Whoops

As usual I've started a blog and then been too busy to continue it...well I hope that doesn't happen, I quite liked having somewhere to waffle my daily thoughts. There's something about spending so much time alone, the more you do it, the more used to it you get. I talk to myself a lot, but that's ok, it's normal to talk to yourself, but the amount that I talk to myself I think has a linear relationship with difficulty in talking to other people. I always notice it most with my dance teacher, Katie, for some reason, I just can't quite be normal with her...I talk in a strange disjointed almost jittery manner with her, I've no idea why because she is so lovely and likes being able to talk to her students I think, but with me I seem to just mumble my way through class. I wish I didn't, I like her a lot, she seems like good fun and is very friendly, I've got the problem of asking her about private lessons for Michael and I for our wedding soon also...we are planning something special :)

There are certain people I meet that I would like to make good friends out of, Katie would be one, a lady in my adult ballet class called Nancy, who is like this crazy Welsh lady that enjoys her gin and larps (live action role play) with her family, is another. But I can't seem to make friends effectively, I find it difficult to find common ground to talk about and then if we do find common ground I just find it difficult to continue a conversation, and I think because I am so painfully aware of how useless I think I am...it hinders my progress with people. I'm hoping I can move the Nancy-friendship forward though, she's really sweet and the geekiness of larping makes for good conversations...no no, I've just realised what my main issue is, I can talk to people reasonably...but I can't get past the casual chat stage. I can't move it on to a friendship, it's so much more difficult to start a friendship as an adult, you can't just meet each other at school and then have a sleep over...I find it difficult to understand at what point should you move up from casual chat to inviting people over for dinner, or going to see a show together...or just something outside of your usually meeting place. After our first proper conversation together Nancy had already invited me along to larp with her and her husband, now at the time it didn't occur to me that she was doing exactly what I fail to do every time I meet a potential friend...so perhaps there are no rules as to when you can invite people to do stuff....you just do it and hope for the best. It's like having to learn how to be social again, and I think some people have it while others don't. But I have decided that both Michael and I need to be pro-active in making friends and both Michael and I will be going along to the next larp event in June with Nancy and her husband, we will meet loads of new people and hopefully be able to escape from ourselves long enough to be someone who can make friends easily.

Enough of that waffle, I have good news on the Alina Cojocaru front, yes I know I said I would post up some curtain call pictures of Leanne Benjamin (who is 45 and an amazing dancer!) and Johan from Giselle, but we forgot to take a camera and the iPhone's camera just doesn't cut it. But I have better than that:
Not my own picture I might add, taken from Ballet.co forums, but yes that's Alina and Johan, and I managed to get a ticket on the day to go see her first performance in a year! And she was just stunning, she was obviously being careful, but that didn't matter and it is not the point of ballet to be able to perform acrobatics, she danced and performed as Giselle beautifully, she danced as if she was thrilled to be on stage again during act one, such joy and happiness spilling out over her. By the end of Act 1 she was truly broken by Albrecht's betrayal, Johan holding her up just a little longer than required just before her death, as if he was overjoyed he could dance with his partner on stage again. Act 2 was the embodiment of ethereal, she was there but not there, her love for Albrecht shone through and her dancing so light and airy, almost as if she was a wisp of something passed on into the other world. A brilliant return for her, such a shame she isn't dancing anymore of the shows I'd booked to see her in this year, but very glad to have seen her. Johan was as always a stunning dancer, such a strong and solid partner and so happy to be dancing with Alina again. There was a huge flower throw at the end, and she got a massive hug and kiss from Johan on the many curtain calls. Can't wait to see her next season, where I hope she will be fully recovered and able to perform regularly again.

Not been up to a whole much in WoW lately, just some raiding of Naxx, got to help tank the other night, was great fun being the off tank, we took down the Four Horsemen for the first time also, so we are making pretty good progress. With my exams coming up next month I wont be able play much at all, in fact I'm planning on setting up parental controls until after my exams and giving Michael the password so that I don't get tempted away from revision.

