Ooft, getting excited now!

Lot's of things have been finalised recently and the trip is definitely coming together now. So far we have...

Accommodation for New York
A hire car (the biggest car Amercia has - Chevrolet Uplander - and I can't wait to have a shot)
Acommodation for Niagra (overlooking the falls - somehow I thought they were in the countryside not in the middle of the city)
Accommodation for Toronto (courtesy of my mum's uncle - I'm on babysitting duty for his cutie granddaughters)
and finally
Accommodation for my first week in Chicago.

I'm still looking for somewhere to stay for the rest of my time in Chicago, perhaps a sublet as I'll be there for a month. Any suggestions? Send them via the usual forms of communication, ta.

Haven't even thought about the San Francisco/LA part of the trip but I'll think of that after I've got Chicago sorted.

I have to point out that all of the bookings so far have been made by my mum. In my defence, they're not just for me the whole family is coming too, but she has done all the legwork. Better get my finger out now.

Happy Birthweek to me, Happy Birthweek to me...

Yes, that's right it's birthweek time again and I'm just about coming down from all the birthweek excitment 3 days after the event. Can't really remember when birthweek started but I've always managed to stretch one day's celebrations into a week of events surrounding the birthday extravaganza itself.

This year my birthweek started on Easter Sunday with Alasdair coming over for dinner before going out for a few drinks with the usual suspects. We then tried to go to the Optimo night in the Sub Club but with a bank holiday queue round the block we decided just to go home and dance round my bedroom instead (well I did anyway. Alasdair managed to crash out).

On Tuesday I visited John, the DJ who will be performing on stage with FireBox in the next piece, to discuss tunes for the show before going back to Alasdair's where a few impromptu drinks turned into an all night marathon ending at 7am. Wednesday night it was dinner at Alasdair's friends' house before a training day in Edinburgh on Thursday (can you believe someone scheduled work on my birthweek?!)

Friday afternoon I went round to Alasdair's mum's to collect my pressie from her. I didn't open it until my actual birthday (there are rules to birthweek you know!) but it was a gorgeous silver bracelet. Friday ended with another impromptu party for 2 at Alasdair's with me giving him a countdown.

Birthday.

Woke up and got breakfast in bed before opening my presents from Alasdair: a red and white leopard print scarf, a black denim mini (from the petites range! Apparently he thought it had petite on the label because it was a short skirt... hmm), 2 films I've never heard of before but have been assured they're good, Bombon and Amores Perres, and tickets to see Nouvelle Vague. Turns out he's pretty good at buying presents.

Met Sarah in town to change the skirt for an adult size and have a gossip before the night itself.

I managed to be the first person to arrive for my party but after a quick phone round I discovered John and Mick had decided to go for a beer nearby so I met them before hitting the hottest bar in town (literally the hottest area in any bar I have ever been in) and finding the biggest bunch of flowers I have ever seen in my life. At first I thought they were just part of the decor so it was about an hour later when I was told to go and look at the card that I realised they were from my lovely FireBox dancers.

That part of the night was great with lots of people popping in and having a drink with me, the room was just the right size and when my brother arrived at last orders and told us that if we left the fan blowing in one direction it would be cold air rather hot air circulating it really cooled down and was quite pleasant.

Afterwards Sarah, Alasdair, John and I all decamped to the Sub Club where it seemed to be grab a granny night - lots of middle aged women doing a handbag dance at the edge of the dancefloor is not what I want to see in my preferred birthweek club. Anyway we had a great night there before wandering along to John's house for some more tunes and light refreshments. Thankfully I had drove into town and left a change of clothes, including my converse trainers, for the next day in the boot. Several drinks, lots of 'I love you guys', multiple bouts of the hiccups and a small fire later Alasdair and I decided it was time to call it a day and head home.

When we got there Alasdair realised he didn't have his house keys and the 50p in his pocket isn't really that good at unlocking doors. We also tried my keys and his verandah door but it was access denied and another taxi back across Glasgow to get his keys. After spending £38 and an extra hour in taxis we finally got home at 10am. You can't believe how glad I was I had dumped the heels in favour of the converse.

Unsurprisingly at the finale barbeque on Sunday we only needed a wee top up and we were giggling like schoolgirls again.

A week of eating out and impromptu parties, tons of great pressies, loads of my pals turning up and getting spoilt rotten. It's what birthweek is all about.

I blame the parents!

ps Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad x

G41 loves FireBox

G41 newspaper reviewed S/S07 on Sunday evening and it seems they quite liked it. We had a bit of a nightmare on Sunday between hired data projectors that weren't usable in the theatre, lighting cues being missed, sound being distorted and dancers standing on nails and shards of glass on the stage so it's safe to say I felt a little bit deflated after the performance and just felt that the technical side of things wasn't up to scratch. For those of you who haven't seen a FireBox performance, I like my technical things and use lots of films and precise lighting in my choreography.

After all that I was really pleased when so many people in the audience said they loved it and wanted to see more (although it would have been much better had the tech side of things matched up to the dancers).

'FireBox Dance Theatre had me dazzled'
'electric, tribal and sassy it was extremely inspiring'
'eclectic mix of urban cool & ala disco queens - brilliant stuff!'
'a beautiful array of fresh moves'
'it was awesome'

Full review is online at www.fireboxdancetheatre.co.uk