dancemetaphor

What a way to celebrate my birthday!

2009-02-09T11:03:00.002+11:00

Posted by Cheryl Smith, February 9, 2009

“Fancy working on your birthday!” my aunty exclaimed as Paul and I completed teaching over 1000 people to waltz at the luscious green Fitzroy Gardens yesterday. “Call this work?” I responded “That’s a word that doesn’t exist in my daily vocabulary anymore!” I told her. “How much fun is this? Dancing, meeting people, hanging out, this just can't be called work” I said.
And its not work, its an incredible life of fun, happiness, joy and fun.. oh I said that already.

Yesterday was my birthday, Feb 8. I kicked off the day with a coffee on Chapel Street at around 1am after our show in Richmond. Home for a quick sleep and back up again for early lunch with a handful of close friends. Quick trip to the Docklands for our 5pm Beginner class and then off to the Fitzroy Gardens for a 7pm Waltz class. Back to the Docklands after that and then home to a nice pot of tea and chat on the couch with my best friend, dance partner, business partner and partner in life, Paul.

The highlight of the day for me was the effort Paul put into making me happy; first with my favourite tea on the front porch in my favourite pot with my favourite cup. He then ducked out to do some mystery shopping and reappeared hurried, stressed and a strange look in his eye, somewhere between excitement and that of a smiling axe murderer.

Not only had Paul given me the most beautiful purple amethyst (February birthstone) but he went on a search to find the perfect birthday cake, the birthday cake to end all birthday cakes as he knows my love of the birthday cake ritual.

But he didn’t want to get just any birthday cake for his queen, he couldn’t bear the thought of going to the suburban “Cheesecake shop” or to “Michelle’s Patisserie”. Paul had big things in mind, he wanted something with presence, a statement, something that said “Ta da, I’m here!” as far as cakes go.

So with 2 hours of searching and no planning whatsoever, he scoured the outer suburbs of Narre Warren and Berwick finally stopping at one of my favourite cafes (Berwick Primary School Cafe) thinking they would have something extravagant. The waiting staff know him so they were kind of amused by his stress, they laughed as he rejected the carrot cake, the orange and poppy seed one, they weren’t in the business of making big fat, decadent birthday cakes.

But wait! They remembered something…. Oh, it was big and it was extravagant…. But would it suit the occasion? Out the back, in their cool room, they had the most wonderful chocolate mud cake with soft white chocolate icing and white chocolate waves as a decoration on top. It was big, it was bold and it was built for a very special occasion.

“I’ll take it!” Paul shouted at first sight “Its perfect and she’ll never know” He said as he trundled off the heavyweight birthday cake.

As we cut the cake at the restaurant I told him I was impressed, I asked where he got the cake from, it was different to the ones we usually purchased, pleasant in an unusual kind of way. Paul looked sheepishly at me and said, “It’s a long story, don’t worry about it, just eat your cake”. “No no” I insisted “Tell me the story, I love a good story” I continued and after pushing him a bit more he finally confessed.

“Well, it was kind of left behind” he said looking embarrassed and hesitant. “Its actually layer 7 of 8 layers of a wedding cake” he screwed up his face as though I was about to hit him. A big laugh exploded from my chest…. “You bought me a wedding cake for my birthday!” I exclaimed “Yyyyes” he said hesitantly as he shied away from me. Defensively he added “And the worst part was that on the box it said ‘Congratulations Darlene & Jo, I made sure they gave me a knew box!” he bounced back proudly.

“I couldn’t help it” Paul said “I had to get you something, I know how much you like cake and I just wanted to make it special and NOT get it from the Cheesecake shop” he blurted out.
We all fell back into the couches, guffaws all round, Paul had bought me a second hand cake for my birthday from some random bride and groom that didn’t pick up the top layer of their cake. A strange, yet hysterically back handed gift of decadence.

If you looked really closely, under the white chocolate waves on top of the cake you could almost see the brush marks of where they had smoothed out the icing from the two sets of feet in that little bride and groom plastic statue placed in the middle of the cake!

So the highlight of my day was the hysterical wedding cake from Darlene and Jo as my birthday cake, big, bold, laden with chocolate and oh so second hand!

Hey but it was on sale!

2nd Birthday

2009-01-25T08:36:00.006+11:00

Wow! Today is our 2nd birthday (DANCE101) and we're off to celebrate at the Melbourne Docklands.

Its amazing to look back over the last 2 years, even just the last blog and think about how much we have grown and all the wonderful things that have happened.

Its so much fun developing and running our own company. We have a shared vision and passion and it has absolutely unleashed so much energy in us both! We look at what we get done in a day and its incredible! So many things achieved in such short periods of time, our lives are being fastracked and it feels great.

The most beautiful thing about DANCE101 is the people that make it. The teachers, the students the suppliers and everyone that pulls it all together. We are so fortunate in the caliber of people around us. We remember in the early days noticing lovely the people were coming to our classes. We thought it was a co-incidence at first and then it started happening in all locations and with our teachers as well. And then we realised, people get attracted to you for who you are what you represent!

We only want to enrich peoples lives, make them happy, give them access to fun and allow them to progress in ways they dont even think is possible. We never entertain negative gossip, negative drama and people with nasty agendas. Our teachers are all hand picked, so they are nice people as well and have genuine concerns for their students. And we only ever work with people we like! So we have created this wonderful space in which to do our work. Its absolute bliss, every day!

And the funny thing is I cant call it work. Work is a word thats fading from my vocabulary, I rarely use it and I just cant use it when referring to what we do. I find myself saying things like "I've got to teach now, or I'm going into a session, I need to go dance" I just dont see it as work, even the administration part, it's just part of what makes us tick and needs to be done. And so we live in this space where everything is a choice, its a wonderful feeling.

I believe that its one of the key reasons why we have so much energy. When everything is a choice, you are happy to do it and you have a positive energy. When you are doing things you dont really want to, its a push, you have to drag yourself up off the chair, push yourself to wakeup when you dont want to and sit in situations that you really just cant tolerate. We dont do any of that, we have eliminated that negative push from our lives! We dont travel in peak hour traffic, we dont work with negative, nasty and unscrupulous people. We dont tolerate drama queens in our teaching community or people without integrity and we want people there that dont want to be there! Its a wonderful way to live your life!

But it never used to be this way, believe me, our lives are unrecognizable compared to before. We were both miserable, for various reasons. I was stressed to the eyeballs, in a job I didnt like, sick, tired, depressed, overweight. And Paul was wasting his time on fruitless activities, he had become cynical, bitchy and unfulfilled. We work hard at creating our reality, planning it, visualising it, talking about it and most of all making it happen. Its a daily thing. Every hour, every minute we are creating our lives, making them exactly as we want them. We were both under an illusion that life happened to you, we then discovered, we make our own lives. When that went clunk for us both, we started the process of creating an amazing friendship, relationship and life together.

So on the 2nd anniversary of creating our dream, we reflect on what our lives were like (not for too long) and I'm overwhelmed with appreciation and gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to live my life the way I wanted, the way I intended. Appreciation for the people around us, people that have assisted our journey, people that make our journey so much fun and people who share the journey with us.

It's and incredible ride, this thing called life and the more I look at it, the more I realise its all the wonderful people around you that make it what it is. So thank you to everyone that has shaped my life to make it what it is today and to everyone that participates in creating the wonderful, blissful and joyful reality that is the world of DANCE101, it is truly a gift and a very very special place.

Thank you

Salsa Dancing in Melbourne has never been so much fun!

2008-03-21T13:43:00.004+11:00

Wow! We are having an absolute ball running our own business in Melbourne, DANCE101 is going gangbusters and we're loving every minute of it.

We've now got 11 locations around Melbourne and we're teaching mainly Salsa and Latin Dancing.

- St Kilda

- Williamstown

- Docklands

- Prahran

- Fitzroy

- Chelsea

- Braeside

- Beaumaris

- Balwyn

- Dandenong

- Phillip Island

We've developed our own Ladies ONLY Latin Dance Program and its just awesome, there are six programs happening and more coming soon!

Check us out on our official website http://www.dance101.com.au

There are heaps of photos, videos and events

We havent updated our blog for a while, but will start again and give you lots of interesting stories and updates.

In the meantime, you can email us at cheryl@dance101.com.au or paul@dance101.com.au and we are contactable on 0417 700 767

Ciao

Cheryl & Paul!

Phillip Island, the greatest place to see wildlife

2007-06-17T14:02:00.000+10:00

Amidst the craziness of our lives, we couldnt resist a visit to the Phillip Island Wildlife sanctuary to pat the gorgeous kangaroos again.

The weather was cold and the roos were all in the top paddock, within reach of an easy feed and warmer ground.

We entered the enclosure to find dozens of healthy roos standing around waiting to be fed. And so many of them had babies in their bellies. (Joeys).

Usually the large males wait at the back of the herd to let the females eat first, but this time the big males were waiting anxiously at the front of the enclosure.

As we entered, I heard the rhythmical bounding of a huge grey male bouncing in my direction. He pulled up right in front of me and gestured his nose towards the bag I was holding.

Knowing these creatures could rip me apart in within the blink of an eye, I offered my bag of goodies and he promptly grabbed my hands, holding them still so he could eat the entire contents.

As I stood and admired the enormous size of this large grey male, I heard a group of children come running into the enclosure. Both the big grey male and I turned to see what the commotion was, the children were running towards the herd of kangaroos, flapping about madly and trying to scare them away. Of course they succeeded.

The entire herd dispersed and I was left with my big grey as he looked arrogantly towards the annoying boys. My new grey friend lifted his head in an assertive manner, eyed the young boys and sat back on his tail. This isnt necessarily a good sign if you know kangaroos, it could mean one of two things, he was relaxing or he was getting ready to defend.

My new grey friend turned his head from side to side and with his big brown eyes, viewed the entire area behind him, no doubt checking his escape route and seeing if there were any annoying boys surrounding him.

And just as he was about to settle into his second bag of kangaroo goodies, the annoying boys came screaming towards us; with two powerful bounds, my new grey friend has disappeared into the bushes.

Mutter, mutter, mutter was the sound I made as we left the enclosure. Those kids had ruined my moment with nature, now ALL the kangaroos were gone! As I walked out of the enclosure and around a corner I was met with smaller group of roos, females and they were all standing looking at us as they were expecting us.

We took out our brown bags of specially prepared roo food and the females approached. The first one grabbed my hand tightly and ate rapidly. Another female nudged her out of the road and then I saw the joeys in their pouches. Large babies that didnt look like they should have been in the pouch. Big gangly legs sticking out the same entrance their heads were.

I gentrly reached down and extended my hand to the joey all snug in his mums pouch. The mum took a look around, held still and didnt flinch a muscle. She allowed me to feed her baby while it was being held safe and secure inside her body! What a precious moment!

I thought my moment was ruined with the big grey bounded off, but what I didnt realise was that something equally magical was just around the corner.

Just goes to prove, one door closes, another one opens!

Ever taken a ride on a Yak in Tibet?

2007-06-02T11:26:00.000+10:00

One of my bestest buddies (Cath) has this amazing life and is currently in Tibet leading tours. She is a fabulous writer and a wonderful character but for some reason she never publishes her stories. So when I received this email and saw these photos today, I just couldnt resist publishing her work for her.

If you havent heard me talk about Cath before, he's the story.

I met Cath in my first big Corporate role at BMW Australia almost 20 years ago. I admired her the moment I met her, big buxom, womanly presence with a proud stance and an attutide to suit. She had already travelled the world and had amazing views that had me constantly captivated.

When Cath left BMW in a huff over sexual harrassment issues (stuff that today is clearly unacceptable) we kept in contact. Since then she has lived in Thailand and China and has travelled every province of these countries, she learned to speak the native languages and has this amazing resiliance for situations I would find traumatic. She's a tough cookie and a constant inspiration to me.

So here's a little tidbit for you, if you enjoy this story and her photo's please drop me an email and I can publish some more stuff she has sent me. In the meantime, I will encourage Paul to fall over in public, lose his pants in a performance or just tweeze out any kind of humorous situation from his incredibly funny existence.

Ever Taken a ride on a Yak in Tibet? by Catherine Miller

What a great trip it was to return to Tibet, the most remote and amazing place I have been to in this world.

With a great small group, our 15 days covered Beijing - Great wall, Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse, Sakya, Mt Everest (Qomolongma), overland, to finish in laid-back Kathmandu.

The biggest change I've seen in Tibet since 1999 when i first travelled there is the huge increase in foreign tourists... & more shops, hotels, restaurants to cater for them.

The culture of Tibetan Buddhism is still as strong a faith as ever for the people and monks are active in some of the monasteries, we even got to experience chanting in the prayer halls twice.

And Mt Everest promised nothing but clouds as we arrived, only to find a short while later a clearing and picture postcard blue skies to back up our stunning mementoes.

This was an even more amazing & incredible trip to Tibet, showing some locals in remote areas the pics from my previous trip, one man recognised a "monk" in one of my photos & explained he is actually a policeman and very sympathetic to the Chinese.this is not uncommon, sometimes army personnel dress in robes & collect money & monitor the interaction of Tibetans with foreigners.

There is still a strong anti-chinese feeling amongst some of the older Tibetans, the ones with some memories of the "cleansing" of the Cultural Revolution which saw many monks & nuns killed, tortured, imprisoned & forced to "disrobe" & become good communist citizens.

As i toured the countryside visiting monasteries wearing a traditional Tibetan outfit (long wrap around dress with 3/4 sleeved shirt, the local tibetans were so thrilled to see a foreigner in Tibetan style... maybe this is why more of the tibetans opened up to me & told me stories.

In one of the monasteries, one monk showed me an image left from pre-china days, now illegal. Definitely a highlight of all the times in Tibet, in the sakya monastery, a small group of us were sitting outside the prayer hall enjoying the chanting & were invited in by the "living Buddha" reincarnation to a tiny meeting room crammed with statues & paintings & a throne for the visiting high llamas (monks) - we drank tea & spoke for a while with translators interpreting for us & then he motioned us to be shown back into the prayer hall again to see his face amongst the murals on the wall of the prayer hall. such an amazing gesture to invite us in as foreigners, & i was so overawed, i was speechless, no probing questions on buddhism or monastery life.

But it was still such an enchanting moment and such an honour to be included in the "mini tour" of the inner sanctum, seeing the tiny kitchen & sleeping quarters that the senior monks live in. and on to Mt everest again, with some clouds overhanging as we rode the pony carts from Rombuk to he base camp.

Yet, as we were in the litte teahouse/cafe, the clouds lifted to give us spectacular sunset golden light over the peak. those of us who were planning on enjoying a whiteout sleepin were pleasantly surprised by a stunningly crisp clear morning with bright blue skies & blinding
snow peaks - more great photos!!! yay...

On the previous trip, the day before we arrived at the mountain, an independent american group unfolded an outlawed Tibetan flag at base camp & promptly got arrested, jailed & tortured for a couple of days before being deported to Nepal. this trip, a more tragic event occured on the North Face (tibetan side of Everest): a group of climbers lost 2 Korean members of their team in an avalanche.

Both of these events were not spoken of & only found out about them after leaving china & back into the arena of western media. In Kathmandu the North Face outdoor equipment store set up a shrine in rememberance of the 2 Korean climbers so I looked in & paid my respects. the dangers of climbing Everest are so real but so many people want to do it.

Big Week for us!

2007-05-28T00:01:00.000+10:00

This week, Paul took off to teach some wonderful students at a school on the outskirts of Melbourne. He took off nice and early and was met with peak hour traffic pretty quickly.

As he patiently waited to turn right off a very busy highway, the traffic banked up and parted politely for him.

Two lanes of traffic sat quietly while he turned; little did Paul know an impatient four wheel driver decided to climb the embankment, drive over the concrete barricade and plough his way into the passenger side of our new Mini Cooper S.

The Nissan Patrol four wheel drive raged through the passenger window with great force shattering the window, crushing the door and shoving our little Mini sideways across the road.

Fortunately for Paul these little Mini's are well grounded with a really flat wheel base that made sure the force of the four wheel drive didnt roll him over. The mini sat their defiantly as the bullbar ripped through its crumple zones, almost as if to say "I know you're bigger, but I'm stronger!"

As both cars came to a standstill, a friendly woman volunteered her witness status and the driver of the aggressive vehicle confessed his sins "I'm sorry, I was completely in the wrong".

The police were called, statements taken, names and numbers exchanged and a very shaken and confused Paul was returned home safe and sound without a scratch!

As he sat there on the couch he was overcome by fits of shaking and his body turned cold and an unusual shade of grey, I figured he was in mild shock so I game him a cup of tea and kept him warm. I figured if the cup of tea came back up again we should probably head out for the Doctor.

He's a tough cookie this one, he sat there dazed and confused wondering what in the world had just happened. As he rested we planned what was to be the biggest week of our newly developed business. I couldnt see how we would get through it if he was injured and we had no car.

Quickly we chatted, planned and phone various people; moved things around and after a period of quietness we got up and got on with our day. We had so many commitments, so many people counting on us that we just couldnt allow ourselves to indulge in this unexpected drama. The main thing was, Paul was ok and that he wasnt injured.

So off we toddled, Debutante ball lessons, Ladies Programs, Social Classes, Corporate Classes, School lessons, Performances, Coaching courses and teaching a Hens night to boot! It was full steam ahead as we focused on being unstoppable in the face of adversity!

As it turned out, it was one of the toughest and best weeks we have ever had! We even had energy left over to go out dancing and play video games!

Just goes to show you, what doesnt kill you makes you stronger!

The fun you have on driving trips

2007-04-02T12:15:00.000+10:00

This weekend Paul and I took off in our new Mini Cooper S to Echuca / Moama on the boarder of Victoria & NSW.

It was a special trip, to celebrate the official arrival of my niece Katie with her "Naming Day" and to accept the very prestigious honor of being a first time Godmother so it was an extra special day for me.

I hadnt seen baby Katie since Christmas so it was fantastic to see her gorgeous little baby rolls and to interact with her on a whole new level.

I was taken aback when I set eyes on her and could see how she had grown from this little squashed up baby not long out of the womb. She now looked like a member of our family, with all the familiar genetic traits. In fact, she was the image of my brother when he was a baby. AND, I could see she was just like my Father when he was a baby. Having lost our Dad 3 years ago (almost to the day) it was a special treat to see his genes living in this beautiful little girl, the grandaughter he hadnt even met!

We had a fabulous time meeting the other side of Katies family, a lovely large family, full of happiness, warmth and smiles. The day went really well and since I dont have "official" photos of her to publish, I couldnt help but publish this gorgeous one of her in the bath. I'm sure she wouldnt mind, its very modest :-)

But the funniest thing for the weekend actually happened before we even left Melbourne. Paul is the man and he likes to drive most of the time, so being a good woman, I let him. Unlike him, I sit back, relax and dont tell him what to do. However, on this occasion, perhaps he could have done with some instruction.

It was a nice intermittent rainy day, sun, then rain, sun, then rain. Paul was hot, then cold, hot, then cold. As we weaved our way through Pascoe Vale to get onto the Hume Highway, Paul was operating the window as his body temperature fluctuated, one minute he was enjoying the lovely sunshine, next minute he was complaining about the rain.

I'm sitting there happily enjoying the ride when next thing I hear "Ouch, ow...ahhoooowww, arghhh..." as the cries got louder. I looked over and saw Paul in his latest pickle. There he was with his hand jammed inbetween the door and the window, the window that HE had SHUT on his own hand! WHILST driving the car!

My sympathetic nature immediate sprung into action and I exploded with hysterical laughter. Laughter so gripping that I couldnt even get to the button to release the window. So as Paul cried for help, I cried with laughter. I literally couldnt move and neither could he. He fumbled for the button to release his mashed fingers and I'm ashamed to say it but I laughed even louder.

In the panic of the moment Paul got all discombobulated and coudnt figure out which button to push, so he sat there even longer. I thought this was even funnier, so my laughter picked up another notch. I was paralised, the lactic acid was ripping through my stomach and back, I had laughed so hard I coudnt move!

Finally Paul released his hand, the indented black mangled mark on it showed me how hard he was crushed and oh dear... I laughed even more.

For 20 minutes I laughed and each time he put up that window I looked to see if he needed a hand, really I was looking to see if there was another laugh to be had.

Good lord, he's a funny man even in the dullest of moments :-)

We're having a great time

2007-03-23T21:23:00.001+11:00

What a great life we have created for ourselves!
We are having a ball right now, life is just so much fun!

We started DANCE101 seven weeks ago now and its going gang-busters (eh... thats a technical term for going great :-) We are so excited about the response we have received, its just been fantastic

So if we've been a little delayed in getting to your emails, updating the blog (or the site) well forgive us cos we've been creating lots of new and exciting things like these....

- Three new suburban social venues
- One new rural social venue
- Four new schools
- One corporate (into their second course)
- One more corporate waiting in the wings
- One teens project about to be launched
- Two ladies courses to be launched
- One massive charity event designed and ready to start

Oh and lets not forget Pauls huge effort on DANCING WITH THE STARS !! where he put in eight weeks of hard yakka (that means work for the international visitors) and did an awesome job.

At the same time we've been slipping in the odd celebrity private lesson, painting the house, purchasing new cars, designing new artwork, planning for four new venues and getting in a bit of dancing for ourselves!

So we are having a ball back in Australia, we've been back five months now, the business has been going seven weeks and we are still great friends, we have a fabulous relationship and we absolutely love what we are doing.

Yay!
This is living!

I recommend anyone who is miserable in their life, they job, whatever, get in touch with what you love, what makes you come alive and shift your world to be with that love. Do whatever you need to make that shift, be bold and courageous but do it now rather than later.

I will never look back at my corporate career and think... geez.... I wish I could have spent more time behind that grey desk with those grey walls with those powersuits!

www.dance101.com.au

We're having a great time

2007-03-23T21:23:00.000+11:00

What a great life we have created for ourselves!
We are having a ball right now, life is just so much fun!

We started DANCE101 seven weeks ago now and its going gang-busters (eh... thats a technical term for going great :-) We are so excited about the response we have received, its just been fantastic

So if we've been a little delayed in getting to your emails, updating the blog (or the site) well forgive us cos we've been creating lots of new and exciting things like these....

- Three new suburban social venues
- One new rural social venue
- Four new schools
- One corporate (into their second course)
- One more corporate waiting in the wings
- One teens project about to be launched
- Two ladies courses to be launched
- One massive charity event designed and ready to start

Oh and lets not forget Pauls huge effort on DANCING WITH THE STARS !! where he put in eight weeks of hard yakka (that means work for the international visitors) and did an awesome job.

At the same time we've been slipping in the odd celebrity private lesson, painting the house, purchasing new cars, designing new artwork, planning for four new venues and getting in a bit of dancing for ourselves!

And yes, we still have a life. So much so that we get to do silly things like ride in kiddy rides like the photo above!

So we are having a ball back in Australia, we've been back five months now, the business has been going seven weeks and we are still great friends, we have a fabulous relationship and we absolutely love what we are doing.

Yay!
This is living!

I recommend anyone who is miserable in their life, they job, whatever, get in touch with what you love, what makes you come alive and shift your world to be with that love. Do whatever you need to make that shift, be bold and courageous but do it now rather than later.

I will never look back at my corporate career and think... geez.... I wish I could have spent more time behind that grey desk with those grey walls with those powersuits!

www.dance101.com.au

DANCE101 New Mini

2007-03-12T13:42:00.000+11:00

Wow! We are so excited to have our new mini on the road and even more excited to have the new signage on it. Having your business intentions plastered onto your car brings things into a greater reality, it is absolutely amazing.

We are getting stopped by people, they are asking for brochures, kids are waving to us, people are looking with curious interest.

So on this lovely Labor Day public holiday Paul and I took a drive through the greenery, up the lovely sweeping hills of the very well-to-do suburb of Berwick. We have been teaching there for 5 weeks now and we were having breakfast and chatting with the locals.

Inside a venue we were happily chatting when we hear a distant voice call out "hello, the owner of the red mini in there?" We answer "yes" and start making our way to the front door. The stranger calls out "well you better come quick cos its making its way down the hill".

Shocked and in disbelief, we hurriedly make our way to the street. Sure enough, the mini is not parked where we left it and as I look down the street, my eyes take in the unexpected scene in front of me.

I see a small group of men, another car and an ambulance! My mind is reeling, I cant see the front of the mini, I cant see the underneath but they are all looking at the underneath... is there a person trapped? did the mini hit someone? maybe a dog? god I hope not a child! Please no!

I couldnt look anymore, I felt sick, my heart was pounding, I was babbling incoherently to our friend and had started biting my nails. Paul was down there with the car, looking underneath, cars were pulling up to take in this spectacle or maybe to help, I couldnt look, I turned away.

I'll save you the rest of the drama and shoot straight to the end of this story, our brand new mini has made its way down the hill, across two lanes of traffic, through an interesection. As it veered across the road a driver was cut off and started honking his horn "stupid driver, why dont you look where you're going" he shouts at the mini. Then he realises, there IS no driver. He thinks quick, stops his own vehicle in the middle of the three lane road and proceeds to run after the mini. Another guy sees him, sees the mini and pulls over to the side of the road. He starts running after the mini. They jump in front of the mini and start pushing as hard as they can, sliding down the Berwick hill. They manage to slow the mini as it enters an intersection and starts veering towards trees and a light post. Finally, they stop the vehicle just at the curb of the road and rest its bumper against the concrete.

My little mini was left completely unharmed! Not a scratch! It didnt hit anything, no-one got in its path and fortunately for us, the mini doesnt weigh too much so these two amazing citizens put their strength in front of it and stopped it from causing havoc!

Paul and I were in complete shock and disbelief, what an amazing sequence of events.
The moral of the story? Make sure you leave your car IN GEAR when parking on a hill... or anywhere! Our sincere thanks to Douglas and the other nameless fellow that saved our mini!

We're off to buy a lotto ticket now!
Phew

Outside your comfort zone

2007-03-06T08:39:00.000+11:00

What must it be like being a teacher on Dancing with the Stars? I cant imagine how hard it would be to teach just one person for weeks on end, day in, day out.

I cant imagine how difficult it must be to find new avenues and angles to explain things to someone who has no idea of the concept of dance! Teaching 8 hours a day is hard enough as it is, giving energy all day long, talking constantly, being on your feet, being physical all day. Its a demanding thing to do but can you imagine doing this with just one person, all day long?

As a teacher I enjoy the shift in energy when a lesson turns over into the next one. Students get fatigued at taking in so much information. They have a threshold of how much they can do or take in. What sort of teaching skill must be required to keep the student focused, attentive and still able to take information in after 6 hours a day. My mind boggles at the concept.

Imagine if you didnt get along with the person? Imagine if you found them irritating! Imagine if you couldnt stand them! Wow, how long would you last in the show? Imagine if you fancied them and couldnt focus on the job? Imagine if you mixed business with pleasure and started a relationship in the middle of it all (as with another DWTS celebrity) what a distraction!

But for the teacher, at least they already teach, they know what its like to teach all day long, to find many different ways to explain one thing so that you can get through. They know what its like to take a person through their own doubts and take them to a place they never thought they could get to.

So what must it be like for the celebrity? To take in all that information on a completely new topic, a subject that you are so unfamiliar with. Would it be exciting, new & challenging or could it be terrifying, intimidating and full of doubt, fear and negativity.

I can see how easily a person would find the experience terrifying; the fear of public humiliation, putting yourself out there to such a degree that you could make an absolute fool of yourself. Or you could have the wildest ride of your life!

Its interesting to see the messageboards on Dancing with the Stars, they are full of people who have opinions about everyone but no concept of what it must be like to be in their situation. Do people understand how difficult it is to take on a new skill, learn it at a concentrated rate and then apply it with newly formed muscles in front of a live audience.

I know when I first went onto the ships with Paul, I just didnt have the muscles I needed to perform at the level I needed. It took me months to develop the inner core muscles and then to be able to rely on them when I needed them. And the ability to just turn it on when the audience is there, thats a huge one. For me, I hadnt performed live for quite some time. Sure, I could dance in front of people, didnt mind them watching, quite the show off one might say but when you get on that floor and people expect a show, well thats a completely differnt feeling.

I know how terrifying it was for me to have all those people looking at me, expecting to see something, expecting to feel something. It was a huge expectation and one I didnt always feel ready to fulfill. Performing live is something that needs energy and determination that just doesnt normally exist. Its something that you have to create, draw upon from a reserve deep down inside you. Often I didnt feel like performing, I felt sick, I was seasick, I was exhausted; there were so many times I wasnt up for it but I couldnt get out of the obligation.

They were the most testing times for me, I just had to pull something out from somewhere. These arent skills you learn at school, or off your parents, you dont chat about handy hints with your girlfriends for this kind of stuff. Performing is a world on its own and not everyone has it.

I cant imagine what it would be like for a successful celebrity to put themselves on the line to the degree they do in DWTS and perform at such high levels at the same time AND with new dance skills and newly shaped muscles! My god, so much effort and soooooooo much work.

I applaud anyone that puts themselves outside their comfort zone. We are creatures of comfort and do anything to avoid looking bad. I love it when people play hard, no matter what the results!

Ballarat Girl to show of twinkle toes

2007-02-17T09:54:00.000+11:00

ACTRESS Kimberley Davies, who grew up in Ballarat, will compete in the next series of Channel Seven's Dancing With The Stars.

Ms Davies, 33, lived in Napoleons between the ages of two and 14 years, and attended Ross Creek Primary School and Ballarat and Clarendon College.

She said her relatives "probably make up half of Ballarat's population", with her brother, two grandmothers and countless cousins, aunties and uncles still living in the city.

"I come back to Ballarat as often as I can, because I just love the place," Ms Davies said.
"It really has a great sort of close knit community feel to it."

The glamorous mother of Isabella, four, and Joshua, two, made a name for herself playing Annalise Hartman on Neighbours between 1993 and 1996.

She later moved to America where she appeared in a number of successful programs including Friends, Spin City, Ally McBeal and Pacific Palisades.

