The Jacket April 6, 2007

I think my Jacket wants to stay in SF. Our first day I came here to blog and left it behind. The next day I had to work out if it was at Starbucks or here, so asked in both and collected it from here. Then I went back over the road for a coffee and left it behind again.
To lady in Starbucks “hi, did I just leave a jacket in here ?”
Starbucks lady “didn’t you just come in and ask ?, I checked, its not here”
Me “er yes, but I think I might have left it since then”

Then we went to Amina’s house and out for Pizza and I got back without it again. Luckily it was at the pizza place – where we had a discussion about how Cord meant Cordaroy and how cute that is….

Last night we went to Ultra Gypsy and I left it behind again. Its now hanging out in their studio – I might be able to pick it up tonight when we go to Fatchance, but maybe not. I’m very tempted to go into Gap and buy a new one and just leave the old one to wander the town on its own.

PANIC April 5, 2007

Yesterday I lost Laura. Outside Subway, which is just across the road from our hotel. There is a late night american TV show we often watch having our supper after class where a police team try to find missing people ? – forget the name but along the bottom of the screen it says “missing 55 minutes” – I swear all I could think of was that counter going up from 2 to 20 minutes. This is what happened to me – Laura felt the need for salt so went into Subway to get some crisps, I leant on the wall, checked my phone, watched the traffic, daydreamed a bit. I turned to find out why she was being so long and saw that there was a huge que, but she was just paying, so turned back to the traffic and people watching. A couple of people came out of the shop and I looked round and it was empty. It was like a magic trick. I walked up to the corner, back to the shop, up to the corner, back to the shop. Then I had a pointless conversation with the guy in subway “did you notice an english girl just come in ?, she bought crisps ?, she came in but she never came out ?” – I knew as I was saying it I should have a bottle in a paper bag. I text her, but she doesn’t always carry her phone. so 30 minutes after leaving I went back to the hotel to face an evening on my own and the worry of what to tell her family if she wasn’t back by 10 pm. About two minutes later she was back too. She had been about 10 seconds in Subway before heading off towards the Bart assuming I had gone on ahead. She saw me just as I went down the stairs and ran to catch up but by the time she got to the platform the train was pulling out and she had to decide if I was on it or not.
We were both so shaken and relieved, but then had to decide what to do next. The ultra gypsy class started at 7.30 and it was already gone that, but Laura wanted to meet Jill and we had come along way to miss a class. Anyway we travelled to the mission district and found the studio just as they were finishing their warm up and stretches. We sat quietly in the corner and watched the class. – Jill is a fantastic teacher and I’m really hopeful we can take a class with her on Saturday now. She broke down and drilled a couple of moves in a way I’ve never really seen before. Some of it was fairly complex for a beginners session, but she gave everyone achievable milestones to hit and by spliting the moves and drilling them everyone seemed to show an improvement by the end of the session. I also liked her choice of music – it was hard to sit still and be good.
The mission area is an education – oh boy. I’m glad I got to go with Laura, as I don’t think any out of towner would survive on their own. It was hard not to stare or too look at the floor. They have real prostitutes and everything !! – it put the Oxford road into cocked hat.
We then went back to this end of Market to get dinner and write up our notes – I’m going to need a new notebook. Its good that we are eating late as no one seems to mind our heated discussions and wild arm moves as we work out what we saw or did and how to make notes that will still make sense next week.
Today I think we are taking a boat trip and/or visiting the museum of modern art. Then back to Mission for another class – I’ll try to keep my jaw tighter tonight.

