Having just got engaged and Steve successfully managing to plot and plan a complete surprise we then jetted off to Sharm El Sheik in Egypt. We were still on a high and looking forward to 2 weeks of total relaxation in the sun. I'd spent ages trying to find a hotel that suited both of us so that I could work on my suntan but have enough activity so that Steve didn't get too bored and we hit the spot with the Blue Bay Reef Oasis. We'd pushed the boat out a bit but it was well worth it. The hotel was fantastic and being on it's own reef we used to spend the afternoon at the beach snorkeling for a couple of hours. The variety of fish were amazing and all the dive boats pitched up near our hotel to dive at the reef. Steve often amazed the shore divers free diving down to their depth with just his snorkel on! We managed to tear ourselves away from the luxury a couple of times having dinner and looking at the stars in the desert and not to be missed - the Pyramids. We'd booked in the UK and this turned out to be in our favour as we ended up with our own personal guide and tour bus - which often proved a welcome escape from the scorching heat of the sun. Cairo was scary as no-one obeys any traffic laws and there are about 6 lanes of traffic trying to drive in 3 lanes! The artifacts in the museum just take your breathe away as do the pyramids themselves - you really don't appreciate just how big they are until you are there.
Sadly the holiday had to come to an end (and so too did my tan a few weeks later!) but we'd lined up a few things to look forward to on our return. One of these was the addition to our family with our 2 kittens - Enzo & Tabitha.
We had seen them at Gables Dog & Cat rescue home when they were just 4 weeks old and decided to give them a home so they were ready to collect on our return. They come fully vaccinated, micro chipped and have just been neutered as part of the terms of taking a kitten from the rescue home. They took about a week to settle in and are now fully at home flying round the room and getting their claws into our leather sofa!!! As they've just been neutered we can now introduce the world of outdoors to them..although this last week when I have tried they have been somewhat reluctant to go out from the warm! - they're not stupid!
October fast approached and soon it was the 25th - my 34th (Arrrghh!) Birthday and our engagement party. My Mum came down from Bedford for the weekend and my brother joined us from London and we had a lovely meal with them and Steve's family at Zucca's before heading on over to Annabel's for our party.
For those of you that came thank you so much for sharing in our night, for Annabel for letting us use her venue and for Sam for organising putting up the pole so that my fellow instructors and my friend and student from Exeter, Nicole could perform for us. Thank you all for such amazing performances which really opened the eyes up of some of the work colleagues and family who were there - so much so that they are now students with us! I had a chance just to relax and enjoy watching everyone - well it was my party so think i deserved a night off!!! I escaped a hangover the next day although Steve and my brother were not so fortunate!
Christmas suddenly crept up on me - as it always does. I think I have loads of time and then suddenly it is upon me. I must admit I didn't really feel in the mood until we actually got to Xmas although I enjoyed some Xmas pressie shopping trips into town (funnily enough Steve doesn't share this view!). After some change of plans Mum and my brother arrived on Xmas day having driven from Bedford which meant I was solely in charge of cooking the dinner. I was a little nervous as I really didn't want to burn the Organic free Range turkey that had cost a fortune but thankfully it worked out well if I do say so myself.
Xmas day turned out to be pretty good. Steve's kids were with us in the morning and had fun unwrapping all their presents and then my folks arrived and we had dinner. I think it was about half eight before we got round to unwrapping our own..oh the control!
I'd planned a nice week off from work to relax and recharge with the family over Xmas but apart from Xmas day it didn't quite work out as I like the rest of the world got struck down by this flu bug. Fortunately we'd planned a romantic night in for new year's eve as this was the first year neither of us were dancing/DJing respectively so we had a nice dinner, settled down in our PJ's watching Jools Holland with a glass of champers (which my lovely boss and team from BT had given us as an engagement pressie) and saw the fireworks going off over the city. The bug and cough eventually shifted after nearly 3 weeks but came back this last week which I was not amused about! Fortunately it's not stopped me doing anything but I've been pretty tired and run down from it. I was partly disappointed that Sam had had to call off the AOD social this Saturday night as I'd managed to find a couple of hours to put most of a routine together - but then the other half of me was glad to be able to relax and put my feet up and have a beer - plus I have a routine I can carry on working on for the next event.
Sorry for the long blog but I think I'm pretty up to date now with the main events I've been up to. I think I've caught up with most of you in the Plymouth studio and the Exeter studio on Monday nights. We all experienced a bit of a slow start to the new year with the flu and finances being tight but I'm pleased to see many of my familiar faces back - particularly in Exeter and welcome to lots of my new ladies there - and my gent in Plymouth - Jeremy.
Finally as you are all fully aware the Art of Dance has gone National..and now Global with the recent events over Sam's latest performance - we couldn't have asked for better publicity. I'd just like to add that I too am proud to be an instructor for the Art of Dance and am proud of Sam for being such a great boss and role model in working on removing the negativity surrounding our art form. Go Sam!
Ta ta for now...and I promise not to leave it so long
xxxx