On a good note I have finally got my Gaynor's sorted out so that they now fit comfortably and feel really good to go on pointe in, so pleased they fix perfectly now, so when I finally get back to going to my pointe lessons, pain should not be a issue any more :)

I think I'll end on a happy cat today:
Pinky sunbathing on the bed :)

Studying

So last week was all about playing WoW mostly, I was in a lot of pain and couldn't move around much, so it seemed like the only thing I could do, unless I wanted to have a epic week long Buffy marathon. That wasn't a option though, I'm trying to get through the series with Michael and after 4 years of being together we've got to series 3! I keep telling him about how awesome it is, but he's still not buying it, I think the older series have aged a little bit, which is a shame, they were so riveting to me as I was growing up. Anyways so last week I was exploring Storm Peaks mostly and doing a couple of old instances for enchanting materials. Storm Peaks was just so much fun for me to do, I enjoyed all the quests so much and the area is just stunning, it is a absolutely amazing area to fly around and explore. Got some screenshots to show off:
This one didn't turn out as sharp as it was on my screen, looks more misty on the screenshot, anyway this is outside Ulduar, brilliant ruined city of the titans, looks wonderful and there's just so much of it to see.
View from the other side of Ulduar :)
I spotted this when I was chasing after a herb node on my minimap and thought "ooh this looks interesting" and it was, it's a small area up near the Sons of Hodir ice fort thing, it just looks cool, a battle frozen mid flow.
My favourite screenshot from there, I love the thought and effort Blizzard have put into Wrath, there is just so much to see and explore, they've made it fun again basically, to me anyway.

As I'm off on my Easter holidays... I'm trying to get some serious studying done, I was planning on utilizing the full three weeks, but last week I wasn't in a great state of mind or body to get anything done, but so far this week I've not done too badly, in my mind I planned to be getting a lot more studying done than I was, but I'm studying properly rather than just writing up my lecture notes. Which is good, and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with getting 2 lectures done a day, although today that might not be completely possible now as I have procrastinated a little bit...

So far I've spent most of today watching ballet videos on youtube...definitely my biggest time sink on the interwebs, anyway, Michael and I are off to see Giselle at the Royal Opera House tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. I originally booked the tickets to see my favourite ballerina, Alina Cojocaru, dance the part, but sadly she is still injured, missed her when we went to see Swan Lake too.
Alina in Giselle.
But as I said I'm still really excited, the ballerina to replace her is Leanne Benjamin, who I haven't seen before, but have seen lots of on youtube and she is a stunning dancer, really has amazing technique and is one of the older principles of the Royal Ballet, so definately got the experience. Also Johan Kobborg is dancing, and he is pretty damn good himself, he has this amazing ability to do the biggest of jumps and turns and looks as if he is not even trying. Most male dancers when they do their big jumps and turns, they can obviously do them well, but they look like they exerting a lot of energy to do them, where as Johan, looks so light and airy when he dances. His lifts look effortless also, but completely solid.
Alina and Johan in the beautiful Manon (both pictures taken from Alina's website )

Giselle is a lovely ballet also, such a happy and bouncy first act....well apart from when she dies, and then the second act so beautiful and eerie. It should be a great night. And I will get to see Alina on my birthday hopefully in Les Sylphides, looking forward to see The Firebird at that performance also, looks like a really interesting ballet.

Right I think I've done enough waffling now, hopefully my next post should have some curtain call pictures of Johan and Leanne if I remember to take my camera. Should really get started on my Anatomy now!

Ding

So I hit 80, get me! I did in fact get 80 on the day of the last post, but have been pretty ill since, so the idea of writing in the blog didn't even occur. Anyway obligatory screenshot:
That night I got to go on a Naxx raid, bought some very quick craftable epics to boost the gear a bit, and well it was a 25 man Naxx and we managed to get one boss down, but that wasn't the annoying part really. The guild that we did it with were a bit...well not that great, I mean obviously they've got some good guys in there, but they didn't really seem to run a raid well. Our guild is a small guild reformed out of my old guild, my old guild was a casual raiding guild that lasted a year and did reasonably well, just some guys decided we were too casual, formed their old guild and advertised their new guild on our forum, promising epics galore and took most of my guild with them. So when the remains reformed, it was to be a small guild of close friends, which we are, which is nice, but it does mean we have to tag along with other guilds to raid. Anyway, this other guild, first of all had us waiting an hour after the start time before they got themselves ready...now we were used to being early to raids, so you can see we got a bit pissy, then they didn't actually have enough for a 25 man, only 22 of us all together, but we still went along, I know that's not their fault, but the raid shouldn't have really gone ahead as a 25 man without a full raid group. And finally, people started leaving after a couple of wipes, there was a lot of "oh we have to go now, sorry guys". Now I know my old guild was hardly the most hardcore of guilds, but we certainly had standards you were supposed to abide to for raids. Namely, attending if you sign up, being on time, and staying the full raid. I know all guilds are run differently but it's just rude to keep anyone waiting let alone 10/20/30 people waiting (ah back in the day of 40 man raids) an hour before you decide to log your ass on.

