Ceroc Weekender

20-23 April 2007

Well in true Melissa fashion I wasn't going to let a weekend in the UK go to waste, although this one was a little more intense than most!! Driving up in Will's car (a very nice Toyoya MR2 Roadster!) we left London on Friday afternoon, arriving in Prestatyn (North Wales) in the early evening for two solid days of Ceroc workshops. Caught a "Ceroc with Mambo footwork" class that evening and then freestyled until half one in the morning - so good way to start a crazy weekend.

Saturday I was up bright and early to check out the beach and go for a swim (it was a bit too chilly so ended up in the pool) The coast was crazy as there were wind turbines out in the middle of the ocean so not very picturesque at all... First class was line dancing at 10:30 which was a lot of fun and a great class to get moving first thing in the morning. There were two rooms with different workshops going on right throughout the weekend so sometimes it was hard to choose. Did "Smooth Techniques" to add some style to my dance and "Dance Psychology" was interesting to say the least. After a quick bite to eat (and a power nap) I was re-energised and that afternoon while Will went off to a reflexology session I tried pole dancing (always wanted to do it but classes are really expensive in London) had a great time and even came away with a couple of bruises to prove I wasnt taking it lightly!!

Didnt have the confidence to do the "Drop Zone" class at 5 so instead got my face painted and hair done all Fame style ready for the "Dance with an 80s stranger" competition that evening. Ceroc is a fusion of salsa and jive and was created in London in 1982 by James Cronin so this weekend doubled as Ceroc's 25th Anniversary, so there was a huge party to celebrate with over 2500 people taking part in the whole weekend. There was a cabaret on that night and with some awesome performances - two hip hop routines, a Mary Poppins one and even one to Thriller. The night turned into freestyle after that and I managed to make it until 3am!

The apartments that we were staying in were self catering and we did pretty well keeping up our energy with porridge, dip eggs and coffee in the mornings and keeping our carbs up with sandwiches, spag bol and cabonara's for lunch/dinners. Sunday was just as intense as Saturday, couldnt believe when I got up that we had another full-on day in front of us! Started with an "Argentine Tango" class first up, "Liquid Latin", "Salsa for Beginners" and a "Partnered Hip Hop" Class to complete my 4 hours in a row. A quick sandwich break (no time for a nap today) was followed by another "Smooth" class and then a choreographed routine to "Boogie Tonight". Dinner, a final cabaret (with a taster of what I'll be missing out on at the Ceroc Champs in two weeks time) and then freestyled until 2am before a quick nap then back up to dance right until the end at 6am. If you want to see more of the professional photos taken that weekend check out http://www.cerocphotos.com/main.php/v/chill2007/

It was a totally crazy weekend but a lot of fun! I think my Ceroc improved heaps and I even got to try some other styles of dancing - might even look into taking up hip hop and salsa, we'll see if Ive got the time... Cruised back via Will's parents place near Swindon for a late lunch and got back into London on Monday evening for a well deserved sleep, nice sitting down at work for a break! Bring on next weekend in London : )

The Midlands

13 - 15 April 2007

Well, making use of my Fridays off again, I took the train straight up to Derby after work on Thursday to catch up with Jenine, a british chick I had met in the hostel in Buffalo, NY after a day out at Niagara Falls - crazy huh! She's going back to do Camp America again this year so this was a chance to catch up before she heads off again - thanks heaps for inviting me up mate!

We were up bright and early on Friday to make the most out of our day at Alton Towers - one of the UK's most famous theme parks, and had a great day. The Theme Park itself is really cool. built on the site of a huge Gothic House (of the same name as the park, pictured above). Because it was a couple of weeks after Easter there were still a couple of Easter/chocolate things around and managed to catch the bunny acrobatic show (they were actually pretty good!) and scored a couple of free creme eggs throughout the day - woohoo!



















