Me Getting Married: Dirty dancing

This week's entry is a picture post. Finally! you can all meet my lovely Filmmaker house mate and see what the view looks like from our awesome stoep (above). So let me talk you through it... but be prepared - it was one crazy week in my life, and it just got crazier as the weekend went on. Some clues: dinner party, dancing with wild abandon, a dressmaker called Fifi, a cakemaker covered in glitter and 21.1 kilometers. Am tired, wired and happy. Goals? I killed them! Hope you enjoy it :)

Friday night: the dinner party.

The Filmmaker! Doesn't she just look like a person you'd like to know? Here she is with a pot from her friend Auntie Patty. There is a pink ceramic cat in the kitchen window that's also from Auntie Pattie, whom I don't know at all but it seems she's got good taste in ceramic/pot-like stuff.

Post dinner party: 'Coz I've had the time of my life...

I've never felt like this before, I swear...

...and I owe it all to YOU! (fiance on other side of camera...)

All I'll say is I take no responsibility for that which happens under influence of Johnny and Baby magic. After all, 'nobody puts Baby in the corner'!

By Saturday, I was ready to take on the wedding planning. Stop 1: my dressmaker, Fifi. She is a Zimbabwean woman living in Woodstock. She took my measurements while her husband (clothed in robe) and kids (three beautiful girls - Patricia, Melinda and Gloria) were watching a comedy show in the same room. She says I should send you all a hello. So here it is!


damn I'm sorry I can't get this pic turned around...

Next up cake shopping! From Fifi's I met up with fiance to go to the lovely Charly's Bakery I mentioned in an earlier post. Just look at their goodies...


Meet Jacky, our cake maker. You can't see it on the pic, but her face is covered in glitter from all the cupcakes on the counter in front of her.

Aim....

...and scan!!!

Third stop: registries. Enter fiance, the scan king:

Saturday night is when things got really interesting. You can put this part of the entry under 'learning things'. I kind of agreed to go to a two hour full moon dance class with live music while still under influence of Dirty Dancing awesomeness. While under these influences I did not consider what it was that I was letting myself into...
I don't have any pics to tell the tale, but the class was on Saturday night and they play all kinds of ethereal, deep music with drums and hums and things and you just have to move as your body feels like. Much to my disappointment, it's in a school hall and not under the open night sky as I imagined it to be and there is no-one teaching you any steps. You just have to feel the moves...
Now I could go on to tell you how weird it was, but actually it was one of the most difficult things I had to do this week. I found that to let go and stop caring what other people think (also known as connecting with inner self/being hippy) is in fact not such an easy task, maybe one of my biggest challenges. I stood frozen while people around me flowed, rubbed, twirled and jumped. I was stuck in a big fat cringe.
I realized I had two choices: I could stay freaked out and be judgemental, which would leave me with an hour or two of torture ahead while everyone around me did their swirly moves, or I could get over myself and join in.
I joined in. In the last half an hour, I even found myself jumping up and down and holding hands with strange men. At the end I joined the group in giving thanks to my feet and the earth and the energies around us. I haven't done that since I was in varsity, when I was also into crystals and aromatherapy oils.
Now I must admit the dancing and letting go makes sense, a lot, but even towards the end when I was getting really into it, I kept wishing I was curled up in front of TV with very shallow Hollywood film (like Dirty Dancing), or that they would just stop with the hummy sounds and put Britney on already! (was also worried about the fact that I had to get up just after 5 the next morning for my promised half-marathon).
My final thoughts on the class are important, though: I think it was very necessary. On the way back, Filmmaker and I agreed that sometimes you have to revisit all the people you used to be to know who you are now. And now I know: I still think aromatherapy is useful and crystals can make you feel good, but my days of doing swirly moves was over even before it began. It's just not me.

Lesson of the week: let go, but be yourself. (I DO still like the full moon and I WILL dance like headless chicken on Dirty Dancing songs again, after all).

Then... the run! I leave you with a few pics to tell the tale: