My first week of punting

Phew - it is easier to tell you which muscles are NOT hurting, because there are not so many of them. Ouch!

Everything hurts, from typing to laughing. Holding the pole and pushing it makes my hands and arms sore. I can also tell you for sure you are using your stomach muscles -- I feel them all when I laugh and just when I move around.

4 days of work in a row in my first week as Chauffeur. I am proud of my survival. I have had fun and learned a lot about how it all works. I have had people from many different countries in my boat and I am enjoying that. I also made friends with many of my colleagues and we have a fun time together. I did not fall in the water. Not yet...

I don't like the current, the wind, the muddy bits and the noisy ducks.

I love the people who are punting for the first time, I love the wind if it goes my way. It is great entertainment when poles get stuck in the mud and against bridges, especially if it is not mine, haha.

Most tours punted in a day: 4 (for me that means about 4 hours of punting - soon I will have to be able to do it in 45 min)
Highest tip: 5 pounds

Next day I work is Sunday -- first time to work in the weekend. It will probably be busier.

What a test!!

I passed my test :)

I am now officially a 'Chauffeur' -Punting Tour Guide on the river Cam- and I start on Monday. I am working 5 days next week and don't know how I will survive as I am already super sore after the one tour I did yesterday for my test.

For this test I had to just give my first ever tour to one of my bosses. So, a 12 person boat, with 1 person in it, who probably knows more about the river than anyone else and I was giving him the tour! Yes, I was a little nervous!

I think I gave a very entertaining tour, for all the wrong reasons though, haha. My first tour ever, phew. Pretty clumsy. I was reminded yet again how easy it is to get stuck between punts parked on the banks, under trees and bridges and behind other punts on the river.

I also discovered I am not very good at talking and punting at the same time, let alone remember all the information;

"On my right hand (stick out hand..don't loose balance, hold on to stick, oops we are loosing speed quickly, punt on) you see Trinity college which was founded in, ehm.., 1546 by.....(pushing the pole, turning the boat, sigh, sweat)..founded by....eeehm...eehem. (Shit, can't remember, just talk on) The college is known for...ehm..bla bla bla"

I remembered so many names BEFORE I gave this silly test tour, all these Queens and Kings, designers of bridges and founders of colleges. Of course they are all named either William or Henry, Elizabeth or Margaret, which makes it very confusing.

My boss pissed himself laughing for most of the Lotte tour, especially because I simply named every lady Margaret. There were no more Elizabeths or other names in my vocabulary -- they were all Margaret!

Anyway, he had a very simple tick list and timed the trip. A little reminder not to do dangerous things...stay on the right side of the river, never move the pole over the people in the boat. Tick for mentioning the names of the colleges and the bridges......okay, passed -- start ASAP!

Wish me luck!

Chauffeur training

A little update on my training to become a punt tour guide.

I have been practicing the technique of punting and it is improving. I am slowly remembering more dates, names, history and facts. What I really mastered in the last week is to know all the dangers that are ahead!

1. Falling in the river
2. Losing the pole and having to wait for someone to help me out of trouble (as there is no paddle in the tour boats)
3. Hitting other boats due to someone else's fault or my own
4. Talking too much on the way there, so there is nothing to talk about on the way back
5. Forgetting information or not knowing enough
6. Getting very quiet, boring people in the boat, so the atmosphere is making the time drag along
7. Getting injuries

I am making friends with colleagues now and they are very relaxed and friendly. I feel very unsure still about being able to go ahead, but everyone tells me they were all like that when they started. I know they are trying to be nice and helpful, but they keep telling me:

"the best way for this job is just to throw yourself in the deep!"

Sage

Sage, or Salie in Dutch, is just great. I have decided to use it more. I like it for several reasons:

- It tastes great

- It is a good replacement for parsley; very helpful in my kitchen as Zot does not like parsley

- It is known for it's healing qualities; the Latin name for sage is salvia and that means “to heal”

A medieval saying is: Cur moriatur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto? meaning "Why should a man die whilst sage grows in his garden?"

When I get a garden again, I think I might grow some sage in there :)

Source: Wikipedia

Budapest III - Budapest dancers!

These photos are from the performance and from one of the classes we taught :) The Lindy Hop scene in Budapest is not very big, but it has been going for years. One of the dancers there told me he has been to the Herrang Dance Camp (Sweden) 12 times! There are many good Lindy Hop dancers and also a lot of really good Boogie Woogie dancers.

Budapest II

I was very busy dancing and teaching, but here are some things I learned about the city:

* Beautiful, famous bath houses
* Nice people
* Big beautiful impressive buildings
* Many homeless people
* Wide streets
* Currency - 1 Pound=350 Florint
* Many big statues of Hungarian Kings and soldiers - Hungary has known many wars and revolutions and has never won any
* Nice food - Goulash, yummie
* Hungarian language - I tried REALLY hard for 5 days and only learned the words for 'thank you' and 'little kiss'. The language is like no other language. I learned the first word because of it was very useful, the second word because it is an english word as well, but with a different meaning. Ask me in person to tell you what they are because the first one I don't know how to spell and the second one I can't write on my blog, or say out loud, without being very rude, haha.

Charleston Dress I

Check out my new Charleston dress!

I am so happy. I have been looking for a proper Charleston dress for years now and yesterday I got three in one go thanks to my good friend Ros! See here, one of them.
Ros is a Lindy Hopper and for her living she designs and makes costumes as Rosalind Evans Design. Ros is on the left in the photo below wearing a white shirt. She just happened to have a whole heap of wonderful Charleston dresses that she 'wanted to get rid off', because they were taking up space. When she said this, it was like a dream come true for us!So, me and my dance friends were visiting her at the first possible opportunity. Thanks to your mum Ros for the wonderful freshly baked scones with jam and cream. Yummie :)

Altogether, one of the most exciting Sundays in a while!

New hair colour

Before....



...and after!

I look much happier after, don't you think so? That was not planned. I think 20 photos later I just got better at taking a photo of myself and so smiling was a bit easier! But, I am also happy with the result.