Trapeze classes.

Before I tell you all about the Mists of time trapeze classes I must give you some feedback from Friday night at Lux Park, it was simply brilliant.

I had 11 kids all of about 15 years old, they arrived at Lux Park at about 7.30pm with Fiona the appropriate adult ( I always insist on having an appropriate adult as I am not CRB checked, still trying to get some grant funding so I can get all my staff CRB checked but at present the cheapest courses I can find are about £80 each, then times that by 7 instructors and two receptionists and it is no small sum!).

Anyway 1 of the kids decided that she didn't want to join in and when asked replied that she couldn't be bothered, I didn't hassle her but did explain that if she didn't join in from the start he could not change her mind halfway through, the girl explained that she just wanted to watch her sister to see how she got on. The 10 girls worked like Trojans and achieved some brilliant crucifix poses and headstands including some headstand sit ups. At the end of the session one of the girls shouted out 'Thank you for coming' and then the other girls chimed in with their gratitude, they also asked when I was coming back, I was thrilled that they had got so much out of the session, the two sisters stayed behind and watched me take the poles out and bombarded me with questions about pole dancing. I drove home feeling very smug about the session, the girls were so polite and well behaved I almost wondered whether I had taught the wrong group, they have better social skills than some adults I know.

As promised here is some info about the trapeze classes that are held weekly at Salisbury Road Church in St Jude's every Thursday evening. One of my students Elly Cribbens has been teaching trapeze there along with organiser Rhys Thomas of mists of time. I do not have any contact details at present but will post some in the next few days.

AmyTree and Dolly went to check out the trapeze class for themselves and this is the report I got back from Dolly on Friday "Having been under the expert tuition of Art of Dance for a year and a half, and having recently tried the new gymnastic rings which have been installed in the studio, I was excited to see if I could transfer any of my 'pole skills' to another discipline. On arrival there were several children and young people receiving tuition from Elly, and they were clearly much more bendy and fearless than me! We were taken through a warm-up which was very similar to preparation for a pole workout, then Elly took us through some beginner moves on the trapeze and ropes. Although I spend a good deal of time on the pole hanging upside down, the feeling of hanging by the back of my knees from a horizontal bar with nothing but air beneath me was very different - and strangely reminiscent of playground antics! Elly was a patient and inspiring tutor - her skills on the trapeze and her ability to toe-climb the rope faster than I can shimmy up a pole were impressive and really made me want to come back for more. I now have a completely new collection of bruises, and am already planning routines in my head that it will probably take much longer than I expect to master - all in all a very positive start!"



So all sounds very positive, if you are interested in trying trapeze for your self then watch this space for full details of days, times and prices........

Other news to report is the recent update from Nixi about what she has been up to lately and news on sports bras: My Mum and I did a spot of retail therapy yesterday afternoon although in hindsight neither of us were feeling like walking around town, my um has injured her knee and the muscles in my shoulder girdle are not happy, however we mad the most of it and I know have 5 new sports bras. When you teach a lot you need plenty of kit and a few of my old sports bras had seen better days, If any of you are thinking of purchasing a new sports bra then check out TK Maxx as they had a range of Berlei shock absorbers, my personal favourites for just £6.99, they normally retail at about £24.99. When jumping up[ and down on the pole a good sports bra really is an essential bit of kit.

My Mum bought me a beautiful turquoise bra set from M & S, I plan to wear to for my forthcoming event next Saturday so will try to get some pictures as it is absolutely stunning.

Lastly a big Whinge to Plymouth City Councils street cleansing department, they failed to collect mine and my neighbours bins on Friday morning despite manging to do the rest of the street, After a phone call to the council (think holding system: "You are now in a queue, you are 7th in the queue" etc) I was assured that the bins would be collected same day and the rubbish left from the earlier collections would be cleansed. Saturday did see the removal of my bins, they were a day late and had this been my error I would have been fined but as it is the councils fault no-one seems to want to take responsibility, the mess is still there, my street is strewn with empty plastic bottles and other debris from the bungled recycling collection. It is a disgrace and does not make me proud of my street or council, if anyone from the council is reading this I do have photos of how my street looked after the bin men had been and it is not pretty. What is so wrong is that my neighbours and I have bothered to put our bins out as requested, domestic waste neatly displayed in brown bags and recycling in the correct green containers, due to the slap dash way in which the green containers were emptied much of the rubbish was left on the street so now the council have to pay someone to come round and clean up and no doubt the items will be treated as rubbish and not recycling, why do we bother?

