Devon Car Show Pictures 27th July 2008 - Exeter Racecourse

Thanks to the Street stylers southwest, the south wests biggest car enthusiasts club, for the fantastic images from the Devon Car Show. The event was a great day out for me and the rest of the art of dance ladies. Picture left is of me doing 'The Plank'

I have to be honest that I felt very weak on Monday after all our recent performances but picked up a bit last night whilst teaching, I tend to be inspired by the students and their ability to take on new challenges and last night was no exception. All the ladies on the 7.30pm class learned to invert and for those who were already able to invert they were practising more complex inverts such as Gemini's (see picture below of me demonstrating the Gemini). Great work ladies.

To see Rosanna's pictures from Sunday just visit her blog, we also have some video footage to upload which I hope to process ASAP.

We have also been invited to the South West Motorcycle Show to be held in Exeter on the 23rd and 24th August, full details to follow.

I finally have a definite start date for our fitness pole dancing classes at the Bishop's Court Hotel in Torquay, Classes will be held every Tuesday at 7.30pm and Wednesday at 6.15pm & 7.30pm and will commence on Tuesday 2nd September. You can book places via the art of dance website.

Saturday will see the grand opening of Plymouth's first cage! The Saints gym open day will feature a fighters fitness challenge, a tyre pull, Arm wrestling, A BBQ provided by raffles bar, demonstrations by Saints Coaches and fighters, a prize raffles hosted by Black Thunder Amy for the Plymouth Sound Charity, Unite, For full info check out the Saints website, hope to see some of you there on Saturday.

Good Luck to Nixi during the last few days of her YMCA fitness course.


Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Sunburn!

Before I start the main topic of today's blog I must share something with you, the wonderful designer VJ Pablo has joined the art of dance facebook group and posted some amazing pictures, check out the picture (left) of the wonderful Jenyne on the pole, stunning! To see more pictures check out the art of dance facebook group.

I would like to think I am always careful in the sun but this becomes difficult when you are performing outdoors on a pole in the hottest day of the year so far and you can't use sun tan lotion as it prevents you gripping the pole and you can't cover up because you need skin contact to do pole tricks! We were of course performing at the Devon Car Show from 10am yesterday morning until 3pm. Jo, Sue, Rosanna, Hayley & I did our best to keep hydrated - plenty of mineral water and a lovely innocent smoothie containing goji berries for slow energy release, I took a lovely home made pasta salad containing organic seeds of change spinach pasta, seared tuna chunks, fresh spinach, lentil and bean sprouts, mixed seeds and a splash of balsamic vinegar and plenty of ground black pepper. I also got through a vat of peppermint tea.

I now have minor sunburn which is not good and stupid tan lines in the shape of hotpants and a sports bra as well as some very sore areas n the backs of my knees from standing with my back to the sun in an effort to avoid the harsh rays. I thought I had been careful but obviously my precautions were not enough.

Our first performances were at the edge of the main site before we were moved to the main stage performing alongside Chris Gilchrist and his team of beat breakers. Chris and the guys will hopefully be linking with the art of dance in September when they will be offering various urban street classes in our second Plymouth studio. The second studio will have a packed timetable of classes including Burlesque, podium, yoga, flexibility and floorwork. More news on that to follow.

It was a long day for all of us and it was a nice relief to get to raffles bar in the evening to watch the full Monty. What a show, the guys performed the full routine without a hitch and shocked the audience by removing ALL of their clothing. Sue. Rosanna & I were each presented with a bouquet of flowers to thank us for helping with the the week's fundraising and the week has raised well over £3,000 so far. Phil will be presenting a cheque to St Luke's very soon.

It was nice to read about Glamour Puss's antics over the last few days, seems she has been busy performing too.

Be warned that over the next week I will be filling the blog with pictures and videos from our last few performances,

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

A night at the Theatre

Well what an amazing night, if you haven't already and you get the chance you must see Flashdance the musical, it is simply stunning. The energy throughout the show was superb and Arlene Phillips' choreography was electrifying. One small criticism regarding the pole dancing was that it looked poor, OK so the girls were meant to be dancing in a strip bar and were not meant to be the best pole dancers in the world but it wasn't the greatest choreography either. That aside I couldn't fault the performance or the amazing set. I would love to know where the theatre got their podium poles from as they looked solid and had built in lights. Well done Theatre Royal for following on from Mary Poppins in such style, a great world premiere for Plymouth.

