I've been very pleasantly suprised by how many signs I recognise as-is, and am beginning to pick up a few new things as well. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have been.

We're seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3D tomorrow evening, then I'm off to a yoga class. I've not done any Yoga in years, but I enjoyed it a lot back when and it helped me out a lot with my hips. I'm hopeful it may help me with the joint problems I've been having recently by being a low impact way to strengthen the muscles around them, improve my flexibility a little and generally be a reasonably fluffy yet effective form of exercise that'll go well with dance. Trip report to follow ...

The Sky Calls to us, If we do not destroy ourselves
we will one day venture to the stars.

This video fills me with happiness and eclipses anything I might have to say today.

Profile slow is the most wonderful trance high when it clicks - a deep, silent space of eyes hips body and being a part of something larger than yourself. It happened tonight and I'd missed it so much. The only drawback is it's very hard to muster conversation afterwards until you've escaped and come back up into the world.

We've focused a lot on coreography today - even moreso than usual, in preparation for the Hafla at the end of March I suspect. The idea makes me more than a little nervous but also feels very right indeed.

Cycling home afterwards with Gibby Haynes crooning into my ear as if he's sat there right behind me, rain in my glasses turning the streetlights into a mess of neon spiderwebs the world feels like a very wonderful place to be.

I should mention also that I am now the proud owner of a Bellynut 18 yard dance skirt, which is quite the most beautiful and fabulous things I have ever owned. The picture at the top shows you the fabric and the detailing on the brocade. If you want to see the full thing, nudge me via email/chat and I'll send you a picture .

Those of you in the UK are probably aware of the ban on the sale or importing of certain types of sword that was passed by the british government in 2008. After a lot of backwards and forwards arguing and some ridiculous handwaving from those in power, exemptions were eventually written into the bill for martial artists, SCA type re-enactors, etc.

But not for dancers.

The use of curved blades in bellydance, particularly Turkish and Tribal and in many forms of folk dance is well established, yet was entirely ignored by government when writing the heritage and sporting activities exemption to this bill. All attempts to raise this so far have been met with the same canned responses and no real result.

A UK BellyDancer named Melany is taking her case to a customs tribunal at the end of April, arguing for the right to import a sword for dance purposes. The tribunal do have the power to change the law, but she cannot afford any legal help. to counterbalance this, she is looking for testimonies from dancers, current and past about how their lives have been positively influenced by dance to help strengthen the case for a new exemption.

She has posted details of how to contact her and submit testimonies / get involved on a publicly viewable facebook group here (you do not need to be logged in or even to have a facebook account). If you're a dancer currently involved in some form of sword dance, or a Bellydancer or folk dancer who would one day like to be, please head over and give this some of your time.

Okay, I am still absolutely exhausted thanks to this stupid bug (The most demanding thing I did today was take a shower and have breakfast, and yeeesh) so here's a post I wrote last week after we saw Imogen Heap that I've been meaning to put up.

We saw Imogen Heap at the Junction two weeks ago. We'd seen her there once before, back in the tour for the last album and although that was a good performance, seeing the way she's developed as a musician, as a live presence and how she's stepped up the way she works with samples, loops and found sounds was incredible. She was wearing a pair of little microphones on her wrists that picked up everything from gongs and bells and little tweety birds to her own breathing, all of which was woven straight into the background song-tapestry. While I was on the fence beforehand, as a direct result of this absolutely immense show, I have got with the program and will now be seeing her play the Albert Hall with Doodle and Ezekiel in November. total Yum .

The venue and the people there were really awesome as well. they gave Ezekiel a guest list place to bring a carer in (me, in this case). and the people inside were absolutely yum and let us wheel up to the front and kept photographers and stuff out of her sight line and everything. It was a little bit of a letdown that their induction loop wasn't working (test these things more often please, guys, you're not the first or unfortunately I suspect the last wonky loop that we've encountered) but it was totally offset by the people being five different kinds of yummy. I've even had some messages backwards and forwards with one of them on youtube who was videoing right where we were - he's editing up a video of 'Canvas' I'm really looking forward to and will probably post here when it appears.