She described joining Dancing With The Stars as a "once in a lifetime opportunity".
"It is such an unusual opportunity to be offered and you really do have to jump at these experiences in life," she said.

Ms Davis said the only background she had in dancing was doing ballet for two years in Ballarat.
"I was five when I started ballet and I used to have so much fun getting dressed up and performing in big recitals," she said.

Despite the lack of experience, Ms Davis said she had welcomed the ballroom dancing challenge with open arms.

"It's a lot of hard work, but it's good for the soul to try something that's difficult to do," she said.
Series six of Dancing With The Stars will kick off on Tuesday.

Posted in the Ballarat News Saturday Feb 17

Living the life you love

2007-02-11T10:37:00.000+11:00

Wow! What a week in the life and times of Cheryl Smith & Paul Zaidman!

Last week was the official launch of our business DANCE101 and it went off with a bang! In our first week of business we had our first four gigs, Berwick, Yarraville, BMW and Springvale. It was huge. Plus Thursday Feb 8 just happened to be my birthday!

The lead up to our first week of business was massive, designing artwork, arranging printing, arranging venues, purchasing sound equipment, developing our new website and promoting the new events.

Paul was busy during the days with Kimberley Davies (Dancing with the Stars) so I took the business tasks and boy did I have some fun!

There's something wonderful about starting your own business, its the most amazing experience, so completely different to working for another person or organisation. Every step we took in the setup was completely designed by us, not inherited from somewhere, not accepted because we had to.

Every aspect of our business has been created by us. Every aspect of our business comes from what we are both passionate about. We have been careful not to design a business that is just about making money and is not connected to our passion. We have designed our business so that it fits in with our ideas, morals, ethics, passion and inspiration.

I really got the intention of our business when I was walking the streets of our suburbs, handing out postcards to people in the shops and businesses. Previously when I handed out promotional material for other businesses I felt like I was annoying people, hassling and pushing something upon them they didnt want.

The first time I went to walk into a bunch of shops, I chickened out, I couldnt do it. "They wont want this stuff" I told myself "They will think I'm tyring to sell them something" I thought as I recoiled from the idea.

And then I thought "well, I love to dance and I know others do to, its up to them as to whether they chose to come, I'm not forcing anyone, I'm just making an inivitation, they have the choice".

And as I walked into the first few shops and offered our postcards to the staff, I saw their faces as they read the front of the card, their eyes softened, a smile crept over their faces and then it came "ohh.... wow.... I'd love to learn to dance" they exclaimed .

As I continued through the streets, this reaction continued and I felt this wave of happiness and pride come over me. It was so exciting to offer such a wonderful thing and to think these people might have a chance of experiencing the joy and freedom I have for so many years. My initia hesitation of handing these postcards was replaced by a joy at being free enough to walk up to complete strangers and offer them something close to my heart.

I'm a big believer that when you're intentions are pure, there is an ease about the response. There is a flow to the exchange that occurs. And this was confirmed every time I placed a card into the hands of a stranger. There was no push, no sell, no resistance. In fact, I got the complete opposite, they wanted to know more, they were interested, inspired and genuinely excited.

As I walked the streets I felt incredibly uplifted, excited about the possibility of our business and what it has to offer. And I felt grateful that I had been given this opportunity to create a business in an area that I love.

I've always believed you can live the life you love and love the life you live. I've always believed that work should not be hard or tiring. I've always believed there is boundless energy waiting for you when you do the work of your heart. And now its confirmed, I've never worked harder, put more hours in and been less tired. I am completely inspired by the possibility that sits in front of us and I'm loving every moment of it.

And most of all, I'm grateful that I narrowly escaped a fate worse than death, to live a life I didnt like and to end up with regrets and a list of things I could have, would have or should have done.

But it takes real courage and persistance to design the life you want and go after it. And in some sadistic way, I am grateful for the pain my corporate life gave me because the pain it generated motivated me to completely transform my life.

I am relieved, grateful and inspired. phew....

Launching DANCE101 "Dance made easy"

2007-01-28T12:38:00.000+11:00

February 2007 marks the launch of our new business DANCE101 "Dance made easy"

DANCE101 focuses on taking taking the joys of dance to three significant areas of the community
- True Social Environments (pubs, clubs & hotels)
- Corporates
- Schools

Our new website goes live this week so check out www.dance101.com.au

Social Dancing
Our vision is to provide access to dance to as many people as possible. We want to scream it from the rafters! DANCE IS EASY and DANCE IS FUN !!!

So we are taking ourselves out to the suburbs where all the people live and we are joining forces with fabulous venues that see the value of dance in true social environments.

Mums, Dads, teens can all enjoy a meal and drink and then dancing afterwards. Most importantly, there are no mirrors and no technical dance drill sergents saying "do it again, do it till you get it right!".

Corporates
We both have a passion to take dance into businesses and allow people to enjoy the fun and freedom of music and dance in a place of work. We spend so much time at the office in sedentary positions, tapping away at keyboards or looking at computer screens, often detached from human contact. We want to get peope UP and OUT of their seats. We want to get them moving, having fun and engaging with other people, even it if is only for 45 minutes!

Human beings love to have fun and they are their happiest when they are having fun with others.

Schools
This is our future!!! Kids love to dance but do they know how to dance with another person? Does a boy know how to greet a girl and request a dance? Does a girl know how to follow a boys lead so that she can enjoy being part of a team?

We will be taking dance into schools and showing kids how to enjoy dancing with others. Kids get to learn the value of their team member and how to really work with another person. All whilst having FUN!!

Four Significant Events!
The launch of DANCE101 will happen in the first week of February and will be marked by four key events

1) Weekly Salsa Classes at Castello's Berwick Springs Hotel, BERWICK
EVERYBODY is welcome Monday February 5 for the first two classes in this fabulous venue. Class times are 7pm and 8pm, beginner classes, no partner required. Our classes have been designed so you can come along, enjoy a meal, drink and dance afterwards. Castello's Berwick Springs is located on Clyde Road, Berwick. For dinner reservations call 9702 6223

2) Weekly Salsa Classes at Waltzing Matilda Hotel, SPRINGVALE
Join us for dinner on MY BIRTHDAY at the famous Waltzing Matilda Hotel. Thursday February 8th at 8pm and 9pm, no partner required, classes will be simple and easy. Waltzing Matilda is located on Springvale Rd, Springvale, for dinner reservations call 9546 1333

3) Weekly Dance Classes at The Arts Collective, YARRAVILLE
Commencing Wednesday 5th we will be teaching at The Arts Collective in Yarraville. For those people out in the west come along at 7.30m and 8.30m. Please book on 9332 2573 The Arts Collective is located at the Pilgrim Hall , Corner Bay View & Montague St, Yarraville

4) Weekly Dance Classes at BMW Australia
Feb 7th will also see the start of our first corporate dance classes with BMW Australia taking up the lead. BMW has a very progressive approach to staff wellbeing, they have a gymnasium and a fantastic onsite bistro providing gourmet and healthy food choices to their staff. We look forward to having fun and making an impact in this wonderful business environment.

So, come along! Join in the fun! Everybody is welcome!
We want EVERYBODY to enjoy the fun of dance
It is EASY and it is FUN

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank all of our wonderful friends, family, colleagues, students and neighbours who have supported us in the creation of our new business, we appreciate every effort, thought and supportive word. Thank you

Oh... keep your eyes open when on the road, we are also getting a fabulous new Chili Red Mini with DANCE101 plastered all over it!

Crystal Cruises - New Dance Team - Alex Bryan & Felicity Wright

2007-01-24T14:10:00.001+11:00

Watch out Crystal Cruisers, here they come! Australian Dance Sensation Alex Bryan and Felicity Wright will be wowing the Crystal audiences from January 31st to May 31st, 2007.

Alex and Felicity are a wonderful dance couple, they are excellent teachers, fantastic performers and just lovely, lovely people.

We hope the Crystal Cruisers welcome them with open arms and give them the special treatment they gave us when we first joined Crystal.

If you're wondering about their backgrounds, well, they both have a Ballroom, Latin and Street Latin background. Alex is a previous Australian Salsa Champion and also competed at Dancesport in his earlier years. He is famous back home for his appearance on "Dancing With The Stars" where he took local personality and comedian Kate Langbroek from bumbling around the floor to eye catching performances.

Felicity is also a seasoned teacher and competitor with over seven years experience as a dance instructor. Felicity is a Victorian Salsa Champion and they both came second in last weeks titles held in Adelaide, South Australia. Felicity has a background in Ballet, Latin, Ballroom, Street Latin and Argentine Tango. (Bob Caswell, you must have some lessons with her, she's fantastic).

Alex and Felicity have never sailed before so they are definately starting at the top with Crystal. So if you are reading this and about to cruise, please give them a big warm welcome and make them feel at home on the high seas.

We wish them all the best with cruising, we are happy to recommend them to our students and to Crystal, we know they will do a great job.

Dancing with the Stars - News Article 4

2007-01-22T08:50:00.000+11:00

Gay Farmer Dances to Feed Sheep!

From Sydney Confidential
January 22, 2007 08:00am

IN A tale almost as tragic as the Brokeback Mountain love story, Australia's own gay cowboy David Graham has been lassoed back into the world of reality TV in order to save his drought-ravaged farm in southern Queensland.

Graham has been announced as the final star to sign on for the new series of Channel 7's ratings hit Dancing with the Stars.

Following several thwarted attempts to use his celebrity to raise revenue for his property near Goondiwindi, Graham will swap his Levis for lyrca in a final bid to pocket some desperately needed funds for his beloved farm.

Graham packed his swag and headed to Melbourne on Friday, where he will stay for the duration of the series.

While his boots are walking on national television, family and friends have been enlisted to run the property and care for the sheep Graham has been struggling to feed.
Had it not been for the drought, Graham said he would not have gone back to the world of reality TV after Big Brother.

"Being on the farm is where I want to be - it is paradise up there, but when you have starving sheep you have got to do something," he said. "I woke up a couple of days ago and looked out the window and thought 'What the hell am I going to do?' but by the end of the day I had got the call and things had totally turned around. It is a godsend. It is almost as good as rain."

Thinking he had been relegated to "last season's TV trash", Graham was surprised to have been asked join the Dancing star squad, which will also star Naomi Robson, Jamie Durie, Tatiana Grigorieva and rugby player Wendell Sailor.

"To be asked to do a show like this is nuts, but to find out you get paid for it and I am going to be able to buy some feed for my stock - I still have not got over it," he said.test

Dancing with the Stars - News Article 3

2007-01-19T13:21:00.000+11:00

News.com.au article
By Erin McWhirter
January 18, 2007 05:19pm

CHANNEL 7 has snapped up dumped television personality Jamie Durie, signing the star to play a "key role" in its programming for 2007.

Channel 9 announced yesterday it had parted company with the host of the axed lifestyle show Backyard Blitz, who recently began as a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the US.
Today, Seven revealed it had signed the popular celebrity gardener.

"Jamie's made the right call," Seven boss David Leckie said.

"He's coming to the network that is going places. We are delighted that he took a look at Seven and at the other networks and came back to us - with the thumbs up."

Durie, 36, will be expected to use his green thumb at Seven, with his first role as host of lifestyle series, Australia's Best Backyards.

Durie will also call on skills honed with the ManPower Australia dance troupe in the sixth instalment of Seven's high-rating series Dancing With The Stars.

"I wholeheartedly believe in the direction Seven are heading," Durie said.

"Nine made me a series of increasing offers and we made no demands. In the end it was not a financial decision. It was all about the creative opportunities and the shows Seven have offered me."

Durie's star first rose as host of Nine's Backyard Blitz, once a rock solid fixture at the top of weekly ratings, and later of the hit reality-renovation show The Block. After five years on air Backyard Blitz was axed last year.

Durie's last live-to-air role at Nine was hosting last year's accident-prone skating show Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice.

Now Durie, who has also released books on landscaping and design, is likely to concentrate on building his name in the US as well as maintaining his Australian roots with Seven.

Naomi allowed one last dance

2007-01-16T13:40:00.000+11:00

NAOMI Robson has convinced Channel 7 to extend her contract until June 30 to enable her to compete in the sixth season of Dancing With The Stars.

After an incident-packed year to forget, an emotional Robson vacated the Today Tonight hosting chair in December, leaving critics doubtful of her return.

Robson cited "a desire to explore other areas of television" as the reason behind her exit - but few would have thought that meant shimmying across a dance studio swathed in fake tan and sequins.

Then again, we are talking about the woman who allegedly had her own make-up truck on site while covering the Beaconsfield cave-in.

A Seven source yesterday revealed the glitzy current affairs presenter was the first contender to sign up for the ballroom blitz, scheduled to air in late February.

"She was very vocal about wanting to do the series and put her hand up for it straight away - the deal was signed in December," the network insider said.

After the train wreck of Robson-related events in 2006, Seven is hoping the DWTS gig will endear the much-maligned presenter to viewers.

While she is currently holidaying in the US, Robson's manager Mark Klemens confirmed his client - whose contract with Seven was due to expire on December 31 - had negotiated another six months.

"Obviously she's really looking forward to doing Dancing With The Stars, and beyond that she's looking at other opportunities with Seven," Mr Klemens said, referring to the daytime chat show Robson hopes to front.

Dancing with the Stars - News Article

2007-01-15T13:40:00.000+11:00

News Article from news.com.au
January 15, 2007

Kimberley Taps into Dancing

MOVE over Simone Callahan - Kimberley Davies is expected to hot shoe-shuffle into the desperate housewife role on the next Dancing With The Stars.

Davies, who recently left Sydney to set up home in Melbourne, has signed on for the sixth series of Channel 7's hit show. She will be joined by Naomi Robson and Todd Woodbridge as celebrity dancers, with actor Paul O'Brien, banned union player Wendell Sailor and pole-vaulting pin-up Tatiana Grigorieva tipped to sign on.

The glamorous mother-of-two is sure to get a few votes from other mums, but says she's already nervous about her debut. "I am just starting to wonder what I have got myself into," Davies laughed, pulling up sore after her first lesson on Friday.

"It could be Dancing With the Fools when it comes to me. I think it would be great to know how to dance. To know those moves for the rest of my life would be fantastic," she said.
Like Callahan, Davies will look to make her return to the spotlight, after weathering her own marital woes when it was revealed her doctor husband Jason Harvey had admitted to an affair with a hospital colleague.

Media Release

2007-01-12T17:18:00.000+11:00

Its official, Paul Zaidman is going to be on the next series of Dancing with the Stars!!! His partner is the fabulous, gorgeous, stunning Kimberley Davies!

Kimberley is well known in Australia for her appearances in the popular soapie "Neighbours*". She was nominated for a Logie Award for the Most Popular New Talent and she also co-hosted a television program called "Just Kidding".

Not only is Kimberley gorgeous, she is also a lovely person. She looks to be a strong contender in this edition of Dancing with the Stars. She is in superb condition physically and focused. And! she is in the most capable, talented hands when it comes to teaching dance! Anyone who has been taught by Paul will agree, he is able to achieve the most astounding results from his students.

The next few weeks will see Paul and Kimberley delve into depths of their training schedule as they prepare for their first show that goes live to air in about 6 weeks.

So watch this space!
2007 is off to a great start!

*Note: For the international readers of this blog, Neighbours is the long running television show that is responsible for our famous export and singing budgie "Kylie Minogue"

New Year Reflections

2007-01-02T22:27:00.000+11:00

How was you year? Have you had a chance to review it? What did you achieve? Did you do all the things you said you would? And did you have the life you wanted to?

Here's my review of the year that was, its been a fabulous year, alot of hard work and alot of fun. The biggest thing was being outside my comfort zone most of the time. How many times did you take a chance? Live outside your comfort zone?

Best thing I have done
Sailed with Crystal Cruises, with my best friend and boyfriend Paul Zaidman. Closely followed by having the courage to leave my corporate existence 5 years ago. I was miserable and it took me years to work up the courage to follow my heart and do the one thing I love, Dance.

Favorite place I've visited
The Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik, Iceland & Prince Christian Sound, Greenland. I didnt think I would ever get to see these places and smell how fresh their air is. The scenery is stunning and Australia just doesnt have anything like it.

Worst moment experienced
Being in the midst of a full blown outbreak of that awful Norovirus on the QE2. 30% of the passengers were sick, everywhere you turned people were sick, everyone was catching it and we couldnt get off the ship! We were like prisoners, it was absolutely the worst moment for me in many many years. Oh... closely followed by being told I had to wear this 1980's prison ward uniform to teach dance!

Most terrifying & courageous moment
That first night on the QE2, we sailed into one of the roughest bays in the world (Bay of Biscay) and the ship was pitching, rolling, groaning and we had a tiny inside cabin. My worst nightmare was to throw up and I had placed myself in the most likely place for that to happen. The next day, every part of me was screaming to get off that ship, but! I was determined to have a fabulous life and I felt the fear and did it anyway. I

Silliest moment
All of the moments we shared with those fabulous boys from the Acapella group Full Sail on board the Crystal Symphony. Closely followed by any moment we share with our best friends back home, Arsen & Demi.

Best achievement
Surviving a four month contract on the QE2 and coming out with our relationship in tact! Actually, spending 18 months with one person, in confined spaces, on a moving ship. Working, living, socialising together and spending almost every hour of the day together..... and coming out of it all with our relationship in tact! Now thats an achievement!

Biggest regret
None, I dont believe in them ;-)

Biggest surprise
Finding out how much people dont communicate via email when you go away. I thought it would be just like being here in person but for some reason, people just dont make the effort even though communication is at its cheapest and fastest ever.

Biggest relief
Coming home to Australia after being away for 18 months and having enough time to go out and and smell the Australian bush, pat kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and talk to cockatoos.

Biggest Joy
Seeing the tiny face of my first niece just after she was born on November 29

Craziest event
Sailing around the southern tip of South America (Cape Horn) and teaching Argentine Tango to 30 people in 40 foot seas, and I did it in 3 inch heels, not a single person was sick, no-one fell over and we all had fun!

Most pleasant discovery
Finding out that I could design and sew beautiful, elegant and well structured latin dance costumes. And enjoying the process so much that time stands still when I am sewing.

Most unusual discovery
Seeing just how much I had changed after almost 2 years away from family, friends and my homeland. The external changes were obvious for some but the internal changes are so great its hard to describe.

Quirkiest Achievement
Breaking free of my credit card habit! Leaving my credit cards at home and just living on what I earned. Not overspending, overcommitting or overbuying was an absolute relief, I had so much more time in my life to just BE with people.

Most inspiring event
Having my beautiful man complete the Landmark Forum and Advanced Course and opening his mind to the limitless potential of his life. Seeing the changes in him on an almost daily basis and being constantly inspired by his determination to transform his life.

Funniest moment
Oh dear, there have been so many of them its hard to pick one. One does stand out though, I cant tell all the details but it was probably in the crew elevator with those Acapella boys again, its not very pleasant so I wont go into detail, but it was hysterical, I left me crying, snorting, guffawing and gasping for breath...literally!

Most unexpected event
Sailing into Brazil during Carnivale, dancing samba with 100,000 people in the Manaus Samba Drome with four big burly men as my bodyguards. A once in a lifetime event!

Most peaceful moment
Recently after watching "The Secret" and "What The BLEEP Do We Know" and contemplating how powerful we are as human beings.

Biggest Change
The level of appreciation of this wonderful country we live in. Seeing the rest of the world made me appreciate Australia to a whole new level; the quality of the air, the friendliness of our people, the space we have around us, the wildlife we take for granted, the flatness of our country, the safety in our streets, the quality of our food, the calmness of our culture, we really do live in the lucky country and I hadnt seen that before we went away.

Biggest Realisation
Realising how much I give to others and how giving so much isnt always a good thing. Creating boundaries, setting expecations and allowing others to look after themselves can be much better than giving too much.

Most exciting moment
Watching the fireworks at 12midnight on New Years Eve and seeing the possibility of the new year. Taking a big breath in and focussing on what I really want and attracting that, rather than focussing on what I dont want. And looking ahead to the exciting possibilities of starting our new year together.

Women with Endless Energy

2006-12-31T11:23:00.000+11:00

Paul and I are currently doing this fabulous Self Expression and Leadership course, its a three month course and during this time we get to take on a project that we are passionate about and that really inspires us. I've chosen an area that I'm really passionate about and that is women having an abundance of energy. My project is called "Women with Endless Energy" and it is all about having energy to do the things you want, energy to finish the things you start and energy to be the person you really want to be.

I am developing a course that runs for about 6 weeks and focuses on releasing energy through physical movement (dance) and looking at the food we eat and how some foods give us energy & some leave us feeling tired.

As part of our coaching during the course, we conduct interviews with people that know us. We ask them for their perceptions about us. I'm throwing this interview process wide open to as many people that would like to participate and be a part of my development in this program and this project.

Interview Questions
1) What are my strengths
2) What are my weaknesses
3) What do people know about me
4) What can you count on me for
5) What can you never count on me for

Thats it!
Pretty easy huh?

Oh, there's a catch.....
- You need to be open and honest with me
- Dont pull any punches, just say it like it is
- Speak on behalf of others, talk about what others might think

My commitment
- Please know that anything you say will be taken as coaching, I promise that I will not get upset about anything you say, so you can say whatever you feel, think or what others think

Thank You
And if you're thinking, oh, she's got heaps of people that will email her and answer her questions, please dont, I would like as much feedback as I can get

Thank you for your time, it will go towards my development and you will have been a part of my project and the happiness that it will bring

White Christmas in Australia!!

2006-12-26T13:23:00.000+11:00

White Christmas in Melbourne!
If we didnt post photos you wouldnt believe us!
We had a White Christmas in Melbourne!

Previous years I've been woken at 6am on Christams Day to the sounds of my two sisters in their high pitched kiddy voices, "look what santa bought me!" But today we were woken by lightening, thunder and the sound of pelting hail against our bedroom window. And not just those piddly little stones that tap at you with annoyance, we had the big suckers, little rocks slamming down with great force.

So Paul was woken on this Christmas Day to adult voice with a childish twist, "Quick! get up, I wanna go play in the hail and take photos...get up! we have to go outside!" I urged with great enthusiasm. And out we went into the 10 degree celsius weather, it was freezing but what a blast!

Mother Nature had blessed our burning country with a good dose of rain and hail to dampen the ragine bushfires that have been burning out of control for weeks. Yes, all the firemen, volunteers and quivering wildlife could all take a well earned break on Christmas Day. The rain saved hundreds of houses and livestock about to be torched, Mother Nature works in mysterious ways but this Australian White Christmas was a real gift.

Mad Family
Wow, what a fantastic Christmas this has been. We kicked off the silly season with a family dinner on my Mothers side. Traditionally we havent caught up with this large family, my Mum is the youngest of 8 children and a family gathering could mean around 100 people!

So for the second year in a row, we caught up with the three remaining sisters of my Mothers generation, their children and their childrens children, it was a real blast. We enjoy each others company so much that its difficult for new people to get a word in. Our partners tend to take a backseat when we start talking, its frantic, seven conversations between 10 people, chopping, changing, speaking in our own language about people our partners have never heard of.

Its a pretty wild experience when you're asked to a Johns family catchup, only the hardiest survive and thats the way we like it :-) Paul did exceptionally well, he felt it was just like a good Jewish Family gathering!

On Christmas Day we caught up with my Fathers side of the family, with a lunch at our home in Hampton Park. The family has grown significantly since we went away, children I hadnt met before, children that had grown almost to the point where I didnt recognise them, it was such a joy having everyone over and spending such wonderful time together, it really was.

Friends
After the family festivities, Paul and I packed our good friend Cath into the car and headed for another friends house to give our best wishes for a Birthday, Naming Day and Christmas Day all in one day! By the time we got there the birthday girl was all but flaked out on the couch but we spent a short period of time laughing, chatting wildly and enjoying the energy of wonderful friends! Ehhh... before we all hit the wall and had to go home and sleep 12 hours!

The Baby
And lets not forget the beautiful baby! Baby Katie was too young to know what was happening, her life consists of sleeping, eating, spleeping and eating, but I just had to post this photo because at 4 weeks she is getting prettier by the day!

Not everyone has such a wonderful Christmas as we just did, for those who suffered trauma, distress, sadness or loneliness, we send you our joy, happiness and warmth at this remarkable time of the year.

Good Karma - Clothes Party

2006-12-21T10:36:00.000+11:00

Last weekend was one of the hugest weekends we have had in a long time.

We held two small community events, one was a "Good Karma Clothes Party" and the other was my first Garage Sale!

When I arrived home in early November I faced up to the enormous task that waited for me. To clean out all the old stuff my family and I have been hanging onto for many years.

When my father died, we tucked his stuff away, to be dealt with at a later date. Well, its nearly 3 years now and that date has arrived. As for me, well, I confess, I was the worst culprit of all. I have successfully propelled my life forward at such a rapid rate that I rarely took a moment to clean up after myself. I used to get so focused on what I was about to do, that I didnt completely finish what I was doing. At the same time I was hoarding stuff for reasons that astound me. Folders full of marketing material, old business plans, assignments from university, photos of people I dont even know, Christmas cards from people I cant remember! You name it, I was hoarding it!

Four weeks it took me, I have been working like a slave, shifting, sorting, packing, throwing, dusting, cleaning and preparing. Preparing for the biggest cleanse I have EVER had! And boy did it feel good!

The best cleanse was the "Good Karma Clothes Party". I invited all my bestest buddies and family over to my house for afternoon tea. I had sorted through all my clothes from size 6 to size 14 (Australian sizes). I had sorted out all the shoes I would no longer wear, tops, blouses, skirts, everything. I neatly arranged them for everyone to sift through and I just allowed everyone to take what they wanted. Just take it, no expectation, no token payment of money, no exchange, just take it.

And what they didnt take, I gave to the Salvation Army. Beautiful designer business shirts, suits, gorgeous shoes, just gave it all away.

Why?

Because I dont need it anymore.

Simple, my life has changed to such a degree that these clothes and shoes are not part of it anymore. I have enough. These are things I wont wear again and the most exciting thing for me is how much I have changed, these things are not me anymore, they are from a time when I was different. You just had to take a look at some of the clothes to see what I was trying to prove or who I was trying to fool. It was obvious.

So now I have all the things that I need to carry me forward into my new life, clothes that fit, clothes that express how I am now. And best of all, I dont feel the need to have so much stuff. Now that is a fantastic feeling.

One of the best things that came out of the day was to continue the concept of sharing our clothes on a regular basis and perhaps with more people... here's the idea....

Every year at springtime, I will remind my female friends and family to clean out their wardrobes and they will remind their friends. The first week of summer we will meet for afternoon tea and somehow, these clothes will have been sorted into sizes and all get to spend the afternoon shopping for free! At the end of the day, all the fabulous clothes will be donated to a nominated charity.

I'm looking forward to this concept becoming much bigger than my immediate community, so much so that just a group of gals with last years clothes could possibly make a difference to other communities.

So if you are interested in contributing to this idea, please drop me a line.
For the rest, a big warm thank you goes out to all the wonderful women that came on the weekend, it was such a fabulous day.

Photos:
1) My little cousin wearing my very first latin dress from when I was 12!
2) The dress I wore at my 21st birthday party!
3) The dress I wore as a bridesmaid 17 years ago!

Good Lord, you can see why I needed to cleanse!

Living the life we want

2006-12-11T10:28:00.000+11:00

Wow! Busy times in Melbourne

Australian Dancesport Championships yesterday
Self Development course all day Saturday
Business meetings a plenty
Cleaning out the house
Changes in our plans

Dancesport Championships
Yesterday we had the most fabulous day at Dancesport, we got there early to see the Amatuer Latin 1st round and stayed right through till midnight last night to see the finals. Wow what a day. We were exhausted from just sitting there, I cant imagine how the competitors felt. It was absolutely fantastic to see the spectacle that is Dancesport, the amazing athletic abilities of these dancers that just come out round after round and dance there hearts out.

And the COSTUMES!!! My god, how much money there was on that floor! There must have been over 500 hundred competitors all in costumes worth an average of $2000, hang on a minute, that makes it $1,00,000 worth of costumes yesterday! And thats not including the shoes, hairstyles, nails and makeup. Even though we dont have photos to show, I think you can get the picture.

The best part for me was the intermission in the evening. At this point the spectators have a choice to rush out for a fag (cigarette:-), grab some more junk food, rush to the loo or do what most people do, stay inside the stadium and have a dance on the massive competition floor. This is such an amazing sight it leaves me inspired everytime i see it. The floor can take probably 500 people, it gets absolutely full of kids, adults, aunties, uncles. The music starts and they all move in unison to the same choreographed dance, usually an Evening Three Step or Carousel. It is unbelievable to see the whole room move to the one beat, at the same time, in the same way. If I'm not dancing I just sit and soak of the moving inspiration that is in front of me.

Self Expression and Leadership Program
On Saturday Paul and I (plus our two best friends) started the first day of a three month course that is going to take us all to the next level of where we want to be in our lives. Its part of the Landmark Education program, we have all done two courses already and this is the final in a three part series. We are all very excited as this course takes us through a process of delivering a project that we are passionate about. The program helps us worth through areas where we would normally get stopped and shows us who we need to be to reach our own goals.

Its a fabulous course, I started it two years ago but my dad got sick (and passed away) so I didnt complete it. I'm really excited to complete it, I know whats in store and how it will stretch me to the next level.

Changes to our Plans
There have been murmurs about changes to our plans, well, its confirmed, we wont be going back onto the ships for a while. We will be staying in Australia and working on several opportunities. The first one is that Paul has an opportunity to be on a television show out here. The second one is that we are starting a business together that will take our dancing to new areas through teaching, lecturing and performing.

So, apologies to all our lovely Crystal guests that were looking forward to cruising with us in 2007, we wont be there to share your holiday but we are sure you will appreciate the exciting opportunities that await us here in Australia. We may be back in 2008, we never say never :-)

Back to whats happening right now, we are currently having a website built for us, it should be ready around mid January 2007 and we are speaking with a couple of businesses to secure some corporate and private work.

