and I am still reeling from the upset win from last night's bellydance competition. (Click here for details.)
We just knew who the winners were. Too bad the judges didn't. And their decision sticks. Even when it sucks.
I retract my statement about Asia Global Bellydance being a respected competition. I think the quality of the judges is only marginally better than the lot on a recent local TV dance competition.
This is one of the most exciting weekends in the year!
I am looking at 3 nights of bellydance performance starting tonight.
The line-up of Singapore competitors this time is simply awesome!
It is good to see some of our strongest performers back in a competition that is suitably respected for this dance form.
We made the 48-hour turnaround visit to Bali for yet another Paul Ropp Warehouse Sale. We were last there in March! Four months is definitely too short a time between his sales.
There wasn't anything for me to pick up this time. I had bought up everything worth buying the last time. I came away with exactly one pair of shorts. Alright, they aren't just shorts shorts; they are signature Paul Ropp shorts.
The man did better - he managed to find 4 shirts after really rummaging through every rack.
It was still a nice short getaway, made stress-free because we refused to hunt down new places to eat at. We settled for the true and tried Kafe Batan Waru, a short walking distance from our hotel. And for the caffeine fiend in me, this place does a decent latte.
For the uninitiated, this is the only time of the year - the antipodean winter months of June-July-August - when the weather is most pleasant.The days are breezily cool, and the nights are sometimes chilly.
There is still magic in the air in Bali :)
This is talking to me; I have no clothes :)
Oh, not really. But I'm there anyway ...
I am tasked with compiling a play-list for an upcoming dinner party. I expected it to be an easy job. How wrong can I go if I select what I love enough to drum my fingers and tap my feet to?
Well, for starters, I am so rusty that I have difficulty recalling the songs I liked, even loved! How sad is that?
I started by looking up "greatest dance song lists" in the last *gasp* 4 decades.That's a long list. It has been a down-memory lane type of exercise as I recall the place, the year, the guy, the friends with every song. I kept only the happy memories.
The guests are my contemporaries; they are going to have to love my selection of hit dance songs.They'd have been down the same roads at about the same time, and therefore they must share the same sentiment. So there!
In the process of making my playlist, I stumbled upon a music genre I loved, which I had long forgotten - Hawaiian slack key guitar music by the maestro Keola Beamer.
I listened. I remembered. The sound still tugs at the heart-strings. And I smiled.
I will remember this night for a long time to come. The reasons were many:
The place is Shiraz. They do decent, even good, middle-eastern food. The service staff are always willing to accommodate special requests.
My favourite people - bellydancers - perform every night of the week. I love that they do multiple sets throughout the night. I detest places where the dancer does a single set of 3-songs and immediately leaves for another gig elsewhere; there's no satisfaction from eating or entertainment, just interruptus of the most annoying sort.
The evening provided the rare opportunity to catch up with friends who I otherwise do not get to see.
This time, the limelight shone on Fatema and Katerina Shereen. Both performers saved the very best - the forkloric danceforms - for their last sets with Fatema ending with saidi and Shereen finishing with khaleegi.
I stayed to the very end. The reasons were many.
There are several exciting bellydance events in the second half of the year.
Starting with this at Shiraz this entire week.
And who is Katerina Shereen?
I am so there there already :)
was the month
I celebrated my birthday. I have so many of you to thank for having come into my life and making it that much richer and fuller.
I grappled with my conflicted feelings about my parents knowing that I would have to be around them more often in the months ahead. And having to listen to Mother yammer a lot more in the process.
I made a few important life changing decisions. The one that is pertinent to you, my readers, pertains to my blog. I believe in keeping an open blog. I am happy to have met so many of you here. I hope to continue seeing you here.
I have also reached a point in my journal where I want to confine some of my posts to a more familiar and friendly readership. I will let you know when that blog is up and running. Write me (sinlady at gmail dot com) to get yourself on the invite list, please.
You see, I did a lot of thinking about my life and about living. And, with all due modesty, I look back and can honestly say I live my life the best I know how. I have few regrets. Except now, I need to do it better. And therefore, hopefully, have even fewer regrets.
It starts with keeping certain unwanted prying eyes out of some aspects of my life, even if only as a blogger.
