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

The Perils of Public Transport and Poorly Printed Promotionals

I've generally always been a 'fall in the clyde come out with a salmon'/'piece at anyone's door'/'win the jackpot on a single raffle' type of girl but over the last few weeks a few things have happened in quick succession to make me doubt my overall jamminess.

Last Thursday, after driving 2 and a half hours to a school that wasn't expecting me, I noticed my gears were sticking - a lot. By the end of the day I had lost 1st and 2nd gear completely and by the next day reverse had disappeared as well. I managed to get home surviving on 3rd, 4th and 5th gears on the motorway and booked the earliest appontment at the garage - a week later.

Friday I was informed that the phone number I'd printed on the flyers was wrong and instead of reaching Gilmorehill G12 (tickets still available - book now to avoid disappointment) people were phoning an elderly, typically Glaswegian, man with a tendency for repeating everything 3 times. Still he was gracious enough to accept my apology and has taken the correct phone number to give to anyone who calls.

Saturday I managed to finish the film, Dark Matter, that I was editing for the performance but my 'application unexpetantly quit' and I had to do the last section again making me VERY late for dinner with Alasdair. By the time my train made it into town I was surrounded by delighted Scotland fans, some of whom decided to serenade me in the booze aisle at Somerfields - think a drunk James McBlunt, a very drunk James McBlunt. After all this it took another half hour for the bus to arrive making me almost 2 hours late to meet a very hungry, slightly grumpy (although he was hiding it well) man.

For the rest of the week I've been trying to get around on public transport which I know a lot of people use every day very successfully but it just doesn't seem to work for me. Buses don't turn up, trains are cancelled, there are fires in buildings resulting in detours or birds crap on me while I'm waiting endlessly.

It's been quite a week but hopefully things are back on the up. I've been in touch with some dance companies to take class with in America and the Scottish Arts Council have said they might give me funding to go, I got my car fixed today and it cost less than I was expecting and the Bestival tent (a tent, 2 sleeping bags which can double into one, a double air bed and a pump) has arrived and it was cheaper than replacing 2 sleeping bags.

All I need now is a good performance weekend with lots of new faces through the door (old faces are obviously always welcome) and I think my jamminess will be reinstored... keep your fingers crossed x

Special Blogger Only Offers

*Buy 2 tickets for the price of 2.

*Free dance performance with every ticket bought.

*Ticket includes dance, music, lighting and seat.

*Early bird offer, buy before 1st April and get your ticket.

*Only £14 for 2 tickets when you quote 'Desperately Seeking Fools Day Offer', bf may apply.



Get your tickets for S/S07 now.

FireBox Dance Theatre returns to Gilmorehill G12 Theatre on Sunday 1st April with S/S07.

We're No Here, a beautiful duet set somewhere between the ethers, Urban Honey, a highly charged, technical and fast paced piece set to an original sound score by Magic Daddy and the premier of new film, Dark Matter, filmed on location at the Sub Club will all be featured as well as music from guest artists pANDAS.

S/S07
Sunday 1st April 2007 7.30pm
Gilmorehill G12 Theatre
9 University Ave, G12 8QQ

Tickets £7 from box office 0141 330 5522

www.fireboxdancetheatre.co.uk

Good things come to those who...

Obviously watch too many adverts.

Anyway, my questionable patience paid off last night and I now have 3 Bestival tickets on their way and a feeling of extreme sumgness which I will keep with me all weekend.

Yaaay!

Tick follows Tock follows Tick follows Tock

I wait, that's what I do... No, not for a pint of the black stuff, I'm waiting for the tickets to Bestival to go on sale at midnight tonight. The telly is crap and I've run out of flyers to sticker (some of the April FireBox flyers are getting stickered with info about music, etc to make them more appealing to the young, trendy, clubbing crowd) so basically I have nothing to do for an hour and 16 minutes...

Being the most impatient person in the West of Scotland I'm finding it a tad difficult just sitting here waiting for time to elapse. I have a glass of wine, my credit card is poised and my typing is honed and ready for swift execution. I am also refreshing the website at an alarming rate, hoping to catch the updated page at the precise second it uploads. Yes I really am that geeky.

We decided to go to Bestival after I realised that my little jaunt round the states would rule out the majority of this summer's festivals, to put this into perspective I managed 4 last year alone and have been at every T in the Park since 1998. Discovering the last festival of the year is happening the week after I get back and is typically a scorcher just seemed to good to miss, so here I am willing the little hand to move faster so I can buy tickets for me, boyfriend Alasdair and friend John.

