Relationship problems . . . with mohawks

A day off today - firstly because I could, and secondly, this evening my cat-sitting duties come to an end, and after three weeks in my friends flat, I wanted to have a clean and tidy round this afternoon.

It was a little busy this morning, but I still managed to get quite a lot done, which I was pleased about.

I spent some time on FO & FI Edges and finally, I am stopping the "hooking" around on my FI edges. D had mentioned keeping my weight outside the circle, and today I just pushed my skating hip a little more out of the curve, which really helped. I also worked on controlling the free leg on both, so it is like "pushing through marshmallows" (D's description!).

I did a lot on pushing back into landing position and then turning from back to front - this was not terrible when I learnt Waltz-3's (thanks 3turn!) the other day, but one side was a little stuttery and I wanted to feel more comfortable with it. Mission accomplished I think.

I ran through Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz, mostly so I could think about the speed of weight transfer between curves. Feeling a little better I think. I have noticed on the crossy swingy thing on the short axis of the Tango, I always run out of power, so I did some cross-rolls as well, which are feeling better every week.

Lastly I worked on my nemesis. I only realised today that they are my current nemesis, but I am really struggling with mohawks at the moment. When I first learnt open FI mohawks (in the "dance" style, ie. not extending the leg behind me on the exit), they weren't too bad. But they were, and still are, slow. And I am struggling to do them at a higher speed. Plus, now I was taught an exercise with mohawks last week, I now have to do the "freestyle" type where the free leg extends behind me, and I just cannot do them for toffee. Gaaarrrgh! Typically, I can do them perfectly on the barrier, but either not at all, or extremely slowly off it. I've got no hope of being able to do closed FO mohawks yet, if I can't get these right!

But apart from mohawks, I can't really complain. I felt nicely worked out afterwards, managed to get around to buying some Christmas cards (is it really only next week?) and came back to the flat to put my Mrs. Mop head on. I am now waiting for them, as they are on their way back from Heathrow on the tube.

I wish I had just had 3 weeks on the Maldives . . .