Off to cook a smoked salmon, mushroom and poached egg breakfast with soya and linseed toast for mum and I before popping up to See Jo (may attempt the death lay if my shoulders allow), then of to see my Nana & grandpa then off to a BBQ at my Dad's.

Stay healthy,

Sam x

Friday 13th!

Friday 13th tends to be a good day for me and today is no exception, I am off to Lux Park Leisure centre to teach 9 young ladies tonight as part of the Caradon District Council your group, the scheme is designed to keep young girls of the streets and to get them motivated. The last session I did at Lux Park was brilliant and I am really looking forward to returning tonight.

After my dithering over whether or not to enter the nationals I am now in the process of entering two national competitions, Miss Pole dance UK organised by Pole Passion and Pole Divas (picture left taken at last years finals) organised by Pole-Tastic and Pole-Play. To combat my performance nerves I am trying to cram in as many public performance as possible before the qualifying heats.

My first performance will next Saturday 20th June at Club Vanilla in Barnstaple, Club Vanilla is a swingers club that organised parties on a monthly basis and books performers to entertain its guests, I know this may not seem in keeping with my portrayal of pole dancing in the fitness industry but I feel that the performance will be good practice for me and will also allow me to take world class pole dancing to a different audience.

July 18th will see me dancing at Raffles bar to raise money for St Luke's Hospice, more details to follow soon.

This afternoon I am practicing with Hayley which I am really looking forward to. I must hassle her and the rest of my instructors to update their blogs more regularly!!

I will blog more over the weekend about Amytree and the trapeze class she attended on Thursday, I am told she has rope burns on her ankles! I will also blog about our pending Parkour session and our new ethical company policy.

I must say how pleased I was today to read Jo's blog, I couldn't have put it better myself. Thanks Jo x

Lastly Good luck to my husband and his two fighters, Frank & Paul from Saints Gym, who will be fighting at an event in Sicily over the weekend. I will let you know how they get on.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Hot.

At long last we seem to be having a summer although the weather does seem to be excellent when I am working and less good on my days off. I managed 35 mins on the pole today, practicing my ridiculous new training programme, but the heat got the better of me. Once your palms sweat profusely the pole becomes a dangerous place and the skin abrasion feels twice as bad on a hot day. It didn't help that whilst attempting Panthera's spin and snap I forgot to lock with the back of my knee and feel to the floor at speed in a crumpled mess, what was I thinking? Anyway all was fine, no injuries.

I have started watching a bit of Euro 2008, still disgraced that England did not make it through. I used to watch a lot of football but have watched less of late, I would like Portugal to win and France to come Second!

It will be a short blog today as it is my night off (got home at half seven because evil Jo had booked me to do reception, you just can't get the staff these days!- Only joking). I am looking forward to an hour of Eastenders and a few glasses of St Austell Proper Job (pictured top left).

News to follow on a Plymouth Trapeze class that is about to be sampled by Miss Amy Tree & Dolly, have fun ladies.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

My cousin is safe.

I had the shocking news last night that my cousin Val had been involved in some kind of scare whilst working in Jordan. The news was particularly interesting in light of my recent concerns over whether I would be safe to work in Pakistan. For those of you were at my wedding you would know how lovely Val is, she is my American cousin and she works for a non governmental organisation helping communities improve their media relations and capabilities with projects such as internews.

Val has been living in Jordan for a few months now and still hopes to be able to return to continue the valuable work she does there. Apparently she was seized in the midnight hours by security forces and evacuated immediately being flown out of the country and back to the US. All I really know is that she is safe and that is great news to me.

