marylittlegoth

Still tired after Gothla (going back to work today was probably a bad idea!). But we did have a fabulous time.

We weren't sure about when we'd get there on the Friday, but in the end after leaving Colchester about half two we managed to arrive in Leicester at about half five giving us time to find a chippy and get dressed up a bit to go to the Hafla on friday night. The Hafla was brilliant, I think my highlights were Morgana, Sashi and Ariellah, but I liked the group with the gypsy style skirts (I can't find my programme so have lost their name) and Raqs Macabre reduced us to tears of laughter. It was also really nice to meet Angela from Tribe Zuza and Jesse who I'd met at Raqs Britannia. After the hafla we went off to the Quebec club, and danced our little socks off for a few hours before turning in.

Saturday we relaxed in the morning before wandering over to the Souk to look at the pretty things and do a little light shopping before Ariellah's workshop. Lunch in the cafe / sandwich place next door (the people in there were really nice to us) and then on to Ariellah's workshop. I was half really looking forward to some serious focus on arms, as I've found them really hard (lots of boxing doesn't make for graceful arms) and half dreading it as I find them really hard. However, it was brilliant and I really felt I took a lot away from it. I found Ariellah a great teacher and really nice too and kept up better than I thought I would. It's also really nice to dance to music I know and like. And One and Qntal, yay!

After the workshop it was a quick change and out to the buffet meal, we were running a bit late, but were reassured but a couple of dancers we met that the restaurant were happy wiht that so there wasn't an unmanageable rush. We'd only just got out of the hotel when we bumped into Ariellah again, and wandered up to the restaurant with her, listening to Dean's tales of winding up gormless american tourists, and bemoaning chav's who below abuse out of cars. At the restaurant, we got chatting to various people, especially Clare who lived quite locally and Sonia from Germany, living in London.

Food was great and we trolled back to the hotel to get ready. This took a little time (he heh, okay, quite a bit of time), but suitably dolled up we made our way out to the club just in time to catch up with Lee (DJ Cruel Britannia) who my husband Jamie had DJed with when we toured with the Last Dance in 2006, and his lovely lady Laura, before he had to go and DJ. Much dancing and drinking ensued, and I even managed to say hi to Neal from Screaming Banshee Aircrew who I hadn't met before as he's joined the band more recently. We also got chatting with Sonia who we'd met in teh restaurant. Back to the hotel, pack so we don't have to in the morning and go to bed.

Sunday we had the workshop with Ariellah early, so a quick breakfast then off to the workshop. This one I found harder but still managed to pretty much keep up, and felt again that I took a lot away.

Back to the Souk to look at pretties and we bump into Sashi. I'd been sent photos of Keri,my friend from Calfornia, by Shawn last Wednesday (Keri is the girlfriend of Jeff from The Last Dance, and Shawn married to Pete the bassist). I'd known for a while Keri was getting into bellydancing but we were pleasantly surprised to see that she was dancing with Sashi. Hence we introduced ourselves, and it turns out that it's a terribly small world and not only does Keri dance with Sashi, Sashi's known the guys from TLD for years. Thus ensued much swapping of "gory stories" and drinking tales and we all wandered off to lunch together before it was time to make for Sashi's workshop.

Sashi was *mean* :o) !!! she really made us do a serious cardio, running up and down, warm up to get us really flexible before starting to work on the combo's, more like the warm up I do before kick boxing than what I'm used to for dancing. It was effective though and we soon went on to the combo's. Sashi has a completely different style of teaching to Ariellah, and it was really good to move into a different view of it. You see and understand it from more ways. I really enjoyed the workshop and learned a lot to take away with me. Katie was also very pleased to dance to NIN, and me to dance to VNV. Even more surreally, after whole TLD connection with Sashi, in the workshop I bumped into Tamsin and Nadia who I went to school with 15 years ago and who now live in Germany. We instantly recognised each other, bizarre!

Anyway, we pretty much had to disappear immediately the workshop ended as Dean had to be back on set for the independent movie he's been roped into (I'm in it too!) and after a few quick goodbyes and swapping of contact details we zipped back across the country to collapse in an exhausted heap back in Essex!