Ya Wee Dancer!

I'm about to complete the beginners pole dancing course. It's been great fun and hard work; very hard work at times, so much so that my muscles were shaking with fatigue, but it's been great learning something new that's so different.

I excitedly tell people about my new activity and try to describe the athleticism, strength and agility that I, yes *me* somehow, I managed to pull it off and do a wonderwoman into dizzy first time and almost no one gets it first time!

But sadly I say "pole dance" and some people hear "sex industry".

I expected a few people to poke fun a little bit in a friendly banter way, and I can laugh along with that, but others go too far. They audibly make assumptions about my sex life, some confuse pole dancing with stripping and lap dancing, others inappropriately ask me how much my husband enjoys my pole dancing and someone even suggested to a male colleague that I perform at his bachelor party!

These comments are often embarrassing for me but it also belittles what I'm actually doing. I'm fairly certain that if they ever tried pole-dancing they would soon realise that it's not just doing a sexy strut around a pole, I work hard to learn the spins and moves and some of them are complicated and others just hurt (have you ever pulled your body weight up a vertical pole and then wrapped your legs around it and let go?).

Because I get wound up and frustrated by the sole focus on the sexy side of pole-dancing I tend to argue to these people that pole-dancing is not sexy and instead is a vigorous strength and endurance workout. And this is true, I've certainly received lots of comments and compliments about how much trimmer I'm looking, but I should not deny the sexy side of pole-dancing.

Dancing is sexy.

Throughout history dancing has been used for a whole bunch of things and sex is part of that. Even cave people used it as a means of wooing a mate and things haven't changed much (been to a night club recently?)

For graduation I have to put together a routine to showcase all I've learned. I'm going to embrace the sexy side of pole-dancing and if I can pull off those gymnastic moves and still look alluring and confident then I'll have accomplished something to be proud of.

A New Activity

I decided to try something a little different last night, to break out of my comfort zone. It's something that I've wanted to try for a while – Pole Dancing!

After a quick Google search I found Pole Hunnies and got in touch with them.

I roped in my niece and we both went to a taster class to see what it was all about. I wasn't sure what to expect. There were two instructors one was average height and very lean, the other was short like me and told us she was 14 stone (89kg). The shorter girl had an injury (not from pole dancing!) that meant she wasn't supposed to demonstrate any of the moves (she did show us one though). The other girl did most of the demonstrating and she wore ordinary workout wear that I would wear to the gym – except for her amazing flashing high heels of course!

There were about 8 of us in the class and we started with walking around the pole to get comfortable. We then learned a few moves, a couple of different spins called Fireman and Dizzy and then we learned how to put it all together as a routine.

Most of the time we were either concentrating on what we were trying to do or laughing at ourselves doing what felt like ridiculous things. It certainly wasn't at all sexy! It was however, a huge amount of fun and gave me a laugh. And even though every muscle in body aches today, I'm going to sign up for more classes – I just need to come up with a Pole name ???

Ae Fond Kiss

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy:
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met-or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

I must be crazy

There's got to be something wrong with me that I thought it was a good idea to get up really early on a cold winters Sunday morning, dress up in a Santa outfit drive for an hour out to Glasgow and then run round a loch. Did I mention that it's winter here in Scotland? My hubby was shivering so much it was a real challenge just to get his race number pinned on.

We first saw a couple of Santa's getting out of a car and then soon we saw lots of Santas, reindeers, a few angels, a snowman and lots and lots of tinsel and we knew we were in the right place! I'd got my outfit out of Poundland and I think about half of the other runners did too!

If there is something wrong with me for doing this then I think it might be some kind of epidemic! There were 446 runners that took part and the majority of them were dressed up.

I entered this race to give myself a prod. My running has been irregular at best and although my times have been improving for both the mile and the 5k, I'm still building up to running without the need for walk breaks. I'm a work in progress.

This race was organised by the lovely people at JogScotland. Their races always pull a varied crowd from the serious club runners to the beginners still building on their walking programmes. This makes a good race for beginners because there will always be lots of other people jogging and walking too. So whilst I wasn't as prepared as I have been in the past when I race, I really enjoyed it and realised how much I miss racing.

Another good thing about this race is that it had chip timing. As a beginner runner who is still at the jog/walk level, I would never position myself close to the start line as that's for the more serious and competent runners. If I did that, I would just be in everyones way and besides, it's a bit demoralising being overtaken by hundreds of people! I find it much better to be closer to the back with others that have a similar pace. This often means that it takes some time to get over the start line. In this race, it took 1 minute for me to cross the start line. Those 60 seconds can make a big difference to how you feel about your performance.

So I thought it would be a good idea to enter another one in 4 weeks, same distance but this time with a rather humongous hill.

For anyone interested, I ran the JogScotland Christmas Cracker 5k in Strathclyde Country Park in a time of 35:29 – like I said, a work in progress!