We are very excited about staying in Australia and building our future together. We are really excited that we have some help in terms of the SELP program. We are also very happy that our closest friends are joining us in this journey and we will all get to see each other grow and live the lives we want.

But for now, its cleaning the house to get it ready for my family to move out, finding somewhere to live, finding a car and getting our lives in order.

We are so excited about our future, we cant wait for next year to take off, we plan to live the life we want and love the life we live!

Photos of Baby Katie

2006-12-01T22:43:00.000+11:00

Here they are, the first photos of Katie

It's a girl!!!

2006-11-30T10:47:00.000+11:00

Today we received the exciting news that I am an aunty for the very first time! Littly baby Katie, Lillian was born 8.78lbs at 6.05pm November 29, all beautiful and perfect.

Katie is the wonderful work of my only brother Wayne and his lovely partner Sarah. We dont have any photos yet, Katie is 4 hours drive from us in Melbourne, so we are packing our things and getting ready for a visit to Echuca/Moama, right on the boarder of New South Wales and Victoria.

I love Sarahs approach to childbirth, she's what we call a "power birther" no mucking around (with 18 hour labour periods like my mother) Sarah felt her first contraction, felt another, yep, its time to go... she makes the short trip to the hospital, 90 minutes of pain, three quick pushes and bingo! Out pops that baby.

Sarahs a bit of a tough one, she did it with no drugs, no stitches, no cuts, bruises, nothing, just sheer birthing power! We love it!! Way to go Sarah, you're my idol!

My mother is ecstatic, she is a granny for the first time. For various health reasons, we all thought my mother would not be around to see any of her grandchildren, so every day she gets to spend with her only grandaughter is an absolute blessing. My two teenage sisters Kelly and Lizzy are now aunties and they cant wait to be asked to babysit.

And for me, well, I have been given the very prestigous honour of being asked to be the godmother of this little bundle of joy. Imagine that, 1st time aunty and 1st time godmother all in one go!

We shall send photos as soon as we can.

Being Australian

2006-11-12T08:59:00.000+11:00

When we arrived home I felt the overwhelming urge to get back in touch with some of the simple things that are unique to being Australian. I felt the urge to go for a long drive in the country, to take in the smells, and scenery that I have not found anywhere else in the world. The scent of an Australian Eucalyptus tree, Tea Trees found in the Australian bush and the smell of a good Aussie BBQ cooked to mouthwatering perfection.

We headed off to one of the best tourist destinations in Australia, Phillip Island (about 90 minutes out of Melbourne). Phillip Island is known for being one of the most prolific locations for Australian wildlife; It has one of the largest seal colonies in the world; it has a daily routine of fairy penguins migrating to shore from feeding at sea; it is home to some of the largest and most dangerous sharks; we even get whales down here and I havent even started on the creatures that live on the land.

Being born and bred in Australia means you get used to critters; big ones, small ones, smelly ones, dangerous ones and critters that are just downright annoying. Australia is most famous for its Kangaroos and Koalas and while we have plenty of them in our bushland, there arent many places that you can go to sit and pat these magnificent creatures without getting clawed, mauled or urinated on! (Sorry, bad childhood experience with a Koala).

But there is one fantastic place where you can pat tamed Australian animals, it's the Phillip Island Wildlife Sanctuary and that's exactly where we headed yesterday. I didn't know it at the time but Paul had never actually patted a Kangaroo, Wallaby, Wombat or Koala. He's been living in Australia for over 25 years now, but he had never had a close-up opportunity.

We entered this humble little establishment and with a casual glance over the shoulder, we were greeted by the local Aussie owners, "ow ya goin?" the young woman asked in a beautiful Australian accent. "not bad thanks, ow are you?" we replied. "we wanna pat kangaroos" I tell her excitedly. She reaches out, grabs two brown paper bags, places them on the counter, takes our money and says "go for it, ya know ow ta read the map?, av a great day!"

We toddle through the doors; brown paper bags in hand and make our way to the first sign that says "Kangaroos". At the gate to the grassy enclosure we are greeted by a large, aggressive looking Emu. He's actually not looking at us; he's eagerly seeking out the brown paper bags we carry.

We push the Emu aside to get through the gate and as I turn my back on him his head suddenly appears over my shoulder. His large pointed beak and menacing eyes violently thrust forward to steal the bag in my hand. Paul, who is off to my side, sees the attack and quickly turns, yells loudly and throws his arms about wildly, scaring the living daylights out of me instead of the Emu! The Emu ducks quickly and avoids the intended swipe and comes back for another shot at my brown paper bag. This time Paul thumps the ground with his feet and charges towards this crazy feathered beast. The Emu slightly flinches and repositions itself for another attack.

We battle with our gracious host for some 4-5 minutes, this is an Australian tradition, the Emu spies the food, he tries whatever he can, the Aussie flails about wildly until he finds a method that sufficiently shoos the Emu away...albeit only for a short period.

When there's Emus in the area and you're carrying food, you can expect this dance to continue for the entire time you are there. Unless, you opt for the more drastic measure, one we are not fond of, and you whack the Emu in the head. They keep away for at least 10 minutes when you connect solidly with one of them.

While Paul fends off the Emu, I spot the Kangaroos and head over to them. They are timid in this enclosure, reluctant to approach. I gently crab along, lowering my body to their level, hand outstretched with strange green pellets from my brown paper bag. Finally the Kangaroo reaches out for a nibble. Gently at first, she nibbles from the mound of pellets in my hand, as she makes her way through the feed I can feel her furry nose in my palm. She continues to munch and then I feel her teeth, she has mistaken my gold ring for food and is crunching away at the metal band on my middle finger. A moment passes and she realizes there is no more food and lifts her head for another handful.

We continue like this for a few minutes as I earn her trust and reach out slowly with my other hand to pat her soft, grey fur. The sun is shining, the wind blowing gently and I can smell the unique aromas of being on the land in Australia. My hand connects and I feel the soft warmth of a living creature. I place my hand on her back and feel her breathing, eating and balancing herself as she adjusts to reach more food. What a joy, to feel the energy of a wild Australian animal, to feel its fur in one hand and its whiskers and gentle nibbling in the other. I was captivated, hypnotized to the point that I hadn't noticed the brightly colored British tourists heading in our direction with two large emu's and six baby emu's in tow. I knew I had only seconds left with this beautiful girl before she would be scared away by the event that was about to happen. Sure enough, the next moment I hear the loud panicked shrieking of the pale British woman, I look over and see she is surrounded by the family of Emu, she is flailing about wildly as the Emu try to stretch over her extremities and secure the brown paper bag she is toting. One ducks under, one comes around the back, another sneaks up on an angle, the father comes in over her shoulder; the woman is under complete attack and its absolutely hysterical! (picture Jurassic Park Raptors attack with mores screaming and less blood)

My kangaroo looks up; she flinches and raises onto her tail and with a few pumps of her strong hind legs she is at least 50 meters away from me. Now I have turned my focus on to what is possibly be a decent entry into Australia's Funniest Home Videos... where is a camera when you need it!

We grow bored of The Brightly Colored British Tourist as she makes the fatal mistake of reaching into her paper bag and sprinkling some of its contents on the ground around her. NOoooo!!! We say... don't FEED them!!!! They will have won the battle and continue their efforts! Good Lord woman, what are you doing! But she is now trapped and all the Kangaroos that were in the area have hopped away to a more peaceful location.

We make our way out of this enclosure and over to the Wombat enclosure. These squat little furry, fat creatures are so cute, you just want to pick them up and hug them. But you cant, they will claw your eyes out with their strong burrowing nails. We walk along the raised wooden boardwalk, specifically designed so you can see into the burrows and the wombats can move about on the ground below. We spot a baby Wombat and her mother and make our way over. I have a well-prepared plan of how to attract this shy animal to me so that I may pat its densely populated and usually very dirty fur.

I sprinkle a little feed on the ground near the edge of the boardwalk, drawing the wombat closer. She responds and nibbles the food looking for more. And then I feel it, the thumping of the boardwalk beneath me as I hear the excited screaming of a small child running towards me. The Wombat looks up and scurries away. This time it's a gruff, loud speaking German family, also brightly colored. They reach into their brown paper bags and took aim and throw the feed at the Wombats.

Grrrrrr.... another 10 minutes passed by, the German tourists grow bored of waiting for this wild animal to come to them...They probably couldn't figure it out... why wasn't this animal responding to them. Dumb animal.

As they left we gently approached uttering cooing noises to pacify the traumatized Wombat. I placed some feed on the edge of the boardwalk, ready to wait for her to gain her confidence back. But, she must have worked up an appetite because she climbed straight up onto the timber and started crunching away on the food provided. ***
I reached out and patted her warm, bristly hair and gave her ears a tweak. She seemed to respond positively as she continued to eat. We enjoyed this connection for a short while and gave all the feed to the mother Wombat.

We walked through the large property, across the grass, through some trees, over a creekbed until we came upon a small Tea Tree forest. The trees were all barren from the ground upwards to about 10 feet, then the sprucey green vegetation of the tree sprouted and created a small canopy shielding us from the hot sun. As we walked through this small forest it became very quiet; very still; it kinda felt like we were being watched. We looked around, peered into the grey trees, lined by grey soil and there we saw them, dozens of them, sitting still, standing still, lying still, but all eyes focused on us. A herd of Big Grey Kangaroos were observing the intruders; all heads turned in our direction, just watching, and no movement, just eerie silence.

In the wild, this would not be a good situation, especially if there were females in the herd that were 'in season'. Male Kangaroos are known for their aggressive tendencies and it is not uncommon for a "Big Grey' to bound over to a human, wrap his short forearms around the victims neck, lean back on its massive tail and beat the stuffing out of the humans underbelly. Last year a child was brutally savaged by a 'rutting' Kangaroo on the edge of a suburban golf course. The boy had his stomach ripped to shreds and almost died.

So you see our situation was, shall we say, filled with that mixture of excitement and fear. We were a long way from the main enclosures and if one of these creatures decided to attack, it could be very nasty. As we made our way through this forest it became apparent that we were safe. There would be no newspaper headlines out of this trip.

We rounded a bend and came out into a clearing next to a small pond. On the open grass we could see big reds and big greys lying in the afternoon sun, all of them watching us. We made our way to an open area and stood still. One by one these magnificent creatures rose and with a few short bounds were at our feet looking for food.

Surrounded by large Kangaroos is a thrilling experience, one Paul had not experienced before. You can feel their strength just looking at them at close range and when they want food, damn it, they get food. They started ripping at our bags before we could get them open. I could sense the panic in Paul as he started throwing food away from him saying "here have it, take it, just get away".

I opened my bag and reached in for a handful, extended my palm and a big male reached over the top of the others, grabbed my hand with both of his front paws and held me tight. He plunged his face into my hand and I immediately felt the difference in his size, his teeth were large and powerful. Yep, better get more food, quick, or else I might not come away with my ring in tact with this boy.

We fed this group for about 20 minutes; we were completely alone out there in the wetlands, no cars, no people, no phones and no noise. Just us, the birds, the wind and several large Kangaroos. It was exhilarating, liberating and peaceful all at the same time.

We left the pack without a scrap of food. Even the paper bags had been torn from our hands and ripped to shreds. We walked away backwards just incase they didn't believe we were empty. They all looked; some of them gently followed then after a while we were free to go.

My god, what an honor, to hand feed Kangaroos, a pack of them, males, females and oh... I forgot to mention, just as Paul was feeding this medium sized female, out pops a head from within her pouch, her 'Joey' got curious about the fuss and decided to check things out. Paul took the opportunity to do the most precious of all, feed a baby while it was still in its mother's pouch. Wow.

We made our way back to the entrance of the wildlife park, stopping to say hi to some Wallabies, talk to the Cockatoos, sing them a song, and dance with them. We visited a family of Dingoes; their pups came over to greet us. We felt like voyeurs when we stopped to say hi to the Lace Monitors and found them in a loving embrace, deep in the throws of passion. We said goodbye to the sleepy Koalas that hadn't bothered to wake for our visit and then lastly we said a chilled goodbye to the bluenecked, axe wielding most bizarre creature, the Cassowary.

Grins on our faces, a trace of redness on our skin from the scorching Australian sun, we climbed into the steaming hot car and looked at each other; a big sigh of peace, relief and gratitude....ahhh....that's what it feels like to be an Australian.

Ah... its good to be home

2006-11-10T06:56:00.000+11:00

What a joy it is to be home. After another alcohol infested long haul flight, we arrived safe and sound to a lovely cool morning, the sounds of Magpies and the laidback drawl of the Australian accent.

This time we had the joy of spending 14 hours next to a nervous flyer who gulped down fists full of sedatives, guzzled champagne and when her twitchy legs finally released her into a deep slumber, she sat there open mouth breathing her stank in my direction. Her mates sat right behind us all guzzling wine to help them sleep, they too breathing open mouthed in our direction. At one point we thought the offensive smell was coming from the toilets but as I got up to investigate and made my way past the group, I noticed an almost pleasant, fresh smell coming from the toilets...yup, it was them alright, all four of them...

But, we are now back in the land of sunshine, fresh air, open spaces and friendly people. We laughed as we watched the morning news. What a contrast to the overseas news that is obsessed with Iraq, Terrorism and the Stock Exchange. Our newscasters idly chatted about seemingly unimportant things making jokes at each other and allowing the conversation to ramble gently. All the while, getting their message across but in a gentler, more humorous and calmer manner.

We found one news segment to be of particularly jocularity. A newscaster tells us an Australian man has found, in the dirt, a pure gold nugget worth $25,000. Just lying there about 2 feet under! So the interviewer asks this guy what happened when he found the nugget... the Aussie replies very laconically, "well, me misses and me were bout to have a cuppa tea and we found this thing..." the interviewer pushes for more information, possibly some spice to add to the interview "yeah, and um... well, we looked at each other, and we went over to the car and had a coffee and um, yeah".

Paul and I looked at each other, smiles bursting out, expressions of knowing fondness, yet disbelief in the understated nature of Australian spirit. Yep, thats our guy, the good old Aussie, not a bragger, just plain simple facts, no mess, no fuss, no drama, just tell it like it is. And we find it ever so funny!

So, its so nice to be home, to see the brilliant sunshine that occurs in Australia, to smell the fresh air and enjoy the laid back, open feeling of our land. It was particularly nice to have a leisurely chat with family and friends and then fall into coma-like-state that lasted over 18 hours.

I feel an overwhelming urge to pat a kangaroo for some reason so I think in the next few days we might take a trip to the best wildlife sanctuary in Australia, the Phillip Island Wildlife Sanctuary, cant wait.

London

2006-11-06T09:44:00.000+11:00

We have had such a lovely time in London, the weather has been absolutely unbelievable! Sunshine everyday, just gorgeous. (More photos coming soon)

We've been to the London Eye, this enormous ferris wheel on the river Thames.

Pauls brother Saul arranged a night out at Londons best salsa club 'Bar Salsa' we danced the night away and met all of Sauls lovely friends.

We caught up with wonderful friends Nina Ferro and Chelsea Plumley, they also happen to be very talented singers and wonderful human beings, god it was great to sit, eat, drink and chat endlessly, if not, frantically about our lives, hopes and our futures.

We hung out with Pauls brother, it has been such a joy getting to know him, he has been amazing, he opened his home to us and made us feel so welcome. We had the best sleep in his bed and enjoyed lazing around in his sunny, spacious and warm London apartment. That was a real joy.

Of course we went to Harrods, it didnt really do it for either of us this time. It was nice, all sparkly and bright but the prices were ridiculous and the products ranged from sublime to the ridiculous. We saw one diamond encrusted watch that was over £500,000 British Pounds (that's around $1.25 million Australian Dollars!!!! We werent even allowed to photograph it!

And last night we had the best time just hanging out in a games arcade, playing games, laughing and enjoying each others company.

So we are off to the airport now, our flight is late tonight and we will arrive at some ungodly hour of the morning on the 7th of November. We have had many late night, jetlagged, exciting and inspiring conversations about our future together and we cant wait to share it with everyone when we have a chance.

Good friends are hard to find

2006-11-04T02:36:00.000+11:00

Over the last 2 years both Paul and I have been through an interesting process with our friends. Going away for such a long period of time really shows you who is in your life on a constant basis and who is there on a situational basis.

On the ship it is especially difficult to have meaningful friendships with conflicting schedules and the transient nature of it all. The limited number of people makes it particularly difficult to have real connections with people; there are only 500 people that are on the ship all the time, of those 500 we would regularly have contact with about 250.

Can you imagine living in a town that only has 250 people? You would think you would have a friendship with everyone wouldn’t you? But it’s actually the opposite. The limited number of people means you meet less of the people you enjoy, it’s a numbers game, and there are less of them in your environment. To connect with "like minded people" you need to have mass. You need to meet lots of people to weed out the ones you are interested in.

So working on ships can often be filled with sustained periods of loneliness. It seems bizarre because you are surrounded by people 24/7 and you see the same people constantly. But the combination of conflicting schedules and the absence of a real connection leaves you with only a small group of people you can really relate to.

Most of the crew use alcohol to beat the intense loneliness that occurs on ships. It allows you to bond with others you normally wouldn’t spend 5 minutes with; it cuts through the boundaries pretty quickly and enables you to see things differently. But even this gets tired and can only last for so long before people start to get frustrated and depressed.

So when you have the rare opportunity to truly connect with people on a cruise ship, its absolutely wonderful. And if that connection lasts more than 12 days, you are truly blessed. But you know, the connection will stop at some point. The cruise ship industry is so transient, not many people can sustain this lifestyle for extended periods, so the volumes of people come.... and they go....

Recently we met the most wonderful group of people, fortunately for us we found them interesting and intriguing, we wanted to know more about them and they were the kind of people we would like to hang out with. What a surprise! Aaaannnnd! They had the same schedule as us! Woo hoo! Not only that but they even lived right near us on the ship! So the last eight weeks on the ship has been absolute heaven because we have shared some fantastic times with an awesome bunch of people. Some of the moments were fleeting, quick conversations, coffees, casual dinners. Other moments were lasting, spending the day together, long dinners, playing games or just casually hanging out and chatting.

As a result I wanted to dedicate this blog to the wonderful friends that come and go in our lives, to the people we make sincere connections with (you know who you are) and to the four wonderful people who took the ship by storm (no, not the ambassador hosts) the new Acapella group, Full Sail. So please allow me to introduce you to some of the most amazing and fabulous people we have met...Clayton, Tim, Marvin and David.

Clayton Lee is this wonderful young, energetic, passionate and genuine hearted person. His natural good looks have a pure quality to them that just makes you want to smile when you look into his eyes. He has the makings of a star, his voice is fantastic, his energy when singing is infectious and his humor binds it all together to make him hysterical to watch and a joy to be around. We were so fortunate to spend quality time with Clayton, sharing many moments from the mundane to the profound. He is a wonderful human being and we have the greatest love and admiration for him.

Tim Foust will hate me for describing him in this way but.... he is a tall, dark and handsome Texan with a smooth, sultry feel about him. Tim has this sensual way of being, he oozes into a room, he slides up to you and embraces you with his energy, its gooey, like warm just melted chocolate. His voice has the same qualities, it its truly amazing with one of the greatest ranges I have ever heard but he is most famous for his deep, deep, incomprehensible bass. We connected with Tim on such a basic level, no mess, no fuss, just folks being folks, what a joy! He is so relaxed we felt so comfortable around him and just enjoyed every moment in his presence, we hope there will be many more.

Marvin Randall is this strikingly handsome, tall, good postured guy from somewhere in the Bible belt (just like Tim and Clayton). You can tell he is a good soul the minute you meet him. He has this quality of respect, dignity and self confidence without arrogance. The attraction to Marvin was immediate, the moment he stepped onto the ship, people flocked to him (some for the wrong reasons), he is a real, up front and dignified person. You get this feeling when you are around Marvin that no matter what happens, you will be ok, it’s a kind of safe and comfortable feeling. He's got it covered. He, like the others, has an amazing voice also; our only issue with Marvin was that on the last day we discovered he had done the same course as us (Landmark) and we had a common tool to really connect with. We wish we had more time with him, we have so much to share.

Last but not least is David Baida. David is this wonderfully energetic person that somehow had his wires configured in an unusual way. David has an intensity to him that you don’t find every day, he gets worked up to a point that you think he's going to implode. We love most that David can see all this and is completely open about it, such brutal honesty; it will take him many places. David has the most amazing voice in that he can sing at such a high level and hold a note that it is incomprehensible to the layman (think along the lines of Mariah Carey). When you put his singing together with his character on stage, he is hysterically funny, he is an absolute joy to observe and listen to. We wish we had more time with David, the conversations we had with him were filled with insightful probing questions, the stuff that ordinary people don’t comprehend, he is a fascinating person.

Our friendship with these guys was so refreshing, so fulfilling, we had the best fun with them and we felt like normal human beings just hanging with their pals and doing stupid stuff. But these guys are special, they are all equally talented in their own right yet you would never know how special they are when you are in their presence, they are so grounded and so humble it’s incredible (well, maybe Tim is a little conceited :-) but hey, that’s what we liked about him! Tee hee.

So the completion of our latest contract with Crystal was surrounded in fabulous friendships and I would say wholeheartedly this was the highlight of our contract. We hope we will see them all in Australia at some point and that our family and friends back home will have the good fortune of meeting such wonderful people.

Clayton, Tim, Marvin and David, we love you guys, we miss you and can’t wait to hang out with you again. Please understand that you have a home in Australia any time you are there and we will do whatever we can to assist you if you ever want to grace our shores with your presence.

Photos from top left
No. 1 Clayton, David, Marvin & Tim (Backstage)
No. 2 David & Marvin (Clowning around backstage)
No. 3 Tim, Paul & Clayton (Climbing a rock in Boston)
No. 4 Clayton, David, Marvin & Paul (With me sound asleep)
No. 5 Tim & I (At the Boston Salsa Party... & he says he doesnt dance!)

No sleep on rough seas

2006-11-01T23:08:00.000+11:00

Saturday 5pm – Day 1 (rough seas)
Only two more days to go and we start our long trip home to Australia. Today we stopped in Halifax Nova Scotia where we spent the bulk of the day sending home our excess luggage.

The autumn is closing in up here, they are beginning to salt the roads and the locals tell us the “four months” of snow is not far away now. We have been told the seas may get rocky tonight, there is a storm ahead, apparently it is the tail end of a hurricane and they think it could get nasty.

11pm Newsflash
The seas have just kicked up a notch. We are closer to the storm and the wind has turned to gale force. Paul and I have just been for a walk up to the top deck and it’s a nightmare up there, you can hardly stand up! Downstairs the evening show has just been cancelled and there are only a few people out and about.

We took a look into the dining room after everyone left and there are glasses, plates and bowls smashed all over the floor. The remaining waiters looked tired and bedraggled. Apparently there were about 50 people eating (out of about 400 guests) and when the oceans kicked in they all left quick smart.

The Cruise Director has just made an announcement, our next port; Bar Harbor has just been cancelled. The violent storm has hit there with full force and the local port authorities have closed the port for the next three days.

The worst thing with these storms is just when you need a break from the rough seas, they cancel the port and you have to keep sailing. So we were supposed to go ashore tomorrow but now we will be at sea; hopefully it won’t be as rough as it is now.

Paul is currently tucked into bed, eating chips, nuts and various other fatty foods. He’s packed away anything that moves, our room is pitching and rolling like crazy, shaking, rumbling and getting jolted about.

So its fun and games on the high seas, we are in for another sleepless night and probably a tiring day at sea. I wish you could see the water outside the ship right now; the waves are washing up against the windows as high as our deck 6 which is the equivalent of about 40 feet!

Hopefully we make it to New York safely, she is a sturdy ship but some of these waves really make you think twice when they hit with a thunderous jolt.

2am – Day 2
Its going to be a long night with this storm we are sailing through. The oceans haven’t let up at all, in fact, it feels like they are building. We are both tucked away in bed, watching a movie. We are so tired from the moving ocean yet every time we close our eyes we are woken by a boom of the waves hitting our ship, accompanied by the crashing and bang of things going flying in our room.

10am – Day 2
Finally we have fallen asleep, the ocean is completely white now, the sky is grey. Its force 10 on the Beaufort scale and the sea is classified as a “storm sea” we think its even rougher than our South American experience. It certainly looks it and definitely feels rougher.

Paul got about 2 hours sleep and I got about 4, absolutely everything in our room was moving last night. At one point we hit this huge wave and the walkie talkies from on top of the TV came flying across the room and landed on Paul, in bed!

Our room has been pitching and rolling all night, I kinda just got used to it, knew it wouldn’t let up and couldn’t be bothered with paying any more attention to it. It’s a funny thing being in this environment, you are warm and safe yet we are in the middle of a heaving ocean that’s a meager 5 degrees Celsius.

If we had a serious emergency out here, most of us would be toast! You see the lifeboats the ship carries are very small and not really skilled at negotiating 50foot waves. These relatively tiny boats would flip over at the first wave in this treacherous sea, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

Even though we are in relative danger, the nature of human beings is so clever at disguising that danger and pandering to our comfort that we successfully forget how dangerous sailing the high seas can be. We are warm and safe, we have food and television whilst the oceans continue to wreak havoc around us. For those that dare to walk the corridors and enter the public rooms of the ship, they will even find smiling faced staff, ready to serve them and tend to their every whim. And the oceans continue to heave.

So its kind of a bit weird when you take a step back and look at it, we are in the middle of the ocean, the sea is a mass of white stormy foam, our ship is lurching, heaving, banging and groaning, yet we all feel warm, comfortable and safe in this little haven inside the ships walls. And just think, some people actually pay large sums of money to do this!!!

8pm – Day 2
Ok, that’s enough now! We’ve had it with the rocking and rolling, it was fun for a while but we’re ready for some peace and quiet now. The seas are STILL GOING and don’t seem to be letting up. All dancers have been pulled from the show tonight, that means we wont dance at all for the rest of our final cruise!

We have spent a large part of the day laying down in our room with friends. All the crew are exhausted, everyone looks worn out and drained.

1am - Day 3
New level of exhaustion now; have just paid our respectful dues at two crew parties and the ship is heaving big time. The first party was down low in the ship, in the middle where its considered to be more stable… but, no-one could stand with any degree of success. The second party was at the front of the ship, it was a sit-down party only and geez… did it feel awful. My head is constantly spinning now and my eyes have lost their focus.

8am - Day 3
Woken to the sound of workmen getting ready for our $23 million dry-dock refurbishment! Oh joy! And guess what? The ship is still moving! When will this end! We need to get some sleep before our red-eye flight to London.

2pm – Day 3
Finally the oceans have stopped, we have passed that nasty storm and are not far away from New York now. We have just found out that the storm we went through hit the USA pretty hard; one person was killed by a tree falling on him, one person drowned and another person fell overboard on a cruiseship!!! Yikes!

Fortunately for us, no deaths, no emergency evacuations, just a lot of cuts, bruises, sprains, strains and sutures…. Oh and plenty of sick and tired people!

What a glamorous life we lead :-)

Quebec

2006-10-22T01:38:00.000+10:00

Today we are in Quebec, the gorgeous French speaking city in Canada. We are a long way north and its autumn now, so the weather is closing in. Its grey, cloudy and windy, I've got tights on under my jeans and three jumpers and a jacket. I feel about 4feet thick, very uncomfortable.

These photos are from the last visit to Quebec, it was bright and sunny and warm.

Today we are heading out with a bunch of friends for lunch. Its 2pm now and they still havent got their lazy @#$%&* out of bed, so we are waiting in an internet place. Everyone is tired because last night we had the best time. Paul and I have been suffering from cabin fever and we told a few friends and they arrnanged for a 'games night'.

So a few of us headed out to the Officers Mess where there's not smoking (yippee) and we set up the board game "Cranium" Paul and I had no idea how to play it but got into the swing of it pretty quickly.

We discovered Paul was hysterical at the various activities, often for the wrong reasons. We found out he cant hum a tune in key for nuts! He's so bad and it was just so funny. We were in hysterics when he tried to hum 99 bottles of beer on the wall in the same key all the way through. There he was turning red in the face, pointing to some imaginary wall and acting as though he was chugging beers. We couldnt play cos we were laughing so much.

Next he tried his hand at sculpting the clue out of playdoh, what a hoot! Kept making gestures with his fingers that made sense to him but were downright offensive and lude to us. The best thing was that he was so deadly serious throughout it all and soooooo competitive, it was an absolute scream!

So after a night of laughter and hilarity, i have a sore stomach but a warm and happy feeling in my heart :-)

So, these photos... No. 1 is our ship with the autumn leaves up on a hill.

No. 2 is some crazy statue in the middle of town that i took a liking to.

No. 3 is inside a christmas shop with the most amazing collectiong of xmas decorations i have ever seen.

No. 4 is our good friend Clayton eating this horrid thing called an avalanche.

And No. 5 is this bunch of corgy dogs i fell in love with in the streets of quebec, i just sat down with them all and they came and licked and rubbed up against me, it was heaven.

Did somebody say bomb!

2006-10-22T01:27:00.000+10:00

What a fabulous day in Montreal today. The weather was superb, just like an autumn day in Melbourne; sunny, slight breeze and mild temperature. Montreal is such a beautiful city; it has this air about it, a certain elegance, dignity and sophistication. It possesses these qualities without seeming pompous or arrogant. Montreal is actually “Mount Royal” in the French language; it is Canada’s capital city and the native language is in fact French.

Today Paul and I took a short walk to a bike, scooter and roller blade shop, we miss the lifestyle we had back home, long walks on the beach, skating along St Kilda’s skate paths, riding our bikes and enjoying the fresh air. So we hired a pair of roller blades each and headed out along the cities boulevard for a nice 30km skate.

As we skated along, wind in our faces, this sense of happiness, joy and calm came over me. I hadn’t skated in almost 2 years and this was such a big part of my life before we starting cruising. Every Sunday I would head down to the beach and skate the afternoon away. So today as we cruised we enjoyed the freedom and quiet of a city we don’t know. We had almost 7 hours before our first show of the evening we had no idea about what was about to happen.