Tomorrow will be a long day for Jo, Rosanna, Sue, Hayley, Kelly and I as we are exhibiting from 10-4 at the Devon Car Show at Devon & Exeter Racecourse followed by a trip to Raffles to watch the Full Monty. I was treated to a dress (or undress) rehearsal this morning and the set is really coming together. I did learn that Velcro trousers are not actually that easy to remove and could result in injury if performed incorrectly i.e. bending at the knees, Also the Velcro thongs decided to pop off very prematurely so will need a re-think! I am sure tomorrow will be a cracking day.

After our performance at Raffles on Thursday evening we raised nearly £600 for St Luke's Hospice and we are hoping that by the end of tomorrow the grand total for the week will be nearer £4,000. I will keep you posted on the final sum and add some pictures from our night and the Full Monty, if you can't wait then just click here to read Jo's blog which has a few piccies from Thursday.

The last few days has highlighted how great my life is at the moment, I have had the pleasure of spending some time with my amazing mum as well as being joined by my fantastic staff team who have been donating much of their time for nothing to help raise money for St Luke's and to raise awareness of the art of dance. I now need to spend some quality time with my husband too and hopefully next weekend will give us the opportunity to enjoy each others company as well as enjoying our fantastic new BBQ - pictures of this feat of brick building to follow!

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

So much to report.

Yesterday morning at 8.30, whilst waiting for the plumber (who never showed!), I had a flick through the this is Plymouth website and stumbled upon this article. For those of you who can't be bothered to click the link the story is about the mural I have commissioned for the side of my business premises in Plymouth. The front of the building isn't that pretty and desperately needs a coat of paint so I thought I would approach a local artist, Daniel Wheatcroft, to paint a mural on the exterior of the studio depicting two pole dancers.

Ok, so a couple of aspects of the story are slightly misleading, firstly as it says pole dancing club not Pole dancing school the reader could assume we are a lap dancing club, also the whole mural will be 25 foot and the actual dancers will be approx 8 foot high. Also the project will take approximately 10 days to paint although the entire project has taken 10 weeks with the design and planning process. But who wants the truth to get in the way of a good story. At the end of the day this is great advertising for the art of dance and the article allows free discussion about pole dancing as a fitness. Check out the controversial comments that have been made on the story and feel free to add your own!

I must thank the electrician, Norman Muzzell from Muzzell lighting for some great work as always, not only are his prices good but his customer service is great. In addition to electrics he also is a provider of sound and lighting equipment and has worked on several events for me. Norman will be installing some new lighting for me as soon as the mural is complete so that it will be floodlit at night.

Check out the fantastic article on Rosanna and Sue's choreography of the full Monty. See picture right! Hopefully Jo has been carrying out the selection of stretches I sent her via e-mail earlier!

Finally my new PC is up and running and most of the new software is installed, a huge thank you goes out to Fabrice from NRG telecom for all his help in resolving the problems, I am sure he must be extremely fed up with my calls by now but I simply couldn't have resolved the situation without him.

Just a reminder to any students that the art of dance will be closed tomorrow evening as we all off to watch Flashdance the musical, apparently it features a pole dance! Also as a result of my old PC crashing I have no database so if any of you want to get in contact just send an e-mail to sam@theartofdance.co.uk with your address, e-mail and phone numbers so I can update the new system. I thought I would finish today's blog with a picture taken by my husband that shows Chris from global eye photography, Jo and I looking like we are staying in an asylum!

Off to perform now so Stay healthy,

Sam x

Gremlins

I think my office has been invaded by Gremlins and they are causing me a great deal of stress! It is over 10 days since I have had full use of my office, it started with the main PC dying, followed by a problem with the PC in reception, followed by the ongoing problem with Orange failing to configure my broadband connection effectively (they have assured me that the problem will be fixed today!), add to this the monitor on the main PC blowing a fuse at an hour when nowhere was open. The problems are still ongoing and my mountain of admin is slowly increasing.

It is quite scary how reliant my business is on technology and the last week has cost me dearly. Hopefully things will be back to normality very soon.

One good bit of news was that my Plymouth premises passed it's annual fire check today, one less thing to worry about.

Yesterday saw the start of the Raffles fundraising week for St Luke's Hospice, the week began with a cheese and wine evening sponsored by Gold Star drinks. Tonight is quiz night and tomorrow is games night. Thursday will see me and the rest of the team performing some amazing pole tricks and the gorgeous Georgina Gale will be doing a Burlesque pole striptease! The event is free but we will be taking donations for St Luke's on the night. Sunday will be the final night of the fundraising week with Phil Gill and a team of guys doing the Full Monty, more news to follow on that!