Anyway we ended up getting a 10 man Sanctum done with the people who were left over, it was nice to get in on a raid, just to see how well I could play my new class in a raid, although Kitri is a tank, she was dps for these raids and she did pretty well. Since then, I've done a couple of heroics, got myself some nice goodies and tanked quite a few heroics, so I'm learning and doing quite nicely I think. Yesterday I decided to pick up enchanting, so had some fun running the old early instances like Dead Mines, to get greens. It's super fun to run round a whole area, gather up as many mobs as you can and then lay down one AOE spell and kill them all in one go. Make looting much easier if they are all at your feet too. Manged to get my enchanting up to 90 anyway, which isn't bad to start with, since I'm housebound today, I'll carry on going through them, getting greens whilst getting achievements for the dungeons :)

In other news, I tried on my wedding dress on Friday, Michael and I are getting married September 4th next year, and I'm so excited about it, I'm not the girliest of girls but I've been getting pretty squee over all of this. My dress is pretty beautiful, and everyone I've showed it to so far thinks so too, which is really nice. I just can't wait for it all to happen.
Wedding check list so far:

• Cake - would really like to show a picture of the cake, because it's so awesomely yummy, but their website seems to be having issues.
• Venue:
• Registrar: booked for September 4th :)
• Dress: made by the very lovely Janice at Uptight Clothing

So, all rather exciting here at the moment, lots being planned and lots being done. But alas, I feel today will be another day in front of the computer playing WoW to keep me occupied. Had a small procedure on Monday and my body didn't take to it too well, yesterday I tried to unload and load the dishwasher, all the bending down gave me a lot of pain again, so Michael has banned me from doing anything today, so that I can let my body get better, I know he is right, but being ill all last week and now this means I've not really left the house in a week, so getting a bit restless. Hopefully tomorrow I will be well enough to do a ballet class, I've not done one in a week, and it's the school's Easter Holidays next week, so it will be 2 more weeks before I can dance again if I can't go. Oh well, here's to hoping!

So close...

Well I figured it was time to make a blog, and as usual I've done it at a time when I could easily be busy doing something else, for once it's not a report I'm procrastinating on, this time it's WoW. I know how weird, anyway I'm 60% of the way into level 79, I could easily get 80 today, plus I'm ill, so that gives me even more of a reason to get to 80. I'm that sort of ill where nothing but sitting in front of the computer and going "uuuuurrrggghh" is possible. But I will get to 80 today, I know it, it's only 11:30, I've got ages, especially since I'm too sick to go to dance tonight. I figured 4 hours of dance mixed in with this rather nasty cold would not mix well, which is a shame since there is only one more week of dance left before Easter and lab sessions at uni have kept me away from dance for a little while :(

I felt I was looking bad ass at the moment, so here is a picture of my current main:
Yes I know it's a Death Knight, since WoW first started I've played a druid, a balance druid, and I quite liked being a druid and then a load of stuff happened, mostly with the guild I ran, and I didn't like playing anymore, I took a break when Wrath of the Lich King came out, and by time I came back everyone was 80 already. I logged my druid and I just didn't want to play her, it's so silly but all the upset caused whilst I was that character, that name, was still there. So I thought I would give a Death Knight a go and it was love straight away, exactly the kind of class I've always wanted to play. I love the life leeching and I really enjoy being a tank. So this lovely little Death Knight is my main now, and I'm enjoying playing her a lot, though I am just waiting for the nerf...it's going to come soon I can tell.

I've been surprised at how much money you can make in WoW so quickly, I took up Herbalism and Skinning as my professions as something quick and easy to level, whilst still providing a reasonable amount of income, and yes although they have attributed to a large amount of my income, a great big chunk of it is still from questing and selling unwanted quest rewards, it's nuts. It took me forever to get my druid her fast flying ability, that 5k gold was a real killer to get. It took me a couple of levels on my Death Knight and I still had change left over to buy her 950g class mount, as you can see in the screen shot. It's weird, but I suppose it's good in one way as there is less reason for gold sellers now, since everyone already has lots of gold anyway, it doesn't seem to have effected the prices of things on the auction house too much either.

Anyways I think I've rambled enough for today, I'm going to get back to some serious questing now, might listen to the music from Swan Lake whilst I play, there is some lovely bits of music in that ballet.