Just as we were putting the finishing touches onto our makeup, hair, clothing etc, we heard an announcement over the ships main PA system for all guests to return to their staterooms and search for any items that didn’t belong to them. This wasn’t the standard drill and we hadn’t heard this before so reading between the lines, we both concluded they were searching for a bomb.

So right now we are stuck on the ship, stuck in our stateroom, we are not allowed out, the entire ship has been confined to its stateroom, no-one can move. The ships officers have made several announcements and the crew are searching every orifice of the ship. We are waiting patiently for the next announcement and our next door neighbor, classical pianist Rustem Hayroudinoff has camped out with us to relieve the boredom and to eat our food.

The search was called during the main dining hour so all the guests were happily eating their first meal. We haven’t eaten and we are all starving hungry. Our first show has been cancelled and we are waiting to hear about the second one.

Paul is having a field day with all this drama; he is talking on the phone to the entertainers on board, getting them nervous by embellishing every detail of every possibility. We are confined to our rooms but we must leave the door open, so Paul is happily sitting around semi naked, he refuses to get dressed because he is at home and its not his fault there is a bomb search happening!

Right now Paul is teaching our friend Rustem some stretching exercises, bending to touch his toes as far as he can, after which he then explains to Rustem that he needs this position for when the bomb goes off and he needs to kiss his ass goodbye.

So here we sit, patiently and calmly for the next announcement. We think we will have to evacuate the ship so we are gathering our warm clothes, ready for a stroll along the promenade of Montreal. If we evacuate it will be interesting to see what happens next, do they bring in a bomb squad with special detectors to search every inch of the ship? Do we stay in hotels until the ship has been cleared? We’re gathering our money and any other valuables and getting ready for whatever may happen next!

Ahhh… news at last, this announcement tells us that local port authorities received a general threat of a bomb being in the area. Without knowing exactly where, they had to inform us and we had to conduct a full search. Finally we have the full picture and just shortly after this announcement we hear the ship has been cleared, the threat no longer exists and more importantly guests can return to their meals, (hopefully they put them in a warmer) and its free drinks for everyone!!! There’s nothing like a bit of social lubricant to ensure everyone forgets how vulnerable we all are as a moving, floating target for any terrorist attack.

Coming home soon

2006-10-16T03:32:00.000+10:00

Greetings to you from New England

We are in St John Brunswick today, somewhere between Nova Scotia and Boston,
its cold but sunny. The weather is closing in now, its autumn here and the seas are getting rougher and the wind has this real chill about it. Cant wait to come home now, am completely ready, have been that way for a few weeks now.

We are leaving the ship on October 31 and travelling to London for a few days, we are scheduled to be back in Melbourne early in the morning of November 7. Looks like we will be staying in Hampton Park as I have quite a bit of work to do cleaning, packing and helping move the family up to Echuca where my brother and his lovely Sarah are about to have their first child!

Its all very exciting, my mother gets to see her first grandchild and I will be an aunty and a godmother! So there will be lots of work to do out in the suburbs but I am looking forward to the closure it brings for our family.

Speaking of closure, today is actually my fathers birthday. He would have been 67 years old oday, so happy birthday Dad, wherever you are. (Its been 2 years since he died now, almost three and it still feels like yesterday)

It's going to be a bit tough going through all the things in our house, packing them and moving them but the most challenging of all will be going through my fathers things. When he died, we made an agreement that no-one would touch his stuff until we were all ready and we were all present.

I couldnt even look at this task for the first year after his death and then one sunny day I called my brother and said "right, I'm ready to do this now, why dont you come over this weekend and we will get stuck into it!" I said with enthusiasm and conviction. My brother answered in a dull, almost monotone voice "well thats nice and I'm happy you're ready but I'm not right now" My little heart sank and I knew I had to respect where he was at, he has so much on his plate that I should have known better.

So its been two and a half years now and I think we are all ready to move on. Looking forward to Christmas at home and moving on to the next phase of our lives with a new baby on the way and new beginnings for everyone.

Fun in Boston

2006-10-03T03:18:00.000+10:00

The last two visits to Boston we have had overnight stays, this is an exciting thing for the crew as we get to relax with some extra time in a port. Usually we arrive in the morning and rush back to the ship in the afternoon. But the last two visits to Boston where on Monday nights! Nothing was open, not a thing!

So when I looked at the itinerary and realised yesterdays visit to Boston was on a Saturday night, I started searching the internet and browsing local publications for the local salsa club. Turns out Salsaboston.com is running a huge night at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, very up market and a huge party with 600 people going.

I ring the organiser just to chat and see whats happening with the night, find out who's performing etc. We chat for a while and somewhow during the conversation I agree for Paul and I to do a guest performance at the party. Doesnt matter that we happen to be doing two shows on the ship that night, "sure" I say " "we can do that, it will be fun"

So we set about our business, get ready for the two shows and madly rush off stage, get changed and rush out to catch a cab. We find the venue, rush inside and get changed. Olaf from Salsa Boston gives us an intro and next thing we step out onto the floor.

When I stepped out onto the floor I suddenly realised how enormous the room was, with over 600 dancers on the night, the floor was at least 3000 square feet. That mean we could finally stretch out and fly around the room. The crowd moved back, sat down and roared with anticipation.

With the music cranked up real loud we showed our stuff. I wasnt prepared for the level of excitement these guys showed, they screamed, yelled, whistled and clapped as we went through our moves. I was startled to say the least. The audiences on the ship are a very refined lot, they dont whistle, they dont scream, its more like a quiet clap of appreciation and every now and then you hear a "bravo" in an assertive mature voice.

When we are stage on the ship we have full lighting with two spotlights right in our faces, we cant see a thing so we have no idea of the expression that may appear on the cruisers faces. But at the boston salsa party the lighting was standard and as I moved around the room I could see the looks of wonder, appreciation and awe.

I could tell something was up when I looked into Pauls face and saw this look of a crazed madman, he was completely lost in the moment and going absolutely nuts! He was loving it, this big wild grin on his face, sweat pouring down his temples. We finished our first number to thunderous applause, screaming, whistling and hooting.

We took our positions for the next number and the cheering began again, we worked from one end of the room to another and it was a huge floor. I had no idea what my body was doing, all I knew was breathing real heavy and working real hard but it somehow seemed easy because I was just loving it. We finished our number and raced back stage for a costume change and then it hit me. This feeling of absolute happiness, joy, excitement and sheer exhilaration. What a blast, the audience was fantastic, the music was loud and the floor was huge... and all ours. We had a ball.

We quickly changed and raced out again, this time they knew what to expect so they screamed even louder. We responded with the most blistering performance we have ever done. I pulled a muscle in my back because I was working so hard, stretching that extra inch to give it everything I had. I felt it go but it didnt hurt, I just kept going, working harder and soaking it up.

Paul spun me out to the audience and we took our bows. The smiles on the peoples faces were incredible, the feeling in my body was amazing, the sensation in my heart was inexplicable.

We have spent the better part of two years cruising and performing like this every few days on the ship; most of the cruisers love our work, but not everyone is into ballroom dancing, some like piano, some like singers, some think its too loud, some think its too sassy. So they attend the show cos is "free" and they clap if they feel like it, sometimes they use the opportunity to take a comfortable nap and sometimes if the music doesnt suit their taste, they just get up and walk out. We generally do quite well with our shows, they are upbeat, happy and invigorating, but the audience can be very old at times and dancing isnt always their thing.

So I felt the stark difference of an audience that is completely into what you do as opposed to an audience that is mildly interested in what you do. I could not believe the difference in the quality of my dance, how much more they got out of me and the level of joy I got out of it.

Carnegie Deli, New York

2006-10-03T03:00:00.000+10:00

Today was our third visit to New York and we started the day off with a trip the famous Carnegie deli, right in the heart of downtown Manhattan, on 7th avenue.

The Carnegie deli is right next to Carnegie hall and has been there since the early 1950’s when there was an abundance of shows on Broadway. Back in those days, actors and entertainers from Broadway did it tough, they lived on a shoestring for the sake of their art and as a result the food they ate was in limited supply and often poor quality.

At the same time, the Jews were taking over the delicatessen market in new York, the food was simple, easy to prepare and low cost; as a result New York had over 300 deli’s in its hey day, it now has around 30.

Carnegie deli was THE deli that all the struggling entertainers and performers went to. It opened its doors at 6am and closed them at 4am so there was always an abundance of good home cooked, affordable food. The most famous thing about the Carnegie deli was and still is, its portion sizes.

On this sunny autumn day, there was a huge line outside the deli, but I gently slipped passed the crowd to ask if “Sandy or Marian” were inside, I was immediately ushered to a table where six people were huddled over their meal, eating with gusto. He lifted his head, saw me and in a large voice resonating from his constantly full belly said “Cherrrrryl, Paaaauuuul, how are you! come in, you must eat something! For Paul it was just like walking into his grandmother’s kitchen where he was greeted with an exuberant woman shouting at him to come inside and eat something!

The restaurant was absolutely jam packed, we hadn’t made a booking, we didn’t call ahead and we had just jumped a rather large queue. To make matters worse, we had gone there with a group of people from the ship; we didn’t think they could fit another two people let alone our group of ten. But that didn’t matter to Sandy, he leapt up from his seat, arms outstretched, gave us a big hug just like he’d been waiting to see us for a very long time and ushered us to a large table where we sat down immediately.

You see we met Sandy and his wife Marian on board the Crystal Symphony last year and then again just recently. He is a wonderfully happy man with a personality larger than life, his roaring greeting made sure everyone in the restaurant looked up from their food and wondered who these important people might be.

We all studied the menu, it was lavish, extensive and mouth watering. The Carnegie deli is famous for having the best pastrami and corned beef in New York. So of course we ordered the “Woody Allen” which is a corned beef and pastrami sandwich big enough to kill a horse. With a large bowl of matzoh ball soup and real potato chips (not the reconstituted, frozen, and precooked chips) we dined on the finest corned beef I have ever tasted. The pastrami was fantastic as well and as you can see from the photo above, the matzoh balls were huge!

Sandy came back and visited us several times throughout the meal, he told us the house rules No.1 we had to stay there until we finished our entire meal No.2 if we finished, we had made a mistake and he hadn’t done his job properly. He kept reassuring our very petite Korean friend not to hurry; he was open until 3.30am.

Sandy kept telling us to “take our time” “eat slowly” because the next course would need some effort. “What next course?” we all said to each other, we didn’t order another course, and we couldn’t possibly fit it in. Then it arrived, the most fabulous strawberry cheesecake and these amazing blintzes with sour cream and apple sauce.

Our little eyes bugged out of our heads, we were stuffed, but somehow our mouths started watering and we tucked into the food that was placed in front of us. Silence… for about five minutes…. And then one by one we pushed back from the table, a kind of glaze over our eyes and a calm expression on our faces. We had been satisfied, our palates, our stomachs and our emotions. If you’ve ever seen Homer from the Simpson’s after a meal where he lies flat out on a couch with his eyes glazed and tongue hanging out, well that was Paul, blissfully happy with his day.

Another ten minutes passed as we all shared our mirth about what a fantastic choice this had been, to come to this place and experience a real taste of New York, we felt refreshed and happy, somehow nurtured in this experience. We called for the bill and gathered our money together. At this point, Sandy arrived at the table and assured us not one of us would be allowed to pay for the meal. Incredulously we looked at each other, but we ate like kings, this cant be, we must pay. But Sandy is a loud and commanding man and with large sweeping motions of his arms, it was clear that nobody could argue with his passionate Jewish hospitality “you’re my guests, don’t embarrass me, don’t let these guys pay” he says to the waiter. So the waiter of our table received a handsome tip and we made our way to the front of the restaurant to have our photos taken.

So if you ever get a chance to visit new York, you must go to the Carnegie deli just near Carnegie hall on 7th avenue and 55th street, make sure you order the “Woody Allen” and the blintzes. Make a special point of asking for Sandy or Marian and tell them Paul and Cheryl sent you and then after you have finished your meal, spend a few minutes looking amongst the hundreds of 8 x 10 photos of famous people and see if you can find ours.

Greetings from New York

2006-09-28T08:51:00.000+10:00

Our second and somewhat more successful visit to New York was bathed in sunshine and warm weather. We headed off to explore the city with no map and no clue. The friendly assistants at the street elevator told us which direction to head to Times Square. As it turns out, New York is incredibly easy to find your way around. The city is arranged neatly into a big grid and the streets are numbered making it even easier to navigate. Our ship was parked at the corner of 50th and 12th Avenue (the lower west side) and we headed right into the thick of things, 7th Ave, more commonly known as Broadway.

Our walk was about to take us from one end of the city to the other so we casually strolled along the streets taking in the architecture and the feel of the place. The pace of the city was mildly busy out near the ship but we could feel the sense of urgency picking up as we neared 7th Ave.

As we turned right onto 7th Ave the level of excitement rose again, the shops were buzzing with people, the cars were whizzing by and people bustling about. We made our way along 7th and closer to the centre of the action, Times Square. The sensation of entering the city was fantastic, you could literally feel the excitement building. The cars somehow slowed down but their energy grew as they honked their horns impatiently.

When we arrived at Times Square we both stood there looking up, jaws open and big grins on our faces. The level of action, color and movement was so great that we both just stood there for a few minutes taking it all in. I heard a long drawn out “whoa….” from Paul as he took in the multiple television screens pumping out moving advertisements, music clips and movies.

It was precisely at this moment that I spotted him…. across the road, standing tall and proud, guitar in hand, cowboy hat on his 6 foot five inch frame. And he was looking at me, smiling away like some long lost lover. Paul spotted him next and said “what the…look at this guy” I casually remarked… “uh huh… that’s the naked cowboy, he’s always here” like I lived in New York in a previous lifetime.

He called us over and we crossed the crazy New York street to stand in the centre of the road with him. His eyes focused on us the whole time, he knew the drill. “Hi darling” he says in his southern accent “come over here and talk to me” I walk over and Paul readies the camera. “put one hand there (he gestures to his chest) and one hand here (and places my hand on his butt) and smile for the birdies” he says happily. Of course, I had to oblige, it might be considered rude..

I had seen him many times before but never in real life. This was in fact, the Naked Cowboy of Times Square, New York City. He is an impressive man to say the least, tall, ruggedly handsome and naked… right there in the middle of the city… well naked to those of us with a good imagination that is :-) This guy is amazing, he stands right in the middle of Times Square every day, rain, hail or shine, in his cowboy boots, cowboy hat, guitar and white underpants with “naked cowboy” written across the back.

As I giggle like a school girl, Paul snaps away on the camera. Several photos later and Paul fumbles for some money to give him. Paul asks him “ehhh…how much do we give ya mate?” the naked cowboy says…”oh just a dollar will do” and offers up his guitar for Paul to place the money inside. As Paul does this he notices the guitar is stuffed full of notes and its only 11am!!! Paul turns to me with shoulders slightly hunched and says “geez, I wish I had a dollar for every time someone grabbed my butt”.

Fabulous photos

2006-09-24T03:37:00.000+10:00

Here is one of the most beautiful sunsest we have seen on the ship. This is during our trans-atlantic crossing when we had just passed a hurricane. The wind outside was ferocious and no-one, absolutely no-one was brave enough to venture out on deck.... except for us....

More photos

2006-09-24T03:25:00.000+10:00

Here are some gorgeous photos from our trans-atlantic crossing where we stopped at a place in Greenland called Princes Christian Sound. The ships Captain didnt think we could make it inside as the weather was quite bad but after a bit of maneuvering we made it into one of the most spectacular places we have seen.

The last photo is Paul showing us how strong he was after is terrifying wasp bite in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. He was severely traumatised but made it through the experience to have coffee and salad with our ship friends.

Photos from the Blue Lagoon, Iceland

2006-09-24T03:00:00.000+10:00

Here are the photos from our fantastic day at the Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik Iceland. We spent the day with some new entertainers on the ship, they are an Acapella group and just the nicest people (David, Marvin, Tim and Clayton)

Pauls Birthday Photos

2006-09-24T02:48:00.000+10:00

Here are the latest photos from Pauls birthday on August 30. His brother Saul visited him on the ship and the two of them had the best time eating, chatting and clowning around.

Greetings from Halifax, Nova Scotia

2006-09-17T03:40:00.000+10:00

Today we are in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its a beautiful little place, the sun
is shining and I cant stop singing to myself the wonderful lyrics of the
Carly Simon song... Your'e So Vain...

"you flew your lear jet up to nova scotia, to see a total eclipse of the
sun... but you're where you should be all the time, and when you're not your
with.... some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend... wife of a
close friend... and ..... your'e so vain..."

Never thought I would ever get to Nova Scotia, but here we are, what a great
day it is today and what a great job we have.

Cheryl Smith

Our first trans-Atlantic crossing

2006-09-14T02:13:00.000+10:00

There are many stories about trans-Atlantic crossings by ship, most of them quite horrible. I’ve heard of windows being broken, water gushing in to trap two elderly guests in their room, awoken from their sleep, naked and frightened. I’ve heard of the constant pitching, rolling, groaning and creaking of the ship that seams to take on a personality all of its own, struggling with the burden of its enormous duty. There are stories about violent stormy seas for six days non-stop. One of the dancers on the QE2 told me how she spent the entire cruise in her bed, unable to get up, unable to work.

So it is with some trepidation that we embark upon our first trans-Atlantic crossing.

Preparation
We have been told to remove items from shelves, store breakables in a secure place and “take our precautions” which means take your seasickness pills before you get seasick. Everyone is talking about it, all the crew are whispering to each other and I’m starting to feel sick just with the anxiety of it all.

And to make matters worse, there is a big fat hurricane just off the coast of New York, right in the path of our cruise ship. Apparently it has been building for several days and hasn’t hit any land yet, so it will just keep building. Yippee, more good news!

So we have started a four day log, just to record the events of our journey, in the event that we may die….

Day 1
The oceans are rough today, the ship is moving and the grey clouds are rolling in. Paul is trying to teach what will be the last of his private lessons, this is one of the times when we get wiped out of any income generating capabilities and can do absolutely nothing about it. As for me, I’ve started my next project already, just sewn the base for my new green beaded costume and tonight when the ship gets going, I will finish the rest of it. One of the best ways to avoid seasickness is to stay busy and stay full in the belly. So its off to get some heavy curry or fatty foods and on with our busy schedule.

Day 2
Today we were woken with the Captains announcement and regular update of the storm ahead. Our stateroom has been creaking and rattling all night. The tiniest of things seem to move unexpectedly, it’s really irritating and neither of us wants to admit ownership because we will have to get up and secure the item.

After hours of interrupted sleep, we finally figured out the last annoying little rattle to be silenced was coming the cotton reels on my sewing machine! Who would a thought? They don’t rattle on land…

There’s talk of canceling the shows as the oceans continue to build. Its dangerous for the dancers and not worth taking the risk.

Day 3
The oceans are picking up now; we are coming closer to the hurricane. The sky is darkening and the sea has turned into a large swell with large waves kicking up into the air. The beautiful blue ocean has turned to dark grey and our friendly ship is pitching and rolling sideways (one of the most uncomfortable types of movement). Later tonight we will hit the peak of the storm, hopefully we will sleep through it and wake up to glorious sunshine and our last day at sea.

8.30pm We are much closer to the hurricane now, the ocean has turned to a dark charcoal and is churning like a big washing machine. The ship couldn’t decide between the pitching sensation (rolling side to side) and the up and down movement, so it chose both; which we call the corkscrew effect.

As we entered the second cocktail party for the evening, I spied the most stunning sunset I have seen in a long while. I grabbed the ships photographer and said “you got to come see this” we pushed against the door to get outside but the gale force winds were holding it tightly shut. Both of us pushed and pushed and we fell out into the chilled stormy air. The sea was heaving, the ship was lurching and the clouds had parted momentarily to treat those who were looking to the most beautiful autumnal pinks, reds and oranges. We both looked at each other excitedly, we knew we were one of the few that braved the elements and received natures’ gift.

Day 4
For the last three days the entire ship has had a constant vibration of going through it; apparently it happens when the ships propellers are at full speed. Some sections of the ship feel this vibration worse than others, but for us, at the rear of the ship, it’s worse than anywhere. So when our friendly vibration stopped in the middle of the night and was replaced with this huge rolling sensation, we woke up and wondered what was going on. Its always a bit disconcerting when huge swells set in, the ship tilts at huge angles and you lie there thinking… how much further can we tilt; and then she rolls back the other way.

We rocked and rolled our way to sleep and woke up to the most magnificent sunny day on the atlantic ocean. We have passed the hurricane now, phew! Either we are getting used to these oceans or it was a fairly mild one. The seas got up around the 15-20 foot mark at its peak, so I think it’s a bit of both. It must have got a bit hectic last night though because all the windows of the ship are now coated in a thick layer of salt making the ship look tired and weary.

So now we focus on our first entrance into New York by sea, camera’s charged, bags packed, looking forward to a good nights sleep so we can go exploring this amazing city for the very first time.

Cheryl Smith

Nuuk, Greenland

2006-09-11T03:57:00.000+10:00

Today we were awoken to the sounds of our ships captain announcing the arrival at our final port before we reach New York. We open the windows to our cabin to see what sort of day it is and what should we see? A whopping great iceberg, of course; what else would you expect in Greenland!

The ships weather channel kindly pointed out that the outside weather was a meager three degrees Celsius. So what does the intrepid traveler do upon discovery of this awful weather news? Snuggle into bed a little longer and figure out what on earth to wear!!!

We made this trip knowing we would be in the Mediterranean in the summer and New York in the autumn, we forgot about this little stop at Greenland for one day, so we were completely unprepared when we stepped foot ashore in the lovely town of Nuuk.

The town was just beautiful, small colored houses all grouped together to form a community in what must be very harsh conditions in the winter. As we walked the streets of the old harbour I had this strange feeling about the buildings, something felt like it was missing, they looked odd, disproportionate somehow. Then I realized what it was, they were missing the volumes of snow the country is usually covered in. It was kind of like going to the ski fields in the summer.

The most amazing thing about Nuuk was the quality of the air, it was absolutely crystal clear, the cleanest, freshest air I have even experienced. We have some pretty good air quality in Melbourne Australia, but the quality of this air left us being able to see the tiniest detail on the horizon. As a result, we could see the spray of two whales in the harbour, even though they were miles away.

We explored the small township and found the worlds largest post box, the actual post box that all those letters come to for Santa at the North Pole. We also found Santa’s workshop where he answers all those letters and prepares all his presents. See the photo above.

After an exciting day in one of the most boring ports we have ever visited, we headed back to the ship to get our beauty rest because we hear we are heading for a hurricane that is currently directly in our path to New York. Right now the management is moving things around like today’s buffet will be served earlier because they don’t believe anyone will eat it later in the day as they will be too sick…. Ehhhh… too much information.

(Sorry for the absence of photos, we are unable to upload from the ship and internet cafe's with reliable facilities have been scarce, we will load some when we get to the USA)

Sexual Harassment on the High Seas!!!!

2006-09-11T03:50:00.000+10:00

Anyone who knows me from my corporate days knows of my strong views against sexual harassment in the workplace. Fortunately at Crystal, sexual harassment is taken seriously and any staff involved in any degree of harassment are dealt with quickly and harshly. So its ironic that I found myself being sexually harassed in the one of the most interesting ways.

We have this wonderful cruiser who comes on board when we are here because he knows I will dance with him. Some dance instructors are sensitive as to who they dance with and this lovely gentleman has found his share of difficulties over his long cruising life with Crystal (he has over 144 cruisers under his belt!!!)

So here I am whirling around the floor with this lovely guest when along comes a boy, a rather small boy who walks onto the floor, in his three piece, personally tailored, pinstripe suit; extends his arms in my direction and asks my very senior dance partner if he may cut in. My esteemed crystal cruiser chuckles to himself at what he thinks is the playfulness of a ‘cute kid’. But no, this kid is serious, he wants to cut in and cut in he does!

So now I find myself in the arms of an eight year old who is about chest height and is staring lovingly, if not somewhat curiously directly into my bosom. I sense his obvious fascination and try to distract him with idle conversation. I ask him simple questions about where he is from to which he answers directly to my breasts, not shifting his gaze for a second.

We continue to dance this way for a little while and then I feel an ever so gentle caress creeping up my back. This kid starts sliding his hand from its dance position down to my waist and even further to the top part of my hips and buttocks. I ask him if he knows what dance position is and where his hand should be; he smiles and gently places his hand in the correct position, all the while staring directly at my chest.

Next I feel his little hand creep around the front of my dress; he is now trying to fondle the very personal area of my under-bust. I move out of his hold and into a double hand hold position and try to obtain eye contact with him. This time he stares straight up and me with this look like he’s about to faint and then dips himself into my arms!!!! I think this kid has seen too many movies!!!

While we dance I fend off his various advances, caressing the skin on my back, feeling the curves of my waist, gently sliding his hand past my bosom as he turns me. Through our conversation I discover he has been waiting for me to enter the room and watching me dance with our esteemed crystal cruiser. Making polite conversation; he asks if Paul is my boyfriend and how old I am, I tell him I am 21 (I mean how is he to know), I ask him if he has made any new friends on the cruise, he replies “yes, I met a nice girl, she’s 21 too” he then tells me that he likes the older women “just like you” he says, as he dips himself again with a dreamy look in his eye.

By this stage I’m slightly freaked out and as we finish our dance he extends his arm to escort me from the floor, he leads me through the crowd at the cocktail party and returns me to my esteemed crystal cruising dance partner. He looks directly up into the eyes of this elderly gentleman, extends his arm forward and says “here she is” as if he is returning borrowed property to its rightful owner!!!

What can I say! I was shocked, confused, did I just experience what I thought? This kid was feeling me up! He was hitting on me, flirting with me and he was all of eight years old! The funny thing was that this kid got away with things that I would have slapped an older man for and it was all because he was so young and so cute that I didn’t see where he was coming from.

I felt used, abused and violated but at the same time, confused and surprised. There was no doubt about it, this kid was smooth, he had all the moves and snuck in underneath my well developed radar for detecting creeps, schmucks and sleazebags. So as a result of being harassed by this ‘cute kid’ I have now lowered the age range on my radar, it now includes boys down to five years of age and men up to any age…. What is this world coming to?

One of my favorite places

2006-09-08T00:16:00.000+10:00

What a fabulous day we have just had in Reykjavik, Iceland. We are currently at 66 degrees north on the globe and a fair way through our first Trans-Atlantic crossing. These crossings from England to America usually take six full sea days; however, we started this journey from Rome, so we have quite a way to go. After two days at sea we will stop at Greenland and then four days across the Atlantic where we will both see New York for the very first time. We are both really excited.

Anyway, back to Iceland. What a fantastic place it is. Last time we came here we had three days of rough sailing, this time it was unusually smooth and we arrived to glorious sunshine, not a trace of wind and fresh chilly air. I knew about this trip to Iceland months ago and I knew nothing would stop me from visiting one of my favorite places in the world, The Blue Lagoon. And that’s exactly where we headed first thing this morning.

By chance we caught up with some entertainers on the dock, our resident Acapella group and A Vaudeville entertainer.. Seven of us shared the very expensive cab ride to this magnificent open air bathing lagoon. We drove out through the modern city, along the wide open highways until we reached the 300,000 year old lava fields covered in ancient moss. The lava fields are desolate except for this ancient moss that lightly covers them, not a tree, a shrub, no weeds, no nothing; just big big BIG chunks, lumps and clumps of lava… and moss.

These lava fields are such a spectacular sight but somewhat difficult to capture on film. You can imagine the difficulties experienced with carving a road right through the middle of this volcanic rock, there wasn’t much room left for cars to stop and take photos, in fact, we had a near miss with another car today as it came just a little too close on the relatively narrow highway, but I digress.

The Blue Lagoon is one of the most popular attractions for visitors to Reykjavik so we were very happy to arrive at the best time of the day, no rush, no queues and very few people inside. We slid into the hot, open air waters of the lagoon surrounded in volcanic rock. We made our way out to the hot water station that pumps the 360 degree water into the lagoon, as you get closer to the plumes of steam rising into the air, the water gets hotter and hotter until you cant go any further. Then its time to just stand and enjoy the fabulous fresh air, milky blue waters and marvel at the volcanic rock that makes you feel like you’re on planet mars.

There’s a fabulous tradition at the Blue Lagoon, its to take the white mineral salts that have built up on the waters edge (now placed nicely into timber pales for us) and cake it all over yourself. Apparently it has cleansing and re-energising properties and as a result, everyone in the lagoon walks around with white face masks and white body masks. Our traveling buddies reckoned the locals working at the Lagoon look at us tourists through their windows and say to each other “check out these tourists caking that bird-poo all over them again”. It’s a pretty funny sight when you first enter the lagoon, not something you see everyday. Some wiseguy in our group thought it would be good to walk back into the reception are with full face and body mask on screaming “I’m melting, I’m melting” at the top of his lungs  Ehhh… don’t think the managers would like that one…

We lolled about in the hot waters of the lagoon for a few hours, not bad for our afternoon off hey? And then we headed to a local coffee place we visited last time. Then it was back to the ship in time for soundcheck and quick nap before our performance tonight.

The first show was ok, the oceans had started to pick up and it was a challenge to keep up with it. The second show was real hard work. We had to make the decision 1 minute before our show whether to go on or not. We chose to go on but boy did we pay for it. The seas continued to pick up some more and we found ourselves working extremely hard for an audience that wasn’t feeling so great and had decided not to show up!! Of the 20 people that did come, they appreciated our hard work since they couldn’t stand up without grabbing onto something, so they couldn’t imagine how we managed to stay upright!

And the seas have continued to pick up as I write this blog, we are in for a long night and possibly two long days before we hit solid ground. The forecast for the next four sea days is also for rough weather so its time to fill our bellies full with food, put on our seabands (sea sickness acupressure bands) and think about all things other than the motion of the sea.

Birthday Boy

2006-09-05T05:59:00.000+10:00

I’m now officially a 36 year resident of this world.

