Great British Weather!

well- I have been back in Scotland for nearly a week now... busy catching up with business, and family and friends... I thought it would be no problem at all to get around all the people i want to see in a month, but at the speed i am going at I guess a month is nowhere near long enough to see everyone i want to see- panic! And then there is the shopping.... mum and I have already been checking out the sales.... 'Monsoon sale'- nothing beats it (although could do without the monsoon type weather which accompanied it!).

I took the train to Leeds on saturday to teach a weekend of private classes and to perform for the dance crowd down there. Unfortunatly there were huge floods and my 3 hour train journey became 7 and half hours!!!!!!!!!!!! Fields looked like lakes with so much water sitting on top of them... gardens flooded by overflowing river banks. I felt that God was giving me all the rain i had missed in the whole Cairo summer over the course of one day...........oh how I missed the Cairo sunshine... and as for the supposed classes that day, grrr..... didn't happen did it. Was interested to note though that I seemed a lot more patient than my fellow travellers- my 'waiting 'time in Cairo is already paying off in my temperment by the looks of things. I was much calmer and cheerier than i would have been before I moved to Cairo, thats for sure!

However - even despite the horrific journey- it was totally worth it, the crowd in Leeds were just wonderful. They have a lovely bar/indian restaurant called Spice where they have live bellydancing every thursday evening and they put on a special night for me going along on the saturday. They even supplied me with Adam for the evening- a fabulously talented and intuitive arabic drummer- we did a really spur of the moment drum solo which was shimmylicious- Thanks Adam!!!

Its funny how a dance crowd in UK that dont know you react when they 1st see you dance- a real mix- many girls smiling and cheering and shouting out even... but others looking at you in a serious, almost intimidating manner. As a performer its hard to know whether they are mentally critisising you, or busy concentrating trying to work out how the heck you just did that last move!!!! Even after all these years i still really appreciate the comments at the end of the show which help me know whether to feel happy or sad after a performance !!!!!!!!! So a tip for all you dancers out there- even if you are concentrating on working out the moves (bless you- thats me watching Rhanda!) - try and stick a smile on your face for the benefit of the performer!!!!!!! ;-)

The whole night was a total joy including the chat in the car and the pizza with champagne!!! ! What a fun and welcoming group of girls, a very well organised and planned weekend of events (Thanks Sabrina!) and some really stunning dancers too- looking forward to seeing them next year again, and also at the JOY festival in April! ( photos of the performance night to follow as soon as I receive them!)

Better get back to babysitting now.......... my nephew Sam is 2 and a half years old, and getting really cheeky and funny. A real character! He will make it really hard for me at the end of the month to want to leave Edinburgh and return to Cairo. Wish I had some Cairo sun so we could be out playing in the garden... rather than stuck indoors with a lousy head cold, but I am not really complaining..... just focusing on enjoying my time with him as much as possible. oops- he's waking up- better run.......................!