Christmas and Frankie

Merry Christmas! Only one more sleep...!

I haven't really stuck to my promise...I blame Christmas.

I've been so busy buying, wrapping, cleaning and baking!

I also just got the latest Frankie magazine. But I can't read it (I'm saving it for New Year's Day).

It's like torture.

It sits on my shelf in all its gorgeousness saying - Read me! Just take a peek! Read me!

So sometimes I do. Only a little peek. It doesn't really count...does it?

I've been kept busy so I don't have much time to read it anyway.

From my mum calling out to me from the other side of the house: I've got a job for you to do! What...another one? Yes, could you please...(insert household task here). Ok...

to wrapping, decorating and cooking.

I love Christmas and all the festive preparation that goes into one

food-filled-stuff-your-face-and-the-turkey day.

I can't wait to do it all again next year!

I've been a little slack with blogging lately (well, ok more than a little, you could call it neglect). It just that I've been extremely busy with ballet that between school, ballet and sleeping I have almost litrally no time

what-so-ever.

Rehersals are full on - everyday from the afternoon into the evening. But I love it.

Rehersing for the concert is the best part of the year.

It's closer to the real life of a ballerina.

It is, however, a bitter-sweet moment when the curtain comes down for the last time; we finally get a break but we have finished all the shows and there is no more performing to look forward to.

So anyway, I am vowing to make more effort with my blogging.

Here it is in writing:

I will make more effort with blogging on my blog.

You are looking at the 2010 Joan Burnett Winner (well sort of since you can't actually see me)!

I won!

I just got home from a competition for ballet.

It's called the Joan Burnett OAM Scholarship and is a prestigious award given to the best dancer in R.A.D ballet Intermediate Foundation level or Intermediate level in Tasmania.

And I won.

This years competition was the sixth ever. (and I won!)

There were 29 competitors and out of those 29 people Simone Goldsmith chose ME!!!

(Simone Goldsmith is an ex-Principal Artist with the Australian ballet and

she thought I was the best!!! EEEEEE!!!)

I was so surprised, when she said my name I was sort of thinking "Oh My Gosh. That's me, is that me? IT"S ME! Woah! I just won the Joan Burnett Scholarship. Wow."

I was trying not to grin too much but it was hard to resist.

Someone took pictures for the news paper (Yes, I do have autograph. No, you can't have it.)

I have won a weeks worth of classes in Melbourne. I am so excited!!!

YAY! I WON!

First Ballet Injury

A few weeks ago, I was stepping off an excersise machine (I acctually hadn't been doing any excersise)

and I felt my ankel pull and do a weird clicky thing. I wasn't too concerned until it became so painful that I couldn't walk on it. I went to the doctor, he told me it was just a repetitive strain injury and to rest it.

I went to my physio to see if she could help me any furthur. She couldn't really tell what it was but said it could be an archilles injury.

This worried me a bit because archilles injuries can be extremely drastic for dancers. If the archilles tears or ruptures then it can be the end of their career, for me it would be the end of the world.

I couldn't dance for a week or so and this ment that

I didn't have enough preparation to do my ballet exam even if the mysterious 'injury' did get better.

To cut a long story short, I didn't do my exam but I have the oppourtunity to do it early next year

(which turns out to be a good thing because the sequel to Phantom of the Opera is starting in that place then, I think it is called Love Never Dies)

It also turns out that the pain was probaly due to the fact that I am a slow grower and there is still cartillage in my heel that hasn't turned to bone yet. I was told to rest it for a few more weeks but that was really disapointing because there is a competition on this weekend and it will be the last year that I will be able to enter and we have also started rehersals for our ballet school's concert

(keep an eye on this space for more info)

So this week I decided to do my best at ballet and see how much I was able to do and go from there.

I was absolutely amazed. I had no pain what-so-ever.

Mysterious 'injury' gone, with just as much mystery as it came.

Odd.

Anyway, now I can do the competition, see Love Never Dies and I still get to do my exam.

Through the days that I wasn't allowed to dance I realised more than ever that

I don't just want to dance, I need to dance.

New Caledonia Holiday

I have been away for a week, enjoying a mini Summer paradise in New Caledonia. A group of French students from my school as well as another school went to the island to practice speaking French (at least, thats what we told the general public...it was more of a holiday rather that an educational trip).

I had never been away from my family for possibly two-three nights maximum but I didn't feel nervous or worried at all. In fact, I didn't really feel anything, it didn't feel like I was about to go on holiday, let alone to another country (which I have never done before).