I got woken up this morning by this strange noise from the floor in my cabin.. a weird kind of ringing. A distant memory told me I had heard this ring before… as I awoke from my deep slumber I realized it was a sound we don’t hear much on ships… a mobile phone ringing!!! A friend from Australia, I hadn’t heard from him for 3 years but he remembered my birthday this year and I was so pleased to hear his voice.

Next I spoke with my parents, what a laugh… if you’ve ever seen that scene from the movie “City Slickers” where Billy Crystals’ mother calls and describes the labor and his birth? well the conversation with my mother was kinda the same.

It was lovely to hear from my friends and family but birthdays for me have traditionally been a rather sad occasion. I’m not sure why or how it happened but every year on this day an overwhelming sense of sadness would sweep over me. I have always just treated my birthday as another day because of this and didn’t want to raise my hopes or expectations of any extreme bliss or joy. So for the past 30 years, birthdays for me have been a rather somber affair with little cause for celebration.

But this birthday was different. This birthday was the first time that I have actually gotten through my birthday without crying and wishing I was somewhere else or someone else. This date in my life will always remain with me as the day I finally gave up being in control.

The ship was anchored in St Peter Port and the weather was ehhh shall we say dull, grey and overcast. So we decided to spend the day aboard and have a peaceful time while the ship was near empty.

We had a lovely day, enjoying the ship, doing the things we rarely get a chance to do, I felt peaceful and happy with my lot. My birthday really took off later on in the day when I was greeted by the various crew and guests with big smiley faces, warm hugs and kisses and sincere wishes for my happiness. It was really cool until some of the guys started to get in on the action. I had to politely shake their hands instead. You know what Europeans are like.

My beautiful Cheree presented me with an amazing watch and you all know how much I’m into watches. It’s a beautiful white ceramic watch with a chronograph and a very sexy look.

That evening Cheree and I performed our little hearts out doing our beloved medley of four different dances in one sitting. I call it my 8 minutes in hell. With both shows complete it was time for a drink. I was pleasantly surprised when so many people showed up at our local dance club on board the ship. Most of the dancers from the show, sound and lighting and Headline entertainers were all there.

The next day we had a very special visit from my only brother Saul. He lives in London and took the time out of his busy life to make the 4 hour round trip to come and see me at Dover.

We have been on Crystal ships for a year now and we are kinda used to the way things are, but when a new person comes onboard, we are reminded of the lavish affair that we’re privileged to work with. We treated my brother to a beautiful lunch in the silver service main dining room… What else are a couple of Jews gonna do on a six star luxury ocean liner!!!

Birthdays have never been about presents and gifts for me, actually, I feel quite uncomfortable receiving gifts so it was more than enough for me to see my brother after nearly 2 years since our last catch up…. So when he gave me two of the things I wanted most right now, I finally got the concept of gift giving.

The wonderful concept of having thought about someone, spent your time finding that something special for them and then giving it to them to see the delight on their face when they realize your intentions. I finally got the concept of “it’s the thought that counts” to know that my brother and my parents had thought about me, all those miles away and planned in advance to give me a little treat to let me know that they care.

After lunch I showed my brother around our ship. To us it is now home, but to new eyes, it is an amazing collection of beautiful spaces designed for atmosphere and comfort. Through my brothers eyes I was reacquainted with the beauty of our ship and the amazing world we live in.

As we took him around the ship we came to the most sacred of all places, the ships navigational bridge. We desperately wanted to show him the bridge but knew we wouldn’t be allowed in. Just as we poked our heads inside the curtain (inside the secure area) we were greeted by a stern looking Russian officer, in his official whites. My brother spoke to him in Russian, I joined in the conversation and next thing we were inside the bridge getting a full tour and taking photos with the captains hat on!!!!!

We moved from dining room, to the high tea ceremony, to coffee in the ships bistro and then finished the day off with dinner with my brothers girlfriend and business partner who had rescheduled their day to make it down to Dover.

We had such a marvelous day together, time flew by yet somehow stood quite still. I saw so much of myself in my brother, things I had forgotten I was, things I had forgotten he was, nice things, familiar things. I didn’t realize how much I missed him and how much I enjoyed seeing him. It was fantastic to receive his gifts but it was even better to spend time in his company.

This was a very special birthday for me, it was the birthday that I felt a sense of joy and genuine happiness about the celebration of my life. Maybe it’s the aging process, the path of getting to know yourself, maybe it’s the traveling lifestyle that makes you appreciate things differently. I’m not sure exactly what it was but this was the first time that I could accept the things I cant change and changed the things I could and knew the difference between the two. I felt such a sense of and calmness, it was fantastic.

Paul Zaidman

Photos

2006-08-26T00:16:00.000+10:00

Its been a little difficult to find an internet cafe that allows uploads, so I have only 10 minutes left today, here are some photos of our latest adventures in Greece, Italy, France and Monaco. Words will come later :-)

No.1 Wonderful 5 star restaurant in Nice, its called Negresco. Paul and I escorted a tour t Nice, Eze and Montecarlo, was a fabulous day.

No. 2 Fabulous new blue costume launched on last cruise. Stayed on for the entire performance!!

No. 3 Paul leaning against the leaning tower of Pisa. Very cliche... oh.. we also ate pizza in pisa... :-)

No. 4 and 5 Lookout point in Nice on the tour we escorted. A nine hour tour that took us to three different places and fed us at Negresco, will write more later.

No. 6 Acropolis, Athens, ... the city on top of the world built so long ago it takes your breath away. We joined thousands of tourists to walk the slippery slopes of this city. It was hot, no actually real hot and we were in awe of this amazing place.

Only in Italy!!!

2006-08-14T00:39:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Paul and I found ourselves in Sicily, Italy and took ourselves off for a leisurely sit on the beach.

We walked through the hot streets to find the nearest beach, it was absolutely full of umbrellas, seats, tables, volley ball nets and thousands upon thousands of Italians.

For a mere $24 (Australian) we were allowed entry onto the beach and the use of one umbrella and two chairs. We asked if drinks and bbq were included.... they just looked at us with a 'not amused' expression.

We walked through the crowds of people, Paul was intent on finding a quiet spot in amongst the european summer madness. After 20 mins of walking, the crowds just got thicker and thicker, so we decided this was quiet and settled for a spot closest to the water, with a huge amount of kids around... oh joy... we wondered why the water was so warm :-)

For the first 20 minutes we just sat and took in the display that was provided, men, women, children all going about their summer business, gesticulating wildly, smoking continuously and talking loudly on their mobile phones.

We were admiring this gorgeous little two year old girl with golden locks of hair and a teensy weensy lime bikini with pink piping. She was playing in the sand with an even smaller boy, probably about 18 months old. Next thing she dashes off and comes back into the water with a mobile phone next her ear. Talking rapidly and waving her hands about madly she lets someone have it on the other end of the phone. Next she passes the phone to her little boyfriend and then he starts chatting, loudly, excitedly and waving his hands about. Next thing he drops the phone into the water.. she yells at him and he picks it up and then goes straight back into his conversation on the phone... then he starts to suck on the phone and have a good chew! Yes, it was fake but that didnt stop these little tots imitating their parents to the absolute letter, it was fantastic!

We then spot this rolly polly little girl with long dark hair and probably about 3 years old. She has on a crocheted bikini, the tiniest top, just to cover the vital parts and not doing a very good job at that either. She has on a little wrap around thing thats falling off so she goes back to her mum and comes back in the smallest g-string we have ever seen!

Yep, thats right, a crocheted bikini with a g-string on a 3 year old... but wait, it gets worse! It starts falling off her and her mum comes along to help out, she does up the strings on the bikini and hoiks up the g-string firmly into position. The kid gets a mild shock and tries to remove the offending piece of crochet from its nestling place... the mum pulls it up again and tells her with a wagging finger to leave it alone. So off she runs, into the waterline to play with her friends with floaties and buckets and shovels. There's a problem though, each time she bends over to shovel sand, she feels the discomfort of the g-string and very inelligantly tries to retrieve it from its new home!

But the funniest was the entire fashion ensemble that this child was wearing, not only did she have the pink and white crocheted g-string bikini, but she had a tattoo on her arm and a dummy in her mouth!!

Only in Italy!!!

Rhodes - Greece

2006-08-07T22:26:00.000+10:00

The Grand Bazzar! Istanbul Turkey

2006-08-07T22:00:00.000+10:00

International Shoppers nightmare

2006-07-30T21:10:00.000+10:00

When we arrived at Melbourne airport for our flight to Rome, I reached inside my bag for my wallet with credit cards, drivers licence and small amount of local currency. I rustled around for a while and then it finally dawned on me.. uh oh.. I had left my wallet at home and we didnt enough time to go back and get it.

There I stood, realising the impact of this absent minded moment....four months on the ocean in many foreign countries with no credit card! Shockwaves and panic went through my body... panic set it... all that shopping and no credit cards! How would I cope? Even when you cant speak the language you can still pick out an item and hand them your gold Amercian Express card, its the universal language of shoppers! Arghhh.... what was I to do?

I thought of sending someone to get it, calling for a taxi to pick up my wallet and deliver it to me at the airport. I couldnt concentrate for quite a few minutes and then it dawned on me... I would have to go cold turkey on my credit card habit!!!!

I had almost kicked the habit when I left corporate, I paid them all off (well only 5 cards) and swore I would only use them in emergencies. Little by little, the habit came back... and just recently it progressed to a full blown habit as I justified that travelling on the ocean constitutes many emergencies.

A sense of hopelessess came over me, closely followed by a quiet calming. I could see the next 4 months ahead of me.... living off my wage, only buying things if I had the cash on me. I felt strangely happy in the concept that I would return to a distant memory of being credit card free.

The last time I was truly credit card free was when I was 18. I had no idea what I was getting myself in for when I signed up for my first credit card. On my $92 a week salary my expenses easily outweighed my earnings and I found myself working weekends and weeknights just to keep up....and I hadnt even started to shop yet!

So when I received my new best friend with a credit limit of $1000 I immediately booked a holiday without a second thought of how I would pay for it or what the compounding interest rates would do to my bank account. Many years later I found myself with a very nasty credit card habit, one that has haunted me secretly and constantly.

You can imagine my terror of not having all of my credit cards with me, not even one little, teensy weensy credit card? So I find myself in all these fabulous ports, with only the cash from private lessons to play with. Now this is an important point, since we are cruising the med at the moment with fantastic ports and no-one... absolutely no-one wanting to stay on the ship to take dance lessons!!! To add to my torture I find myself in one of the best shopping havens in the world, the Grand Bazzar in Istanbul Turkey!

But the other day, I finally understood something that had eluded me for many years. At the Acropolis in Athens, Paul and I went on tour, found ourselves in a fantastic shopping mecca and instead of hunting madly through the streets for some exotic bargain, we spent our afternoon in a funky little greek cafe with a very dear friend. We chatted away for hours, sipping the most fabulous frappe in the world and then it dawned on me... the absence of cash, the absence of this constant need to consume and purchase the latest, greatest object that would make me feel happy in myself... well this absence of cash meant I was left with life itself. Just sitting and chatting, no television, no mobile phone interruptions, nowhere else to be than right there in that conversation, in that moment.

And guess what happened.... we achieved the thing that all human beings long for... to be known by another human being, to truly connect with another human being and to enjoy being human without distraction.

We all came away with a sense of peace from that wonderful afternoon. We had all resisted the business conspiracy to dash about, purchase things and spend our money. We did what alot of people, including myself find difficult, to do; we enjoyed the simple things in life, fresh air, good conversation and genuine interest in another human being.

In the absence of credit cards and money, I found myself in the most precious of moments, just doing what humans are meant to do, sitting, chatting and spending time. The most precious gift of all and something money cannot buy.

Doing the Med Properly this time

2006-07-26T19:55:00.000+10:00

So here we are at Melbourne airport with all of our bags... Standing in line Cheryl sees a Salsa buddy of hers that she hasen't seen for a while and they catch up right there and then in front of all of us waiting to be served.

We wait some more and now its our turn to check in... at this point Cheree and I get a wave from her salsa buddy and move our home on wheels over to his counter. " I ehh waved you over to me after I saw how many bags you have." he says smiling oddly at us. He then proceeds to weigh our bags and keeps a good poker face as the numbers mount on the scales. 116 Kgs later he informs us that had we been weighed by his colleagues we would have been out of pocket some $4,000 by now!!

Now this is normally this is where I jump up and down and express my disgust and disdain at the wrong doings that have been placed upon us... But! I sat back and I waited with a smile while Cheree and her salsa buddy discussed the next move. Needless to say he fixed our "little problem" saving us $4000 after which, I bought Cheree any Coffee she wanted :-)

We board our plane , we have our pillow, head sets and blanky; I look at the movie guide and realise that the movie" V for Vendeta" is on our flight. I turn to the channel and proceed to watch some other movie called "Violet" or something. Good movie but not exactly what I was looking for. I call the lady over and proceed to tell her our life story on Cathay Pacific airlines. Next, she goes storming off and organising two seats in Business class for Cheree and I to watch the movie!!!

When we get seated in our new luxurious seats I turn to Cheree... "DUUUUUUDE This is Business class" I say loudly with my headset on... " I know duuuude" she smiles back at me...Probably the most confortable ride we have ever felt. Watching the movie I wanted in luxury of business class and being served apple juice in real glasses. Chocolate stuff that doesent come from an M&Ms packet , Like reall stuff. Big blankets and Chairs that move in 18 different direction. " Chair go up , chair go down, chair go up , chair go down , chair go ......." " If you dont stop playing with your chair I'll........." Came the words from cheree. Now this is what I call flying. For anyone that hasent tried business class , man ...........You should.

So we land in Italy.
While we were in the air, Italy had won the world cup; so we landed the day after and you can imagine what we got.

NOTHING. No customs, no immigration...nothing.......some sleepy drunk Italian at imigration just waved everyone through.......Not even our scheduled Driver, just nothing!

An hour later our driver shows up pretty pissed off that he has to work on this beautiful day when his country has won the night before. He proceeds to tell us in broken english that the hotel is an hour away and then at breakneck speed, gets us there in 20 minutes. Yes folks I have driven fast before, but never at 160 km\h weaving in and out of traffic on narrow Italian highways, that was scary.

We breathed a sigh of relief as we stepped out of the mad italians car and walked onto the ship to be greeted with happy, smiling faces. Our itinerary has us doing 7 day cruises, only dancing once and teaching once for the whole cruise, we're pretty happy with that :-)

As we walked through the ship saying hello to our cruising buddies, we were greeted with open arms, big smiles and huge hugs... its strange but being back on board again felt more like home than home did!

Santorini - Greece

2006-07-26T19:45:00.000+10:00

Our first visit to Santorini was absolutely spectacular, with stunning views and fantastic summer weather. Both of us decided to escort a tour and we were treated to the most amazing scenery of any of the places we have visited.

Santorini is actually a large volcano that errupted so violently that the middle of the cone was completely blown out. Apparently it blew so hard that the contents exploded into the atmosphere causing the most amazing sunsets for a period after. The sound of the explosion was so loud it is believed that people as far as Sweden and would have heard the blast.

The result of this natural disaster was the surrounding ocean came gushing into the middle of the volcano causing a huge natural body of water surrounded by the steep rise of volcanic walls; an impressive sight as you sail into it!

The Greeks are an amazing lot, amidst the chaos of one of the most destructive volcanic erruptions, what do they decide to do? BUILD, of course! And not just anywhere, right on the very top lip of the volcano! And build they did... the most beautiful white houses with the most stunning views....

The island of Santorini is populated by around 300,000 people with the wealthiest people living atop the cliffs and the rest of the population living on the flatter, outer sides of the volcano. A very modest 3 room house at the top of the cliff might set you back Euros $300,000($600,00 Australian Dollars) compared to a house on the flat side for Euros $150,000 ($300,000 Aussie).

The amazing thing about Santorini is that it has no natural supplies of water! No rivers, no lakes, no ponds, no nothing! Its completely dry and as a result, it has very little plant life. Therefore, no shade from trees and no cool grass to lie on. The local inhabitants take their water from the rainfall which is collected on their rooftops and stored underground, pumped up when they need it. But get this.... it doesnt rain for 6 months in the year! Ay yah... what a place. Nature gives with one hand and takes with the other.

We made our way up the mountain to a place cadded Oia, pronounced Eeeyah. This is the place where the pictures for postcards are taken. We wandered around the narrow paved streets and explored this beautiful little Greek village. (see the photos above) After eating sorbet, saying hello to sleepy summer street dogs and purchasing local nuts, we made our way down the mountain to a local Greek winery.

Now by this time, I've kinda figured out that the winery might not be as special as our lushious green wineries from back home.... but I had no concept of how dry and barren their winery would be. Vines growing directly on the ground, slumped over as if tired and worn out from the relentless searing heat. Dry heat blowing through the entire area, no natural or man made protection from the elements, it was actually quite depressing. I felt like I was in the middle of a desert. We tasted the wine, it was tart and lacking in the rich, full flavour of some of the Australian wines.

Next, we made our way to the final part of our day, the chairlift that would take us from the top cliff down to our ship. The tiny chairlift capsule was hot and stuffy but we climbed in and bunched uncomfortably next to a gentleman of unassuming posture. As we took off he informed us that he recognised us as the dancers from the show... he then went on to drop this lovely clanger... "yeah... heh.. heh.. you guys are much better than the other dancers... you (looking at Cheryl) dont wear as many clothes... and you're much prettier, heh heh" (with nervous creepy laugh)

With that in mind, we graciously thanked him for his feedback and looked at each other awkwardly... its nice to know people appreciate you for your hidden talents...

As I always say... its better to be looked over than overlooked!

Alot happens in 2 months

2006-07-10T12:56:00.000+10:00

Two months is a short time when you think about it and our time back in Melbourne has been fast and furious... check out what happened in our lives...

- One family member died
- One family member fell pregnant
- One couple broke up
- Three family catch ups happened
- 200 debutants danced under our instruction
- One court case witnessed
- One self development course completed
- One interstate trip to QLD
- Five trips to the airport
- Three house moves
- 30% of coffees with friends were achieved
- One new dance costume made
- Countless metres of fabric purchased (for new dance costumes)
- Over 100 Asian meals consumed! (we really miss the asian food in Australia)

And thats just off the top of my head!

So we have finished our short stay here and are off again to travel the northern hemisphere in summer! Last time we visited Europe by sea we had limited time ashore and were working way too hard with an awful cruiseline. But this time we will see Europe in style with a fabulous cruiseline, Crystal Cruises (The Symphony)

As usual we will send you all our stories, photos and news, we would love to hear from you also, so please email us with your stories, news and just to chat.

PS : Apologies to friends we didnt manage to catch up with whilst we were in town, hope we can meet up in October when we return

Life and Death and Sunshine

2006-06-16T17:16:00.000+10:00

Melbournes Winter
While its nice to be back in Melbourne, we are not enjoying this cold weather at all. Its absolutely freezing! With the coldest start to winter in over 10 years, Paul and I werent prepared for the sharp chill that resides in Melbourne over the winter time... especially when our last port was Barbados!!

But! Being back gives us time to regroup, time to check in with family and friends and time to plan for the next period of our lives.

On July 11 or 12 we take off again, this time we will fly into Rome and transfer down to Civittavechia and catch up with the ship start our 2 month sail around the med in gorgeous warm European summer!

Our itinerary looks something like this... Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Malta, Spain
And then we head up to England, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland
After that we cross over to see New York for our 1st time and then up to Canada and town to Mexico

Ahhh...It will be nice to be back on the ship, out on the ocean and in the warm summer sun.

Queensland
Last week Paul and I took a trip up to Queensland (northern Australia) to escape the winter cold. When we arrived at Coolangatta Airport, we exited the aircrap right onto the tarmac! Havent experienced that in a while. We were greeted with a sultry warm late afternoon breeze and endless blue skies. Sigh... god how we love the warm weather...

Its a shame the weather is so bad here in Melbourne because it is such a beautiful city. Compared to other cities its not that bad at all, winters down to about 10 degrees celsius, the Europeans laugh at us. But we have been spoiled with mild winters and warm summers to the point that we can no longer tolerate our mild winters and we feel the urge to relocate up to sunnier places.

So Paul and I checked out properties in Brisbane and the Gold Coast with the aim of opening our own dance studio in a sub tropical environment. We found a lovely little place on a gorgeous part of the coast, known as Nobby's Beach. Fantastic premises, ex dance studio, clean, neat and sunny. So, we have started looking and I'm sure many other opportunities will arise in the next 6 months or so.

Another Death
In the meantime, there's nothing like death to help you appreciate life and the lives of those around you. Last week saw my Aunty take her final breath in the safe care of an intensive care unit in Melbourne. Luckily my mother and I got to see her before she passed and we were fortunte that she acknowledged our presence even though she was heavily sedated.

Yesterday was the funeral, a humble affair with our large (and growing) family members. We paid our last respects and sent our aunty off in the way she would have wanted. Out of 8 children, my mother is the youngest and this latest death now leaves 4 remaining sisters alive.

They have had a tough life my mother and her siblings and it was almost profound that on the night my aunty died, I had a dream of my mothers death... in the dream I was not surprised, sad or shocked at the loss of my mother... when people commented on this I told them "I'm not surprised she died, the surprise is that she lived so long and I am thankful for every day she lived".

So the funeral yesterday made me once again appreciate the people I have around me, my family, my friends and the various people that come in and out of our lives. I feel fortunate that I am in a position now that I can appreciate these wonderful people, I have enough time and I'm not so completely stressed that I cannot engage properly.

Its nice to be able to have time to enjoy life and all it brings with it.

Family

2006-05-10T14:09:00.000+10:00

Its good to be back in Melbourne, I love catching up with friends and family and there's nothing like a good family dinner to get the laughter juices flowing.

My mother is the youngest of eight children from, shall we say, a modest upbringing... ehh... actually they were quite poor.... no... lets just say it like it is, they were extremely poor... BUT! they had a wonderful sense of family and they passed it on to their children.

I grew up with my cousins, we went to school together, we danced together, we hung out together.
Every weekend we spent quality time at our aunties and uncles homes. We never went out for dinner, we never went to the movies, we had good old fashioned fun in the homes of the ones we loved. Looking back, it sounds so strange, but we loved it and with over 70 cousins to pick from, our best friends were our family.

So coming home to Melbourne represents a time for seeing the family and there's nothing like the familiar friendship of someone you have known all your life. When someone has known you all your life, they know you before any of the environmental stuff kicked in. They knew you before you were good or bad at school, they knew you before you were successful and rich (or poor and in prison :-) they knew you before you became a stressed out parent working two jobs. They just knew you, the raw you and they grew to like you.

There's something so wonderful about knowing the real person, its like seeing right through to their soul, beneath all the clutter, beneath who they think they are, or who they may mistakenly have become. The history of family is lifelong and therefore the stories and laughter have a maturity about them.

My family know all my dirty secrets, they know all my bad habits and they know all my ways to avoid exposing my secrets and bad habits. They also know my talents, my passions and my desires. One of the best things about my family is they see my talents before I do and they are quick to point out the positive parts of my personality. It makes being around them a happy, warm occasion, filled with vibrant chatter and belly aching laughter.

My family love to chat and laugh. They can sit for hours telling the same stories I have heard throughout my life, but they are still funny and we all love to hear them, again and again and again. Everyone has a turn, someone remembers something about everyone and no-one is spared. New people are welcomed to our family but they must possess a few vital traits, they must enjoy laughing, they must be non-judgemental and they must be able to laugh at themselves. Oh and they must be able to conduct several conversations at the same time.

When Paul and I returned to Melbourne we arranged a quiet dinner at a local restaurant in the south east suburbs of Melbourne. Our family arrived in staggered lots, 2, then 4, then another 2 etc, but no fuss was made, you are welcome when you can get there, no pressure in this environment.

The laughter I have with my family is like no other laughter I have ever experienced. It comes from deep in my belly and it rises up into my chest, it resonates there for a while as it builds up volume in my throat. My body seems to just take on a presence of its own when I laugh with my family, sometimes the laughter is so strong I cant breathe and my stomach starts to cramp from lack of oxygen. Its at that point my cousins start laughing at my laughter and this sets off a wave of laughter that relates to nothing, just laughing at laughter itself. And its at that precise moment we meet each others eyes and we know we are laughing at nothing and that makes us laugh even more. Sometimes when I am laughing with my cousins, we laugh so much that my eyes water constantly, my face turns red and I am buckled over with pain. But we keep laughing.

The power of our laughter is so strong that I compare it to the concept of dog years. You know how one dog year is worth seven human years and a dog that is 10 years old on this planet is really 70 in its dogs world? Well laughing with my family is like dog years, only one laugh with my family is worth 20 laughs from a stranger.

Now dont get me wrong, I love meeting new people and laughing with them, but the history, the knowledge of the right buttons to push... that all happens so seamlessly with my family. Despite the enormous amount of physical activity that happens when we laugh, I feel so relaxed in their presence, so rejuvenated and so energised. Our laughter is like food for the soul, it replenishes even the most sad and weary, if you let it.

Sometimes when we arrange family events, one or two people cant make it, for various reasons that are perfectly normal... but I wish I could say to them... there is something really special about our family, we have seen so much, we have been through so much together, we know each other like no-body else and we so rarely catch up like this... I wish I could remind them of the laughter we share and how it makes us feel. I wish I could show them how nourishing it is to sit in the presence of people who love you no matter what.

I make any excuse to catch up with my family and always, always try to make every family engagement there is. Families are so special, you never know when you will catch up again and you never know who will be missing the next time you do.

Ah... its good to be home

2006-05-03T17:43:00.000+10:00

Yay! We are finally back in Melbourne town. Despite the cold, rainy, windy weather, gee, its good to be home!

After over 35 hours in transit, bumpy air over New Orleans, getting 20 minutes out of Melbourne, turning around and flying to Sydney, landing, refueling and then flying back to Melbourne again…. We were greeted by our bestest buddy, with the hugest smile, all quivering and happy to see our faces.

After spending 7 months on Crystal Cruises with American accents all round, it was so funny to meet the Australian Customs Official who slouched casually at his booth and almost drooled the words “gday guys, ow ya goin?” ahhh….. we were definitely at home now!

Our final cruise on this contract took us from Buenos Aires Argentina, up through Brazil, a short stop in the Caribbean and then finally to Miami. With 11 sea days and 5 port days, we worked our little butts off, got very little sleep and enjoyed the wonderful, energetic and interesting people on board this long and enjoyable cruise.

We met the most fabulous couple, funnily enough they were from New Zealand! Their accents were a joy to “lusten to” and they were just wonderful, beautiful human beings. (photo of Kerry and Ros at Barbados restaurant) Kerry and Ros are huge golfers so they took us to one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world Sandy Lane, Barbados. Apparently this is where Tiger Woods was married and he booked out the entire club for 9 days. Now that might not seem much at first but we snagged a copy of the price list and just one villa goes for a mere USD$24,000 per night!!! (Check out Paul in his Sandy Lane golfing hat!!!, he’s never played a single round of golf, but he looks ever so handsome :-)

We also met up with good ol, great guy from none other than Sydney, Col Crawford from Col Crawford BMW, one of the largest luxury motor vehicle dealerships in Sydney. And boy, did Col give the Aussies a good name on this cruise. He was the life of the party, never a dull moment with him around. What a guy!

We also hung out with guest entertainer, Stephen Fisher King from Sydney Australia, what a hoot! Stephen was one of the first people we met on Crystal and he has been a wonderful support for us as well as just good old Aussie fun. He is a cheeky, naughty boy with a great sense of humor and cruising with him is fantastic (photo of us backstage)

So, we are finally home, this time for 10 weeks. We will enjoy being somewhat settled for a little while and have already picked up quite a bit of work. We have somewhere to live and our mobile telephone numbers are still the same (Paul 0400 882 779 and me 0417 700 767).

We’ve had the most amazing time these last four months; we’ve seen the Caribbean, The Amazon, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Miami. We have now seen well over 40 countries in the last year and have many stories, photos and many many great memories.

We wanted to say a thank you to everyone who has kept in touch with us, your emails are greatly appreciated, sometimes we get very very homesick and it’s great to chat with someone we know.

We also wanted to say hello to new people we have met and tell them how fantastic it has been cruising with you, we have enjoyed cruising with you, your friendship and support; without you, we would not have one of the best jobs in the world!

So thanks guys, we can’t do what we do without a wonderful network of people that support us. We look forward to our next contract which will see us in the Med from mid July through to September on the Crystal Symphony and we have tentative dates for the Crystal Serenity for December 2006, so it looks to be another exciting year ahead.

Till we see you in the flesh
Ciao
Cheryl Smith & Paul Zaidman

Our roughest seas yet!

2006-04-20T02:33:00.000+10:00

Well, we made it round the Cape Horn again! this time it was quite an adventure!

We started off the cruise with rough seas coming out of Valparaiso (west coast of South America) and as we rounded the horn the oceans were moderately rough. This trip is renowned for its rough weather so the ship was only half full as we rocked and rolled our way down the coast. As we rounded the horn and started making our way up the east coast of South America we hit some weather that wasnt forecast and the fun began.

The ocean turned from somewhat pleasant 4ft waves to 30 - 50ft waves with massive swell. We hit the weather so fast that there wasnt much warning and as a result, alot of people fell seasick very quickly. And wow, what a ride! The ship rocked, it rolled, it lurched, it moaned and groaned, doors creaked, things went boom and alot of the people fell silent and took to their beds.

For some, it was just plain dangerous, there are alot of elderly people cruising with Crystal. They are still very able bodied, but when the ground moves suddenly from beneath you, alot of these people dont have the muscle strength to hold themselves and they fall quickly. One well known cruiser did just such a thing and broke his elderly hip. He was the first of our emergency medical evacuations.

Despite the danger involved with this weather, the scenery was absolutely spectacular. The waves were enormous. They formed huge swells and actually broke alongside the ship. It was like a massive ocean of great surf! When the waves broke against the hull of the ship an enormous mountain of water splashed up against the double glazed windows. From the inside it was like looking at front loading washing machine.

The shows were cancelled, single entertainers were moved to the centre of the ship where the motion is less, only a few brave travellers sat through the entire show and we were in for a long day and night with no sign of reprieve.

