A good lesson

After the upheaval of the last few days, I actually had a very lovely lesson today. Although I did say to D "I swear, one day I will turn up to a lesson in a normal state of mind and without feeling shattered!".

We worked on:
Perimeter Stroking: Not bad. She now wants more power so I'm to work on pushing into the inside edge of the back foot to get more thrust.
Forward Russian Stroking: After bottling out of the FXO on the left side (on both this and Foxtrot) last Friday, I am glad to say that these were much improved. So much so that we have added the arms too (ie. on the FI edge, the arm on the free leg side does a circle up and out to the side - arms in 4th for the ballerina's amongst you!).
Backward Russian Stroking: Still a bit nervous with this, but the speed is getting much quicker. And although she is still helping me with these, we have also added the arms (especially as she noticed on the Forward Russian Stroking that my footwork improved immensely when I started concentrating on my arms instead!). On these, on the "judge" side, you extend your arm out to the side, and on the "non-judge" side, you do as the forward, and circle up and out.
FXO's on figure of 8: CW showing signs of improvement. D now wants me to speed them up so I can do eight on a hockey circle. EIGHT!!! I do four, five at a stretch!
BXO's: Still onward and upward with these (or should that be backward and downward!). Getting more power into them and even CCW feel a lot more secure. My legs have also stopped feeling trembly which is a good sign!
3-turns: FO3's were a bit meh - have defintely been much better than that. Hard work on FI3's defintely paying off - did some small but definite ones on both sides. I am forgetting to push the free hip down on the LFI3's - something to work on.
Mohawks: After playing hookie for a while for about a week, these have settled back down now. D wants me to now try for a cleaner and quicker change of foot (too long on both feet!).
2 foot Spin: This is fun! At the moment, I am doing a couple of strokes on a curve, then spiralling in with my right foot curving round my left foot. I need to concentrate on keeping my weight over the left foot as much as possible. I can only do a couple of rotations at the moment, but I love it!
Novice Foxtrot: After saying that I was bottling it on the second lobe last week due to my lack of confidence with CW FXO's, I am delighted to say that that was no longer an issue this evening! The short axis of the rink is a bit hairy though! Felt like I was going to smash into the barrier on the last progressive round the corner! One area for me to concentrate on is not leaving my bum stuck out after the swing through on the swingroll - I need to tuck my hips in and forward.

So all in all, a very good lesson. I then went to help Stacey put up her wardrobe in her new flat whilst her fiance was at college (pah, who needs men for these things!) and then we had indian takeaway which I swear had the hottest chillies in I have ever had.

Virgin Media broadband / cable bits have turned up, but I wasn't in so they are languishing at the Post Office. Hopefully I will get my mitts on them soon, IF I can get out of work on time this evening . . . .