sunday is the slowest and most relaxed. Once a month, they do a "snail stroll" which is even slower. Perfect for new skaters or those who haven't been out much.

It was a jam-packed with tourist sights route too: Buckingham Palace...

Horse guards parade (towards Westminster)...

Big Ben,Westminster, a traditional red double-decker and a boombox carrying photobomber!

Trafalgar Square...

The Strand...

Dury Lane (near Covent Garden)...

Then Regents Street and back to Hyde Park... :)

A very cheery marshall (standing in the road to keep it clear whilst we pass).

The marshals were amazing (as always) and I completely enjoyed how relaxed it was. Normally I struggle to keep up because I skate in quads rather than inlines: my wheels have a much higher surface area which means I'm fighting friction much more than my all-in-line companions. The slower speed suited me perfectly!

And, shockingly, there were quite a few other sets of quads out. Usually I'm one if about three quad skaters (in a field of 100-200), but last week I was one if at least ten! It's time for the quad to make a comeback!

My lovely skates :)

Dance clothing obsessed

I have been expanding my ballet horizons! Over the summer, my local ballet school is closed (boo!) so I've had to be brave and venture further afield.

Special thanks go to Dave (@davetriesballet) who babysat me through my first "strange" class.

As well as meeting new teachers and being exposed to different teaching approaches (which can only be a good thing), my clothing horizons have also been widened...

At my regular class, it's dark coloured leotards and pink ballet tights, but the world of ballet wear seems to extend far and wide from those humble beginnings: there's skirts, shorts, tights over leotards, socks, legwarmers, vest tops, t-shirts, leggings and even a wide selection of shoes. It's a veritable fashion parade! Not that I entirely appreciate some of the looks (e.g. to my mind, tights over a leotard looks odd, but that might simply be because I'm not used to it).

So what's a girl to do? Accessorise of course! One trip to Primark later (and a whole £4.50 spent!), and I have a couple of pieces to mix and match with my leotard:

Add a few old tops and a pair of leggings to my new purchases and I suddenly own a vast range of ballet wear!

An evening of culture

Monday (yes, that was almost a week ago, but I haven't had a second to write about it yet!) saw me attempting an epic feat - leaving work on time and jumping on a train to get to Trafalgar Square. I'm pleased to say that I made it with a whole 10mins to spare!

And what was all this rushing for? The ballet of course :)

BP were sponsoring a Big Screen event across the country, involving a live link up with the Royal Opera House. On this occasion, the performance in question was the Royal Ballet's Titian 2012 - three pieces created by a team of different choreographers, composers and designers.

On arrival in the iconic square, we were presented with rain ponchos and blow-up cushions (which proved super-useful!) and then settled ourselves down. Each Act lasted about 35mins and the intervals were 30 mins which gave me time to grab some dinner between the dancing! They screened various "behind the scenes" films between each act, including live interviews with some of the people involved.

What I've been up to...

Another weekend, another trip into London. This time to the Meeting of Styles graffiti festival in Islington:

It was pretty cool :)

You can check out some better photos from krycis.

London on 8 wheels

Sunday is stroll night for the London Friday Night Skaters (who also skate on Friday evenings, as the name might suggest). We met them in Hyde Park on one of the hottest October days ever (almost 30 deg C!), and joined the hoards on a skate around London.

It was a massive event: there must have been at least 150 people there! Most were on in-lines but a few quads like myself - the old skool club :)

What I've been up to...

It's been a lovely weekend. Amazing weather for October - almost 30degC both days! So we made sure we made the most of it:

Saturday - a day at the races (Ascot Beer Festival)

Sunday - an 8 mile roller skate through London (otherwise known as the Sunday Stroll)

Am suitably exhausted and ready for an early night!

Urban Adventuring

Whilst hanging out in London at the weekend, we started spotting Rat Race team members jogging around the capital with maps and a slightly excited but confused look on their faces. And, predictably given my personality, I started thinking, "Yeah, I could do that..."

Doh.