Wow what a whirlwind trip to Luxembourg. The car trip there is four and half hours and the freeways here are huge. Your never are on a small country road like in Australia there are dual or three lane highways during the whole trip there and back.

The comp was very interesting in the fact that it was only Seniors II and III and Adults open Latin. Intersting combination, most of the senior competitors were from Germany and Italy and a few from the other Australia {AUSTRIA}

The fact that we have not trained that much showed, or it felt that way to us. There were fifteen couples on the floor in the early rounds and they also changed the heats around so you may have been in heat 1 for the waltz, heat 2 for tango etc and with that we missed doing the tango for seniors II :-/. So we thought ok that is that done and dusted and we would be out but we were then called back for the repercharge, only three couples would go through to the next round. Suffice to say that did not happen for us. Of course it is very hard to tell how others are dancing when you are dancing yourself. So I was looking forward to the evening session to see who went through.

Some of the competitors that were eliminated during the early rounds did not stay and left to drive home. One couple who were from Germany had a 200km journey home.

As I may have posted earlier, I had forgotten that the WDSF have two minute rounds and because there were only three different groups dancing we were on the floor often. It started at 10.00am and we had danced four times and finished by 12.30!

At home often the MC will make idle chit chat to give competitors breathing space but no they just went on to the next dance! No breathing space at all especially in the repercharege rounds.

During our lessons with Syliva we learnt some new moves, but not all of them we were confident enough to use. So we reverted to what we knew, but incorporated the shaping. We will incorporate them into our routines on our return.

We were not dissapointed that we did not get any further, it was what we expected. We knew the standard of dancing was higher in Europe. When we went back in the evening they had a parade with all the couples that made the quarter finals, which was nice. There were a few speeches in French, so I had no idea what they were about, such a beautiful language though.

So waited for the dancing to begin, I wanted to watch intently how these compeitors looked like on the floor and what we needed to emulate. The italians were brillant and the couple that I believed should win, the male patner was not a young man, I believe him to be in his sixties,their,styling, control and grace was wonderful to watch and I think they would have won both II and III. I have not yet checked the results. Their stamina is amazing I am sure those two minute rounds done regularly makes them super fit.

Not that it made me dispondent but more determined to do better. If this smaller comp made us feel this way what will our experience in Blackpool do…..The journey continues.

Well the day started early enough woke up at 5.45- Dont think the body clock is in sync yet.

Had a reasonably full day today. Working on a tablet is quite frustrating but better than nothing I supose it does not have all the functionality of a normal keyboard and going back to make changes is a pain in the you no what!. We started the day early as we had plenty to do and silly to pay for parking until two if you are not going to be in the apartment so we were out the door by 9.00am. Went to a big shopping centre to buy Jacques mother something for Mothrs Day bought her an electronic picture frame. She is quite infirmed now but good in spirits. We hope to take her out to dinner on Mothers Day. She can’t walk without a frame and getting down the stairs of her apartment it a challenge for her.

We then went training and got to meet our Dutch coach Silvia, she was lovely we will have our first lesson on Saturday. Not sure why but everything is caotic around us at the moment and when we got to the training centre I realised one of my shoes was not in the bag! Jacques had to
Drive back and pick it up from the apartment. roundbtrip of 50 Minutes :-/, What a dill we seem to be forgetting things or misplacing things, hope that settles down quickly.

But it was nice to get on the floor and practice. I love practicing just as much as competing which is a good thing . Worked on some waltz, tango and foxtrot. Interesting that all the dance studios that I have been to in Holland have bar facilities. I think they must have all their soicals at there own studios. we hope to find a social on our journey.

We then went to find a place that sells practice clothes not far away from the studio and came across this little town and decided we would have a late lunch. We want to eat our big meal in the middle of the day and hopefully lose a couple of kilos or at least maintain what we are :-p, very hard around this place with all the lovely treats that are on offer.

We caught up with Jacques mother again and Jeremy, Natasja and the gang, those kids are full of energy it is wonderful I wish I could get some of that .

OK off to bed and see if I can get some sleep or better sleep.

Take care..

Well the flight across from KL was a good one. Not too bumpy. Funny thing when we got on the plane they did not have us sitting together. I am sure Jacques thought this was his lucky day but a kind person sharing my row swapped seats and we had three seats between the two of us. We could stretch out a bit more.

The landing was great often those bumpy ones dont make me feel too good :-/ but this pilot did a fantasic job. It was raining when we landed and we got in earlier than expected. So we had to kill some time before we could pick up the hire car. So at 6.30 we were having coffee and cake.

We got to see some of the traffic jams they have here, dear old Adelaide is quite spoilt. Managed to get some sleep before heading out to see Jacques mother who has not been welll. It is probably needless to say that she was really pleased to see her son.:-) Made her some of my groeten soep and she liked it .

We then made our way to do some shopping and get a sim card. I always thought it would be easy to get connected and where we are staying we have access to wireless but when travelling you have to buy a sim card in each country to get the cheap rates. Which I dont think is very friendly.

After all of that we caught up with Jacques son Jer and wife Natasja and the three grand kids. They were all well and happy to see opa

At night, heading back to our accommodation and finding a park was not that easy….all the spots in our street were taken and we had to park down the street. You need to get money in the meter by 9.00. No free street parking even for residence. We are staying in inner city Rotterdam. So I would understand why people dont have cars. Goodnight world another day beckons after a good nights sleep.