Paul and I had a dance class scheduled for 2.30pm and the ship was really heaving at that time. As good Aussie travellers do, we said... "what the heck, lets have some fun" we encouraged our students to come onto the floor if they felt it was safe enough for them. Funnily enough, they all came out and we taught them how to hold themselves against a rough ocean. The class was a hoot, we laughed, we stumbled and every now and then Paul would suddently interrupt the class with a "whoa... wow, did you see the size of that wave" the whole class would stop, turn and admire the enormity of the ocean that just washed our windows.

We had a full class that day, they were in great spirits and we all saw it as an adventure. Many guests went stumbling by the doors to our class and said "are they actually dancing in there... i dont know how they do it". But we did. We danced in the roughest seas we have ever seen and the roughest the captain has seen in 7 years! And we had a ball!

You get very tired dancing in rough seas, your muscles ache and your head aches after a while. So when we were done with our duties we retired to our shoebox... i mean stateroom and tucked ourselves into bed. We turned on the tv... to the channel every good seafarer watches in rough seas... channel 53, the ships camera at the front of the ship. We sat there watching for the biggest of waves and waiting for the ships response. When we hit a big one, the boom of the ship and lurching movement was accompanied by our "wow, did you see that". And there we sat for hours with chips, chocolate and fizzy drinks (they weigh the stomach down :-) like two kids on a 3d roller coaster ride at the movies, having a great time!

We missed two ports on that trip, we lost two guests to emergency medical evacuations and many of the guests and crew were sick for several days. But, we made it out the other side and we had fun while we did it.

When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade!

Greetings from the Roughest Oceans in the World!

2006-04-12T14:05:00.000+10:00

Cape Horn – Chile

The first time we came around Cape Horn (the absolute tip of the lowest continent on this earth) the Horn wasn’t up to its usual standard of 80 foot waves and HUUUUGE swells with some of the foulest weather on this earth. Not this time, we were greeted with an almost polite welcome, if not boring. We rounded the Horn with the flattest of seas, almost like glass. The sun was peeping through the overcast sky and the conditions were almost surreal, ah what a let down…

Apparently there is a sailors club that welcomes Captains that have sailed around the Horn. It is a prestigious affair to pass around the Horn as it is accompanied with some of the roughest oceans of the world. Paul and I, as seaworthy dancers, don’t get VIP status into this club but we do have the honour of being one of the few that pass this way in recent times. Since the opening of the Panama Canal, very few ships have the need to pass around the Horn, in fact, they are delighted not to have to sail through its tumultuous conditions.

So our first journey was, shall we say, a fizzer…. But….. the oceans are not letting us down on this, the return journey. The other night, just before bedtime, we were treated to 45 foot waves and a massive swell…eh… shall we say…. Hurricane force. We packed our perfumes and breakable items into the towel lined bath, sealed all the loose coat hangers and drawers that annoyed us from previous nights in rough seas and we tucked ourselves into bed and wrapped the doona around us so we didn’t fall out!

We knew we were in for a long night and we had prepared for it with DVDs aplenty! We started with the new version of the Hulk, the scene was set, the suspense was building, the Hulk was about to explode into a green rage of fury … and just as he did … a massive wave hit the side of ship lurching us sideways in one direction and then jolting us back in the other before we could say “ships ahoy”. A violent and impressive move from the ocean… our dressing table items went screaming across the room, the Hulk exploded further, glasses crashed, my new brazilian teapot was crushed into pieces and Paul and I let out a simultaneous “whoa….. cooooool….” Talk about a surround experience in this movie cinema, our roomed moved, things crashed right on queue, what a blast!!!

Well, we had a sleepless night with crashing, booming, thunderous sounds from below. We are on 8 deck, four decks from the top and we heard of an elderly couple down on the water line (5 deck) where the water actually broke their window sending gushing waves of cold sea water into their bed, mixed with shards of broken glass.

So, we were thankful not to be on 5 deck, closer to the water and we wrapped ourselves up tight in the doona, stuffed pillows around us so we didn’t roll out of bed and set about having a nice, sleep… eh…. Make that a full body massage… no…it was more like a vigorous vibrating machine inside a roller coaster. Oh… and guess what… we are moving rooms next cruise…. Eh… you guessed it… 5 deck here we come!

Right now we are preparing to do a show tonight. We are currently sailing inside the Chilean Fjords which are keeping us protected from the oceans. Inside the Fjord we are being hit by 90kilometre winds and rough seas… all guests and crew have been asked to stay indoors as it is far too dangerous to go out on deck…. I can see on the ships television the wind tearing strips off the ocean, the lines are streaming towards us, dead ahead and the spray is flying up into the ship, I’ve never seen water like this…. Oh… and guess what…. this is protected!!! Ay yah!

In 20 minutes we duck out into the ocean for 2 hours, right before our show and then duck back into the Fjords again. Everyone is putting things away and securing various bar items to avoid damage. I can feel the ship lurching as I am typing and can only see land around us…what will it be like when we get out there!

Paul is currently up on 12 deck, the highest he can go and he is playing video games. He figures it’s the most awesome experience to be pushed, shoved and moved around by the ocean whilst playing his favorite playstation game!!!

So, wish us luck, we are certainly up for the challenge along with the half full ship of intrepid seaworthy travelers!!! Only the bravest of cruisers make this journey, we have no first time cruisers and only a half full ship…. Eh… I think they knew what they were getting themselves in for…

So… here we go… Ridem Cowboy!!! Whooo Hooo!!! Talk to you when we are on the east coast of South America and we’ve made it successfully around Cape Horn!!!

Photos!

2006-03-31T03:58:00.000+11:00

Here are some of our latest photos. The first one is a compilation from our Samba Show in Rio.

The second one is of myself and a local man from Santarem, Brazil. We are looking at this amazing local fish that has spines on the outside (its back, along the sides, on its fins).

The third one is of the Crystal Symphony alongside another ship in the Caribbean. The fourth photo is of one of the more beautiful buildings in Santarem, Brazil. This place was pretty dodgy to say the least.

The second last photo is me and my moose. Fat Moose from Alaska and Elgar from Norway.

The last photo is Paul and I on stage during a Rumba / Cha Cha routine.

Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina

2006-03-23T06:29:00.000+11:00

Well, this trip just keeps getting better...

We found ourselves in Buenos Aires for two nights and three whole days! What a rare opportunity.

Our first night in Buenos Aires had us front row at a fabulous tango show with a group called Tango Express. They were fabulous, traditional style Argentine Tango revved up for the show stage, lots of kicks, flicks and fast footwork, it was fantastic stuff.

Next we headed off to see how the real stuff is done in a local Milonga right in the heart of town on a very pedestrian Wednesday night in Buenos Aires. After winding our way through the rainy backstreets our taxi driver dopped us at the front of this very regal and old building. A moderately sized marble ballroom with marble pilars and gorgeous iron elevator. The ceiling was carved in timber with very ornate floral designs, a really beautiful old place, actually the oldest place in town.

We pulled up a seat to watch the dancefloor that was already alive with tango dances of varying degrees of skill. As I sat and scanned the room I couldnt believe my eyes when I spotted a woman from back home, from our local studio and someone I had many conversations about tango with!!! I went over and she was just as shocked to see me as I was her.

We hung out for a while until a fleeting glance landed in her direction (an invitation to dance) and she was scooped onto the dancefloor for the next bracket (three or four songs). Aparently its rude to abandon your partner after the first song, bad luck if they have halitosis or body odour :-)

We saw a few performances on this night, some of the dancers were even better than the ones in the earlier show, it was absolutely fantastic. Paul and I were in tango heaven. We met another woman from Australia and she explained how the whole Argentine Tango Milonga thing works, the real way, not the tourist way and we just sat, intrigued as we took it all in.

The next day I headed out with a girlfriend to hit the towns two best tango shoe shops. We wound our way through some streets, a back alley, up some stairs and buzzed on a door. The door opened to a single room with a large mirror, zebra skinned rug and lots of women sitting on footstools trying on faaabulous shoes!!! Can you imagine our delight? We were home!!!

There were no shoes on display, no visual images, just argentinian women speaking enough english to understand your footsize and bring you boxes of stunning tango shoes. We were like kids in a candy shop. Several hours later we emerged with a modest two pairs of shoes, my foot size is common in Argentina and the local tango conference meant this little shop was flush out of fabulous dance shoes. So.... we headed off to the store and bought another pair there!!!

But the most exciting part of our day was when we sat down for tea in the foyer of this gorgeous, elegant and sophisticated mall, Collen, Valeria and myself. After being served tea we noticed a little red light intermittently appearing on our faces. At first we thought it was a reflection from our jewellery, but when we traced it, it was coming from a gentleman standing at the escalator downstairs in the entrance of the busy mall.

Collen spotted him at first, an elegant senior Argentinian in a smart business suit with trench coat over his arm. At waist height he was holding a pocket laser light and shining it at our faces. We all looked over the balcony at the same time and it was then he revealed his intentions... to flash his.... you know what at us!!!

The action was so quick, so smooth and well timed, we knew he was an expert and had done this many times before. The funniest thing was each womans individual reaction. Colleen recoiled in fear, "oh, no, not again" was her response as she had recently been flashed in Brazil. Valerea´s reaction was of resigned acceptance.... "oh... the south american men are so forward here" as she sipped her cafe late. As my reaction, well, it was lightening quick and unmistakable as I lept from my red velour seat, lurched over the balconies edge, pointed directly at this man and yelled at the top of my lungs "PERVERT!!!!". At which point, this pathetic excuse for a man repositioned himself and hurried away from his vantage point into the main street, blending in with the local Argentinian traffic.

So after another eventful day in the life and times of two Aussie travellers, I headed back to the safety of our luxurious ship where there are no peverts, no pickpockets, no thieves and certainly no dirty old men... ehh... wait... no forget that last point.

So, today we are the farthest south we have ever been, almost at the tip of South America in a place called Punta Arenus, Chile. Its a cold sunny day and we are just loafing about this little town, getting a feeling for its vibe.

Tonight and tomorrow we make our way around the roughest ocean in the world, Cape Horn. We are hoping for a smooth passage as we have to perform the next day and the rough seas really take it out of you.

So, until we chat again, say a prayer for our little sailing souls and wish us a smooth sail around the horn.

Greetings from Rio De Janiero, Brazil!!!

2006-03-12T06:05:00.000+11:00

We are having the best time in South America, its our first time in this area and we are living it to the fullest.

After sailing for six days, the ship started going a little stir crazy, we couldnt wait to get off at 6pm last night when we docked in the heart of Rio.

Scheduled to escort over 300 Crystal guests to the local Samba Show, Paul and I headed off to the "Platforma Show". The show was great, lots of gorgeous Brazilians, semi naked and shaking their thing. Dancing was quite average with lots of stilted twirls and some basic show dancing... but.... the Capioera Guys were amazing!!! They jumped, somersaulted, backflipped and pulled fantastic acrobatic feats all to the sound of the heavy Brazilian drum beat.

The host of the evening started welcoming people from all different countries, after a little while he then played the national anthem for Korea and pulled an audience member up to sing his countries song. Well, when he started singing HAVA NAGILA, Israels most famous song, even if he was tied down you couldnt have stopped Paul racing onto the stage to sing his little heart out. The audience roared and the many Jewish guests on board the Symphony have been congratulating him today, they really appreciated his patriotism.

As the show drew to conclusion the dancers made their way into the audience selecting a few to come and dance with them. I was hiding behind my camera but this tall handsome Brazilian man saw through my disguise and dragged me up. I was thinking... oh no... not me... but at the same time I remembered my words to the guests in the bus there.... "if you get a chance to dance tonight, dont be shy, you might not be in Rio again" So... I had to oblige.... I couldnt let all those guests down now could I :-)

Today we made our way into the centre of Rio, a busy city with a feeling of dangerous and exciting energy. I had been plotting and scheming to achieve one of my personal goals and I dragged Paul into this old shop owned by four generations of Brazilians.... little did he know I would walk out two hours later with my own, authentic, made in Brazil, genuine, skimpy, tiny, Brazilian Samba Costume!!! complete with matching gold platform shoes and purple body glitter !!! ARGHHH!!! I could hardly contain my excitement.

Botafogo Beach
After the excitement had dissipated we made our way out to the beaches for some sightseeing. First we visited Botafogo Beach... in the world of dance, this beach has a significant name as Botafogo is a traditional step in Samba that means to ignite the feet!!

Copacobana and Ipanema Beach
We made our way to Copacobana Beach and onto Ipanema; both beautiful, big sweeping beaches with a fabulous tiled walkways running the entire length. The beaches are populated with volley ball players, sunbathers, walkers, runners and people just hanging out. It was the strangest feeling, but the shape and length of the beach, the calmness of the water... it felt very much like my home town Melbourne... on sterioids !

Tonight we leave this fabulous city, we both want to stay so much more but we must get going.... Argentina awaits!!!

Greetings from the Amazon, Brazil !!!!!

2006-03-02T14:00:00.000+11:00

Oh my god... who would have thought we would be sailing down the Amazon river, listening to the sounds of the jungle and admiring the chocolate brown colors of these waters!!!! What an amazing spectacle it is. We are having an absolute ball.

On our way to South America we passed through the Caribbean again, we love the pure blue waters and hot tropical sun. But as we made our way down to the Amazon, we watched the water change colors in what seemed like a very short period of time. Soon we found ourselves in light caramel coloured waters and as we headed deeper into the Amazon river. Soon after the waters changed to a cafe´latte color and then a full rich espresso. At one point we could actually see the water changing color as one part of the Amazon was released into another part´, what a magnificent sight

We couldnt believe our luck upon arriving in Manaus, deep in the Amazon river (& jungle), we were arriving during the last 2 days of Carnivale!!! I have wanted to travel to South America for several years, in particular to go to Carnivale... so you can imagine my excitement when we found ourselves with an overnight stay last night.... and that means.... we get off the ship and go partying!!!

First we made our way to a jazz concert at the Manaus opera house. It was a lavish affair, put on specifically for the guests of the Crystal Symphony. The jazz band was fantastic, playing the most famous songs from this area with truly awesome musical arrangements.

A group of us then met up to head out to the biggest samba part in town, it was at a "purpose built samba-drome", a massive stadium houses about 150,000 people. I was fortunate to be travelling with four large, dark haired men, I felt safe and secure as they hemmed my every movement.

We made our way into the stadium and up to a private box to view the samba party. As we stepped out into view, we saw the most amazing spectacle, 100,000 people all facing the same direction, all wearing yellow shirts, all dancing co-ordinated moves to the sound of local samba bands. We sat there in awe while we took in the atmosphere of this place.

After we had come to terms with this heaving samba party, we made our way downstairs where the real action was. There were dancers and singers on the huge main stage but there were also dancers on podiums sprinkled around the stadium, it was from these guys we could see the samba routines and we just jumped into it, copying their every move.

The atmosphere in this arena was something I have never experienced. There were very few drunks or people affected by drugs. We saw one fight break out and it was quickly contained by the military. For such a large crowd, the level of violence and unrest was unbelievably low. And for such a large crowd of people the level of happiness through dance and feeling of oneness through simple, repetitive movements incredibly high.

Several hours later, bathed in sweat, shoes filthy from the Amazonian rain and dirt, our samba thirst had been sufficiently quenched. We headed out of the stadium to make our way back to our safe, air conditioned, sanitized ship.... ahhhh... what a way to see South America! Good food, great service, safe environment and we get paid to be here!!!

We stay in Manaus for another two days and then head down to Rio De Janiero... we cant wait... there is a Tango troup coming on board to show us how the real thing is done.... and guess what???? A WORLD TANGO CONGRESS is on when we arrive!!! ARGHHH..... we can hardly believe our luck!!!

But there is a down side... our camera isnt working very well, so there is a delay in posting pics, so shall try to have them up for you as quickly as possible. Hard life, huh?

Yours in dance
Paul & Cheryl

PS : we are working very hard too :-)

Devils Island and the movie Papillon

2006-02-27T10:48:00.000+11:00

Today we anchored for a short period at the infamous Devil’s Island off the coast of Guiana, off the north coast of Brazil.

As I sat down for a casual breakfast, I found myself accompanied by the Captain and Vice Captain of the ship. “Are you going ashore today” they asked…. “No, we have dance practice and we are only in port for a few hours” I said. My vacant comment was met with dumbfounded stares…. “What!!” they said “How many Australians do you know that have been to Devil’s Island?” they asked. My answer was simple “None” I said now regretting my choice. They continued “Very few cruise ships go to Devil’s Island” … “and when they do, the conditions are usually so rough, the currents so strong that only 50% of the time can we get into the Island”…“you MUST go ashore today, it will be the only time in your life you will see this island”. So, with that in mind… I scoffed my breakfast, did a quick mental calculation and re-jigged my day to spend less than 1 hour ashore.

As I made my way down to the gangway, people were returning, dripping wet, puffing and full of chatter. I found out why… the short boat ride to the island was an experience on its own. The strong currents meant our 50 seater boat pitched and rolled, kicking us off our seats, we yelled and hooted imagining we were on a bucking bronco.

Once we were ashore, we realized how significant this place was. It is a tiny island, with a few others nearby. It is surrounded by rough, rocky terrain and one of the strongest currents in the world. With such tumultuous activity in the water, many fish congregate to the area to feed and you know what that means…. Sharks… and lots of em!

The islands are almost exactly beneath the earths’ equator and as much as I love the heat, it was absolutely oppressive and it was a cool day! So the combination of the heat, rugged terrain, vicious currents and an abundance of sharks…we could feel why Devils island was used as one of the most torturous prisons of this century.

The island had a prison and a cemetery further enforcing its grim reality. We made our way up to see the “sights” and the most fabulous thing happened, we were greeted with the tiniest, cutest little wild monkeys!!! These gorgeous creatures swung from the trees above us and someone had the foresight to bring peanuts… well, what an experience. These monkeys fed directly from our hands, a big boy one rummaged around inside Paul’s hand while a mother with her baby on her back tentatively took peanuts from my hands. Ahhh….my day was complete.

The Prison
The conditions on the island and in its prison were so torturous that out of the 80,000 men transported there, over 50,000 died from abuse, neglect and unsuccessful escape attempts. The photos above show the solitary confinement cells and areas where the prisoners where shackled and tortured.

The prison was decommissioned in 1940’s and in 1969 an ex convict of the island published a bestselling book, which was made into a movie, about his escape, it is called Papillon. The author, Henri Charriere braced the Atlantic in a flimsy raft made of two flour sacks, sewn together and filled with coconuts!!

Funny little animals
We were told of two types of monkeys, ones that were quite friendly and those that hurl mangoes from trees at passing tourists! We didn’t meet the mango throwing monkeys but we did see these strange little rodent creatures scurrying about in the bushes. The island also has beautifully colored McCaws, Peacocks and other birds.

So after an adventurous hour ashore, we were happy having seen Devil’s Island, fed the monkeys and seen the other creatures. We are now on our way to the fabulous Amazon river where we will sail down to a place called Manaus before we make our way to Rio De Janeiro and then onto Argentina!!!

Crossing the Panama Canal, wow, what a blast!!!

2006-02-12T05:04:00.000+11:00

Not many Australians make the wonderful trip across the Panama Canal by sea… we figure that when most Aussies travel they go to Europe, Asia and the USA… its not that often that an Australian makes the effort to fly all the way over here and then get onto a ship to sail between the two oceans… I mean, why would they… time is short, flights are cheap… so, as a result, we felt kind of special having the privilege to complete this wonderful crossing at least four times now!!

What makes crossing the Panama canal such an amazing journey is the fascinating engineering and effort involved with clearing a passage through the jungle, up one side of a mountain, changing the natural flow of rivers and lakes and creating a series of locks to and down the other side of the mountain…. a total of 85 feet above sea level!!!

Our standard approach to the Panama is from the Atlantic Ocean and after crossing through a series of locks, gates and lakes; we make our way right through the Panama jungle and exit the other side in the Pacific Ocean!!

Crossing the Panama Canal is an all day affair, it’s a huge thing on ships a real spectacle for everyone. The ship comes alive with people out in every vantage point taking photos and watching the entire process.

The locks themselves are just like big narrow holding bays for ships, they are full of water and very very deep. Most ships today are designed to fit inside the Panama Canal locks otherwise the cost of going around the long way is almost three times the cost of going through (which for us is $155,000 per crossing or $125 per person). Even though ships are designed to fit inside the locks, there isn’t much room left over (check out the photo above, there is about a meter each side).

When you enter the lock a big gate closes behind you and stops the water flow. Then, the most amazing thing happens, within about 8 minutes, massive amounts of water are drained from the lock and the ship drops anywhere up to 40 feet in height!!! The water is lowered to the same height of the next lock and the gates are opened and you move onto the next stage. Each stage has about 4 locks both coming and going, so you climb up the mountain on one side and climb down the mountain on the other side!!!!

It’s an amazing sight, especially from inside the ship in the lower decks. We were on deck 5 when we looked out the windows and saw the ground rising, just like an elevator; only we are a 55 ton ship!!!

These days most ships are what they call Panamax size, this means they are certified to fit through the Panama Locks, however, the fashion trend in cruising is the introduction of behemoth ships such as the Queen Mary 2 that house over 4000 people… there is no way she fits inside the Panama Canal… so they are considering building new locks, but that’s a very expensive exercise.

Here are some interesting facts and figures about the construction of the Panama Canal…
- The Panama Canal was completed nearly 100 years ago in 1914
- Total cost of construction was $387 million
- Over deaths 30,000 occurred during construction (due to accidents and illness)
- Construction time was ten years
- Total length of the crossing between the two oceans is 50 miles
- Total length of locks is 1000 feet (width is 110 feet)
- Deepest ship to pass through is 40 feet (Crystal Symphony is 25 feet)
- Lock doors are 65 feet wide, seven feet thick and between 47 and 82 feet high
- The heaviest door is 745 tons (they are virtually hollow)
- Only 40 horsepower is required to move the lock doors
- No pumps are used to move water, its all moved by gravity
- 26 million gallons of water are used to raise the ship 85 feet
- Largest toll ever paid to cross the canal is $201,00 and the smallest was $0.36 by Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1928

Crossing the Panama Canal is such an unusual experience, it doesn’t have the spectacle of the Norwegian Fjords, the enormous beauty of the Alaskan Glaciers or the stunning scenery of the Mexican Riveria, but it does display very nicely modern mans ability to move mountains and change directions of lakes to get where he wants to go.

Moped in St Martin - West Indies

2006-02-02T06:19:00.000+11:00

Lots of photos for you this time....

The first one is Paul, lying in bed, putting on his best smiley face even though he's feeling bad. Unfortunately for us, Paul got sick from something he ate ashore and after two days in bed, we were both quarantined to our room for 48 hours!!!

But... he cant be kept down for long... so at the next port, St Martin, West Indies, Paul was back with avengance and on a mission.

We then headed off to find ourselves a moped where we could explore this island paradise at our own pace. St Martin is divided in two, the Dutch side and the French side, we wanted to see both and have the flexibility to stop off at whichever beach took our fancy.

We headed off up the coast and found this gorgeous resort in a place called Oyster Bay. It was one of those places where the swimming pool overflows into the ocean. Just magnificent in its brilliant blue waters and crystal clear skies. We swam, laid about for a while and then headed off to the next beach.

Orient beach greeted us with a sign "clothing optional beach", we made our way through the back roads and found this amazing Caribbean delight, white sands against clear blue water with islands behind as a backdrop. We found a cosy position on the beach and sat back and enjoyed the passing scenery. Topless women, big, small and every shape in between.... bottomless men... old men in g-strings.... it was an absolute hoot!!! But, we could only be entertained by that for so long....

Next, Paul was off on another jetski, out in the Caribbean waters, carving up the waves, having a fantastic time.

After we had our fun on the beach we hopped back onto our moped and made the complete trip around the island, it probably takes about 1 hour, without stops. We saw all the little villages, the goats, chickens, dogs, cows on the side of the road, not tethered in any way, just roaming about eating. The traffic was chaos, such tiny roads, big cars and lots of unexpected congestion.

We made our way back to the ship in the nick of time, to catch the last tender boat and literally run onto the ship for our rehearsal and backstage preparations. Then, off to get changed, onto the stage and into another performance.

Ahhh.... another great day in paradise :-)

Antigua – West Indies – The Caribbean….maaan

2006-01-24T03:30:00.000+11:00

After yet another rough nights sailing on the Pacific Ocean, both of us headed out to escort tours in the wonderful town of Antigua (pronounced Antiga).

It was a stormy, windy, rainy day to be out safari-ing through the tropical rain forest, but, what the heck. I headed out with my troupe of 11 go-getters to explore the native Antigua settings.

Antigua is this sleepy little town with an abundance of reggae music oozing out of every corner. Most of the houses are little shacks built on blocks with only 2 or 3 rooms. There is no need for fencing or boundaries here, it’s all very peaceful. Even the goats, cows, donkeys and chickens aren’t fenced in; they just roam about, wandering on and off the road as the traffic moves along.

Some of the houses are very lavish and expansive in their tropical design. One of the more luxurious houses might set you back around US$160,000 but if you keep building it, the government won’t charge any income tax until you move into it!!! That explains why you see so many half-built houses in Antigua.

Up until a few years ago the government was much respected and well liked by most, unemployment was around the 8% mark and people were encouraged to buy land, build a house and build a family. Recently the government changed and unemployment sky-rocketed to 20% changing the face of this tiny town. Now the locals have to wait another 5 years to remove the current President, of which I couldn’t find out why he got in to power in the first place!!! These Antiguans can be very evasive when they want :-)

Our safari visited a local pineapple plantation, a big muddy paddock overlooking a fabulous tropical valley and finally, as the tropical sun came out, we took a spell rested at the Turner Beach Resort. Even though the sand was glisteningly white, the water iridescent blue, I didn’t notice at first because I was taken by this cute little kitty sleeping under the house. After several pats, the cat followed me into the restaurant and we sat there in bliss (me patting, her clawing) as we watched the Antiguan waves roll in.

Paul returned from his tour, it was somewhat less exciting, it was a scenic tour of the town, generally he hates these tours and won’t accept them but somehow the tour office slipped underneath his radar.

Tonight we host our 1950’s night, this time I shall be demonstrating my newest poodle skirt that I whipped up yesterday inside 2 hours!!! Even in the rough seas!!

Greetings from St Lucia - The Caribbean

2006-01-22T04:41:00.000+11:00

Yay! After 4 days sailing, we are finally off the ship!!

We are in this gorgeous little island in the Caribbean... St Lucia.
Its a stormy, sultry, windy day today and we've just sailed for 2 days in rough seas to get here. We've had lots of fun performing in the rough seas, lots of spins and turns on stage, left us with dizzy, whoozy feeling but the crowd loved it.

St Lucia looks like a fabulous place, the population is around 160,000 and its very relaxed, funky and musical. Our good friends from the QE2 come from this place (Arnie and the band members from Opus) and they are fabulous musicians with such a wonderful feel about them, we can now see where it all comes from.

On this cruise both Paul and I are escorting a few guest tours today Paul is on a Jeep Safari adventure and I'm wandering about town, just about to head out to the farmers market and the craft market, it looks fantastic. Later this week I will get to swim with stingrays and feed them by hand apparently!! Then we will do some more jungle trekking, safari-ing and hopefully some horseback riding through the Caribbean ocean :-)

Last week a group of crew headed into the Costa Rican jungle to swing from the trees on a canopy adventure. 15 of us made the rough journey up the pott-hole ridden roads to the top of the mountain where we were greeted by this gorgeous oasis jungle resort.

We trekked on foot up the mountain some more and then we started swinging!! At first we were all very polite about it, grabbing hold, looking at the view, maybe a view shrieks and whoops here and there. By the end of it, I was swinging updside down, legs kicking about wildly to get more momentum, helmet flying off, screaming just for the fun of it!!! "push me real fast this time".... I said to the operator as he gave me a big heave ho and sent me on my way. I kicked as hard as I could to push myself upside down and let go of everything. What a fantastic experience swinging through the jungle, holding onto nothing, upside down!!! Sorry mum, but it was fuuuuuunnnnn :-)

That was our first experience in Costa Rica, no time to see anything else, we jumped onto the crew bus, chatted wildly about our experiences and fell asleep within about 5 minutes. What a great day with our new-found friends :-)

After having such a wonderful time, we find ourselves a little stressed today. Our applications for "seamans books" have been delayed and since we cannot get into South America without them, well.... we might be looking at getting off the ship until they arrive :-( So fingers crossed, please Mister Mailman, please hurry with our post :-)

Greetings from the Caribbean!

2006-01-10T03:35:00.000+11:00

Arghhhh!!! Our first time in the caribbean and I'm stuck in this squishy little air conditioned internet cafe! We walked straight off the ship and into this cafe.... what were we thinking!

So this will be quick

We arrived safe and jetlagged after almost 30 hours in transit, another crybaby on the 14 hour flight and then onto our 1st performance for our new audience within hours of getting on board the new ship.

Apparently we were in a very luxurious room on the other ship (they tell us now:-) this time we have a room with only one window and its view is of a lifeboat.... we flung the curtains open on our first morning and found workmen crawling over our little lifeboat.... so much for the uninterrupted ocean view where we can leave the curtains open to gaze at the stars :-)

Lots of people from the Crystal Harmony to make us feel warm and welcome.
The Symphony is gorgeous, its very similar to the Harmony but newer and more decadent.

Paul has struggled to get back into the 6 star life of luxury, he's only eating 6 dishes at dinner!!!

Need to get out into that Caribbean sun
Chat again soon
Ciao
Cheryl

Bon Voyage Again

2006-01-03T22:18:00.000+11:00

How quickly 5 weeks has gone by!!! Tomorrow we ship out again for another 4 months. It was lovely to be home for a while, we both worked very hard and even though we are tired from 8 months work (7 days a week) and 5 weeks in the studio, we are excited about seeing another part of the world that is completely new to the both of us.