Daily rundown:

Day 1

5am start! Fly from Launceston to Melbourne. Melbourne to Sydney. Sydney to New Caledonia. Lots of travelling but not very tired. One of the best things about the day was that all the safety demonstations of the last flight were in French so I didn't have to here them again. I loved how the flight attendents all spoke French to us. When we first saw the city (Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia and where we were staying) one of the other studens pointed out that 'it looks like West-Ulverstone'. It did in a way but most parts were really pretty (apart from the fact that most buildings were that horrible peach colour). We had tea a really groovy place next to the hotel. The vegi burgar that I had was nice but had too much unidentifiable sauce in it!

Day 2

My first experience of the hot weather. Sticky and no air movement. Yuck. We had free time unil 12:30 so my room-mates and I went for a walk and looked around the street we were in. At 12:30 we went to Parc Foristier. Heaps of birds! Some really different ones and really beautiful ones too. There were owls that followed you with their eys where ever you went. I think they were my favourite as well as some white peacocks that were georgous. Bagette with salad for lunch. A ginormous apple and a bottle of water too. An afternoon swim in the massive pool then time to get ready for tea. Starters: Salad. Main: Rice, noodles, beans (which I didn't eat) and chips. Desert: Vanilla and chocolate ice-cream. The best speaking experiences of the day: Saying 'bon jour' (hello) when I ment 'au revoir' (good-bye). Told a local the time (in English, it took my long enough to work it out in my native language, let alone in French!). Buying an ice-cream in French (Toblorone flavour). 

Day 3:

We had a French lesson on how to buy things from shops. We then all went for a walk to the various places that people wanted to buy things from. I bought an almond croissante from the bakery. It was so good but to big to finish! For lunch I bought a panini that had three different cheese in it. It was really long and sickening. I only managed to dowm about half of it. At 1:30 we went for a tour around Noumea in a petit train (little train). It was bright yellow and rather conspicuous. This was one of the best things we did because we got to see some amazing things and learn a bit of history about Noumea. Every person that we passed, I waved to. They always waved back and I even managed to get a few photos of them waving. One little boy blew kisses and tried to chase the train to catch up with it, but we turned off to soon! When we got back to the  hotel, I went for a swim and we played a game where you have to push the others off an island type thing in the middle of the pool. It was here that I got my first battle scar. I was one of the last two people on the islad and then I fell off sideways, scraping the inside of my thigh. It was bleeding and was bigger than both my hands. the next day it had massive black bruises rigt around the injury. It still hurts today. I bought an ice-cream after my injury (chocolat noir). We had tea at the hotel: salad, pasta and strawberries with (what I believe to be) brandy cream tart. It was really yummy! There was show where the native people danced and sang. It was so amazing! A little boy threw a fire stick and did tricks with it.

Day 4

38 3/4 hours down...1 1/4 to go

Still not eating (don't forget to check out my page on the 40 Hour Famine website).

To my surprise, I'm acctually not that hungry.

Until I think about food.

My mum made a Dutch apple cake and I had to block my nose so I couldn't smell it. Then I walked out to the kitchen (silly thing to do, I know) and my mum and dad were eating it.

Pure torture.

I am extremely sick of the taste of barley sugar lollies. But I'm desperate. I keep thinking about whether I am hungry enough to be like the guy on Man vs. Wild and eat a discusting bug with green insides.

And then I think:

NO. 

Still Hungry...But Happy!

On an empty stomach I headed off to the D.E.C.C to compete in the Eisteddfod for ballet. Not the smartest idea...but everything was fine. After extreme make-up application and my hair being pulled so tight that I looked almost bald, I warmed-up. I was competitor no. 8 (out of 11) so I was lucky enough to have a few people before me come off stage and mention the fact that the stage was really slippery (it's all the jazz and tap people's fault). I resined (sticky suff to help you not slip in pointe shoes) my shoes and resined again, and again, and again just to be on the safe side! My turn to dance and I was still doing last minute resining. It was a bit slippery (I din't fall over, thanks to the resin!) but I finished the dance and ran back to my friends on the other side of the stage who had already danced. There were a few more competitors whose dances seemed to last forever and then - the results.

This is the part where I uually get a bit nervous, if I do then I know it's a good sign.

As soon as second place was announced, and I didn't have a place by then, I knew who would get first.

Me. And I was right, I won! YAY! I got first place for my classical solo! I also got second last night for my demi-character dance! Not bad, hey?

Next up...Launceston Festival of Dance! Can't wait!