A quick bit of news on our facebook event - pole dancing bruise of the month, Here is my favourite bruise.


I have just had confirmation of the regional heat for Pole Divas championships 2008 to be held in Bristol on 6th September at Pole-play studios.I am also thrilled to learn that our star student and art of dance receptionist, Tamar Preston, is entering the amateur section. I will keep you posted on further news regarding the competition.

Lastly Congratulations to AmyTree for completing the race for life last Sunday!

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Performance pictures

What a great night Jo and I had at Garramarsh Farm near South Molton last night. We had been booked by Impact Artists to do the gig along with Suzie from Malarkey. We were booked to do 3 x 10 minute sets between 9-11pm but ended up performing for a bit longer as it was such a good crowd. The crowd, mostly males in their mid to late twenties, were at the end of a stag weekend or Stag Fest as hey had called it. Basically it was a mini Glastonbury with us performing outdoors on a very uneven surface. The DJ provided us with some Drum and Bass sets as backing music and we danced until our muscles could take it no longer. The stage had at least 3 of its 4 corners resting on some ground and the damp air added a nice slippery surface to the stage but other than that we managed fine. I also have some pictures from last months performance at Club Vanilla Tomorrow is the start of our fundraising week so I will blog about all the events taking place at Raffles and then it is back to performing again on Thursday at Raffles and Sunday at the Devon Car Show. Sorry all the photos are so dark but will have better quality picture soon.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Action needed urgently

Just a quick blog today as I am in such a bad mood that I may write something terrible. Just to summarise I am fed up with large (high profit) companies who offer no customer service at all, they seem to prefer hiding behind Indian call centres with staff who are unable to deal with any issues, I feel desperately sorry for the poor folks working in such call centres as they must get an awful lot of grief, however as a paying customer I expect to be able to speak to someone when I have a problem.

It seems that whether it is mains suppliers, communication providers or government offices help is not close at hand. Here is one short example: My mum turned 60 in April so a month before her birthday she made enquires about her pension to see whether she should defer till 65 or not. It is now July and no one will give her anything in writing to tell her what (if anything) she is entitled too.

I run a small business and it is hard enough coping with the day to day admin without large companies and the government adding to my woes. Rather than whinging as I am doing now I have decided to take positive action so expect to find me camping out on someones roof or chaining my self to some railings at some point soon. I did like Jo's idea of sending your shirt to Gordon Brown as a way of saying 'you are taking everything else so why not have the shirt of my back!'. Any suggestions for action please let me know.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

I thought I would start today's blog with news of Muay Thai champion Christi Campbell. Christi is just in the procces of doing two weeks work experience at Saints gym, as you can see from the picture Sid is making sure Christi keeps up her physical training regime whilst learning about the ins and outs of running a gym.

I promised I would update you on local Parkour trainer Rob Green. He is now running Parkour sessions at Mount Tamar school on Friday evenngs from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Each session costs £3 and there is a joining fee of just £10. If you are interested in having a go just e-mail Rob - smoothments@hotmail.co.uk. I have just booked another private Parkour session with Rob for myself, my instructors and some of my students. The session will take place on Friday 1st August at 4.45pm, I can't wait. I will also let you know when Rob's website is up and running.

The Full Monty training is going extremely well and Rosanna & Sue are working hard to ensure that the guys from Raffles know their routine, as you can see from the picture below, the guys are well on their way to learning the full routine, more news to follow on their pending dress rehearsal. Hopefully this event will raise a lot of money for St Lukes.

A warning to the Wednesday night students that it is me teaching the classes tonight so expect pain, bruising and general exhaustion.

Congratulations to the lovely Amytree who has just got a new job, this is great news for her and I am sure is well deserved.

At long last work is about to start on my second Plymouth studio - Yippeee, The work starts this Sunday which means that I will spend most of Friday and most of next week running to and from the tip - very glamorous! Hopefully the studio will be up and running by the end of August at the latest and I can then start work on the front of the building, these are exciting (but very expensive) times for both me and my husband but hopefully they will be fruitful. if not expect to see me having a nervous breakdown mid September!

Off now to do some banking and then to await the arrival of my new computer, my old one has finally died, so more money to spend out but hopefully a chance to organise all my files and get back to computer normality! I will leave you with a photo of a beautiful Triumph Stag owned by Vernon Jones on display at the recent Herald Motorshow.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

What a weekend.