Being home bought up many emotions, happiness at spending time with family and friends, sadness at the various disappointments that came our way. But most of all, on the eve of our departure, we are struck with a strong sense of appreciation for the home we are about to leave again.

Our next journey is already easier, the packing simpler, the legwork and stress levels lower. We are getting used to saying goodbye. We are contemplating staying overseas between contracts this time, so that means we may not be home for about 9 months. We will see how it all goes, many things can happen in 4 months, we are open to opportunities that may come our way.

Before we go, we want to say a few big thank you's to our wonderful friends and family......

To my amazing mother, my god, how can I thank you. You are one of the most generous people I know. You moved out of your room to give us somewhere to stay, you fed us, housed us and made us feel completely and utterly welcome. It was wonderful being able to spend what little time we did chatting idly. Thank you... again.

To Dallas and Martha at the Ritz. Thank you soooooo much, you were so kind to us in loaning your vehicle for the entire time we were here (on short notice), and also for allowing us to use the studio for filming late at night, we really appreciate your generosity and support. Thank you.

To our wonderful friends & family Demi, Arsen, Pat, Steve and Cath, Maree, Glenny, Linda, Trace & Ali, Wayne, Kel & Liz... you guys made us a priority in your lives so we could spend quality time together before we take off again, we really appreciate you for that, thanks.

And to Pauls students that came to visit him and support him with their interest in his adventures, thank you, it is really special to know you have people behind you when you take off in a different direction.

And the various friends who made a special effort so that we could catch up.... Frank & Gabby, Glen, Keith, Deb, Neil & Tanina, Dyvo, Marg & Peter Brady... thank you, it was wonderful to see you and spend some time together sharing our stories and hearing of your news. And a very special thank you to Neil for his tech-help in video editing software and knowledge, Paul says "thanks man".

I'm sure I've have missed acknowledging a few people, sorry, its late and I'm tired :-(

We love our family and friends and appreciate your support of us both when we are home and when we are sailing the high seas. We love hearing from you over there, it gets pretty lonely sometimes, so please dont forget to email us, thanks also to everyone who reads our blog, sends us messages, emails and sms, it really makes us feel special.

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

Take care
Stay happy
Cheryl (& Paul)

Oh... if anyone is interested, its my birthday the 1st week in Feb and a few people are coming cruising with us (apparently at 50% off the lowest rate :-). So, if you are interested in sailing to the Caribbean on Feb 7, please let me know, we would love to see you (and no, we dont get any commission :-)

Happy Silly Season

2005-12-27T21:13:00.000+11:00

What fun we've been having in Melbourne town.

Originally we wanted to work through Christmas but resurfacing of the studio floor meant a forced break for us. Its probably a good thing, we were in need of re-invigoration.

We have had a fab time doing silly, childlike things that responsible, hard working adults dont usually do... like...

- Giggling hysterically at the joy of bounding around on a jumping castle till you're out of breath
- Spending countless hours on the dodgem cars purposefully smashing into your friends as hard as you can
- Holding on so tight to a bucking bronco (mechanical bull) that you come away with bruised thighs, torn muscles and a sense of real achievement
- Spending inordinate amounts of loose change on "shootem up" games
- Camping under trees in the midst of major electrical storm
- Learning to drive a hula-hoop for the very first time...
- Lying on blankets in the middle of parks for hours with no particular purpose
- Playing with 4 year old christmas toys and feeling good when you beat "their" best scores

Now I know what you're thinking... but this is a combined effort list... each of us has been as silly as the other, which we are quite proud of.

We celebrate the silly season and think everyone should share in the joy of sillyness on a frequent basis.
Happy Silly Season

Funny times in Melbourne

2005-12-25T13:13:00.000+11:00

We're famous now!! Paul and I have danced in over 20 countries around the world but we have now become famous after our big gig at the Sprinvale RSL...

We were asked to perform as a last minute thing at the outer suburban Returned Servicemans League Club where they were having an end of year caberet show. After the 9pm "stand to" ceremony where everyone says a prayer for those who have died in service, we donned our costumes, warmed up and went out there with high energy, flair, dynamism and showmanship ....The crowd was impressed thats for sure, they were stunned!!! One of the patrons, after perusing my costume, jewells, makeup and hair, was overheard saying "what lovely feminine eyebrows she has"....!!!

We did three numbers for them, Rumba, Cha Cha and Salsa. On our way out the door, we were greeted with "oh you guys were great", "you are wonderful dancers" etc.... but there was this one very small man nervously shuffling around me.... I leaned over to acknowledge him and I was greeted with a "I didnt like your cha cha, it was too stop-start", he continued "I know cha cha, I've danced it for 80 years".... eh.... now I was getting the picture.... Nothing could break our spirits, our night was complete, my family came, we shared raspberry lemonades, my mum won some money on the pokies.... it was a good night in the suburbs in anyones book!!!

Catchup with the cousins
There's something special about the easy laughter with people you have known all your life. The weekend saw a wonderful event known as "the mad cousin catchup". Over the years, my mothers side of the family has stayed in contact in various ways, some of us have worked together, some went to school together, we've even lived together... so when the busy schedules of my cousins collide, to enable a family catchup, its a special day.

If you're not family, you wont get much of a word in on these meetings, we go over stupid things that happened long ago, we take no time to include others, bring them up to date, we laugh at the tiniest hidden meanings that only we know, we all talk at the same time and somehow keep up with each conversation, we show videos, pictures and collectively tease the cousin that couldnt make it for some pathetic reason, according to our the votes in our cousin committee. Unless you're bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, non-attendance at a cousin catchup attracts severe criticsim of which will travel with you through all future events.

It was a very good day though...
- Progress was shown in a lovely new gorgeous house cousin house
- Inspiration was gained through a cousin reinventing her life and living an amazing life in cuba
- Hilarious laughter upon hearing of ex-husband-child-support-claim-harrassment-viscious voicemail from woman with no teeth!!
- Happiness was felt knowing that everyone was healthy, safe and family members all well

Ahhh... the joy of family....

Good Deed for the Day
After a heavy week at the studio, Paul and headed for the beach. With too many flies buzzing around, we chose to park right on the water and stay in the car. As we watched the people go by with their matching dogs, we spied this very old guy setting a cracking pace with his walking frame. He really stood out because his head was at 90degrees to his feet in this amazing position where he could hardly see, but he was almost power walking and he had to be in his 80's!!!

Next thing he's turned onto the pier and didnt see the two big steps right in front of him. He went crashing down off the steps and landed on top of his walking frame, collapsing it....but.... still staying standing!!! There he was all bent over, couldnt get up enough to correct his walking frame and for what seemed like an eternity, he was just hanging there and drooling!! Paul and I rushed over along with two young women who'd been walking on the track.

Turns out this old guy was on the run from the local nursing home and was making a rather speedy getaway. Paul and I bundled him into the Ritz Bus (10 seater van on loan to us) and took him back to his nursing home. He was a lovely old bloke, slight losing his marbles and cheeky as all hell, he had a bruise on his head from the mornings work and had a tale to tell from his afternoon. He went home to rest and gather his energy for another days work, we felt that we'd had helped someone that otherwise might have come to certain grief at the St Kilda Pier.

Australian Dancesport Championships

2005-12-11T11:55:00.000+11:00

Ahh..... its nice to be back and see some quality dancing...

Practice session at the Ritz Ballroom
Last Wednesday both Paul and I were wide eyed, jaws dropped, in awe and admiration of the amazing talent here in Melbourne. Wednesday nights is practice night at the Ritz Ballroom on North Road East Bentleigh (south eastern suburbs of Melbourne).

The Ritz is a huge dance studio that can fit hundreds of people, in style. As is tradition, the final practice night before a big comp brings out all the competitors from local, interstate and international. Plus all the judges who are picking up last minute lessons with competitors.

The studio has had this sense of anticipation, tension and excitement for the past week and last Wednesday was the "behind the scenes" snapshot of who's who on the comp floor. Dressed in their standard training attire, black, on black, on black.... these guys sweated it out for about four hours. They gave it everything, it was just like a real comp only no sequins, diamantes, sly jabs to the ribs and sneaky kicks at other competitors feet. Just pure, raw talent, passion and athleticism.

My dance teachers from when I was 8 years old!!!
The photo up the top is of the wonderful Jack and Edna MacPherson, my dance teachers from when I was 8 years old!!! I have been back to their studio on and off for the past 30 years but it was an absolute delight to bump into Jack and Edna at Dancesport yesterday.

Its so funny, they dont seem to have aged at all, they look as happy, healthy and vibrant as they did when I was 8. And they were just as welcoming, encouraging and kind as they were back then. Just proves the health benefits of dance, everyone I see that continues to dance throughout their lives seems to be in good health and happy.

Jack and Edna are a lovely example of two people endlessly giving their talent, passion and support to the community. Their studio was in Dandenong, a less than affluent suburb in the outer region of Melbourne. The studio was home to many children of varying economic backgrounds. Their doors were open to everyone and its my belief that Jack and Edna personally had an impact on the reduction of violence and crime in Dandenong region because they provided activity and direction for the youth out there. Their dancing tuition bought self esteem and confidence to kids from difficult backgrounds. Their constant and tireless work meant they were always there for the mums, dads and kids... always somewhere to go to have good clean fun.

Jack and Edna were never sick, never grumpy or tired, never mean or nasty or short tempered with their students. They were always there, happy, warm, generous and giving. What a joy it was to be in their care when I was a child. I didnt see it at the time, but MacPhersons dance studio was a very special place for me and every day I appreciate the impact they have had on my life.

Dancesport
Last night we went to the finals of Dancesport Championships, wow, what a night. I go there every year, with or without friends, I love it. This year, Paul and I treated ourselves to tickets on a table of 8 right next to the dancefloor. Given the stadium holds around 40,000 people, we thought we were pretty special.

So there we were, eagerly awaiting the last event, we had sat through all the boring events just to get to the Amateur Quarter finals and Grand final. Our friend Arsen Kishishian and his partner Alana Donovan, the reigning champions, were set to give a blistering performance and we wanted to give them all our energy. Just as the dancers took to the floor, one of the biggest, fattest judges took up his position, right in front of our table!!! Arghhh..... $150 per seat to watch the rear end of a judge!!! Ay yah!

It was a fantastic night though, the frocks, the diamantes, the sequins, the glamour and elegance of it. The dancers were amazing, so skilled and talented, we left the event feeling energized, inspired and ready to move to the next level of our own dance. It was so nice to come home at this time of the year :-)

Crazy Melbourne Weather

2005-12-03T10:26:00.000+11:00

Hey there, its Cheryl here, we are having a great time in Melbourne, we've managed to get some sleep and catch up with a few of our friends and in a few days, the work on our new performances and Instructional DVD recommences.

After two months without rain, we have are reminded of the amazing weather Melbourne has on a regular basis. Picture 27 degrees one day, 34 degrees the next then a massive thunderstorm, huge temperature change and torrential rain for hours!!! I'm very happy to say that it gives me an opportunity to wear my fabulous Alaskan Mukluks*, with a miniskirt!!! That's Melbourne!!!

I'm plagued by a few things over the past few days. Maybe its withdrawal from the magnificent Crystal Harmony, maybe its just bad luck but I've just run into a few really mean and nasty people lately and it disturbs me.

Mean and Nasty People
I just cant understand why some people seem to get through life with happiness, joy and a sense of pleasantness, even despite the bad times that happen to all of us. And then there are people who are just plain mean and cant find pleasure in anything, you know the type, people that find it hard to smile, have a strained expression on their face most of the time and seem irritable at the strangest and smallest things.

Its hard being around these people when we have so much happiness and joy in our lives. It makes the contrast even more obvious and even less desirable. It makes the choice to BE happy even easier when you see people absolutely, perpetually miserable.

So I figure the happier you are, the happier the people are around you, the less you can tolerate unhappiness and nastiness. Therefore it creates an even stronger desire to share yourself with only the happiest people.

The other thing that surprises me is how people remain mean all their lives. I see life as an evolutionary process and I make the assumption that if you're unhappy, you will see it, you will take steps to make yourself happy and then you will become happy.

Last night I ran into a woman from my past, actually from my first real job. 20 years ago she was just downright mean, nasty and never happy with anything. (unless she was intoxicated)
As Paul and I were enjoying ourselves at our first night back on a social salsa dancefloor, we ran into this woman. Not only was she mean and nasty to us but she went out of her way to be mean and nasty. For no apparent reason. The sad thing is, at least she was happy when she drunk (20 years ago) but she was drunk last night and sad to say, she was far from happy.

I just wanted to grab her, shake her and tell her that life is soooooo short, precious moments happening right now will never happen again. Precious people around you will only be there for a portion of your life, enjoy every moment while you can because life changes, people go and experiences change.

But if I've learned one thing about drunks, its not to try and reason with them, certainly when they are being aggressive. So I smiled at her and blocked out her negative energy.

Happiness is a choice, not a co-incidence - its within our control

Crazy People on the Dancefloor
How long I have looked forward to going out, just Paul and I, having a social dance with my salsa friends back home. Boy have I missed social dancing. So off we headed to a 6 star hotel, fighting our way through the torrential rainpour, a long 1 hour drive, no parking within a few blocks.... but we were excited and nothing could kill our spirit.

We got there, it was fabulous to say hi to everyone, big hugs, great energy.
We hopped onto the floor and kick, a ladies stiletto in my foot, bash... a guy thumping into my back, whack an erratic hand coming into our dance space. Paul did a fabulous job of protecting me and moving our dance to avoid these crazy dancers. But, they were so erratic and didnt understand the concept of "dance space" that they just keep bumping into us and everyone else.

It wouldnt be that bad if these people were swept away in the moment, having so much fun that they forgot themselves and were lost in the joys of dance. But they actually aggressive, they were "marking their territory" they were actively pursuing people to remove them from the floor. Some of them were just chaotic and didnt know what was happening, but some were deliberate. I was shocked, dismayed and very disappointed.

What happened to respecting another couples dance space?
When did social dancing become antisocial?

I dont know the anwsers to these question, but I was so lucky to have been dancing with Paul and not a lesser skilled dancer, I would certainly have come out with injuries from even just one dance.

My hope is that dance teachers ensure their students are aware of "dance space" and their students develop a healthy level of respect for other people on the dancefloor.
Without this education at the basic level, the global momentum in the partner dance industry is at risk at a social level.

*Mukluks are Alaskan cold weather boots with a firm synthetic sole that keeps your feet warm and dry down to -30!! Mine are particularly handsome, they are black goatskin, very attractive indeed :-)

Home Safe and Sound

2005-11-28T18:42:00.000+11:00

Paul and I have made it home safe and sound and are taking in a bit of rest and relaxation.

We were kinda looking forward to kicking back, watching some movies and sleeping on the return flight. That plan was ruined by a snot nosed brat who insisted on howling every time his mother moved an inch away from him!!! They were right in front of us and my god; we have never heard such a noisy baby on a flight. The worst part was whenever the baby started to howl, the mother took him for a walk along the entire length of the plane!!! Ay yah!!

LAX Airport…. Erghhh…
We had a long day getting off the ship, it was almost surreal. Our flight didn’t leave until 10.30pm and we had to be up at 6am to clear immigrations. After waiting in the gutter of the carpark outside the ship, we were transferred to LAX airport. My god, what an airport. We couldn’t check in because we were too early, there was not a single seat to sit on, nowhere to place our bags and not even a coffee shop!!! But, there was a wall of phones where you could call a hotel and stay there until you could check in for your flight. It was strange, you got an overwhelming feeling they didn’t want anyone at the airport, at all!

So… anyway… our last cruise on the Crystal Harmony was a mixture of emotions… we were sad to see the ship go, happy to be getting a holiday, ecstatic to see familiar faces from previous cruises and tired from a really hectic cruise.

Swimming with the Dolphins
I don’t know how I managed it, but somehow I got the top cruise escort gig of swimming with the dolphins!!! Basically you get to escort a group of guests from the ship and you get the tour yourself for free J Some tours are really hard to get and Dolphin tours are the pick of the crop. So I was delighted to be in a group of kids and swim with two of the smaller dolphins. One of them was a pigmy dolphin and the other was the first baby dolphin to be born in captivity in Mexico.

Lovely Japanese Ladies
With over 100 Japanese on the final cruise, Paul was inundated with private lessons. The Japanese ladies are very keen dancers and they love to learn. One of the ladies we met on another cruise (Yoko and Stephen) was a lovely dancer and had only taken up ballroom at the tender age of seventy (70)!!! She's 73 now!!!

Tess and Kat
The third photo is of a gorgeous woman we met on an Alaskan cruise early in this contract. Tess (left) was on board with one of the most energetic 80-something year old women we have ever met. We had a ball with these two women, they were so lovely. Tess surprised us on the final cruise by bringing her daughter Kat, they are just fabulous and we are hoping to meet them again on the Symphony.

Kids….
One thing you miss on ships is the interaction with kids. I miss speaking with, interacting with and having fun with children and when the ship has over 60 of them onboard, you're bound to find a few that just touches your heart. The last photo is of Arden and myself at the Dolphin Park. Arden was a gorgeous 9-year-old completely enamored with sequins, diamantes and all things relating to dance. I encouraged her to enter our 1950's rock n roll competition and she found two other girls (Sarah and Lizzy, sorry no photo). They took the night by storm and won the competition, it was so much fun.

And so ends our 2nd contract

Gee how time flies when you're having fun…. We can hardly believe it went by so quickly. Here's a quick summary of the highlights (and some lowlights) of our contract on the Crystal Harmony.

Highlights
-Fabulous ship
-Fantastic cruise director
-Hot weather, no rain for two months!!
-Nikki Beach, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
-Glaciers
-Excellent conditions
-Fabulous food
-Made a new Latin dress on board the ship
-Booking up all next year on the Symphony

Lowlights
-Missing family and friends
-No overnight stays….
-Not enough men to dance with
-Not enough roller blading, walks on the beach, salsa dancing and long, quiet cups of tea

With all that said, we're looking forward to a restful holiday, putting together some new shows for the next ship, seeing our family and friends and going cruising again next year. Cant wait!

We're on our way home!!

2005-11-25T19:08:00.000+11:00

After another fabulous 3 months at sea we are on the move again. We are currently at LA Airport waiting for our flight to Sydney then Melboourne. Boy, we are so lucky to live in Australia and be (relatively) free of the humungous threat of terrorism that is felt at every point of this airport. Its great how they have controlled things but its stressful an intimidating to say the least. I had to remove most of my clothing to be screened by security and I wasnt wearing much to start with!! Of course, I might be packing a piece and you might not be able to see it with my figure and all!!

Farewelling the Crystal Harmony was a sad moment, the guests all felt the emotion of the cruise and whilst it was a high-energy, high emotion cruise, it also had its low moments with alot of sadness.

Its so funny saying goodbye now, we are getting used to people coming and going in our lives, we no longer say goodbye, we say "see you again" because its such a small world when you cruise.

So, we await our long haul flight to Australia where we relax for a moment and then commence work on our two new performances, instructional dance video and promotional material, plus a website.

We had such an amazing time with Crystal, when we got the 1st contract we just hoped for another, when we received the plan for next year, we were so pleased. A full years work with Crystal!!! We worked very hard for the opportunity to work with the best cruiseline in the world and we got it, now we have secured one of the few positions available on a luxury cruiseliner, we are ecstatic and even though we are tired, we are inspired about the year that is ahead.

Cant wait to see everyone in Melbourne and spend the festive season at home with our family and friends.

See you all soon

Last cruise on the Crystal Harmony

2005-11-18T13:10:00.000+11:00

Well, its almost time to say goodbye to the wonderful Crystal Harmony.

We have 7 more days on this fabulous ship and then she goes into dry-dock where she will undergo a $50 million refit!!! She will then be returned to the Japanese Company NYK and sent back out to sea as the Japanese cruiseship, The Azucar II.

We have just farewelled another fantastic group of guests from the 10 day Mexican cruise. This time we had an unusually large number of dancing and fun loving people, they were just happy, easy going, bright and bubbly. It was a pleasure to cruise with them.

This next cruise should be a real hoot, it will attract alot of long time Crystal Cruisers who want to be there for the final voyage. These people know how to cruise and enjoy themselves and we are looking forward to being part of the final voyage.

This past week Paul and I have had a great time, lots of dancing, eating, sunning and enjoying ourselves. Paul was pretty chuffed with himself when we stumbled upon a crew sale downstairs in the crew area. There were people everywhere, crowded around this big long table with secondhand goods on it. It was a frenzy... Paul went in, jostled about for a while, chatted with some crew and came out with a fabulous new tuxedo for a mere $3!! he's had it dry cleaned and it looks fantastic.

We had a great time on stage a few days ago, we've been working on new lifts, dips and drops and added a few things in at the last moment. They were a huge success and we had a ball out on stage. Really enjoyed ourselves and the audience could see it. We received glowing feedback and have been stopped at every point of the ship by admiring guests since then.

I'm really looking forward to this next cruise because for some unknown reason, I was awarded with the honour of escorting the most sought after tour on the Mexican Riviera... yep, lil ol me gets to go swimming with the dolphins!!!! I cant wait, we get to touch them, hear them underwater and even let them push us around in the water. Woo hoo!!!

So before we commence the arduous task of preparing, packing and saying goodbyes, we wanted to leave you and us with a taste of things to come for our next contract on the Crystal Symphony.... check this out for an itinerary...

Crystal Symphony January 5 til April 29 2006
(Carribbean, Panama Canal & South America)
- Ft Lauderdale, Miami Florida
- Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos
- French West Indies, British West Indies, Dutch West Indies
- Panama Canal
- Costa Rica
- St Lucia, Antiqua, St Johns, St Barts
- St Maarten, Phillipsburg
- Netherlands Antilles
- Barbados
- Devils Island French Guiana

BRAZIL... BRAZIL.... BRAZIL...
- Manaus, Boca De Valeria, Santarem, Rio De Janeiro

CRUISING THE AMAZON!!!

- Uruguay and then ARGENTINA!!

- oh and CHILE, CHILE AND MORE CHILE

Woo hoo!!!! We cant wait

Almost home again...

2005-11-14T12:10:00.000+11:00

Wow, how time flies, its only 10 days till we leave the shores of the USA to come home for 5 glorious weeks!!!

This contract has just flown by, we have had such a wonderful time on the Crystal Harmony that 3 months will have passed by and it seemed like 3 weeks. Cant wait to get onto the Symphony next year and do South America...

We are in Mexico again, this time we have three completely new ports to visit. Yesterday we visited a little place called La Paz, which means "The Peace". At first it looked desolate and dead but we ventured into town, past the powerplant and this gorgeous resort. Our bus wound around the magnificent, irridescant shallow blue waters and dropped us in the centre of this sleepy little town. A casual walk along the street of restaurants and cafes sending out sweet tunes of cumbia and salsa... such a beautiful feeling, so calm, so peaceful, yet alive and quietly happy.

We treated ourselves to fajitas and virgin pina coladas on the balcony of "Carlos and Charlies". Our table overlooking the ocean with the weather just perfect... slight breeze, tropical humidity and shade to keep the sun away whilstwe ate ahhhh.... another day in paradise. After a short stroll, we headed back to the ship to find a folk dancing display right on our doorstep. The first photo is these wonderful mexican girls displaying their quilted skirts and performing a flamenco kind of dance with trance like music, it was hypnotizing.

The middle photo is paul on the coast of La Paz, looking out over the blue seas, the light was fading for this shot and the seas were getting dull, but you can get a feel for it anyway.

The last picture is from our previous cruise with the 600 jazz enthusiasts. This photo is myself with the wonderful Nina Ferro. Nina managed to strike a chord with us that went straight to our hearts and we had the absolute best time with her on board. She is an amazing singer and her voice just hit me in a place that few singers do, such a feeling of peace, happiness and warmth. My friend Jerson gives me the same feeling when he sings, its a wonderful thing. Nina is this good aussie chick that opened up to us from day one, she was down to earth, friendly, open, honest and we ended up having a very quick and close connection with her. She is living in London at the moment but we know our paths will cross again and we will pick up where we left off. If you ever hear she is in town, you must, must must go and see her, she is one of the best vocalists in the jazz scene and a wonderful person.

Having said all that, let me say this.... we are getting soooooo excited about coming home. Being at sea has been fabulous, but we miss our family and friends and our home town. It will be 5 weeks this time, sounds like alot but I'm sure it will go quickly. We will be home 11.20am Sunday 27th November after which we will sleepfor approximately 4 days and then hit the salsa clubs, cafes of st kilda and start work on our new dance routines for the next contract.

Oh... and we have started filmining of our instructional dance dvd... its been loads of fun :-)

Till the next blog update

Cheryl

The power of dreams

2005-11-08T13:25:00.000+11:00

Cruising is an amazing experience at the best of times, imagine being out there on the open ocean, no pollution, no traffic, no phones, no buildings, no trees, no grass, no animals, no birds, no insects.... when you've been at sea a while, you really feel the difference.

The QE2 was our first introduction to the world of cruising and we really felt the impact of complete and utter physical freedom of the open water, at the same time, complete and utter isolation and confinement of the ship. Whilst we were constantly inspired by the energetic, enthusiastic passengers who cruised on this ship, we also felt the weight of the passengers who were often dissatisfied, tired, sick and dying.... Put that together with the British class system and the discrimination it brings with it. It was a strange place to be, such a mixture of feelings for us both, such a challenging and rewarding time.

The Crystal Harmony is so different to the QE2, the ship is full of healthy, happy, vibrant and alive people. Even the crew are healthy, happy and vibrant, the Ships Doctor doesnt have much to do because everyone is healthy and well! We have worked in different work environments over the years and to find employees that are happy and willing to be at work is quite rare in large organisations. And loyalty.... well thats a thing of the past, two years is a long stint in a company today. Yet... on the Crystal Harmony, the bulk of the crew have been there since the inaugural cruise 15 years ago!

But its not just the people, its the environment in which we live. Picture a world where there is no crime, no violence, no hatred, no discrimination, no poverty. Picture a world where the weather is consistently good, where your home follows the sun and each day is a beautiful day. Imagine a world without cash, no ATMS, no cars, no carparks, no roads, no roadrules, no roadrage and not an ounce of rush, hurry or panic in anyone.

Imagine a world where you could eat the finest food, be served by the best waiters, sleep in the cosiest beds (with your choice of pillow from the "pillow menu") and enjoy the most amazing views everywhere you looked. Imagine a world where you just get up from the table after having eaten the most splendid meal and you dont pay for the experience.

Imagine a world where you are surrounded by talented, creative and inspiring people and they actually talk to you, happily. Imagine the buzz you get from being in the presence of these people, day after day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Imagine just inviting someone to dinner without having to work out which restaurant to book, or who pays the bill. Imagine a world where everyone says "good morning" and smiles at you legitimately. (well most people :-)

If you can see all of these things and feel the joy, satisfaction, happiness and warmth these would bring to your life... well, you just felt what its like to be on the Crystal Harmony.

It sounds alot like pleasantville, doesnt it?

Its funny when reality kicks in for us... we know this world isnt real, we know that this environment has been carefully handcrafted and we know this is not how we will live the rest of our lives. But what a blast.... I've always wanted to travel the world doing the thing I love, whilst getting paid for it, I just no idea I'd be doing it in such style and with so many diamantes!! Hey, we know this isnt real, but if you had your choice between this and a cubicle confined desk job.... which would you choose?

It just makes me think... if there's anything you have ever wanted to do but didnt have the courage, time or energy... Well, we suggest you get up, get going and get into it, before its too late. When you have the courage to follow your dreams, your dreams become reality.

Yours in awe of the power of dreams,
Cheryl

Happy Halloween

2005-11-04T12:45:00.000+11:00

Hey there everyone, here we are in Mexico again, this time we have over 600 Jazz Musicians and Jazz Enthusiasts on board the Crystal Harmony.

What a blast… the ship is full of beautiful jazz music, its just heaven. We were so pleased to hear a “friend of a friend” was on board, the wonderful Australian Jazz singer Miss Nina Ferro!!! Ahhh…. Couldn’t wait to hear her gorgeous voice and have a warm reminder of the fabulous Melbourne live music scene. The first photo is Paul at the head of our charming chariot, the water taxi in Cabo San Lucas where we hung out Nina. We took her out for the day and showed her a little of Mexico, we took her to our favorite resort, had a ride on a jetski, saw some sea-lions and stuff... she said it was the best day in over a year… all we heard from here were big long “ooohhhhsss… and aaaaaahhhsss” all day long.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween everybody!!! Out here in the US of A, they celebrate Halloween in such a fun way, they all get dressed up in whatever they like and parade around in their favorite fantasy clothing! New to us Aussies, but hey, we kinda like that stuff, so we both got dressed up and paraded around too.

The first second is Paul and his new friend Mr Pumpkin-head… you should see the fruit and veggie carvings these guys do on the ship, its just amazing. We watched this chef carve out flowers and things on a watermelon, it was hypnotizing… so this is one of their carvings.

Oh… and as you can see this is Pauls new outfit, the pimp! What a fab night we had with him in a crushed velvet red suit, zebra striped lapels and massive afro wig! Lerv the handle-bar facial hair… my dad used to look a little like this when I was a kid…

And my outfit… well I just couldn’t resist the 60’s mini-dress with 6inch platform heels and matching-massive-fro…we had a great time walking around the ship like this, the guests just loved it, we were probably the most outrageous in our costumes (apart from the crew party… where it was rumoured someone arrived in a blue cellophane number… with not much else underneath :-)

I had a funny time on the dancefloor with our number one cruiser, Mr Don Louden… he loves to dance and this night the ship was really rocking… you try dancing in massive platforms, mini-skirt and huge hair… each time I turned I had to duck and hold my dress
at the same time… the funniest was when a Viennese waltz came on and Don expressed his interest in dancing this number… what a hoot, me in 60’s gear, whizzing around the heaving dance floor to a Viennese Waltz….

3 Weeks Till We’re Home!!
Yikes, the time has flown so fast…. We will be home November 27 and staying until around January 4. We thought it would be longer but we’ve secured another gig onboard the Crystal Symphony this time and we start on January 5 our first port somewhere in the Caribbean and then off to South America!!! Arghhhh…. Cant wait!

