Back to bellydance

I finally got back to bellydance class this week after a very bad bout of allergies. Feels so good to be back in class and pushing myself. I go to a double class on Monday night, in Maitrland, run out of the Simplee Jazz studio in High Street. The class is run by Mikola, who is a great teacher and a lovely dancer. She does a beginners class at 6.30 and an intermediate class at 7.45, both running for an hour. As money isn't an object (she accepts payment in LETS Mollies) I go to both classes. I figure it never hurts to go back over the basics and as she teaches differently to Sharon, my first teacher, I am always picking up something new.

This semester, Mikola is teaching the Intermediate class all about drum solos, and it seems she is intending us to do a demo of one in July at a bellydance festival in the vineyards. I love the drum solos, but am unsure about doing a demo, as the last one was a fiasco.

The last demo we did was at a Seniors Wellbeing expo at the Maitland Town Hall. I felt like we didn't do enough practice. All the other women had done the dances at a demo before, and had done extra practices to ensure they knew what they we doing. I didn't so I wasn't sure, and in consequence, I felt like I had done really badly.

The medieval dance classes I run are going well. We have a good solid core group who regularly turn up to the Saturday classes in Newcastle, and we have been asked to do some demos in the next few weeks. This Saturday we are doing a demo for a 60th birthday party in Rutherford. Steve and I will lead and Evelyn and Andrew the Bearded have committed to dance too. We will stick to the simple dances which look good.

Next week is "Cultural Stomp" a multicultural event held in Civic Park, Newcastle where we will be doing a demo instead of our usual dance class. Come and have a look if you are in the area. We are supposed to be dancing from 3.30pm. There is always lots of entertainment, and plent to see. I think Evelyn is also organising a LETS stall for the day.

In July we have been asked to do a demo for the Hamilton CWA, and maybe actually get some of their people up to dance. That should be fun. Some of the dances are so simple, anyone can join in.

Glouchester

Last weekend my husband and I decided to have a day to ourselves. We dropped Miss 4 off to her Oma (Grandmother) and then took off on the bikes. It was my first ride with hubby on his new bike so we were unsure how well the Vulcan cruiser would keep up with my Z750 sportsbike. It handled rather well. Cornering was slightly slower than mine, but as we don't ride uber fast anyway, it made for a pleasant and leisurely trip. We rode out through Raymond Terrace to Bucketts Way, a fantastic riding road, and a great scenic drive.

We were heading to Glouchester to pick up a birthday present for Miss 4. Recently a new couple had joined our LETS group (http://www.auslets.org/hunter/) and were selling gnomes for "mollies", our LETS currency. As we have plenty of "Mollies" and not much cash, this seemed a great idea. Miss 4 loves quirky things for our garden, and this seemed to fit the bill. Here is the website http://www.crystalcreekproducts.com.au/gnomes/index.html.

10km out of Glouchester we turned off onto Barrington Tops Road, a narrow scenic road up into Barrington Tops. The countryside was beautiful, although I was concentrating on working out where we were supposed to be going. 15 km in, the road turned to dirt. The sportsbike didn't like this, but the cruiser handled it all with aplomb. I think if I had been riding the Z750 unmodified, it would have been a disaster, but since it was lowered by Scotty, the bike handles significantly better.

5 km further on, Barrington Tops road turned left and the road we wanted went straight ahead. We were close now, but I couldn't remember the block number. We pulled over to check the address and hubby noticed a woman come out of one of the homes and wave to us. We rode over, and introduced ourselves. Yep, we had found Linda of Crystal Creek Products.

Linda and her husband Ted were lovely friendly people who made us most welcome. They have a beautiful block of land, with a small creek on 3 sides of them. It was very beautiful, like a fairie paradise. Apparently they have platypus in the creek, a family of water dragons living on the block, echidnas, wallabies and wombats all visiting on a regular basis!

Miss 4 had already chosen her gnome, so all we had to do was collect it but when I saw what she had on offer, I thought there was an opportunity for us to work together, so I chatted to her and we worked out a suitable arrangement. I now have some of her gnomes to sell on consignment amongst my plants at the next Linuwel Markets. They fit the criteria, hand made by a local artisan, and will fit in well with my herbs and plants. Hopefully the arrangement will be mutually beneficial.

While she was showing me her current stock, and some fantastic quirky items she is working on (she is in the process of completing a gnome chess set), she showed me a "Green Man" plaque she had just completed. Both hubby and I love the "green man" concept and Steve has done some green man decorations on some of our pine furniture, but this was in another league. It was stunning. We fell instantly in love with it, and ended up buying it too. Could you resist?

Linda has a lot of gnomes around the property, and when I commented, she told me that they are there for paint testing. Apparently she rigorously and personally tests all the paints she uses on the gnomes to ensure they do not fade over time. If any of them do fade, she won't use that paint.

We were very reluctant to leave such a beautiful spot with suich pleasant company, but knew we needed to get back to collect Miss 4, so off we went. The trip out was a lot faster than the trip in aas we knew where we were going. I also got to look around a bit more and enjoy the scenery. Even the cows on the road were picturesque!

All in all, we had a great day, with an enjoyable ride, fantastic scenery and lovely company. Thank you, Linda and Ted.