Well what a weekend! The Real Ale festival was great fun and Gordon, the Bruce Forsyth appreciation socity and myself had great fun sampling some of the 145 real ales on offer, we didn't manage to get through all of them! Gordon decided to chalenge me to a drinking competiton (not a healthy reccomendation I know) and insisted that we had to drink half for half and compare percentages, at one point he was leading by .5% but I soon regained the lead and anounced my victory, Gordon attemped to lay down another gauntlet but my victory was safe. As Gordon also weighs nearly twice as much as me I think I won fair and square. Chas and Dave (and Mick the drummer who is now in his eigties!) were superb. It was probably a good thing that the queues to buy beer were so huge as I consumed less beer that way. Big thanks to one of the Camra volunteers for recommending my beer of the festival - Cheddar brewery Potholer. My second favourite was Cotleigh Breweries Blue Jay. Cotleigh are a great local brewer who name all of their beers after birds of prey and also support the hawk and Owl Trust.

Sunday was fight day with Mick Kileen (pictured left) and Paul Rimmer(pictured below right) from Saints gym fighting at an event in Penzance. A large group of us piled onto the train to go to the event. It is the first time in ages that I have been on the train and I was very impressed. It cost us just £6.25 each (group discount, tickets should have been £9.50) for a return ticket and the journey took less time than travelling by car plus it is a very pretty journey. We were slightly dissapointed at the lack of a buffet car on the first journey but made the nost of it anyway by pinching Paul's sandwiches, unfortunatety they were peanut buuter on white bread, not my favourite but they were better than nothing.

On arrival at the venue the fighters weighed in and we were gutted to find that Mick's opponent was 3 kgs overweight and despite some skipping he could not get his weight down to 73kg so the fight was called off. Paul's fight was still on and also on the cards was a fight between Taurus fighter Rob Hingston who also trains at Saints. We went through the usual rigmorale of hand wraps for the fighters, oiling, warming up, prepraring towels and gumshields etc before venturing out of the changing room to watch Robs fight. The fight was a kickboxing match of 7 x 2 minute rounds. I guessed that Rob won 5 out of the 7 rounds but was horrifed by the judges decision to award the fight to his opponent, Mike Nudd from Touchgloves gym. The crowd went mad and even the opponents trainer, Nathan Kitchen, admited tha he thought Rob had won the fight. The fight will now be subject to an equiry but this does not make up for the fact that Rob clearly won and was denied his title as a result. Even if the judges decison is overturned Rob will have to fight again to win his title. This was a truly terrible incident.

Paul entered the ring in confident fashon and clearly dominated throughout all of the 5 x 3 minute rounds, it was an A-class fight so included elbows & knees to the head. There was some blood as elbows do tend to cut the skin easily but the fighters were in good spirits and hugged each other after the fight. This is a really good win for Saints and for Paul and I look forward to watching Paul continue his Thai boxing career.

After the event we ventured to the local pub and celebrated the wins before returning to Plymouth on the train. I have to admit that we were a litle rowdy but the conductor was lovely and didn't complain too much about being hugged by Mick as Mick tried to stuff cans of beer into his pockets. Apologies to the other people on our cariage for the general drunkeness but all in all we were well behaved and in very good spirits.


Today I feel absolutely shattered, as you will gather from Rosanna's & Jo's blogs we have all been feeling the effects of the Parkour session and what with a hen party to teach on Saturday morning and the trek to Penzance I couldl realy do with a day off, but no peace for the wicked as I am teaching for two hours tonight. My husband is also feeling the effects of working extra hard due to the expansion of his gym, hopefully we will be able to find time to have a day off together soon.

A quick whinge to Plymouth City council over their ridiculous new speed bumps on the main road around the hoe, I am unsure if my car will actually go over them and they seem completley over the top. What is wrong with getting a few officers out and about to tackle any boy racers rather than passing the buck (and cost) and affecting the motorists who don't cause any trouble. I have serious reservations about where this country is going and I have absolutley no confidence in Plymouth City Council or the current Labour governent particularly in light of the recent scandal of MP's expenses. The worrying things is that many of us don't even bother to vote ny more. Oh and to add insult to injury it seems the controversial new Life centre, which I strongly disagree with, will be privatised. Something needs to be done to stop this blatant abuse of responsibilty by those who are supposed to be looking after us.

Enough ranting for today, Stay Healthy,

Sam x

A world first?