We are looking forward to seeing our wonderful friends and family for nearly 5 weeks, it will be heaven!

President Bush on the Crystal Harmony!

2005-10-27T14:00:00.000+10:00

Lots of photos today, the software allowed me to upload six this time, yay! They are a little out of sequence, but here goes anyway....

Wow! what a blast we have had on this last cruise. Firstly there was this big hush hush thing happening, President Bush was coming on board and some of the staff would get to meet him in a private, very exclusive party. It was all very secretive and guess who got invited? Yep, the ballroom dance couple, and guess who got along with him famously? Yep, the two of us.. so when it came to photo opportunity, we all snuggled up and took this fabulous photo. So now we are officially rubbing shoulders with the superpowers of this world... not bad for two dancers from Melbourne... huh!

The beachy photos are from yesterday where we visited this beach resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Last time we were here Paul went jetskiing and I went kayaking. This time we were awoken by our new friend Tamlyn, the production show dancer from England, she ordered us to get up and come to this luxury resort with her. We stumbled out of bed and onto a water taxi and within minutes found ourselves in this oasis of palm trees, massive beds, huge comfy cushions laid out next to this gorgeous blue swimming pool, all in a polynesian / roman style of decadance and summer romance. Wow, what a treat!

So, Paul, Tamlyn and I laid out on these massive beds, surrounded by friends from the crystal harmony, sunshine, cool music and palm trees gently swaying in the warm mexican breeze. What a great day.

The second photo on this page is Paul on our first trip to the city of San Diego. On this morning we woke to the sight of four cruiseships in this tiny port, three of them more than double the size of the crystal harmony. what a sight! We came off the gangway to be greeted with over 6000 passengers all trying to board their ships. It was absolute chaos and we couldnt get out of there quick enough. This photo shows the crystal harmony sandwiched in between two of the ships, we couldnt get far enough away to fit all four ships into the photo. It was quite a sight.

Paul is here now, so i will hand you over to him to talk about the last photo, the wonderful Shoko Ito.... what a woman!

A big hello to everyone and hope life is going just as you dreamed it would.

Well here I am again telling you about a special person, in fact two very special people. The first is Miss Shoko Ito from Japan, this tiny woman with a heart as big as Tokyo. Shoko was with us for 3 cruises and she took private lessons with me almost every day. Its hard to describe the majesty and grace of this magnificent lady, she was always happy, always smiling, always completely gracious in every situation. We had the pleasure of dining with her twice and asked her many questions about her life. We were fascinated to hear she had no family left on this earth and her husband died over 17 years ago. To look at her you would never imagine she is 75 years of age, flawless white skin, the figure of a 16 year old and the energy of a young woman. Shoko is an example of people who live their life to the fullest. She cruises alot.... she celebrated her 75th cruise with us and she is a big part of the Crystal family. The biggest thing about Shoko is her absolutely constant sense of happiness, she is never grumpy, tired or frustrated. She became a ill on the cruise and even then she was happy, smiley and warm. This woman touched our hearts, she was an absolute delight to be with and her energy, charm and warmth rubbed off on everyone who came close to her. We were lucky to have spent 3 weeks with this wonderful woman.

The other woman we were touched by was a fabulous lady from Chicago, Lorry or Lorraine. Completely different to Shoko in so many ways. Lorry is this tiny slip of a woman, incredibly thin from the incapacitating effects of emphasema. Lorry had recently survived some pretty serious health issues and was challenged with a 5% chance of survival, but she survived and is alive and kicking; and boy did she enjoy every second of her time on her cruise.

Lorry has this amazingly cheeky and outspoken quality about her. Great sense of humour and absolutely overwhelming enthusiasm for people and life. She was challenged by many things on the ship but she managed to dance when she could, socialise when she felt up to it and shop when she had the energy. But every time we met her she felt like a person with sooooo much vitality, soooo much get up and go, it was no wonder she had survived her illness and she was determined to enjoy every second of her life while she still had it.

We were so inspired by her attitude, she didnt moan, complain or make excuses, she just gave everything her absolute utmost energy. What a gal. We fell in love with her and her energy, we spent 2 cruises with her and we felt blessed.

Its a strange kind of loneliness you feel on the oceans of the world, we miss our family and friends terribly and lots of people come and go with these short cruises we are doing, but every now and then you meet someone that completely reaches into your heart and leaves you with something you never thought you would find. Each time this happens it moves us both to tears, each time it happens we are thankful for this experience to meet amazing people around this fabulous globe of ours.

PS ; We are currently safe from the hurricane heading towards Florida
PPS; Ehhh.... thats not really President Bush... its a comedian impersonator... sorry about that little joke ;-)

More photos

2005-10-24T14:45:00.000+10:00

Here are some funky photos for you, this is as many as we can upload at the moment.

Photo No. 1 is in Acapulco Bay at the top of these cliffs. If you look closely you can see three bodies in a beautiful dive positions. They are the mad mexican cliff divers. They climb all the way too the top, wait for the waves to come in so there is enough water to land in, then jump!!! They are nuts, but we loved watching them.

Photo No. 2 is Paul after his ziplining adventure (a few blogs ago) he looks pumped, excited and happy. We now have a video of the whole event, he's very happy with himself.

Photo No. 3 is us at Senor Frogs at the top of the hills in Acapulco bay. We stopped for some food and the menu was HUGE, the food was awesome and the service was great.

Photo No. 4 is Paul and I on the ship anchored off Puerto Vallarta where Paul decided to purchase a huge sombrero of which he has no clue how he will get it home! I thought he was mad buying it, but I couldnt stop him and now I reckon he should wear it on the flight home as his punishment :-) He's still plotting and scheming about how to get it home.

Hello again from Mazatlan Mexico

2005-10-18T13:24:00.000+10:00

Hey there everyone, here we are again in Mazatlan Mexico.

Above are some photos of our ship, the first one is the Seahorse pool, this is the outdoor pool right at the top of the ship, we love this pool because when the ocean gets going, this pool turns into a wave pool!! The second photo is the indoor pool, the third photo is the crew pool! And you can see the happy crew sunbaking at the front of the ship. The crew pool is in a "no guest access" area but its right in front of the bridge, so the officers spend quite a bit of time with their binoculars ensuring the safety of the front of the ship (yeah right!). In Alaska, the crew were treated to iceream and hot chocolates in this area, we had the best view of the glaciers, it was un believable.

We are currently on our regular route from LA to the Mexican Riviera... from now until the end of November. The weather is hot, sunny and humid, we are loving it.

Yesterday was a great day, I managed to get myself onto a tour (as an escort) and went kayaking in the ocean of Cabo San Lucas. Cabo is such a beautiful place, the beaches are golden and the water is bright blue, turning to green on the shoreline. There are these huge rock formations that leap out of the water, very spectacular coastline.

We have anchored at Cabo 3 times now but yesterday was the 1st time Paul and I actually were able to get ashore. My kayaking adventure had me paddle out to these big rocks and archway when our group heard this loud barking. We looked up and saw a colony of sea lions lapping up the afternoon sun on a rocky outcrop. It was the closest I had been to sea lions ever, they were jumping in the water, swimming around and having a great time. And boy... the smell... i think they need to give their apartment a bit of a spring clean... phew!!!

As our tender boat took us from the ship to the shore, the people in the boat starting shouting and waving at some mad jetskier buzzing our boat. He was very close to us and riding along side, almost at our door. I got up to have a look and guess what I saw.... my beloved Paul!!! Yes, he had rented a jetski for 2 hours and was having a ball hooning about the little harbour. Some of the guests managed to get a photo, will post it next week hopefully. He has this big, wide mouthed grin on his face, its a great photo.

Life is good on the Crystal Harmony, we are enjoying the hot weather and the mexican coastline. We had a chat with the head honcho from the Crystal LA office a few days ago and the good news is they want to put us into a rotation with the ballroom couple on the Crystal Symphony. That means next year we might do 3 months on the ship and 3 months off the ship!!! What a blast!! The cruise director wants us with him, so that means we will probably be in South America from February. Dont know the details just yet, but thats the rough plan.

Ciao
Cheryl (& Paul)

Greetings from Mexico!!

2005-10-09T02:15:00.000+10:00

Ahhh..... thank god for warm weather! But.... with warm tropical weather comes tropical storms and.... Hurricanes!!! Yep, these photos are just after we hit the worst of Hurricane Otis... off the west coast of Mexico near Cabo San Lucas.

The ships guests went very quiet on this morning... it was like a ghost ship. Funny... Paul and I were scheduled for live band rehearsals right at the moment we were hitting the eye of the storm. With no food in our bellies (a bad thing for seasickness), high heels and an unstable dance floor. Paul and I hit the floor and boy-oh-boy.... what fun! Talk about dizzy... the ship was going everywhere, the band was just sitting and playing and we managed to crank out one of our best!!! There would be no problems with our performance later that night... we were relieved!

So after our rehearsal we decided to see what a hurricane looked like from the open decks... ehhh... sorry to our parents, we know its not really wise, but hey... you weren't there and we're adults anyways!!!

We could hardly walk! it was so windy, but so much fun... we were almost the only ones on deck, two mad power walking women were getting their kicks too...!!!

So after our 1st hurricane we had our 1st port day in Mexico... and what a day it was... i'll hand you over to Paul now, he tells it better than I do... oh.... to him mum and dad... apologies in advance :-) ok here he is...

Ok, so imagine this… a steel cable encased in rubber tubing, about 5cm in diameter. Imagine this cable tied between two trees, 100 feet in the air, above the Mexican jungle canopy. The trees are 650 meters apart; imagine your hips being tied into a safety harness and you being locked onto this cable by rollers. Now imagine somebody saying… “ready…” and pushing you off your platform high in the air… swinging freely above the jungle canopy… now imagine, trees, branches, birds, spider webs, flying past you at 30 -40 kms per hour as your body is hurtled through the jungle on this little tiny cable… until you get to the end with a startling halt.

OH MY GOD!! Exhilarating…. I think not…. This adventure is more of the mind blowing type… its called a canopy adventure and it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done. The most unbelievable feeling, it was amazing, just being up there, flying through the jungle, not seeing the end of the cable. The only thing to slow or stop my speed was a single hand on the line encased in a leather glove which heated up as I pressed down on the cable. It was amazing.

This adventure originally started by a couple of guys who needed to document flora and fauna in the Mexican jungle. They started documenting the floor of the jungle, then they climbed the trees. Knowing that they could cover more distance by connecting trees together by traversing on zip lines, with up to 16 zip lines, these guys developed a great network of travel through the jungle. They were working, but at the same time they were having a whole heap of fun. Then one of them came up with the idea that others might enjoy this type of “tarzan-chest-thumping-tree-swinging-yodelling” adventure.

So this enterprising bunch of Mexicans (kind of an oxymoron) built some platforms on the trees with a steel device that kind of hugs the trees so they are not harmed (the trees, not the Mexicans, they don’t mind the odd hugJ . The trees aren’t drilled or damaged in anyway. The platforms can withstand 4 – 12 people at a time. The guys working here are kind of like really knowledgeable cowboys who make you feel at ease as they teach the safety measures and techniques required to have a great time.

You see, this was kind of like work for me… hah!!! I was escorting a tour for guests on the ship. 12 people completed the course, no wheelchairs, and no walking sticks on this tour J

When you are relying on someone to get you through this scary experience, where you are constantly in danger…this experience really exposes you for who you really are. Being so exposed means others in the group really empathize with you as a human being. The end result was pretty profound, a small bunch of people, all going through this amazing experience, challenging themselves to their limits. We were instant and close friends as a result of this trip.

And…. Then…. My day off!!!
With only 2 hours to find me some fun… in temperatures over the 100 mark…a few of us headed towards the beach in Mazatlan. There I was, like a wide eyed kid in a lolly shop… so many things to do... so little time… horse riding, parasailing, sunbaking, swimming…. But wait… there it is… in the distance… yup… a nice, big spanky new jet ski!! Lemme adem.. decision made.

The guy tells me very firmly, no jumping, no diving, no going fast… basically I was allowed to idle gently in shallow water…!!! To hell with that… I paid my money, got on the thing and let it rip! Sorry mum…. I nearly killed myself by taking a short trip over to some Mexican island… then I nearly killed myself again when I decided to combine surfing with jet skiing…. Hey!!! No-one told me you needed certain techniques to make this happen… here I was rolling in the surf with a jet ski on my back, then my front, then my head…. What a blast!!! If I wasn’t sucking in so much salt water, you would have heard my laughter from the shore… woo hoo!!!

After finding the key, I got my baby started and did it all over again!!! With only minor cuts and abrasions, I rode her gently to her owner, his arms flailing about wildly... in a kinda “…. Whadya-think-ya-were-doing-mate…!!!!” fashion.

Moral of my jet skiing story… It’s always better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Paul Zaidman

Funny Paul

2005-09-21T16:56:00.000+10:00

Here are a few photos from the past cruise, I will try to upload them as we go, we have so many, so we are handpicking the ones we like...

Here is Paul in Skagway Alaska, he's being very politically incorrect, that hotdog he's munching into.... well, its actually reindeer meat!!! See the sign behind him!!! Oh... poor dancer, prancer and rudolph.... he tried to get me to eat one... I couldnt do it, they are soooo cute those reindeer and they pull Santa's sled with all my presents at Christmas time.... well, I suppose Paul is Jewish and he's probably not that worried if Santa will grace him with his presence this year :-0

When I saw this next photo on the computer, I fell about laughing, Paul has such a talent for spotting funny photos. Here is being a good man, carrying all my shopping bags whilst trekking through Skagway Alaska. Ahh... good men are hard to find!!!

Paul and Cheryl Strike Again!!

2005-09-19T12:50:00.000+10:00

Here we are in sunny Sitka Alaska again, on the good ship Crystal Harmony. We worked our butts off last cruise, coming up with new dance routines, new music, trying to get together with the band, teaching, hanging with guests and social dancing. They call this work! Hah!

This photo is with some of the very talented entertainers on this ship, from left Paul, Gosha (famous Polish Harpist), Gary Guthman, famous USA trumpeter, Jordan Bennett, musical theatre entertainer, Mark Merchant, amazing ventriloquist and comedian.

When we came aboard this beautiful new ship we knew we were dealing with a different creature and we chose to stop, take a look and find a way to hit the target. The first cruise we rarely got off the ship, the second cruise we worked even harder. No tours, no shore leave most days and definitely no partying. We just worked, slept, ate and worked.

Well, the 1st cruise we got a great result, 8.90 ratings compared to an 8.70 target. Our cruise director Scott said this was a solid result and my analytical side started to get curious. How did we compare to other cruises? other dance instructors? and other entertainers on the ship? So I went back through the stats and whipped up a little spreadsheet, nothing fancy, a few charts with multiple axis and stuff like that ;->

At the same time, we just focused on working hard to please the guests and dance really well. So…. when the ratings came in from the 2nd cruise, we were more than chuffed to find out we had achieved a whopping 9.58 on the 10 point scale!!!! Not only was this the highest score for the cruise, but according to my (recently calculated) stats :-) it was the highest score for any of the dance instructors!!! Cause for celebration…. Yes, we had a quiet non-alcoholic Perrier :-)

So you see, yet again, we have tipped the scale.
Highest score on the ship, by a mile!!!
And the competition was tough
We’re talking entertainer of the year being on board here… he’s amazing, really fantastic!

So, we were very happy with our results, we both looked at each other and knew, once again that we have this energy that works well together. Even through the hard times, and there are plenty of those. We stick together, keep talking and supporting each other. At the same time, we remember why we are here and what we are both passionate about. Dance.

We figure it’s easy to do well when you love what you do but its critical that the people around you sincerely support you. We are fortunate that we are on a great ship now, with great management and talented people around us. Now we spend our time arranging our shows to professional sound & lighting, on a fabulous stage and for audiences that understand what a show is. Much better than the recent experience of spending our time standing on a gangway, moaning about mindless unrelated duties, whining about the food and management.

We are now in a fantastic environment that appreciates talent and does everything it can to support success and make people happy and the proof is in the pudding!!!

Greetings from SITKA ALASKA

2005-09-12T11:15:00.000+10:00

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLets get ready to RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRumble.

Hello Hello Hello

This is Paul. remember the other side of the Cheryl and Paul dance team.
Hey guess what people, I am finally allowed to write on the blog! You see the only way I could get to do this was to promise Cheryl that I would hold my tongue and not write anything awful about certain people that we have come into contact with. She said " Now remember who is reading this, Passengers, Friends, Management of other places" Ok so that leaves me only one option and thats to tell you all how wonderful our lives have turned out to be.

So here we are in SITKA ALASKA. Wow what a place. I dont know how much Cheryl has told you all about the new ship we are on but let me tell you its heaven. If anyone gets a chance to Cruise on Crystal Ships then grab it.

The service, the attitude, the quality of food, the way it all happens and comes together.
We live in a Double oversized Stateroom with , Get this, WINDOWS. Cheryl has a makeup station and we have a king size bed and a huge up to date TV. We have fruit delivered every night and every morning. We eat in the bars bistros and restaurants, we are encouraged to eat with the passengers so that we can actually connect with people which is what our job really is.

Unfortunately we dont get any Gangway duties and tender ticket collecting. We cant get around to doing library duties and we never have time to open the show doors. I think the problem lies in the fact that we are dancing so much. You see we now dance 4 to 5 sometimes 6 hours a day.

Cant really say we miss all those duties because thats really NOT the work we applied for. Wow there I go again.

ALASKA is a truely wonderous place. When I say that I am actually understating the magic that happens here on a daily basis. You see this place is so rugged and so wild and sooooooo cold that humans havent been able to actually put a car park anywhere. Bears and Whales run this place. Otters literally float past us all the time and Moose and elk dance in the woods.
Bald eagles control the skies that are as magical and awe inspiring as anything you have seen in movies. Seals and Dolphins are the care takers of this abode, they are everywhere and people still flock like paparazzi to the ships deck to capture a glimpse of these illusive stars of the ocean.

We've seen spawning Salmon swim up stream in big gangs. Any moving body of water is fair game to swim up. We have seen them trying to swim back, even into sewage drains. they have a mission and nothing will stop them. They fight so hard to get back to where they were born, they mate, then die. So beautiful and so sad.

BUT , ( I know, you should never start a sentence with the word BUT) BUT
I think the most spectacular thing I have ever woken up to right outside my window is the carving of the Glaciers. When you see it, then hear it.........................oh my G..d.

Glaciers, for those poeple who dont know what they are, are rivers of compacted snow which is so heavy that it has pushed out all the air from itself, created really really hard Ice and then decided to move down the mountain, creating a huge river of Ice that litterally has been able to move whole communities out due to the simple pushing effect. It gets to the rivers or lakes then breaks off and falls and floats down stream. BUT when they carve off and fall, its kinda like a bomb exploding. These glaciers are most times the size of buildings so you can just imagine the spectacle, we hear it after we see it.

In finishing this part of the blog I would like to thank you all for continuously supporting us with your kind words of encouragement and love.

So for now I bid you all Farewell but not goodbuy.
All our Love

paul and Cheryl

Greetings from Juneau Alaska

2005-09-09T09:26:00.000+10:00

Here we are in Juneau Alaska, this gorgeous little town right at the foot of these amazingly tall mountains with waterfalls and snow on their peaks. The weather is outstanding, the sun is shining and its really warm. We have been at sea for two days and the weather was quite bad, the seas quite rough, so its nice to see some sunshine and stable ground.

Our captain kindly parked the ship in the wee hours of the night, right in between two other big ships and right at the doorstep to town. We literally walk off the gangway and into the funky little shops and cafe's.

Currently we are in the Juneau public library where the free wireless internet access actually reaches our stateroom on the ship and if we knew how, we could have connected from our room... for free!!! but we needed the installation instructions and now we are with all the other internet junkies getting a free hit from the inside.

We are having a fab time on Crystal... did we mention that? oh... yeah, its just wonderful. Lots of lovely people and lovely food... oh... the food. Last night we ate in one of the ships speciality restaurants... japanese!!! The food was amazing. We couldnt stop gushing about how fabulous the food was. It was like the best Japanese food we had ever eaten and Melbourne is full of wonderful Japanese restaurants so it really was quite special.

Today we have a performance in the show lounge, we are supporting this extremely funny Ventriloquist Comedian Mark Merchant, he is hysterically funny and very very talented. We have a new routine we are launching tonight and we've been working very hard to give these wonderful people our very best.

Other than the fabulous food, wonderful people and superb surroundings, we are having a lovely time. Its so nice to be on a great ship with happy happy people and pleasant surroundings.

Greetings from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

2005-09-06T13:10:00.000+10:00

Ahhh.... the Brits... they sure know how to plan a city... Paul and I have docked in Victoria British Columbia (Canada) today, its a gorgeous sunny day and we've been for a walk along the banks of the water. Its a stunning town, just beautiful in its architecture, town planning, buildings, streets and flowers everywhere!!! We have a few hours off the ship and found a skanky little internet cafe to check in at.

Things are going well for us on Crystal Harmony. As we have already said, the ship is just gorgeous and we are treated so well, its just fabulous. Get this... we have 24 hour room service with no charge!!!! Annnnddd..... our bar fridge is full of yummy bits, of which we dont have to pay for!!!! The bistro on board makes the most fantastic soy hot chocolates... and yes we dont pay for them. And the food is fine dining, first class.... we have our choice of our own private table, or when we are feeling social, we can join the myriad of interesting people on board.

We have alot more time in our schedule, we dont do ANY gangway, or tender tickets or show doors, or library duty and dont get woken up by horrible announcements, smelly, smoking workers next door or tools banging on the bench next to my head in the room next door!! They do everything so tastefully on this ship. The walls are not paper thin and we cant hear any of the guests next to us or in the hallways.

We are using the extra time we have to put into our dance routines. We are putting together some really nice stuff and extending the dances we already do. This is a quality production here, we are on the big show stage with full sound, lighting and even smoke machines!!! We are even putting together our own band charts so the band plays real music to our dance choreography!!

But right now we have a few hours off the ship in sunny Victoria and we found this fab little internet cafe that costs $3 per hour and I'm typing as fast as I can with these long nails of mine (no housework, no gardening... you should see how long they are growing :-)

We're off to Alaska again on this trip and then one more 12 day trip before we head for the warmer waters of Mexico.... yay!!! Cant wait for that... never been there before.

Greetings from Alaska!!

2005-09-04T06:03:00.000+10:00

Oh my god... what a beautiful place Alaska is.... just absolutely stunning...

After two days at sea on our fabulous new ship, we found ourselves in the Alaskan Fjords. We just spent 8 weeks in the Norwegian Fjords... so we are a bit "ho hum" about screaming mountains and stunning views these days.... but.... Alaskan Fjords are different.... they have Glaciers!!!

Paul and I found ourselves drawn to the very front of the ship (crew only area:-) as we headed straight for this massive glacier. The ship weaved its way through huge ice chunks that crashed against the ships hull making big thunderous noises whilst the nose of the ship vibrated. Just exhilarating!!! We got closer and closer, to the point where the ice chunks were too big and too many. Ahead we could see a colony of seals lying on the ice and to our absolute delight we heard the thunderous crack of ice breaking and crashing into the water.

The weather was awesome, gorgeous sunny day, no wind, fantastic for viewing glaciers (so they tell us). We have fantastic photos and video footage. Paul is busy editing on our new laptop, so our plan is to send home dvds of well constructed video footage asap. Oh we've seen whales and dolphins swimming along next to the ship too. Its really beautiful out here.

We've had a fab time on the ship, its unbelievable... we have stepped into this oasis of happiness, fun, beauty, glamour and decadence. There is serious wealth on the ship, the women have massive diamonds, jewels and hair :-) and the plastic surgery is top standard!!! The guys are fantastic, very elegant, diplomatic and respectful. Paul and I spend our time moving from dance practice to sound & lighting meetings to social functions.... (via the bistro where the coffee is awesome and free :-) we swan about the ship and are greeted with the constant welcoming words of "oh.. its that gorgeous dance couple... you guys are just so beautiful, such beautiful dancers and so slim... how do you stay so slim???"

Its a hard life....

The crew are all so happy on this ship, we've heard no complaints. The management is absolutely first rate. After our 1st performance, we met with the cruise director, he gave us some great feedback and said the magic words... "I really like you guys, you are obviously talented and we want to do everything we can to help you succeed on Crystal" We were gobsmacked!!! The management on the QE2 rarely took a glance at our work, NEVER gave us feedback and... well quite frankly... the system on the QE2 is set up to help people fail!!! So we are very happy little kitties... purring away nicely :-)

The only down side.... yes, there is only one... is the internet. Its terribly slow and outrageously expensive. One email to my sister cost me $14 (US dollars) so we will update the blog when we are in port and can find a decent and cheap internet cafe.

Write back to us soon, we are missing everyone back home, got a little homesick these last couple of days... would love to hear from you.

Ciao
Cheryl (& Paul)

Crystal Harmony 1st Day

2005-08-26T16:10:00.000+10:00

Oh my god…. We are in shock… we could not believe our eyes, ears, noses and well…. All our senses when we came on board Crystal Harmony. It is absolutely stunning!!!

When we first saw the ship it was exciting, she’s such a lovely white, so clean and sparkling. But the real beauty came when we crossed the gangway and saw the sparkling marble floors, gold balustrades, fresh new carpets. We walked into room after room that was absolutely stunning in its décor and ambience… you could see the dumbstruck look on our faces… “Spot the new guys”.

We made our way to the cruise director’s office where we chatted about our duties and obligations….we were over the moon to hear we had no gangway duties, no library duties, no handing out tender tickets or opening show doors for passengers… no blowing up balloons or setting up games!!! AND no uuuuunnniiiiforms!!!! Mind you, their uniforms are quite nice, but we’re not putting our hands up to wear them J

Best of all, we are here to dance, to teach, to perform and to dance with the passengers. We have time to practice, time to prepare and we have space to do all this. No getting kicked out of rooms for cellulite lectures, or teeth whitening seminars, we actually have a home!!! So we can give them the best of our dance ability, which is what we have been waiting for.

Oh…. But the best is yet to come…. Our room!!!! You should see it!!! We have what’s called an oversized stateroom, its at the back of the ship and is on the promenade deck… above sea level and where you can walk around the entire deck on the outside of our room. We have two HUUUUGE windows that let in depression curing sunlight and the décor is absolutely 6 star, lovely big couch, KING size bed, big big big beauty desk with lighting and chair… (all for me, just to do makeup and hair J We have this fab wardrobe with mirrors, lighting, real draws that open, a bar fridge with food in it!!! And in the bathroom…. We have a separate shower, bath… ehhh… make that a spa bath… toilet and ….. wait for it…. A bide’ or as Paul calls it… a toilet to wash your bottom.

We haven’t seen the full extent of how Crystal does things yet, we will explore a little more tonight, but each room has been stunning. We took a moment to have something to eat when we came on board…. None of this double, triple cooked, stale or soggy food… nah ah…we were served freshly cooked burgers, made for us as we sat by the pool in the glorious sunlight. We just sat there at first, quiet and in awe and then it dawned on us… we will be here for four months… this is our home and our work and we get to travel on it…. Then it finally hit us… what an awesome opportunity…. What fun we are going to have….

We both looked at each other, this delighted, relieved and appreciating look. We worked hard for this and we deserve it. Now we are going to enjoy every bit of it.

PS : oh…. Forgot one minor point for those who appreciate beauty products… the bathroom is fully decked out with Aveda products… face, hair, nails, even Aveda mouthwash!!! And the cutest little sewing kit I’ve ever seen :-)

We're home!

2005-08-15T12:35:00.000+10:00

Yay.... home to the sunny shores of melbourne.... ehhh... make that the wintery 9 degrees, rainy and blowing gailforce winds shores of melbourne....

After dodging a severe tropical thunderstorm in Hong Kong, some bumpy moments on our Cathay Pacific flight, mucking up our arrival date and having one of my suitcases ruined, we are back in the land of oz and its ever so nice to be home safe and sound.

Cant wait to see everyone....

4 Days till we're home!!

2005-08-10T05:40:00.000+10:00

Omigod..... we are SOOOOOOOO excited about coming home!!!

Even though we will only be in town for about 5 days, we cant wait to spend as much time as possible with our wonderful family and friends.

We cant believe how we counted down the weeks to our arrival on the QE2 and how we have counted down the days to our departure from the QE2. What a journey, its been, absolutely amazing and challenging at the same time. Many highs and many lows...

Drinks at Lotel, Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, Wednesday August 17
We arrive home in the wee hours of the morning, August 14 (flight details below for those interested). We have many things to do in the short time we are at home, but we really really want to catch up with as many people as possible. We desperately missed our friends and family while we were away and seeing you guys will be the highlight of our quick visit home.

We have arranged a little get together on Wednesday night at a funky little bar on Fitzroy Street St Kilda. Its called Lotel and its just near the Prince of Wales hotel.

Its a nice little bar that wont be packed, good price drinks and you can get a lovely meal there if you like. Our friend Jerson will be singing later in the evening, some quiet tunes to enjoy his magnificent voice. We will be there from 6pm onwards, probably until around midnight, hopefully with some photos and lots of hugs and stories to tell.

So please, it would be wonderful to see you, drop by for a coffee after work, dinner or drinks after dinner, we would lervvvvv to see you. If you cant make it, then perhaps we can chat on the phone, we still have the same mobile numbers, so drop us a line and let us know your movements.

Here are the details, if you would like dinner, just ring and book a table, we will be eating there around 7 / 8pm.

Lotel
29 Fitzroy Street
St Kilda
Ph : 9593 9466

Arghhhh!!!!
Cant wait....
Only two more days on the QE2 then we start the trip home!!!

YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

Oh... and flights....

Cathay Pacific
CX 254
Departing Heathrow 13th August 2235
Arriving Hong Kong 13th August 1750 (we gain some hours)

CX 135
Departing Hong Kong 1910
Arriving Melbourne 14th August 0615 (early in the morning!)