Wednesday (so far) April 5, 2007

NOt done any dancing yet today so its a different kind of report. – skip it if you are only interested in the dancing !
Today we tried to sort out how we are spending the rest of the week as it feels like time is running out to do everything we want to do – Laura had phone calls from Jill Parker and Tex (the tattoo artist – of course !), so she made some appointments.
Laura had to go to the Uni, so I took the bus with her and then went on to the Pacific. I’m very sad, but often the sea makes me cry and getting to the end of the bus line and seeing the ocean ahead of me I got really emotional. I think I spent a couple of hours just enjoying the veiw and reading with the sound of the waves, but to me thats the real essence of a holiday, so I now feel really restful and like its been a holiday as well as all the dancing. Laura joined me and we had a paddle and took some photos – I got caught by a wave so had a wet bum – I’m so sophisticated – and had to walk round with heavy jeans for hours. – it was nice to have my feet in the soft sand and tip my face up to the sun, open my chest and breath warm air (thats an in-class joke btw) – you know if we add the wet jeans to that one we would have really good posture – hmmmmm…..
We then hopped on a couple of different buses and got to Haight Ashbury – yes Cathy, I loved it, thank you – We shopped, people watched and had some food. Laura looked in every tattoo shop, and tried to talk me into gettting another – I’m in two minds, which probably means I should wait. But they are sooo pretty.
I had a very funny chat with a guy – americans are so forward – he said I reminded him of his sister, which was creepy, except I’m sure I’ve read that alot of men like women who remind them of their mothers, so maybe I was giving out vibes that I am missing the kids…. everyone is commenting on our accents, and it seems like they have all lived in London at some time. Its giving us the chance to chat with lots of strangers. The only person who I have given my business card to so far was a loverly lady on the bus who wants to travel the uk next year and I promised to try to remember the stately home with the wonderful formal gardens. Maybe its jet lag….
Ok – I just have time to grab some more food before we head off to Ultra Gypsy. x

Catching up April 5, 2007

OH I have so much to say – I’m really sorry these blogs are rushed, but I’m paying by the minute – I will go and tidy it all up when I get back.

Tuesday we went to El Cerrito to take a class at Suhaila’s studio – the bart trip out was great, we saw some nice neighbourhoods. The class didn’t really do it for me. It was a mix of Yoga and Ballet conditioning, which was fine, but it lacked something – not sure what. Its good to have said we have been and we took some cool photos.

We then enjoyed the sunshine and being in a different town for an hour or so and headed back. After a quick change and bag drop we started walking East to get to the Asian Museum – it was a fair bit further than we expected so we arrived 15 mins before closing – the up side was that it was free tuesday, so it didn’t cost us anything to look in three rooms and then head back.
I’m really struck by how the neighbourhoods change, one moment we were surrounded by suits, the next it was huge groups of big jacketed men and tiny ladies in short skirts. We found the hotel we nearly booked in this area and let out a sigh of relief that we didn’t book it – it wasn’t too scary in daylight (although I havn’t been called a kitty for a while), but I imagine we would have frightened ourselves coming and going at night.
Early evening we took a cab to a class with Amina. The cab got lost and ripped me off, but we had to ask him to wait as it was just a normal house in a normal (but cool) neighbourhood. We hesitated in knocking, but yes it was Aminas house and her ground floor is the studio. We were welcomed in and got changed. With amazing luck this week most of her students were away, but she had decided to run the class anyway – which meant we pretty much had a private lesson with her. I had asked to work on Baladi having seen Marsella dance on Sunday (who is one of her students) and we had 2 and a half fabulous hours with her working on the interpretation. Mainly we worked on three versions of the same song, which meant we used some of the same moves, but not in the same order or even in the same way – oh its hard to explain, but it was wonderful. I’ll have to see if I can find a youtube of Amina for you to see. I was really inspired – if I could magic her over to the UK I would travel for hours to take a weekly class with her.
I came back to the hotel and caught up on some text – I am so missing email !