Was also able to run into some fire troupe people there, one of whom very kindly let me take a picture of the tour shirt on her to show Amy - which lead to her acquiring one so thanking you kindly, Charlie .

Short version? Heap is awesome, catch her live if you can as it's a total experience .

In response to Khaos Komics, I wanted to start this little meme: Read the following paragraph, and, if you can TRUTHFULLY do so, repost it on your journal with these instructions.

"If you and I are becoming involved (romantically or sexually or whatever) and you are transgendered, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TELL ME. If you're trans, you've got plenty to worry about without trying to figure out when to tell a potential partner. If it's me, don't worry. You can be yourself with me. I won't think it's a betrayal of trust."

I did make it back with a heap of new medicine (currently decorating my desk in a very pretty pyramid shape) and, if with no real assurances of success (or reassurance and encouragement of any kind at all, damnit ¬.¬), in one piece. The unexpected snow this morning had melted, so I was able to hobble home as best I could, and am now having a quiet evening with Ezekiel while we cook things with rice (or she cooks, I plonk dishes and kind of assist), wait for the tendrils of checkdisk and vista sp1 to give us back her computer and I discover a new rule to live by for domestic harmony ...

... do not make up little songs about the Donkey of John Belushi and animal buttes while doing the dishes if someone who picks up earworms easily is listening. that is all .

I have also had a very exciting offer from someone I am dearly fond of to go and see the new van Gogh exhibit the next time I am in London, and the prospect of another friend visiting on Saturday ... two things which I look forward to as soon as mister the plague departs.

There were people here! Our little geekhaus had four of us rattling around inside it in various states of statitude. The Doodle was here, because he is the doodle and he is awesome (which meant we were frequently serenaded by guitars - would have played bass also but it just ... wasn't happening). The Boy was here and bringing the delights of geeky conversation, Civ 5 and particle physics scrabble (and also a car! oh wonderful world!). Ezekiel and I were here as well, of course, because this is home and that's usually where we reside.

The unfortunate thing about this gathering is that we've been having the plague by rota. Ezekiel had it, the boy had it, and now it is my turn. While I had any number of possible things to blame the fact that I was losing my voice and feeling kinda out of it by the end of Friday on, it was in fact stupidarghickybug which needs to go away. Hopefully we've none of us given it to Doodle and he can go on being happy and fabulous and not glaring at us and muttering 'Curses!' every so often.

So, with a multitude of geeken in der hausen, games were played, South Park was watched, an inordinate quantity of herbal tea was drunk (except for the boy, he consumes coffee in quantity - I have to fight the urge to lean over and smellll it) and, while I sat in front of the computer and failed to be together enough to write any reports (instead keeping company with delicious irc people), we plotted an adventure of epic proportions.

Arising and finding ourselves bright and noon-ly, we headed off to Greenwich in the most wonderful horseless carriage piloted by the boy. It was huge, smooth, fifteen kinds of nifty and (most delightfully) if I curled up just right it had plenty of space for a ridiculously tall person to sleep in the back - yay! The boy is also a pretty mellow driver, so it was a lovely safe space to nap like anything. (The boy is apparantly amused/impressed by my ability to sleep anywhere, any time in almost any situation at the drop of a hat. My Nap-fu is strong and keeps me together through almost any kind of weather). Once we'd deposited the car, it was time to go exploring and explore we did.

The O2 arena is big. Think of the biggest thing and make it more big-ly and that's exactly how much big you need to worry about. It is also packed to the brim with resteraunts, nightclubs, cinemas and other silliness and OH GODS PEOPLE! Under other circumstances I'd have wanted to find a convenient hiding place and wait it out but, I had been given a job and that is the best way to distract a Weasel when crowds are teeming - I was being a wheelchair engine.

I like being a wheelchair engine, it mostly requires observation and listening ... and pushing, lots of pushing. It also gives you something to lean on a little at all times, no matter how your legs are doing. Being a wheelchair engine rules.

Once we had braved the dome, and played a brief game of hide and seek in the square outside (entirely accidental - never assume you can catch up with an engineer and meet him on the way back from the car, he will have found a vastly more efficient way of getting back to you). I made a fateful decision. To whit: let's not take the riverboat and the DLR to get to Grenwich proper, lets all walk it! It's not far.