At 3.45pm yesterday 7 of my staff (pictured from left to right are Tamar, Hayley, Me, Mia, Nixi, Rosanna & Jo.) arrived at Mount Tamar School for some staff training, for most of them they ha no idea what they were about to do but it was soon clear that we were about to do Parkour with local specialist Rob Green pictured below. Rob warmed us up and started off by showing us how to land safely. I must confess that I was rather thankful for the rain, we were meant to be doing Parkour outdoors but the bad weather forced us to retire to the indoor hall full of crash mats - phew!

Parkour originated from french military training with a naval officer called Herbert admiring the strength and flexibility of African tribesman, he quickly adopted the idea of Parkour, here is a quote from Herbert - "Methodical, progressive and continuous action, from childhood to adulthood, that has as its objective: assuring integrated physical development; increasing organic resistances; emphasizing aptitudes across all genres of natural exercise and indispensable utilities (walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrium (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming); developing ones energy and all other facets of action or virility such that all assets, both physical and virile are mastered; one dominant moral idea: altruism."


Rob was a great teacher and soon we were all leaping about sometimes landing well and other times landing badly to the amusement of the other group members. We were thrilled to learn that there are no all female street Parkour teams so if we carry on with our training we would be a world first!! Everyone has decided that we seriously want to do some more Parkour so watch this space for more info. I willsome times an prices for those of you who fancy having a go.

For students and friends of the art of dance we now have our own facebook group group, I have to group has taken off well. I have added a bruise of the month and myspaceadmit I am struggling to get the myspace bit working well but the facebookfeatures expect to see some great injuries.

Great news for the Plymouth branch of the art of dance as we will be joining forces with local street dancer and International champion Chris Gilchrist, as soon as our second studio is finished I will be letting you know about all the new timetable of classes including Burlesque, Street, Flexibility, Yoga and more!!

I shall sign off for now as it is the Real Ale festival tonight. I will be blogging again on Monday as tomorrow I am doing the corner for two of my husbands fighters at an event in Penzance - full report to follow.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Ketchup, Ale & Cages

At present I am on the second day of my week long food diary to help studies run by the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer, it is quite interesting recording everything that you eat and drink over a 7 day period and is a great way to evaluate your diet. The diary has reminded me to share with you a new found ketchup that is the nicest ketchups I have ever tasted: Tiptree Tomato Sauce is 75% tomatoes and has no artificial ingredients, it is packed full of the tomatoes active ingredient lycopene, lycopene is said to be effective in helping combat cancer. Regardless of the Tiptree sauces health benefits it tastes gorgeous.


On a less healthy subject I am pleased to be of to the Camra real ale festival this coming Saturday with the lovely Gordon Sparks, we are both looking forward to seeing Chas and Dave performing live. If you are not familiar with the infamous Chas and Dave then where have you been! Here is a link to a video of them performing 'Rabbit'.


Great news from my husbands gym as the new cage arrived today, it is Devon's first cage! The cage is part of a major expansion for Saints gym. Sid, Christi and various helpers have been working hard to refurbish the new unit and things are really starting to take shape, more news to follow on the open day that will be held on the 26th July.


Today is quite a relaxed day for me, Jo is dealing with the admin so I can catch up on a few other things. Hopefully I can sneak in an hours pole practice at 5pm today with Jo. Lastly Good Luck to Nixi who is off to London to do her Studio instructor course with the YMCA. If you are going to do one of these courses the YMCA are the best company to use as they have the highest standards.


Off to do a bit more work then home via raffles!


Stay Healthy,


Sam x

Remembering Sue

Well yesterday was a very eventful day and didn't start as planned, On the A303 just before Yeovil I had a blow out, luckily I was on the inside lane and was in fairly slow moving traffic and was right next to a lay by. The spare tyre and jack were fine so I started to replace the very badly damaged tyre. I have to thank Dale Pittman, a roofer from Yeovil, who stopped to make sure my mum and I were OK, he helped with the tyre change as I was already covered in oil and directed me to the nearest garage so I could buy a new tyre, It is so nice to know there are still some good Samaritans out there.

After the delay we manged to get to the crematorium on time and sat through a moving service, before going onto the wake. I was a little aware that my dress, which has been on a hangar for a very long time had stretched a lot and was perhaps far to low cut to wear to a funeral but I had no alternative. Excess cleavage at a funeral really isn't the desired look but at least I was wearing pink as requested and my cardigan hid most of the undesired flesh.
Sue's sons, Robert & Seb, and sister read beautifully and the day did turn out to be a fantastic celebration of Sue's life. There were flowers on the coffin but the family requested that we all donated to the following charities - the British Heart Foundation and the Headway - brain injury association- rather than buying more flowers.

