Hectic week!

What a week. I hadn't been near an ice-rink since my lesson last week - I had to go down to Sussex at the weekend for family bits (rinks are practically extinct down there!), and yesterday I went to Manchester on a work trip. I was actually back in time to go to patch, but was so tired that I didn't think my coordination was up to it! Although I did a "mental skate" on the train - I have my current four CD's on my iPod, and was dancing them in my head :)

And then today, I went to get changed into my skating stuff before leaving work, and realised I had left my jogging pants at home. Aaargh!!! So I had to leave 10 minutes earlier and do a detour via my flat (which was an extra bus journey), hoping and praying that i wouldn't be late! Still, after all that, I managed to have quite a good lesson today.

Forward Crossrolls: Feeling much better and more powerful. Working on getting an even deeper knee bend before the cross.
Backward Russian Stroking: Felt good and stable! Getting more expressive as well, once D said "You need to turn your head, not just glance with your eyes!".
FXO's & BXO's Fig 8: FXO's feeling better. Certainly less of the "Point your foot in the right direction!" happening. D now trying to get me to look where I'm going on the BXO's (hehe . . .) which has temporarily pulled me off balance, so something to work on.
Alternate Open & Closed Chasses: I have passed these now on the Passport Bronze! Still don't much like the closed ones, but they are certainly 100 times better than they were. Hoping this will translate to the Rhythm Blues!
Barrel Rolls: I was getting somewhere with these last week, and they all fell to smithereens again today. They got a bit better when practicing afterwards. I need to try not to start turning whilst I am still crossing over the free foot.
FO3's - landing position: Got better when practising them afterwards. Bad habit in lesson of putting foot down after the 3turn too soon, but it got better later.
Canasta Tango: Did this to music today, and the second time just about managed to keep up! Those forward progressives feel seriously fast, and I can't quite do the cross swing thing in time, but D was pleased with how I managed to keep up.
Dutch Waltz: Oh I do like this one. We haven't spent that much time on it previously, so broke down the long axis, to get the pattern and the "lilt" correct. This started feeling really good in the practice afterwards - I just hope I was doin' it right!

So a good lesson, and after my schedule over the last week, things are back to normal for a while. Luckily I have still managed to do three 4-mile walks over the last week, so have kept my exercise up, and this week Stacey and I are going to start aqua aerobics - yay!

I also managed to lose a staggering four pounds last week!!! I found a brilliant website where you can track all your food and exercise really simply, and I have been able to tweak healthy recipes to be lower calorie - http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/. Really feeling quite good at the moment - I am a sylph in training!