The four of us are now under strict instructions to ignore this any time I say it unless we have a map and already know the route - yes, even me.

Following a protracted wander around some awful architecture in the millenium village and along a wobbly little high street, we found Greenwich park and proceeded to explore. This eventually resulted in a hill which Ezekiel, quite wisely, decided to avoid while the boy and I charged up to the top to satisfy our geeky desires to stand in two hemispheres at once along the prime meridian! It was just a flying visit but still exactly what we wanted (see photos at top and bottom of this post ). There will have to be a later visit plotted with much enjoyment and stroking of interesting pieces of engineering (and cheering at the climbing tower at london Bridge!)

After that, battered feet and aching geeks were rested in a nice little foodpub, where pasta and fish pie were the order of the day. though we were sadly bereft of chocolate things of any stripe and description. We made a wander back to North Greenwich and the O2, acquired a loop and stored a chair and got ready for musiche.

Nitzer Ebb I'd not heard in years, but they've held up well and are really fun - the singer has that kind of mad bouncy enthusiasm that can move anyone and they're hella danceable still. I'm going to have to pick up some of their newer stuff sometime. But really, everything we were there about was the headliners.

This was one of the best depeche Mode shows I've seen - they didn't play the standard setlist from the tour this show should have been a part of, instead playing a whole bunch of older stuff and classics and really playing the hell out of them too. We got incredible different versions of personal jesus and a few others with a lot more improvisation .. and chattier between songs than I've ever heard them. (And I never expected to be singing happy birthday to any of them in my life Or to be hearing them making filthy beautiful techno noises). We chair danced like pros, made ridiculously loud screaming noises (some of which I regret doing on top of this cold) and generally had a hell of a good time. I resisted standing up for most of the show, as the smallest Mode fan I'd ever seen was in the seat behind me (Ezekiel asked later and it turns out he was six! so precious ...) But had to go for it at least a little on personal Jesus. Mrrrr.

After a nice sleepy wander home (Falling asleep in cars is just awesome and I almost never get to do it) and a bit of a fuzzy headed night, we ended up playing a rather ridiculous game of monopoly in which, despite being utterly not-there due to cold medicine etc, I appeared to absolutely clean up. Since then we've packed the boy off home (with a carfull of doodle), and have been quietly pottering, cooking, watching TV et al. I'm quietly trying to see if I have enough brains left in my head to do some finance writing - but I fear there is nothing up there but mucus ¬.¬

Clearly we need to have people descend and have adventure weekends more often .

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

Not to my knowledge; my name is, at least within the last three generations, entirely my own.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Last night when singing Heather Nova's 'I miss my sky' along with Doodle - that song grabs me very quickly.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

Some people have doctors handwriting; I have engineers handwriting. I'd like to feel it has slowly improved over time, but that's still only relative to its initial state.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT?

Quorn pseudo-peppered beef - the mushrooms are our friends.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

I do not. And except in those few moments when something just goes *twitch* in defiance of all reason (Usually when confronted by ickle bickle fingerses and toesey wozies), It isn't something that distresses me.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?

Freely, and with wry giggles aforethought.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

All Present and correct!

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

The idea intregues me, I'm just not sure I'm down with that amount of being upside-down. Experience tells me that parts of me just do not work well that way.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL?

Kelloggs special K Oats and Honey (mmmmh)

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

Njet Njet, Unbuckle, unfasten, unzip!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM?

Icecream not so much, but I am an absolute sucker for a nice fruit sorbet, probably mango or Lemon.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Their eyes.

15. RED OR PINK?

Red, a rich dark velvet red.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

My Immune System and my sleepy lack of focus.

17. WHOM DO YOU MISS THE MOST?

One or two old loves and friends since passed, they know who they are.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?

Memes are totally optional . I'll enjoy any I see though.

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?

A delightfully grubby pair of bootcut jeans from Next that are ... remarkably ... too long .

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

The Banjo Stylings of Chris Thile.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE?

forest Green

23. FAVOURITE SMELLS?

Lush 'Kharma', Dying Bracken in Autumn, Tumeric, frying onions, Beeswax.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

Captain Horatio Monkeypants! He was winging his way to our den of iniquity and needed to let us know his ETA.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

I wasn't sent it as such, but the person who I lifted it from is someone I feel is all kinds of nifty (Hey there chiara!

