Monday, March 26, 2007

folks' new addition to the family



This is my parents' new puppy, Dodger. A little cocker spaniel male who is adorable and getting along remarkably well with our older female labrador, Yuki. Both are a similar colour. Dodger has taken to sleeping near Yuki and generally idolising her. He bounds about, leaping like a rabbit rather than running. His ears tend to hang in his water bowl and pick up whatever fluff is on the ground. He likes to sleep with his toy dog and one of my old ugg boots, apparently. He is completely adorable and I am so excited to be able to visit him back home.










As for other news, I have two days left before I hand in my thesis. Most of the hard work is done. Somebody else is starting a PhD on the topic and there's a bit of territorial behaviour being shown in the university departments with researchers staking claims on certain avenues of research..... interesting behaviour in itself - who needs wild animals and birds to be able to study territoriality? - its so prevalent in academic circles!!

Have been teaching at Ringwood for a couple of weeks - all going alright so far apart from a cold/cough I've been holding at bay for a week now. Learning an awesomely intense routine at Scat Pack as well which keeps my head spinning. Got to teach beginner's class at Swing Patrol Geelong's Social Night last Friday with Kimmoi which was cool too. So much happening still. Not sure what I'll do next... so many goals and things I want to achieve and I still want to be in Melbourne for a little while longer.
Anywho.... enough chit chat... back to last minute fix-ups and proof-reads!!
xx

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

MSF





Melbourne Swing Festival has been fun, as per usual..... I din't partake in workshops this year due to time commitments - the thesis due in les than 3 weeks and all! However, I attended social events, performed as part of Moomba and competed at the Melbourne Lindy Battle in teams event and the disco dance jam (no relation to swing whatsoever but a lot of fun!)....

Here are some pics of the last weekend...
I am also going to start teaching at Ringwood Swing Patrol (well, I started last night) - teaching Levels 1 to 3.... big step and hella scary but should be a good learning curve. Everyone's been real encouraging so far. Back to the word processing and word counting - have to eliminate 500 words somewhere and my supervisor now wants another statistical test inserted!!! Life is pretty good in amongst all the stress.