Linda and Leon's Wedding 16 June 2007

Miranda went to Perth for Linda and Leon's wedding on 16 June. It was a lovely occasion and I enjoyed seeing old friends from Curtin University and my Occupational Therapy training days back in the early 90's. Especially lovely to see Tracey. Linda looked beautiful and Leon made a very proud groom. I also travelled around Perth to see some of my old haunting grounds - a trip down memory lane.

The weekend Mum and Dad came to visit

Mum and Dad Bruyn came to visit this past weekend and we had a great time checking out National Archives building and finding out their immigration and naturalisation details. The museum part was great as well with lots of cool historical items of Australia's history.

We took mum shopping and went to Kingston Markets and antique stores on the Sunday.

Sunday afternoon Russell and I went dancing at the Uni Pub (it's called Capital Swing), and had some very cool dances. Unfortunately I've missed out on finding a partner to dance with at the Hellzapoppin dance competition in Canberra in August. Checkout www.jumptown.org/canberrang for more details in future.

Perth

Finally, Perth, April 19-25, 2007

Our last stop was Perth WA, for the Hullabaloo Lindy Exchange and workshops. We didn't do the workshops but it was lovely to catch up with Andrew Sutton, Dax and Alice, and Angela Andrews. We were hosted by the lovley Karen, whom we hardly saw as we were too busy "enjoying" Sarah's cold! We hired a car which helped as Karen partied hard til 6am most mornings!

Hullabaloo was great - we would have enjoyed it more if we didn't have colds. The venues and energy were great, with cool DJs, some great blues afterparties and great dances with many visitors to Perth and some Perthies.

Yay, it was great to see all the Jumptown dancers from Canberra at Hullabaloo.... so lovely to catch up with you all after our trip!

I caught up with my fabulous buddy Linda and met her fiance Leon, who is just wonderful too! They get married in June, so back to WA I go!

For great Hullabaloo photos check out Dave and Sam's photos at: Dave's Photos

That's all from me and Russell, hope you enjoyed our trip.

Love

Miranda

More London Photos

London

April 12-18

Ahhhhh, London....who would have expected fabulous spring weather and 24C! We had a fabulous time with Sarah who graciously let us stay at her place. London Lindy Exchange would have to be one of the best exchanges I have ever been to! I danced with swedish,british, french and dutch guys, and enjoyed every dance....it was only social dancing which was great. The venues were terribly hot - London doesn't do good air conditioning unfortunately, but we danced, hot and sweaty all the same. We helped Sarah serve supper at the Shoreditch Town Hall, and didn't get home until 4pm.

After LLX we did some sightseeing, including Trafalgar Square, Oxford St, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Covent Gardens and the London Eye. We enjoyed great food too, although a glass of wine for 6 pound was pretty tough! It wasn't long enough though!

New York, New York

April 10-12

New York was AMAZING! Crazy taxi drivers, tall skyscrapers, fumes, cold weather.... you name it, it was all there, just like out of the movies! We visited Central Park, bought jackets to keep warm, went to the top of the Rockerfeller Cente, saw Times Square, went shopping and walked a looooong way up and down the city blocks. As you can see it was cold - only 9C and spring is a while off.

We went to some dance venues, the best being Swing 46, where we had a great steak and wine (Wyndham Bin 555 Shiraz) and watched and danced to George Gee, and his band. The highlight was seeing and chatting to Dawn Hampton, one of the original dancers from the 40s who pops in to the dance shows. She even applauded our dancing to a fast song! What a trip!

We also went to 72 Columbus to hear the Ron Sunshine band who are fabulous for dancers. There was a best of the best competition with the house band, but Ron Sunshine beat them pants down for Lindy Hop dancing. Catching the subway was pretty cool.... I think it would be great to live in New York, its a very exciting place!

San Diego ...continued

Check out the Aussies at Balboa Rendevous - there were 28 of us in total. I had many comments from Americans who were quite envious of our national mateship and our "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi". And here I thought we were just annoying!!!

And, meet the new us! We had to get used to the new hair colour and no beard! Even the hotel staff didn't recognise us!

Back to our travels...... SAN DIEGO has been great! The dancing was fab and the teaching sessions really valuable. The competition dancing was also a very high standard. There is a You Tube review which shows why we love this crazy subtle dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61sUKJ51Jt4

We loved staying with Emily. After the workshops we went to La Jolla and saw the seals sunning themselves on the Children's beach and saw where the rich and famous enjoy their cappucinos. Speaking of coffee, we finally got a decent cap at a european cafe in La Jolla.

Next stop - NEW YORK ( I will tell you later about dancing at Swing 46 and seeing Dawn Hampton - one of the original dancers - hanging out with George Gee and his band). PS I think Balboa has certainly improved my following! I only hope Russell agrees!