Christmas Wish List

Should my family be stuck for an idea of what to get me this Christmas or if anyone feels inclined to buy me a gift here are some of the things I like, in no particular order:

• Fleecy PJ bottoms that were dark blue and had snowflakes on the from Primark
  
  
• World Peace
  
  
• Thermal boot socks with traditional looking prints on them that make them look wintery/Christmassy
  
  
• Unusual ear ring holder
  
  
  
• Kath Kidston knitting needle bag
  
• A pretty crochet hook roll
  
  
• Small evening hobo bag like the Julien MacDonald ones
  
  
• Decorative triple wave bun pins
  
  
  
• Cardigans
  
  
• Coloured, patterned or plain holdups
  
  
• Ribbons
  
  
• Love Etc perfume from the Body Shop
  
  
  
• Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon – it's a fiction book
  
  
• Pretty little trinket boxes
  
  
• Charms for my charm bracelets (I have traditional and Pandora – you can get some nice cheap ones from Ebay)
  
  
• Car charger for my ipod
  
  
• Vintage or thrifted brooches
  
  
• Geeky T shirts
  
  
• A home-made music mix CD – What are your favourites?
  
  
• Pretty notebooks and stationery
  
  
• Pink Moleskine notebook
  
  
• Chocolate - This particular one from the Animal Aid shop is a real treat!
  
  
  
• Slanket - The blanket with sleeves
  
  
• Momiji dolls
  

Things I definately don't need are:

• Underwear
• Gloves, hats and scarves
• Diary
• Ornaments

Other things to note: I'm a vegan so I don't eat meat, diary products, eggs, honey, insects or fish. I also don't wear leather, wool, silk or any other animal fur or skin.

I have no problems recieveing a gift that is second hand or from a charity shop. I think it's better for the environment anyway.

I hope this helps and if you don't want to give anything at all, that's fine too.

Let me know if you have a Christmas Wishlist!

Christmas Shopping and other fun things

I finally made a start to my Christmas shopping this weekend. I was on the 9:40 train to Glasgow for my 6 monthly trip to the opticians on Saturday and shopped for the whole day. I caught some Zzz's on the train ride home and then it was time to get ready for a night out with my nephew and his fiancée.

We went to Chiquito's in Dunfermline for some tasty Mexican/Texan/Cajun food. We ate a lot! You get fairly big portions there. Then after some good food, drink and conversation we headed out into the freezing cold night to play crazy golf. Yep, we must be crazy!

Adventure Gold Island is right next door to the restaurant and has two 18-hole mini golf courses. I can't remember which of the courses we played, but I think it might have been treasure island.

Most professional shot	Billy	A perfect hole in one!
Flukiest shot	Me	battered off every wall before going into a the most obscured hole and getting a hole in one!
Best use of geometry	Kane	His ball always ended up behind a rock or someone else's ball but math helped him!
Too many shots had to give up	Rachael and Me	This was a draw because we both had to give up on a hole.
Most shots up the same hill	Rachael	It was a close one between Billy and Rachael, but I think Rachael takes it.
Getting in the water hazard	Me	Typical!
Highest shot	Rachael	battered off some rocks and it went right up into the air before coming straight back down again. Rachael is a nutter with a putter!
Best bum wiggle shot	Billy	Was a close call, but Billy managed to pot his after the bum wiggle so he wins.
Most under par	Kane	Somehow he managed to win it overall :)
Set off sirens	Me	For the hole in one at the end. Yay!

Yes, I set of the sirens because I managed to make the coveted hole in one shot at the 18^th hole and won a free game the next time I go. You know how I did it? I was thinking, if a tree falls in the woods when no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

The next day was a much calmer day but we still had more Christmas shopping to do. We went into Stirling and managed to buy more presents. I was disappointed that McAree's was closed, but they are running workshops where you can crochet a snowflake and a star (21^st Nov) and knit a mini stocking (12^th Dec) which I'm thinking about attending. I think they cost £5 and that might sort out 2 Christmas presents too :)

Hope people like what we've picked for them :)

November

So it's November already, how did that happen? It must have crept up on me and now it's only 6 weeks until Christmas and I haven't done a bit of Christmas shopping. I'm usually finished long before now and being all smug about it. Not this time though.

I have an appointment in Glasgow on Saturday so I should get a chance to make a start to it then. That's when the tricky part comes in to play - what do I actually buy for people? There's little point in buying useless tat. That makes me sad to think that the Earth's resources have been used to make such rubbish and I would certainly prefer not to receive anything at all than some mindless nonsense that has no purpose other than to tick a box on the gifter's to-buy-for list. This might make me sound ungrateful but every year I spend a lot of time and energy into picking a gift that I think the receiver will enjoy and whilst I may not always get it right, I do try. I don't like it when others do not show the same consideration.

That said, I have 6 weeks to procure 24 gifts for family members (and make some gifts for friends) and this year we also have the added challenge of DH facing redundancy.

DH told someone recently about his fear that he may lose his job to which the other person, unsympathetically, told him they were looking to buy a house and asked him for mortgage advice! Way to rub salt in the wound! We wouldn't even still be in this country if it wasn't for the same persons Special Event next year. So our lives are on hold because of them and they can't even try to empathise?

Wow, 2 rants in the same blog post? OK, better settle down!

Took my niece up to Grays School of Art at RGU last Saturday for the open day. It looked really cool, I want to study there! They have rooms full of knitting machines and others full of sewing machines - Heaven! I think she really liked it too and we hope that she will get accepted for entry next autumn. Aberdeen was beautiful and sunny as it usually is when I go to visit. Again, trying to seduce me into moving back there. Maybe one day ...

I won't mention Aberdeen drivers though since I've already had 2 rants.

On another tangent, I was reading some nonsense article in the Scotsman, which led me to the Oranges and Apples blog. This was a fun read and I'm thinking about doing something similar like posting my Outfit of the Day or maybe I will try and do the capsule wardrobe thing. Not decided yet.