The wake was held at Sue's brother house and was a chance to chat about Sue's life and remember all the best times. It was great to catch up with Sue's three sons, Robert, Stephen and Seb and I hope that we will remain in contact. It does seem sad that Sue died so tragically just before her retirement which she was so looking forward to , life had already dealt her some difficult blows yet she always battled on and I remember her as a happy and caring individual and I know that she was a very dear friend to my Mum.

If you or anyone you know are affected by bereavement then you may find the facing bereavment website really helpful.

It was a long day, having set of at 10am and not returning till 10pm, I find motorway driving extremely tiring and the bad weather did not help matters. I feel fine today and am just catching up on some admin in the office whilst Rosanna and Sue work with 5 guys who are doing the full Monty for charity - full details to follow. Also thanks to Jo for holding the fort while I was away, my business would not survive without her and the rest of the team.
More news on Monday as today I will be resting (have forgotten what rest is!) and using catch up TV to watch Dr Who, Criminal Justice and then brand new Top Gear.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

General news

I have so much news that I am not sure where to start! Firstly here is an article that has just been published in the Women's Institute magazine about me - all very flattering and great for the fitness pole dancing industry:For the last few years I have been participating in two cancer studies, I joined the EPIC scheme in my mid twenties and have been actively involved ever since partaking in dietary research as well as giving blood samples and keeping the research unit posted on other health issues via regular questionnaires. I have also joined Breakthrough Cancer again giving blood samples and answering health and diet related questions. These schemes take up a tiny amount of my time and are invaluable projects in researching cancers and their causes.

The Ladies at Watch Ashore are familiar with the work of breakthrough cancer and are arranging a fundraising coffee morning at 10.30am on September 24th at Derriford URC church hall. Jo & I will be exhibiting and speaking, I will post more details nearer the time but tickets are already on sale at £3.50 per ticket and can be bought from Sue Vickery - 01752 813303/07795967330.

On the subject of health and diet I must mention last months- Innocent smoothie of the month - Mango's, coconut and lemongrass, simply gorgeous and packed full of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. I have yet to try July's smoothie of the month!

I must reiterate my views on the moon cup, it is simply brilliant! I hope that Glamour Puss has the same experience as me and am delighted to hear that apparently I fit into the category of best dressed vagina! Puss - I will await my award! Honestly ladies, this little bit of silicone is simply far more hygienic than traditional sanitary products and will save you and the environment a fortune which has to be a good thing.

If you are near a radio on Monday morning at 8.30am then be warned that I am being let loose on BBC Radio Devon again with the lovely Gordon Sparks, I have a special surprise for him!!

I am off to Fareham tomorrow for Sue's funeral so will not be blogging then but hope to catch up with you all during the weekend. News to follow on an exciting new project for the art of dance involving a talented local artist!! Also dates to be announced for the release of our seriuosly adavced DVD vlume 1 and our new venue in Torquay at the gorgeous Bishops Court Hotel.

Stay healthy,

Sam x

Whinge

I am still not feeling 100%, I perhaps haven't rested as much as I should so my bug is still lingering in the form of yellow mucus in the nose- probably some sinus infection, my period has lasted for 9 days, my main PC is sick and probably needs replacing and I have a long drive to Portsmouth on Friday for Sue's funeral. Apart from that everything is fine.

This evenings pole classes went well, all 3 hours of them, and I introduced some new session plans so well done to the students who survived tonight's classes. Thanks to Jo for the lovely fresh carrots, beetroot and cucumber from her Dads allotment which I have been munching my way through. In an effort to help make me feel better I have resorted to my traditional remedy of drinking honey, lemon and chilli's infused in boiling water.

I read with horror the recent blog from Glamour Puss, After my recent slating on you tube I can sympathise with how Puss must be feeling about her blog review, it is not only insensitive but it does not take into account that we all have different interests. It is like art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder therefore it is difficult to assess what is good and bad. The fact is that glamour puss has a large audience so she must be doing something right otherwise people would simply stop reading her blog.

Interesting health news from the Peninsula Medical school regarding their Earlybird project, the project was set up to study the growing problem of diabetes in children. Research has found that current guidelines for how much children should exercise could be seriously outdated and should be reviewed. The research also suggests that measuring one's body mass index is not necessarily a good indicator of good or bad health.

Anyway enough blogging for today, my thoughts are with my mum, hope she is feeling OK after the tragic death of her friend x.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x