Other news today of less topical importance is how well my training session went with Jo, both of us are working hard to perfect new moves and new combinations. I managed an elbow hold Aysha, a move which has proved very elusive and yet should be easier than the Parallel handstand version of the Aysha that I can already do. I also managed a one handed handstand although this move is far from perfect, it does mean that I can now attempt the scary looking Spin and Snap made famous by Panthera. Other moves Jo and I worked on were some shoulder mount combinations, figurehead to shoulder mounts and general syllabus revision. Jo also found time to write some evil new session plans to keep the students on their toes.

I thought I would feel weak today after Saturday's masterclass but all seems fine in the muscle department, the heat does not help one's pole dance practice but Jo and I battled on regardless. I hope to catch up with my other instructors soon to swap ideas.

The masterclasses on Saturday went really well, Well done to the Sarah, Mia & Rosanna for lasting through all three!

Lastly a big "Get Well Soon" to my Mum who has been suffering from some nasty flu type virus - Hope you feel better very soon and look forward to seeing you at the weekend x x. More blogs soon,

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Today I bought 12 tickets to see Flashdance The Musical at the Theatre Royal. Thanks to Holly Hardy, one of our lovely students, from the Theatre Royal for reserving the tickets for us and making sure we have great seats! Myself, most of my staff and my mum will be attending the performance on 25th July and I can't wait.

Yesterdays yoga session with local teacher Claire Nash was fantastic although it brought home just how battered my body is at the moment. My general strength has been particularly low at the moment with lots of aches, pains and muscle tightness. I though that much of the problem stemmed from my notoriously weak hamstrings but during the yoga session I realised that my calf muscles were also not as flexible as they should be. I also noticed a serious imbalance between the right side of my body and my left side. My left side is far more flexible than my right. The lesson learned is that pole dancing is a high impact sport and unless I keep up regular yoga sessions and the odd visit for a sports massage I am going to be damaging my body. Jo & I have booked Claire for another private session next Thursday which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

Rosanna & I have been invited to dance at an event in Pakistan but am having serious doubts about whether to accept the contract or not. The artist management company who are organising the event are established and trusted within the industry and I have done similar events before but my concerns lie with fears for my safety whilst in Pakistan. The Foreign and commonwealth office advise against travel to parts of Pakistan but not all areas so I am seeking further advice as to whether I should travel or not.

After two hours of teaching spinning pole I am lucky enough to be out with the wonderful AmyTree and the Dude. I will get to see the Dudes karaoke talent in the flesh as well as enjoying a curry (Sri Lankan Prawn) and a pint deal for £5 at raffles bar. I hope that my victims, oops sorry I meant students, are prepared for my masterclass tomorrow.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Food news

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Leigh's Farm shop at Roborough has just gained a contract to supply a chain of London pubs with a huge order of farm made gourmet beefburgers in addition to this Leigh's farm have been nominated for uktv food hero award, I have just voted for them. For those of you who haven't visited the farm shop at Roborough it has a great range of local produce from fresh veg to breads, meats and dairy products. I couldn't resist the temptation to try their new cheese bread which was absolutely divine and very fresh, the bread was equally nice toasted with breakfast the following morning.

I would like to thank my husband for all his hard work during the last two weeks, my new aviary is more or less finished and the aviary extension looks fabulous, my remaining flock of birds are more than happy in their new home and I hope that they will have some new friends arriving soon. My husband is now working on painting the back of the house and building a fabulous built-in BBQ so we can enjoy the summer evenings to the full. Thank you Sid x.

Some of you may have read the news that Plymouth is the fifth happiest place in Britain! I am not sure how people work out these statistics but Martin Freeman has some great noes on the subject, you can read his weekly column here.

Jo and I have been feeling very tired today and we are both looking forward to our private yoga session tomorrow afternoon, Sue will be joining us too and hopefully the session will invigorate my muscles ready for my evil pole dancing master class on Saturday where I will be putting my victims through their paces.

