Late update

Well ... Had a busy week, so the blog was left aside.
But here I am, updating once more.
Last week I started learning the job @ the bar. Must admit it's not as easy as it might seem. They have some 80 imported beers, plus the local ones, and all the other drinks, and just knowing where to find each and how much it costs can contribute to a nice headache :)
On the weekend, I was in a salsa camp, something like the salsa festivals back home. 3 days in a nice place (even though a bit Christian oriented). They fed us quite good, and frequent, and they had plenty of workshops.
Some of the workshops disappointed me, some surprised me.
One of them was a guy named Alex(?). Big celebrity here, since he appeared on some dancing TV shows. Anyways, he said something at the start of his workshop, which is what I always told to my students, that a good dance is not about the number of fancy moves you can do, but it's more about the connection with the partner and the music.
What else ... well, here's a picture from Saturday's night. It's me balancing on a pole with 1 leg, so this takes care of posting some pics :)
I've also uploaded 2 more videos to youtube, one is my goodbye circle, and the other a social dance from coffs harbor.
Hmmm ... I think that's about it for this one.
Thanks for all of you who sent me a happy passover mail/comment, hope you had a nice holiday :)

Life in low gear

I got an email from Sally today. First, I scratched my head ...wondering "who the hell is sally?!". Upon opening the mail, I realized who Sally is. She's just one more from an endless list of people to whom I applied for work, and basically the message said :
Thank you for your application for the position of *** with the RNA.

We have received an enormous response to our advertisement.

Unfortunately your application was unsuccessful at this time.

Aye ... life in low gear ... sending cv's and getting "thanks but no thanks".
Anyways, I was walking down the street today, towards the Internet cafe, and I guessed I could use a coffee too. While waiting for the light to turn green on the crossroad, the rain hit again. Being smart and careful, I took an umbrella with me, so I told to myself (with an ausy accent) "no worries mate", and opened it, enjoying the view of the rain falling on the cars, breathing in the smell, and thanking the weather for it was warmish, and not cold as it would be in the rain back home.
Once the light turned green, I started crossing, humming a song, and watched a short balding person with glasses, who must have been on a coffee break from work (since he was dressed in a rather formal attire, and was holding a coffee cup in his hands) run across the road in the other direction. Now, the funny part was his face. He was having the most amusing face, even though it would be hard to explain. His brows were contracted, and his lips were tight, while he dashed at what should be (for him) top speed across the road. Now, since he's traveling faster, he should keep his head dryer, since the total amount of time under the rain, is shorter. But, since he's moving on the horizontal plane faster, he gathers rain which wouldn't hit him otherwise. So, is it worth the effort of trying to outrun the rain?. At this point, I figured I'll leave the complex mathematical calculation for after the coffee, and went on my way without giving it much more thought.
The other day I was fooling around with some features of a program, and realized how much data you can obtain, and how much damage you can do, and I don't know why I tell you this, since it has nothing to do with the post. I was speaking about life in low gear. Yes. Basically, it's the same "the neighbor's grass is greener" syndrome. When you work full time and have no time, all you want is some time off, so you can do nothing but chill out. When you have nothing to do, but chill out, you would wish you had a job, so you can do something useful. Now, maybe being rich it won't be the same, since you won't have to worry about money, but being poor as your humble servant, it does come into consideration.
Which reminded me, work ... I'm not sure work as it is is what I wanna do. The clock punching might help in giving an income, but it's definitely not the thing that will make you rich. Having enough spare time, I ponder about this, but so far, with no ground shaking conclusions. Once I'll reach them, I might update, but then, you never know who will steal them, right? :) .
I think that's about enough for today. Tonight, some dancing. Before I go there were some things I wanted to find on the net, but I keep forgetting what they were, since I'm browsing and following links, and finding new things, and only when I'm out and not in front of the comp, I realize I forgot to check this and that.
So, with this wishful thinking, I'll leave you for today.

JANU (Just Another Update)

I was talking with a friend the other day, telling him he was a crap for not being in touch, which made me realize I should better update this blog, for the sake of the few that still read it :).
Well, I'm good I guess. I was just thinking that I have nothing interesting to write about, since there are no big news, so, I decided I'll write about the small news.
First, I finally finished my book ("Noble House" by James Clavell, the same author of "Shogun").
I thought about writing a bit about it, but hell, if you're interested, just follow the link :). It's a good book, though it might be considered a bit long. Really ... it's longer than the lord of the rings (the 3 of them). And in case you didn't read Shogun, you should!
Another things that comes to mind, is things we don't see. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about different things between OZ and home, and a couple of them were what we call "nana" which is a kind of mint, and some chilly peppers, which I first discovered when my roommate back in the days brought from Romania. I never saw them on shops here, and I wondered how and where you can get them, in case you'd want to. And then, one day, walking the streets of West End, a car reversed back from a driveway, and while I stood there, letting it get out on the street, I followed the beams of light to discover a chilly bush, just there, on the side :). I've walked that way before, never noticing the bush. Makes you wonder what kind of other things you miss in life because you weren't paying attention.
Salsa news ... been dancing the last 3 nights, so I'm quite happy. Last night, besides getting a nice elbow to my right forearm, which still hurts like hell, I managed to get some 3 cuban dances, which is basically as good as hitting the jackpot in the lottery, twice in a row, without even buying the forms. But that's besides the point, the point was that speaking with the guy that organizes the salsa night there, I might have found a job :). He introduced me to the owner, and I might start working in the bar there. Maybe it's not an IT job, but it should be nice, bring some fresh plastic notes of money into my dwindling bank account, and then I might think about teaching some cuban, since I'll know I'm staying around for a bit.
So, time will tell whats up, and in the meanwhile, I'll give IT another chance, and send another round of CV's.
Hope all is well (wherever it is you're reading this from), and until next time, farewell.

Defintions and their meaning (or: my dance with the top salsa dancer in the world)

Went dancing on Sundays' night. The place is usually cover free, but that night they charged 5$, because they had a performance by the world salsa champions, Oliver & Luda.
Now, I've heard about them before I started traveling, and watched a couple of clips on Youtube (just to know the competition :) ), so I figured the show would be good. It was. Seems like they are champions for a reason.
Nice music, very quick action, nice customs, their trademark dip (which was imported from lambada, but I guess you don't change a winning horse) and once they finished, there were some 15 minutes of talks about wow, how amazing, and come to this congress, and this guy is amazing and back and forth ... bit tedious, but I guess it goes with the territory.
Oh, and by the way, they are small :). For the readers who're not in the scene and/or have no idea (yes, the whole 2 of you), I'll explain. These 2 are huge performancers, but size wise, quite short. It's cute. 2 minimi world champions :).
Anyways, for a change, the music was quite to my taste, including some cuban songs (!), and some other good loved ones. I even discovered that one of the girls can dance cuban, and she's tagged now :).
And, of course, since they are supposed to be the best, I invited Luda to a dance. Now, a bit of background, and about myself. I'm not a bad dancer, but I'm more into social dancing and having fun rather than flashy stuff and concentrating on my own spins and how good I look (I do of course look good :) . I think the best example is the fact that back home, I never danced with one of the supposedly best dancers, since every time I saw her dance, she never smiled, and was rather busy doing her lady style.
Back to the story, I invited Luda for a dance. She's good, can't say she's not, but as far as fun dances go, I can't really say it was one of the ones I most enjoyed. Just makes you realize the big difference between fun and show.
K, that's about it I guess, going to check 3 leads about work I got during the weekend.