On Friday, I did a solo performance at a banquet hall in Vaughan, which was a celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Philippine Heritage Band. I did it as a favour to Ninang Marion, whose parents have been involved with the band for just about all of those 30 years if I'm not mistaken. So Meagan, her cousin Vanessa and I provided some entertainment during dinner. Meagan did a jazz routine and Vanessa did a lyrical dance. I did my bellydance thang with a veil routine followed by a drum solo. It went well, and though we did get a free dinner that night, it was so NOT worth talking about here. Banquet hall food is always pretty bland and boring but this was terrible. I will say that it was dry, overcooked, and not even warm despite having the appearance of sitting under a heat lamp for the past 2 hours. The only highlight was dessert, which was a bar of vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe and drizzled with strawberry and chocolate sauce.
Anyway, I wasn't in it for the food. That was a bonus (if you could call it that). Another bonus was the thank you card I got with $100 in it! Nice! I wasn't expecting that at all, especially since, when booking the event, they asked how much I would charge and I said I would do it for free. So that was great. I have yet to see any pictures from the event but I hope to get my hands on some, I saw a lot of fancy SLRs flashing away while I was dancing. Apparently the local Filipino newspaper was there too so maybe I'll be in it, LOL. (Side note: another highlight of the night was when the band actually played - they did one song to showcase just the drumline and it was AWESOME! Reminiscent of Clipse's "Grindin'", hot ish yo.)
On Saturday, I had the private party at the studio. It was my first experience at the studio completely by myself, so I had to open and lock up, set the thermostat, run the cash, file the waiver forms, etc. It was a good warm-up for the next few weeks with our instructor in Cairo, and me and 3 other girls will be holding down the fort. There were 9 women at the party and I taught them basic moves, a short combo and a veil intro - same stuff I did with Mark (the Guy at Home). They seemed to enjoy it, and then I took some photos of them posing around the studio, they loved the atmosphere.
That evening I went for dinner with Kim and Jenn. We went to Spoon & Fork in Clarkson. They had been there before, and so had my parents, and they'd said it was good so I was down to try it out. We ordered the wontons as an appetizer, and each ordered our own dishes. Kim had a green chicken curry, Jenn had orange cashew chicken, and I had peanut sauce chicken. Legit Thai food served here, folks. Solid preparation and fairly sexy atmosphere.
On Sunday, thankfully troupe rehearsal was cancelled because I needed a bit of a break. I didn't get up to much, went to Fogo (new-ish tapas bar at the edge of the Heights) with Ryan after watching the soccer team he coaches play at Pine Glen. The kitchen had closed by the time we got there so I have no foodie things to report, but I've been there before and it's good - a deep fried cheese thingy comes to mind, and how can you go wrong with that? Fogo has so much potential as a place to relax with a drink and some eats, and as a place to party on weekends. And it's WALKING DISTANCE FROM MY HOUSE! That's such a recipe for awesome! But every time I've gone, it's been just about empty. I hope it gains some popularity, because the only thing their atmosphere is missing is the buzz of people. Anyway, that night I just had a bottle of Kronenbourg and was pretty satisfied.
On Tuesday, a few of us went to Chaps in Burlington for Ben's bday. Had some yummy wings and a bit too much Keith's Harvest Ale (also yummy). Then went back to Andrew's for Rock Band 3 and more beer (Amsterdam Nut Brown Ale = mmm). Woke up with a slight headache and dreading the workday ahead :P I really miss the days at Mac where Tuesday night wings and beer at West End meant skipping class the next day... le sigh.
Last night, I went to the studio for class but traffic out of downtown was worse than usual and I ended up being a half hour late... so I just chatted with our teacher (someone else was teaching - she was prepping stuff for their departure) and she had me try on some bellydance clothes (not costumes, practice wear like flared pants and crop tops) just "for fun". I really didn't want anything because, well, I'm not really a flared pants/crop top kinda girl when I'm not performing :P but she got me to try on this pair of pants that she liked so much on me, she wanted to give them to me for free:
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| "OMG! That looks so good on you!" |
LOL! Yes, that's black velvet, flared mesh legs, and lace thigh cut-outs. "You could even wear these out! They're so sexy!" Haha... it was really nice of her but unfortunately not for me. I opted for another pair of pants that I also would never wear "out" but I'll probably wear when I'm teaching:
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| No velvet, and no scandalous lace cut-outs! |
Hey! Free pants is free! Anyhoo, that's all I've got for long-windedness today.
Tonight I'm judging a Blondie Bake-Off at Robyn's. THROWDOWN baby! I love this idea so much :D I'll report back soon with results :)
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