Monday with Shabnam April 3, 2007

Hello – !
So yesterday was Monday and we started the day with a long lie in then a fair few hours round Macy’s. Anyone who knows me will know I don’t like shopping and really don’t like department stores, but Laura had some things to get so I people watched and proved to be useless at finding the other size of anything. It seemed like half the people there were just taking photos so thats what I did too

Then we took the Bart out to Oakland and walked a couple of blocks to Shabnams studio. Shabnam is a delight – a tiny powerhouse. Her class made us very welcome, and didn’t seem to mind that I kept hitting them when I turned the wrong way. I think this was the second or third class of their term, so we had some fast learning to do to get the choreography – but Shabnam broke it down well and by the end it was coming together. We learnt some combos, then some zill patterns – then did the combos with the zills. I had some trouble with the terminology, but it was a matter of forgetting names and remembering moves. By the end of the session we had a minute or two of it all linked together and the group looked so happy to be dancing and playing with confidence.
The second class was all about drilling slow movements – I’m sure you will know I say that the slower you go the harder work it is – well this was hard work !!! – we stepped slowly and carefully over the floor with every muscle aching and aware of every joint. Again the end results were stunning. I had some great corrections – feel I need to really work on lengthening my neck and keeping my shoulders down.

After class we thought we would nip back to the hotel before getting some food – big mistake !! – ok I know the americans eat early, but by 10pm we couldn’t find anywhere to eat locally – so we took the bus to little italy to find pizza only to find that was all shut too – finally we found a late night pizza place, which did do great pizza but was a bit rough and ready and full to bursting with men. It didn’t feel unsafe, just a bit odd, so we ate pizza and made our move. With fantastic luck our bus was just passing so we hopped on – but the bad news was that it was going the wrong way so we had a 45 minute late night tour of SF including a 12 min wait at the end of the line. More people watching – don’t tell my husband I got lost on the late bus.
I hope that those of you who went to Deborahs class this evening (I know the grammar is shot, but I think its happened) had a great time and have lots to report back – I am missing everyone !
So now its Tuesday morning and we have a busy day of workshops lined up. I’ll try to update you in the next few days.

Sunday Evening April 2, 2007

Ok – so after our two hour walk we returned to the room to get changed and sorted. At this point we had been up for 24 hours, but we had been invited by Rasha to go and see her dance, and we talked ourselves into it. I did have a 20 minute sleep in the bath, which was probably a bad thing.
We took the bus up town and had a bit of a wonder while we tried to find the resturant – we have lots of maps, but there seem to be extra streets everywhere, just to confuse us. When we arrived we were a bit disapointed – it was small, maybe 10 tables – and almost empty. We were given a corner table and settled in for the night. The food was Bolivian, and fantastic – but what cheered me up was that they did Cranberry and sparkling water – with a straw – I’m easily pleased !
The dancing started an hour later – Cairo time seems to be international – and we saw 5 dancers. One dancer was performing for the first time and she was very beautiful, confident but bashful. Rasha is one of those dancers that you instantly like – she had a great performing style, very giving, and a stunning smile. Marsella was my favourite as she had tiny, detailed moves and a constant shiver that was a dream to watch – she danced a Taxsim and the musicians loved it so much they asked her to do it again – and I was so pleased to get to watch it all over. The final dancer of the night was tall and graceful – at first I didn’t get her – and then she looked at me and I melted. Sometimes its all in the eyes !
The band were fab and I will try to find their web site for you – its so nice to sit and listen to live music.

The downside was that we were really too tired – we couldn’t dance and actually had trouble keeping our eyes open. I’m sure we looked really rude, hiding in the corners looking bored – but honestly it was all we could do to stay upright. – The last song went on and on and on…. we wanted to be polite and say goodbye to everyone, but they were all filling the tiny dancefloor and so we carried on clapping and enjoying the freedance long after we should have given up.
Then it was a short taxi ride home and bed – so nice to finally make it into my white nest.
Today we are going to take a class in Oakland with Shabnam – again sorry for not having web links – but I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Off to find food – X

day one – the longest day April 2, 2007

Well – we are here in Kinkos and I need to do a catch up.
We left home at 5am sunday morning, picked up Laura and travelled on to the airport. The flight was ok, except it was over booked, so we couldn’t sit together. It was fine as we both really wanted to sleep – The couple I was sat with were ok, except they didn’t sleep so I ended up hiding in my pasmina like some sulky gonk. Lauras companions were rather more anti-social – ask her, its not my tale to tell !
It seemed very quick and we where in the airport, showing our papers and finding a taxi. The traffic was frightening, although it might be our driver, who had to drive in all four lanes all the time no matter that it was chocka. Our hotel is a dream – look up the Argent – its 4 star and all marble and glitzs.