Not only was the park itself beautiful, with huge gardens in the middle and gondolas running between the main areas, but there were also some pretty awesome rides there too! Going with just one other person meant we had the option of going in the single rider line, where you pretty much get to walk past everybody in the queue and fill in the spare 1-2 seats that there always are in each car, it was awesome and meant we got to ride all of the big 4 rides twice each in one day! Oblivion (left) is the worlds first vertical drop roller coaster, Nemisis (right) is Europe's first inverted roller coaster, Air is the worlds first flying roller coaster (where riders are suspended horizontally facing down) and Rita-Queen of Speed shoots you out from 0 to 100kmph in 2.5 seconds! Extreme!!
Of course there were also a few of the normal carnival games, I tried to win a huge orange fish (completely impractical whilst on a world trip but would be fun to have!) with a hoop shooting game but at £2 a go I only had one, but the guy let me take a picture with the fish anyway! There was also a chocolate fountain, too bad the glass was there or it would have been mine! Managed to go on a couple of water rides too - and actually got pretty wet on the River Rapids one and the log flume was inside bathtubs!










We were pretty tired out after a whole day of extreme rides but the bus was 5 minutes late getting us back to the station so we had to wait an hour at Uttoxeter station for the next train back to Derby - dont think Ive ever waited 55mins for a train in my life, hence climbing the pole to take a photo next to the station sign, and oh, we found a Wellington St in Derby on the way home : )










Had a bit of a lie-in on Saturday and headed off to Nottingham for the day, it was only an hour train ride from Derby but my third Midland county in as many days! Pretty city with a canal running through the middle and a vibrant shopping area. We checked out the caves (discovered when they were putting in foundations for a new shopping centre) where people used to live (and tanners worked from 1500-1640 in the worlds only underground tannery) and later they were used as bomb shelters. Was pretty cool just wandering through a new random city and of course had to take the token picture with Robin Hood!










It just so happened that on Saturday in Nottingham there was a show called Juggle Monkey put on by the British Juggling Convention, it was a showcase of juggling and circus talents from across the world all gathered in Nottingham the same day we were there - crazy huh! Unfortunately we couldnt make it to the show as we had BBQ plans at a friend of Jenine's but the vibe around town was totally buzzing and we even managed to catch the start of a huge parade as we entered Nottingham Castle, it was amazing! Once all the people had cleared we had a chance to look around the castle, the grounds were beautiful and for £2 we got entry to the castle and the Museum of Nottingham life which was pretty cool too. I think we picked the perfect day to go to Nottinham as it had such a cool feel to it especially with the festival going on that day - talk about lucky!










Sunday was spent chilling around Derby, did some shopping for some much needed new sneakers and took time to sit and smell (or take photos of) the flowers. It was gorgeous weather and a great end to the weekend, just like a Sunday should be, relaxed and sitting out in the sun, was back in London by 8pm and back in at work on Monday, although I can't really complain, its just a four day week before Im off again on Friday to Prestatyn in North Wales for a Ceroc Weekender - gotta love the lifestyle!!

Edinburgh for Easter

6-9 April 2007

Was good to have a bit of a late start (11am train) after the concert the night before, met Paul at Kings Cross and we were on our way, the train up to Edinburgh only takes 4.5 hours but because it was Easter weekend there were no spare seats but we had a lot of fun making ourselves comfortable in the doorway!! Upon arrival we missioned out looking for a good feed and found Ensign Ewart, a pub on the Royal Mile (named after Ensign Charles Ewart - "the hero of the battle of Waterloo") and decided a hearty meal of haggis (chopped lungs, heart and liver mixed with oatmeal) neeps and tatties was just what we needed for a late lunch! So delicious that we returned to the same pub 3 times in our 4 day stay!









We had the Elemeno P/Steriogram gig that night (my second in two nights, see previous post) which was awesome. Great small crowd in a funky club called Liquid Room, had our first taste of Scotch whisky and then continued of the night with a few beers with a couple of the guys from the band at Finegan Mike's (an Irish pub next door), danced to the live cover band there for a bit and finished the night off dancing away at a club called Espionage which was just confusingly fun at 1am with all the different underground levels and types of music










Needless to say after two concerts in two nights, Saturday was nice and relaxed : ) We decided to get some fresh air and walked through Holyrood Park and up the Salisbury Crags in the morning. It was pretty windy up there but really nice views out over the city and it was quite nice to be able to see the sea again! Beautiful just walking through the hills back to the town afterwards too, great how the park is really close to the central city and it was nice just to get back to nature for a little bit



