26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

I'm not much for watching sports outside the Olympics (there's something about the pageantry of it all), but the Hurley is fun on occasion.

27. HAIR COLOUR?

A fairly uniform dark brown, with the occasional much lighter hair .

28. EYE COLOUR?

Dark brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

No, but I am very enamoured of my rather recently acquired Glasses - did you know clouds can actually have very sharply defined edges? I didn't until now! .

30. FAVOURITE FOOD?

Peanut Butter pseudochicken, or anything with Tumeric Rice.

31. SCARY FILMS OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Probably a little more the latter than the former, though I like a little of the former too.

32. LAST FILM YOU WATCHED?

I am honestly not sure ... it was probably a 'bad movie night' production of some kind.

33. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?

A Black Tank Top, and my little green jacket.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?

Autumn.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?

Definitely both please .

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

Most probably either Ezekiel, Raindog or Lamasu, but who knows .

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

The ones who never comment .

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

Just finished Lynn fewellen's Tamir Trillogy (which I absolutely loved), and have started on a rather neat Patricia Ferguson book called Peripheral Vision. I've also got a copy of daft Fae romp 'war of the oaks' waiting for me to devour it sat next to me on the shelf due to the wonders of the inter library loan system - I suspect I will be unironically delighted by this food.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

Nothing, it is a nondescript grey mess with a wrist rest that was surplus from my old home office. I'd like a nicer one sometime but it's a ways down the priority list.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?

An excessive quantity of south park while we all sat around and geeked it up. Geek visitors to Geekhause are the best .

42. FAVOURITE SOUND(S)?

bracken crunching underfoot, waves breaking, the wind in the trees, the lower registers of a flute and every sound a cello can make.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

I'd rather hang out with Ramones *sings*.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

Most probably either Phoenix, Arizona or Idaho Falls, Idaho. I'd be hard pressed to pick which one

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

I wouldn't claim any of these to an exceptional standard, but I'm a passable Fire Spinner, beginning to feel like a real honest to goodness Belly Dancer and I can keep you a nice melodic rythm given a suitable bass .

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Within ten minutes cycle of where I am sitting right now.

There, that's another fine meme you've got me into.

Tal has been feeding me a diet of classical, Newfie folk and prime Bluegrass - and this is a source of immense happiness to me. I've put the album this song comes from (Not all who wander are lost - Chris Thile) on rotation while cycling and it turns a wet ride home in the dark into a gorgeous happy cycling meander of awesome - something about the rythm of the music and the rythm of the bike, very easy to get lost in it.

I like that kind of getting lost, it feels very alive indeed and sometimes that feeling is in short supply - so I cultivate it wherever and whenever I can .

Dance is continuing to rock my world. The stuff we're doing now doesn't quite have that crazyintimate feel that the strict face to face stuff did, but the overall mood feels a little deeper now we've done that, and things like shouder tacks, very solid/definite ATs shimmies and some things we've been doing with hip figure eight things tied into ferreos just feel very right. I need to work on my upper body strength though, and Joint rubbish is making some things harder than they need to be.

Ezekiel has suggested an absolutely top plan for this that I rather like though ... going back to Yoga. It helped so much with my walking and my balance/centre last time that I'm hoping it could really do the same for me if I go back again. I'm going to start having a sniff around for a class I can work into the schedule alongside ATS and other gubbins ... watch this space .

On that subject(ish), I now have a most magificent partner in crime for the Domba weekend - Raindog and I are gonna be dancing our arses off in workshops together and enjoying drunken Hafla magic - this fills me with fucken glee because for various reasons we don't get to do nearly enough things together.

Still need to ramble on about Imogen Heap, the fact that my glasses are absolutely awesome and the impending arrival of the most beautiful skirt since the turtle beneath us hatched, but that iwll have to wait as tomorrow is set to be all kinds of busy. Ezekiel, Doodle, Horatio and I are all set to go explore Grenwich then see Depeche Mode rock the O2 arena - this is going to be epic adventurez .