The room is pretty big, with beds that you have to hop up on to and all big white fluffy pillows and quilt. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to curl up and sleep when we arrived. Instead we went for a bit of a walk. We are on the corner of Market and 3rd and headed north through China town, little Italy and on to Fishermans Whalf – it was so interested to see the neighbourhoods change every block or two – its all very loud, with jazzy music changing to in your face pop as you move from street to street. Maybe it was a bit overwhelming as it was a sunday. Fishermans whalf was very touristy and we were both freaked by the number of dead animals – sorry I couldn’t face the famous Clam Chowder. But we did stop and see some breakdancers. Then we walked back down the through the financial area which was much quieter – and we walked on the sunny side of the street.
Right – I’m going to publish this and post again as I’m worried about writing too much and the connection failing….

ahhhh March 30, 2007

ok – today is panic day – flylady or no flylady. I taught my classes this morning (choreo is looking fantastic – getting smiles today !), then had to take my middle child for an appointment, but had an hour wait- I don’t have an extra hour to wait today !! Then lots of running round as the children all broke up from various places between Reading and home, dog to the kennels (Hubby can’t cope with him on his own), and stopped off to buy some food. This evening the children have parties (club nights, “whatever”), and want to get dressed up for those, while I want to watch American Idol.
The children are off first thing tomorrow and I have to go to work, so might not do the eyeliner
I’m hoping tomorrow afternoon will be a bit more restful.
And I know you need an up to date toe report – did paint them, then dropped a pan on my big toe smudging it, so have to do it again….

Very tired… March 29, 2007

But I only have tomorrows classes and Saturday mornings classes and then I’m done. I have spent this week washing and ironing – oh the glamour !! – it seems like the children want to take everything they own on holiday and its all dirty. I also have to do some thinking because I need to take every sports bra and yoga pants (too much info ?), but I still need them for class too. Thats a job for saturday afternoon.
I am crossing things off lists, although the toes arn’t yet painted – what is fashionable these days ?, blood red or a hint of citrus ? must have trendy toes.
I met Laura for lunch yesterday which helped me feel more relaxed, she really is very nice and I think we will get on fine. She told me to buy new shoes, so I did – thats the only way I can shop. She might be a bad influence.
Today Bram was counting down the hours til they fly and getting very hyper (don’t know where he gets it from), but I think I got most of his bag packed. The big ones can take care of themselves. My clothes are a bit of a heap in the suitcase at the mo, but I have saturday afternoon to solve that. Most worried today about missing everyone. I hope I will be too busy, but actually we do have alot of spare time while over there and even I can’t sleep that much.

Plan A March 26, 2007

Sunday – arrive at lunch time. we think there might be a show, but need to confirm
Monday – some site seeing. Then a class with Shabnam (/www.shabnampena.com/)
Tuesday – A lunch time class with Suhaila Salimpour ( www.suhailaschool.com) then I’d like to take a class with Amina ( www.aswandancers.org), but Laura might take a Tribal class.
Wednesday – Site seeing. Then a class with Ultra Gypsy.
Thursday – A class with Rose Harden of Ultra Gypsy.
Friday – is Fat Chance BellyDance day
Saturday – this one is a bit confused at them moment, but I have a plan to re visit a couple of my favourite teachers. In the evening we are going to see Layla Lanty perform ( www.geocities.com/leylalanty)
On Sunday we fly home.