05/01 | UPDATE:
FINALLY finished my "christmas letter for 2005"! I'll admit, it
was a little bit late, but better late than never. It's on the "login"
(password protected) section of the site. (personal > login)
01/03 |
UQDance Workshop Have been Huge!
This year I'm treasurer for uqdance, and our club is doing really great this
year! Almost too good in fact.
On market day we had 600 new members sign up - which was three times more
than our target and the largest number of members we've had in a year. Then
Nadim (the president) and I suddenly started panicking! Suddenly we realized
we could have >200 members show up on the first workshop! Arrghh!
Luckily we had most of the stereo equipment already some of the money we made
we made we bought a external hard drive (to start a music collection) and
a $80 wireless microphone from Cash Converters - which I was REALLY proud
of, because usually these things cost $400 and upwards!
On the first night we had about 200 show up! It's was amazing - one minute
we were worried no-one would show, then we were flooded .... and despite predicting
a big drop-off in numbers the second night (the next Wednesday) was just as
big (see picture above)! I took a few photos and was the amateur DJ for the
first night too, and I'm SO glad we bought that microphone - we really couldn't
have survived without it!
Roger & Nadim lead the first couple, I hope I might lead one soon, but
at the same time uqdance has been taking up lots more of my time than expected!
Being the keen documentation monkey I am I have written a "dancing
tips for beginners" guide thing which I will probably upload to
this site soon and a "guide for running uqdance" for the
next exec, on top of the posters. I'm pretty proud of the logo I made too
- Celeste suggested I put a rose in it.
See: www.uqdance.net
One of the guys who came to our lessons (and there have been more girls than
guys if there are any extra guys out there) asked: what was the difference
between this year and last year?! I told him it was all about our position
and advertising on market day. Our stand was pretty good I think; we had lots
of people helping out, Nadim's stereo pumping out funky latin music, and attractive
stand. I think all those things helped, and for next market day I'll make
sure we fix any mistakes we made, and also make sure we buy a big-arse banner.
The question now is .... do we want this many people??!!
I think so far it's been okay, and with the lovely Michelle as secretary I
think we are a great team - but 200 is REALLY hard to manage! For now we'll
just go with the flow, and not change our workshop structure; maybe numbers
will die down a little ... but it is great seeing so many people keen to learn,
and teaching them all the basics! It's a great way to meet girls (for guys)
and guys (if you are girl). And you're probably asking - are there any girls
I like there? Well maybe .... we'll see. :-)
I won't like, it is REALLY
fantastic to be one of the guys who can dance and has learnt how to lead.
It's a really good feeling when a girl compliments your dancing, but hey;
it takes time to get there and I still have a long way to go too! In fact
..... I wish I'd started dancing a bit earlier in life - it makes you more
comfortable around girls and it's just so much fun - although there really
wasn't a big dance scene in Cairns like there is in Brissy. Actually; I guess
I've been dancing since I was five, but that was dancing by myself and trying
to mimic all the black singers on television - dancing with a girl is much
more fun!
10/03 |
Go karting
Would you believe four of the five people in my office were born in March!
Matthias's, Adam and Pete all had birthdays pretty much all in the same week
- pretty amazing I thought. For Pete's birthday his girlfriend, the lovely
Nicole, organized go-karting, although she also neglected to
tell us that it was suppose to be a surprise. I almost let it slip and actually,
I think every one of us almost let it slip! Geeesh Nicole, if it's a surprise
you have to give us a little warning!
I've never go-karted before; so I was really looking forward to it. It's kind
of weird at first - I've never been one to drive very fast on the roads (and
a four-wheel drive always feels slower) so being close to the ground and going
74 km/hour was strange. To be completely honest, it made me nauseous at first,
and I didn't like being thrown around as I went around the corners and I got
the worst time of all six of us ..... but on my second turn I skidded out
a few times (which is lots of fun) and really got into it. I got a great time
too, although the fastest one of day when to Pete! Pete was insane behind
the wheel; but luckily Nicole was the one to drive us home. Despite the rush
I had, I think I'm still a bit of a wuss when it come to fumes and speed (which
is why side-shows have never been my thing), and there are plenty of both
to go around. I'm glad I did it, but I'm also kind of glad I only bought two-rounds
- after four I would have vomited.
I should upload photos of some of these events to my website, but I've been
a lazy with that ... oh; and I really have to knuckle down on my confirmation
report soon.
10/03 | Picnic
Believe it or not Charissa and Michelle ALSO had birthdays at the start of
this month! June must be a good month for "rugging up" I guess.
We celebrated our three collective birthdays with a picnic at Southbank plus
dancing (as is our tradition now). Two times is tradition right? It was lots
of fun.
I also got a little cd-labeling kit which I'm sure will get a workout soon,
except my stupid printer is broken; and my router is playing up too! Arggh!
The good news is mum made me new curtains (and even sent them with instructions
- I knew my documentation obsession came from somewhere), so my room looks
a lot nicer now. Thanks mum.