After the walk we decided to have haggis for lunch again and it was a short walk from Ensign Ewart to the famous Edinburgh castle. It is built on top of Castle Rock, a 400m high extinct volcano and is pretty impressive. We wandered through the Great Hall, checked out the crown jewels of Scotland and the Scottish National War Museum. St Margaret's Chapel - the oldest building in the Castle (and in Edinburgh), is one of the smallest churches in Britain it was built in 1203 by King David I and dedicated to his mother - how cute : )

Sunday we walked up the Scott Monument (all 287 spiral steps to the top) a victorian Gothic Monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. While it was pretty windy and dizzying walking up, the viewing deck from the top of the 200ft monument afforded us more great views of the Castle and a good look out over though whole city. Ditched the haggis today in order for a traditional lamb roast for lunch (seeing as it was Easter Sunday) and then wandered around the new town and had tea and scones with jam and cream at "The Dome" beautiful inside with a huge Dome as the roof (duh!) live music, huge chandeliers and had the biggest bunch of lillies Ive ever seen!

Continuing the theme of eating far too much and then walking it off we wandered up Carlton Hill in the afternoon, unfortunately Nelson's Monument was closed on Sundays but we clambered onto the National Monument to make up for it! Checked out Mary King's Close in the evening to see how people lived in the 1600s, these tiny alleyways were covered up when the new city chambers were built but people used to live in houses off these lanes that were 11 stories high with the small alleyways running all the way down from the Royal Mile to the Nor Loch (later drained and is now the site of beautiful Princess Gardens which divide the new and old town. Paul shouted me to dinner at a beautiful French bistro, I had mussels, veal escalope and we shared a bottle of wine, continued drinking on for a little bit, there was Karaoke going on at Filthy McNasty's at 9pm and a few other random bars along George Street before calling it a night










Monday we walked back to Holyrood Park just outside the city and climbed Arthurs Peak (an extinct volcano standing at 251m - so not that high but very windy at the top) Great view of the city and out to the North Sea, great to get some fresh air and one last meal of haggis before heading back to London mid afternoon - yum yum! Surprising how nice it was, just tastes like the best mince you've ever had in your life, with a great consistency and lots of flavour, almost like a peppered steak.

P.S Everyone in the office has started calling me Melissa McHuggins after my trip, I think it was the three meals of haggis, neeps and tatties in four days that did it - oh and maybe the tartan tie! What a great wee trip : )

NZ Music

Can't tell you how awesome it was to hear NZ Music again - but am gonna try : ) About a month ago, I found that Elemeno P were playing in London on April 5 from a tiny advert in an Antipodean magazine. Checking out their website I realised they were touring with Steriogram - score! and were also playing in Edinburgh the next night (I'd already booked to go up there for Easter) so went to see them in the Carling Academy, Islington on Thursday night with Tom and in the Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh on Friday night with Paul - what a groupie ^^;

London was awesome, pretty similar to one of their gigs back home, huge crowd and so many kiwi accents it wasnt funny! Heaps of people knew the words and it was great to jump around to some of the songs that defined my last summer in NZ. Deja Voodoo opened the evening so that was a great warm up to get everybody in the mood - good times! Tom enjoyed it even though he didnt know their music and I managed to grab a pic with Tyson which topped off an already pretty amazing night

Edinburgh, the next night was a much smaller crowd but it was great because it allowed me to get more pictures and the bands could be much more interactive - most notable point was Dave (lead singer of Elemeno P) climbing off the stage and everyone moshing together to "11:57" on the dance floor - good times! Also got to hear a bunch of new songs from Steriogram's new album "This is not the target market" realeased in Oct 06 so after I left NZ and Elemeno P's new one "SOS"

Because there werent so many people at the Edinburgh gig I managed to get pictures with pretty much all the band members! (just missed Steriogram's drummer Jared but thought it was a pretty good effort) And even hung out for a couple of pints at the Scottish pub next door with Tyson, Tim, Jake and Scotty before their bus had to leave to travel to Dublin for their gig on Sat night - awesome!

Tim and Tyson

Jake and Brad

Dave and Scotty

Lani and Justyn