How can it still be an hour and 10 minutes??!!

E-re I go!

My E-ticket arrived yesterday and I'm very E-xcited.

I also booked my flight down to Heathrow at a bargain £30 each way, Glasgow - Heathrow. Makes me wonder how the so-called bargain airlines can justify £50 in taxes to take you from Prestwick to Luton or, even worse, Stansted when it then costs you another £50 and 4 hours to get into London.

Still thinking about the places I want to visit in the States, the problem is they're all quite far away from one another and travelling right across the middle of the country is almost impossible thanks to a few hills or something!

If anyone has any smart ideas of how I can start in Chicago and visit Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, San Francisco and LA I'd really appreciate them. Those damn Yanks! Biggest country in the world (that might not be an actual fact) and they can't blimmin build a decent public transport infrastructure, ours may be late, cancelled, expensive and have leaves on the line but at least it covers the whole country.

Anyway, my E-ticket arrived yesterday and I'm very E-xcited.

Decisions Decisions

Ok, people I need help here. I'm trying to figure out a route across America and am finding it difficult deciding which places to visit.

So far I have New York and Chicago which are set in stone definites as I'm there with my family. After that I'd like to visit Karen in Portland and San Francisco is a must before I fly out of LA on the 26th August. It's the places in between I can't decide on...

Do I go to Glasgow, Montana? Should I take my time travelling and spend less time in each city or hammer it to each place and spend more time in a base? What's the best way to travel? Greyhound or Amtrak? Should I go south then double back up to Portland or stick to the north border?

Small Change

As part of my savings plan I have decided that anything less than a pound coin (although the 50s depend on how skint I'm feeling at that particular moment) will be stuck into a metal Mandarin Napoleon container that mysteriously seems to live in the bottom of my wardrobe.

As well as this I have decided that instead of buying 3 trashy magazines every week I'll stick the £4 in, although I can't give up Heat magazine as that is an essential item.

So if any of you spot me with a non-Heat trashy magazine or anything less than a 50p in my purse feel free to shame me in public...

It's the only way I can do it.

Woohoo or should I say Yeehah!

I have finally booked my flights to America. I fly to New York on the 20th June, travel via Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco (plus many other undecided places) to Los Angeles and then back home on the 26th August.

I'm getting very excited about the whole trip now and have spent the afternoon deciding what to pack, not easy given that my trip will take in laid back country, inner city dancing, work related dancing and a fancy dinner in NYC for my mum's birthday. Plus I can't seem to find my pink, glittery cowboy hat which I know will work so well out there.

Point & Shoot Panic

After the untimely death of my last camera, it refused to take a photo of a hill in Ballachulish then gave up completely, I have been searching for a replacement model. I am now lost in a mind-boggling maze of megapixies (as they are known in my house), optical zooms, digital zooms, LCD screens, resolutions, exposures, shutter speeds and white balances and I am still no closer to deciding which camera to go for.

I have a maximum of £150, want at least 7m megapixies, a big screen and wee features like colour swap and colour accent would come in handy for taking nice dance shots.

Suggestions on a postcard or in a comment please.

Drum Roll Please...

The Boy hates being called The Boy and is now officially happy to be known as Alasdair.

That is all.

Downsizing is the New Black

Well that's what I'm trying to convince myself with anyway.

The bank balance has dictated that the round the world trip isn't happening. Instead I'll be embarking upon a series of mini-tours starting with the USA this summer. I was really disappointed at first but I think it's probably better in the long run, I won't have to sell my car, I won't lose all my contacts at work (it's taken me 5 years to build up a reputation and regular work pattern), I won't go bankrupt and I'll only miss my best pal and The Boy a little bit, I'm thinking they might even be able to join me on future trips.

To celebrate my decision I went to TopShop and bought myself a sexy new black top to wear out with the girls tomorrow night - you can tell where my problems started, eh!

Oh flip it's February!

Eek, this is the month I had decided to buy my flights, thinking that having decided to go travelling almost a year ago I would have saved up enough money...

I really was kidding myself with that one.

From the beginning of (my) time money has burnt a hole in my pocket, I never owned a piggy bank, well not one that was actually used for money (jewellery and randoms bits'n'bobs resided there instead) and my Saturday job wages rarely lasted me until Sunday. A deciding factor in sticking with freelance work was that I can't budget from one month to the next and am much better getting small amounts of money regularly.

Knowing all this about myself and still thinking I could save up should really have set some alarm bells ringing but nope, I was sure I could do it.

Ach well, I got some travel vouchers for Crimbo and have a few payments coming in so fingers crossed.