Latin dance classes have been fun!

Last week we had to start in the Beginners 1a class.
Eh, I found it quite boring, because I already knew the basic steps. I felt like I was doing an hour of step aerobics, with very little room to move. There were 40 people in our class! Most of them were, like us, first timers… and all caught on quickly. It was very easy. And apparently 100+ people in the function room (all in different classes). Nice atmosphere.

So how the Beginners 1b class works, is — you grab a partner (usually the closest person to you), then EVERYONE stands in a big circle, you do a few step sets, then you move clockwise to the next person, and so on. In the end you dance with 15 or so people. And it’s a funny thing, because in 3 minutes of being 30cm from a total stranger, you can more or less work out what kind of dancer they are.

There was a Mr. No Idea of what PERSONAL SPACE means
Mr. Sweaty Hands After Only 2 Dances
Mr. Rubberband Man
Mr. Pushes His Women Around
Mr. Up Tight
Mr. Too Much After Shave
Mr. Concentration
Mr. Had A Beer Before The Class
Mr. Moves Like a Plank.

Hehehe. It’s kinda cruel, but most guys were OK with their steps. Which apparently was the most important thing.

Andrew had some funny female characters to report, including :
Ms. Silicone
Ms. Elephant Feet
Ms. Wear A Proper Bra, Girlfriend
Ms. Needs to Loofah Her Back.

I finally got around to taking a pic of my new kitchen!
It was actually finished a few months ago. This is only one side of the kitchen, because I was too lazy to clean the other side.

The actual cupboards and shelves were built by my husband and his brother. The doors, hinges and bench top were from IKEA. The handles were from our local hardware store. The cook top, oven and hood came in a package. Power points and gas were professionally done. The tiles were bought at some tile warehouse, and laid by my hubby.

AND the whole thing was designed by mememememe!!
It was weeks of research and driving around buying everything, trying to find nice handles, searching the whole metro area for nice tiles, finding good deals on this and that. I’m glad it’s all done.

Babies are so funny.
Callum’s got a box full of cool toys –
but a lolly wrapper tied to a bit of ribbon, seems
to be the only thing he wants to play with.

UGH! We finally started looking for a new house this weekend.
Our current house is a few weeks from being put up for sale… but we decided that we want to buy a new place BEFORE we sell ours. I’m pretty stressed about it. I’m worried I won’t be able to find anything I like. We’ve got an area in mind, a price range, and a whole lot of requirements, such as : 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, not on a busy road, not near power lines, near parks + shopping centre, good sized backyard, 2 separate living areas. But I also have a whole lot of secret preferences, like : no dark brown 80s chocolate brick, dark jarrah floor boards, nice gardens, no pool, big outdoor and indoor entertainment area, and high ceilings.

We must’ve looked at 20 home opens and they’ve all blurred into one crazy maze of rooms in my mind. Some were OK. I only saw one that I probably would’ve been happy buying. But even that didn’t have *everything* I wanted. Most were just presented so badly! You’d think that people trying to sell their house would tidy up a bit — but nooo, they leave their unpaid gas bills and car license renewal forms on the floor, damp underwear drip-drying in the laundry and old shoes lying in the garden bed. It was shocking.

At the same time, I’m making mental notes about how to present our house on open day. Our house is quite unique for the area we’re in (so we’re told). It’s a 1950’s character brick and tile, with a huge U shaped room consisting of a kitchen, small eating area, medium sized dinning room, a big lounge room, and a nice empty brick fireplace in the middle.

The floors of the entire house are the original polished jarrah floorboards. But other than the 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 laundry, and an outdoor undercover patio… that’s it! The house feels big and airy because of the large open living area… but it’s actually quite small. So I have a feeling that this might be it’s downfall - the lack of clearly defined areas.

How do I go about defining areas? While spending as little as possible? Beats me. I’m just going to buy a rug for the lounge room bit, and a matching set of chairs for our dinnig bit. We need those things anyway.

You know, I must’ve scanned my way through ALL the rug stores in Perth, and found nothing but the most loudly inappropriate, disgustingly textured, and horrendously coloured “modern” designs for rugs.

You might have thought that tasteful graphic design managed to seep it’s way into all facets of modern living… But no, it seems that hyperactive 5 year olds were let loose at the design department of all rug factories. Big white daisies on bright blue backgrounds? Purple sea horses on checker board patterns? Even contemporary stripes in 3 tones of grey will find no place in my living room!

Sigh, I’m just grumpy about how long (2 weeks) it took me to find one that I liked, good price, good weight, nice texture, nice pattern and nice combination of colours.

They match my dark red curtains and stone couch! *happy*

It was wet and stormy today. Dark grey clouds rumbled in the sky all afternoon. It was a pretty miserable spring day.

I spent most of the morning finishing my tax return.
I found out by accident that the government gives you money when you have a baby, money to help raise a child and a monthly allowance if you’re a single income family. I can’t *believe* I didn’t do any research on government benefits earlier. I feel so stupid.

So I didn’t get out of the house all day.
Callum slept for 3 hours in the morning.
My sister came over to visit.
We talked about nail polish and hairy backs.
We ate the last of the sticky date pudding I made on Friday.

My husband and his brother spent all day doing renovation stuff. Buying a door. Hanging a door. And painting the door. (Our front bedroom didn’t have a door.)

Later in the afternoon, our happy little family drove 30 minutes up to Trigg beach to watch the sun go down. It was pissing down with rain, the wind was howling, and it was sooo cooooold. We found a car park behind a sand dune that was hidden from the main road.

We stayed rugged up in the car where it was warm and cosy — watching the huge angry waves churn up the beach, the clouds exploding with rain on the horizon, and a couple making out in the car next to us. Just kidding, I think they were just eating fish and chips.

^ Andrew pointing out Mettam’s Pool, a little reef off the beach. Callum examining the hand brake.

Our car was swaying in the wind. Bits of trees were flying across the beach. It was awesome to watch nature in action, from a nice warm place where it couldn’t touch you.

^ There was a break in the weather as the sun went down.
Our little Sunday adventure turned out rather well.