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December Celebrations
Sinterklaas, Dec 2
Visa celebration, Dec 15
Catch up time
Okay. I just took a quick look at my photo library to see how far I’ve let my blog slide lately, and came up with the following list of events since my last entry! Yikes. So, I finally got around to uploading photos albums each one — go to the Photos page to see them. If it seems like there has been a lot going on lately, there has. These are just the things we have photos for. There were lots of other important things going on! The biggest and most time consuming was Lotte’s Visa Application, which weighed 1.7 kg and basically took Lotte 3 months of full time work (keep your fingers crossed). We also launched a new weekly live jazz club called The Speakeasy at the on August 27, which has been a great success. I presented at the ALT-C and BERA Conferences in September and at a research symposium called Poke 1.0 this month (no photos, but I’m sure you know what a conference looks like). The cricket season ended well, with Cavendish winning the league with 9 wins and 1 loss. We’ve had lots of new challenges to keep us busy too. Work for me has been quite intense since the start of October, because I have been conducting the second phase of the day experience stuff we started last term. Meanwhile Lotte has got herself two part time jobs: selling soap at Lush, and summarising news articles for important people at the Government News Network. All this, and trying to plan for our wedding next year!
Barcelona, LLX, and being sick
Posted by matthew on Apr 22, 2007 in holiday
A lot has happened since my last post. We were in Barcelona over Easter, attending the Barswingona swing festival. But as you can probably tell from the photos, we were a little more focused on the weather, food, and the wonderful scenery than dancing on this trip. For Lotte and I it was a really nice opportunity to go back to this amazing place for a proper look, because the last two visits were too fleeting. The social dancing was slightly patchy for me, although that may depend more on not knowing many people at the festival. Last weekend was spent at the London Lindy Exchange, which was a much more satisfying dance experience for me. The people were really friendly, and the parties were conducive to mixing, which is one thing I really like in an exchange. And it was excellent value. Unfortunately my weekend ended badly when I came down with the most severe bout of gastro I think I’ve ever had! As a result we were stuck in London for the whole of Monday, and I stayed home from work for most of the week, only reluctantly venturing in for important meetings. Lotte’s been quite unwell with a cold as well, so we spent most of this weekend still in recovery mode, while being visited from London by the lovely Dory. Actually, over the next month or two it looks like we’re going to be having a string of guests: Ko & Carla, Beth & Emil, Jojo, Anthony & Sarah, and then Corinne! Then we’ll be off to Week 2 of Herrang, so we have a lot to look forward to.
Barcelona Party
Here’s a couple of photos from the Friday night party at Barcelona. Lotte is judging the Jack’n’Jill contest, and generally having a great time dancing to the spectacular Ivanow Jazz Group. We were over there for a series of weekend workshops that Lotte was teaching with Bill at the Balliball dance studio. I deejayed a 2 hour set on the Saturday night at the studio, and both of us had a fantastic time dancing till the wee hours both nights. We didn’t really have enough time for sightseeing, even though we planned an extra couple of days — but that just means we will have to go back for the Barcelona Swing Festival next year.
Gothenburg and Kungshamn
My last post was a bit short on detail wasn’t it? Perhaps I should explain. Every year (well almost) we go to the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden. This year was my 6th at Herrang, and Lotte’s 4th. The only recent year we’ve missed is 2003, and I can’t remember why that was — probably we’d already done too much travel that year! We’re already planning to be there again next year.
More photos, including of Gothenburg and Kungshamn, here.
Herrang and Stockholm
Here are a few photos from Herrang and Stockholm. We’ve just returned from our trip this morning. It was a really fantastic holiday and involved an awful lot of dancing and an awful lot of sleeping, with some sightseeing in between. I’ll post some from the second part of the trip (in Gothenburg and Kungshamn) shortly. 
Frozen Hamburgers
This weekend we’re off to Hop In The Spring in Hamburg, Germany. It looks like a fun weekend, but I’m wondering a bit about the name. It’s below freezing in Hamburg right now, and the forecast is for snow, snow/rain, and snow. That doesn’t sound like spring to me. This is sure to be a test of my not-very-snow-friendly shoes, especially because they will be doubling as my dance shoes. Hmmm…