Kyria's journal

After doing henparties for over seven years now, it was finally time for my own bachelorette party! With lots of effort from ikaiya on organizing the whole thing and getting everyone together, I drove my bike to her house around 13.00.

I knew nothing about the activities and was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the place, with a lot of jewelry supplies set out. We made bracelets and talked, I made a wedding bracelet (pearl, green and purple) and one to match my outfit (red and black with key and heart charms). Afterwards we went to a nearby park where everyone brought out their homemade goodness and we had a picknick. It was enjoyable and a lot of fun and most importantly, within budget of all attending. The homemade hummus and homemade guacamole were absolutely divine, I have to start making those myself!

It was an alround good day, as I started with running 6,47km and for the first time since I started running in 2009, I did a couple of sprints. Sprinting feels really good, like trying to take off and fly away. I have no idea how fast my sprint is in reality but it felt wonderful.

1. my classes started and I have two lovely groups of ladies. I scared the shit out of my intermediates yesterday with the 8 minute shimmy drill. My beginners class has two return students + two people who dropped by because of worth of mouth. I am a happy camper. Bellydance 1 is doing a choreography to Fakerni by Haifa Wehbe. I chose to do a more theatrical style with less repetition, as it appeals better to the creative nature of some students. Last semester had a choreography that relied on symmetry and counting, this one is more about musical interpretation.

Bellydance 2 is getting a drills/improv thing, meaning we work on drills for a saaidi choreography for the 6th of april performance, and on improvisation with Aziza (the song, not the dancer). It is an easy song to recognize the structure and I feel it is a good way to usher my students towards classis BD songs.

2. running! The Netherlands had the whole snow and ice thing going on, off and on during the last couple of weeks. I got a bit out of practice with regards to running but I was reminded today that I will be doing the CPC run at the start of March (yes, in three weeks). I upped the ante and went with 10k instead of 5k, as I usually run 7-8k for practice. Those extra k's will be heavy, but I run for my company and we have our private changing area and a sportmasseuse. Meaning I can drop on the floor of our pavilion afterwards and do my yoga stretches and all will be well. And if I don't recover on Sunday I have a good excuse to call in sick on Monday :-)

3.ballet. due to work I missed the last three classes. Eep! I look forward to getting back in class next week. My turns are getting better and so is my core strength, so that is good. If I could get back into running my flexibility would greatly benefit, nothing beats stretching after a good run for improved range of motion.

4. badminton. Also missed several classes int he past couple of weeks due to work. It is not a priority but I hope that I can make it to at least two sessions per month. I am getting better at foot placement and strategy, but I don't play often enough to ingrain the patterns for shuttle placement that I need. *shrugs* It is fun though.

5. horseback riding: also missed classes here but I went last thursday and had a blast. Things are solidifying into my system, I hve a better sit (meaning better balance on a horse) and I use the tension on my stirrups better. When the weather gets better I want to  do a 2 hour ride outside once a month, I imagine that will be lovely.

6. my own BD practice: I have several practice sessions planned in the next months with various groups: expanding our repertoire with FaKyMa, rehearsing with the LAT project (30th of march Groningen, april 5thin Amsterdam) and Sense of Bellydance (hafla on april 6th). My fancy has been tickled by the online classes from Datura and Raqstv, but I told myself I should start with the dvds in  my closet first. I am once more trying to do a dvd this month, I have to keep up with my flisties on the dvd challenge.

Yay for lazy Saturdays! I feel much beter then earlier this week, less tired and like I might actually be doing stuff right every once in a while.

I've been running for a while now, most of it on my own along the Amsterdam-Rijn canal. But I subscribed to the CPC run (City-Peer-City) in The Hague and run an oficial 5K tomorrow. The initial idea was that my brother and some friends were signing up too, we would run together. However, they somehow ALL managed to not subscribe in time and I'm the only one competent enough to read the website and fill in the webform. *cue unbelieving face here*

I'm starting at 11.30, will finish before 12.00 (fingers crossed, haven't had a good practice run in the past eight weeks).  I have no clue how this works and their website is down and probably will be down tomorrow morning too, I'll just show up in time, change, give my bag to the locker people and show up at the start. 

Later that day, when I traveled back and had a shower, we're celebrating the first birthday of Ronja, ikaiya's adorable daughter. I can't wait to see what Ikaiya baked for the occasion!

Somewhere in between I have to squeeze working on my concept of a Management Information Policy Plan that I need to deliver soon. March is an exciting month (read: I'm terrified) as I have three deliverabled that I need to sort of finish and send on it's way in the decision making proces, through our IT director, through te directors meeting, up to the I-council and to the Executive Board. 

O, and on account of my subletter I need to have a talk with her. We share the plates/cups, and they have al dissappeared last week and haven't showed up again. I suspect that she's keeping dirty dishes in her room, which could lead to critters/mice/rats. Also, not cool as we share and they are all mine. Otherwise things are smooth between us, we're both not a lot at home.