SORRY FOR THE CAPS; THIS KEYBOARD IS VERY DIFFERENT MANY OF THE LETTERS ARE IN A DIFFERENT PLACE; CAPS LOCK IS ON AND I CANT FIND THE THING TO CHANGE IT;

Thanks to Jqcaues he just found the control to chanqge the cqps lock but everything thqt hqs q q is meqnt to be q ‘a’.

We survived our first comp. I had forgotton about WDSF and the length of their rounds being two minutes. Strange comp with ony Seniors II and III plus adult Latin only. No modern in Adults which is a shame.Surprisingly stamina was OK but by the end I was glad we did not make quarter final. Of course I would have loved to. But was happy to have had this experience. I will go into more detail when I get back to the Netherlands.

Ciao people

Had two lessons with Sylvia yesterday, so in all we had four lessons one in each style. She has made some changes, some of which we can implement. Others we need more time to make it natural. We have not trained as much as we have like, but as they say the show must go on.

I would love to have a year here for our dancing. Not sure how that could be financed but would be a great experience. We are warming up with our new vouge, to help keep in touch with that. so much to learn an implimnent and  running out of time before our first competition. We leave tomorrow morning, we have tonight managed to get an hour and half of training in and it went like a flash, did all four styles tango did not go as well as planned.  I am sure on the day it will all gel.

Got to have my hair done today thanks to Carmen my sisterinlaw, she did a nice warm colour with highlights and did a French roll for me. will be good to see how it holds up till Saturday. hair nets and good hairspray are a wonderful thing.

OK now have to go pack and will post after the first comp. Have fun all.

Tuesday today going into our second week. It was cold and wet today although there were moments of moderate weather but you could not go without a coat. Unlike Australia where you have 8 months of good weather and four months of colder to cool weather they have it the other way around.

After our morning walk and coffee, we took the tram to city,and went to the market in the city,it is a great place to get some fruit and veggies and fish, typical Saturday flea market, with some second hand stalls and cheap socks and underwear. Some trinkets and of course flowers, they are always cheap here, no excuse not to have fresh flowers in your home. The cold today was the wind it is very tiring, so you crave to get into the warmth. Nothing some warm chips and mayo won’t fix…it is a market tradition, standing under the the verandah of a local library which was on the edge of the market in the pouring rain. The biggest seagulls I have ever seen were waiting for you to drop your chip to get a free feed. The other funny thing that happened as we were walking to the market a gull must have dropped its prey,  we heard a thud to find a dead half eaten bird drop from the sky, and almost on our feet! We only had to wait a moment before we saw the gull who had dropped it, come back to retrieve his/her meal.

We headed into the equivalent of David Jones to get out of the cold and spend a penny literally, it costs money to go to the loo, so far we have paid 50 euro cents for a trip to the loo, on that note of paying you also have to pay at big local shopping centres to park your car, so no complaints back home people.

We were suppose to go training today, someone had access to the a studio, but we did not wake up till late and had a slow start. So nothing on the dancing front today, feel a bit lost when I have not gone training. We are such creatures of routine that when we dont do something, you feel outside your comfort zone.

I think Phoebe is going to be staying with us this evening and coming to watch us train and our lessons tomorrow. Will see what she thinks, will explain to her that she has to stay there for quite a few hours. Backup plan is to take something she can entertain herself with.

Last night was a busy one, after a lesson and training, went share a meal with Jer and the gang, before going to pick up Jacques mum and take her visiting some of Jacques family, by the time we got home and to bed it was almost

1am. Tonight will be an early night, that is the plan but we know what happens to those. :-O

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there, it has been a busy couple of days. Trying to do so much each day. Visiting family and catching up with friends. So each night we are in bed late, nothing unusual about that .

Finally got to get on the floor to practice and have a lesson with Sylvia. All I am going to say is shaping shaping shaping. What I have learnt you can never shape enough. Not sure if we will implement everthing It wont have gone into the memory banks that quickly. I am so excited to see some dancing this weekend and get inspired.

Lots of lessons and practice this week leading up to luxemberg open.

Today was Mothers day. Very good day catching up with extended f

amily and a brother of Jacques and finishing  off the day with a  lovely dinner at a  local restaurant with Jacques mother. The restaurant staff we genuine people who loved to give great service something I have not experienced for along time. So  all in all with Good company, it was a great night, now chilling out before heading for bed.

For the first time in 11 years I have been with mum on mothers day. It’s not that I didn’t wanted to go, I just wasn’t able to get there.

This year it was different, I was there and so was Yvonne and it was a great day. After treating her with a dinner, at a vey good Italian Ristorante near her home in Krimpen a/d Yssel, we spend the evening with her at her home.

We had a great time and it was as if time had stood still and the years never passed, funny but we always seem to be able to pick-up where we left off so many years ago.

Returning to her place we spoilt her with another present, an electronic photo album, that we filled partly with images of us dancing and the great grandchildren.  Mum looked very happy with all the attention she got today from us and all other family members.

We love you mum, strongheaded as we are, that’s what keeps us together…. love.