More news to follow,

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

The morning after.

The night out at Annabel's started wonderfully and everyone gave great performances, that is apart from me, my sweaty palms got the better of me again and I failed to achieve any parallel handstands as well as nearly falling out of my new trick which still has no name (I will post a picture in the week and try to get a name for the trick too!). Jo danced second and put on a beautiful performance to Berlin - Take my breath away (song thief!!), she , like me, found the pole quite slippy but it didn't reflect in her performance. Next up was Hayley who has clearly advanced dramatically since I last saw her dance, her strength and flow were superb and she also oozed sex appeal whilst dancing to Ain't no other man by Christina Aguilera.

Next up was Nixi who had just returned from London where she and the rest of the UPPDC entered Eggheads, Nixi can't tell me how it went yet but she was smiling from ear to ear so things can't have gone too badly, I will try to find out when the programme is being aired. Nixi, flexible as ever performed a cheeky little routine to a song called black and gold and managed to sneak in some bottom gyration / body waves during a V-leg shoulder mount, I think Chris (Nixi's other half) videoed Nixi's performance so will try to get a copy to share with you later.

I must have words with Mr Turpin for not bringing his video camera as promised, I think I will get Jo to give him a serious spanking during the week on my behalf!

Next up was Mia, I was expecting Mia to be good but not that good, my god the girl performed her heart out with a stunning performance ending in a fantastic extended butterfly - Go Girl!

Tamar followed Mia and her performance was equally stunning, Tamar's style has improved so much since the Birthday bash last year, she had a great choice of song and included a brilliant knee conditioning trick in her routine. I was so proud of her and Mia for doing the art of dance proud.

The penultimate showcase came from Neil Bunting, husband of lovely student Sarah and father of another lovely student Sarah (junior). Neil bravely removed his top in front of many screaming ladies and then demonstrated the flag (half mast) and shoulder mount - very strong, very impressive. I must add that the Buntings are now definitely a pole dancing family, 8 year old Amy joined my class on Tuesday night along with her mum and Neil has agreed to attend my forthcoming Chinese pole workshop (dates to be announced).

The finale was performed by the beautiful and sensual Georgina Gale aka Sue, Sue did a Pole / Burlesque performance to Parisienne walk by Gary Moore and wowed us all. My husband commented that Sue's performance was particularly stimulating (N.B. personal joke between me, Sue and my husband!)and we were all cheering and clapping throughout. I really don't think Sue realises quite how good she really is.

I am going to invite all the performers into the studio to video their performances as they were simply too good to miss.

I was just about to dance again when Sarah pointed out that bits were flaking of the ceiling, I looked up to see the dome of the x-pole receding into the ceiling! Poor Annabel looked like she wasn't having the best night already and didn't need me running downstairs announcing that my pole had just gone through the ceiling of her club! She sent me a reassuring text later but I still felt awful. I had been advised by one of her staff to put the pole in place and was assured that there was a strong joist in situ. Anyway, the night ended rather abruptly but thank you to all the students and their friends and families for turning up and being a great crowd.

I woke this morning to view my new stigmata, for those of you who don't pole dance you will have no idea what I am talking about. Pole dancers often have bits of skin missing from their feet and both my feet have little red scabs on them this morning from pole abrasion. Despite the stigmata I have no bruises.

My last comment for today is news of a new pole school opening within 2 miles of my studio, my initial reaction was quite negative but competition can be a good thing and I also know how hard it is to get a business to work, Another city gym are already struggling to make their pole classes work so it will be interesting to see how my new competitor gets on. What competition does do is to motivate me so be prepared for a more determined me rushing about this week and generally by very productive. Bring on the competition!

Must be time or me to have a bath and nip of to the farm shop followed by lunch with my family to celebrate my grandads 85th birthday celebration. Oh and thanks to the seagulls (picture top left) for posing so beautifully in front of the wedding cake (pictured below right- picture courtesy of JustPlymouth.co.uk on Plymouth Hoe.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x