The Vitality Show - London

I know I said that I had a lot of things to do. I do, but I have been getting up way too early since the clocks have gone forward and being a writer I felt the need to write and post something. It is my addiction.

I took these photos at The Vitality Show partly because it was the most colourful display in the whole venue and partly as it seemed to me too incongruent with what the show was supposed to be about.

Trade shows are not what they used to be. I remember one could come home from such a show with so much free merchandise. These are lean times and the only thing free my daughter and I came home with was an emery board from the laser eye surgery people. We sampled all the free food and wine on offer and were thus able to avoid the long queues for lunch. The flavoured cheese was a firm favourite. It was my daughter’s goal to come home with as much free stuff as possible, but it didn’t happen. We passed on the goody bag on the way home as the queue was too long.

As far as The Vitality Show was concerned, it didn’t live up to it’s name. We were more exhausted when we left than when we arrived. The highlight for me was trying out the Shiatsu Massage Cushion. I loved that. They were going for £150. I am unemployed and not willing to spend that amount of money, but for me, and for cash, they would give it to me for £100. I had £60 on me which I would have happily parted with. No deal. Nevermind. When I got home, I researched these cushions on the internet. I can buy one at Amazon for about £40.

I think I know what the kids are buying me for my birthday this year.

Update: The State of Affairs

I have had such a busy week and I still feel I am behind with work! Here is a little of what I have been doing. I am not adding any posts for another week as I am taking a break from blogging to deal with house, family and some personal matters. My life is starting to get hectic again.

I have been to a career thingy at the local adult college. It was called ‘Surviving, how to deal with the recession’. I went to a lecture about looking for work and creating a great CV. There were mainly PR and media people there. I think between us, we could have started our own company. Although most of us were savvy about looking for work, the lecturer did give us information to improve our CV, interview techniques and some other information that was very useful. That means I need to tweak my CV again. I am hoping that this will be the last time I need to revise and that something good will come out of it.

I also learned that I could get either a free course or a major reduction on fees by being on Jobseekers, so I am looking into getting a teaching certificate. I need that in order to teach English as a foreign language. It might come in handy.

The research for Lynn’s Bowel Cancer Campaign is coming along nicely. I should have the list ready to hand over next week. I am amazed and pleased at how well that has been going.

I’ve updated my profile on Linked In. They now have an application where you can stream your blogs to it! Who knows where that will lead?

My daughter has come home for a few days before she heads off to America to visit a friend over spring break. I took the night off from dancing in order to stay home and drink, eat spicy food, and watch a film with her. We are going to go to The Vitality Show at Earls Court today. I got comp tickets and thought it would be fun. Besides, I have to be out of the house this afternoon as the estate agent booked a viewing. I’m keeping fingers crossed.

I have been inundated with questions for Ask Arlene on My Tango Blog. I am wondering though if some people aren’t taking liberties with the questions they are asking me. Hmmm! The readership is now between 150-250 on average every day. I am really pleased about this as Tango is my passion and a lot of people have told me that they found the blog really useful. Now I just need to work out how to make money from that!

This weekend will find me in London. I will be dancing. I am not sure how well I will be dancing as I am having a problem with my right calf at the moment. I had a really bad cramp in it last weekend and I may have strained it with one of my dancers on Wednesday. It is quite painful in the morning even though it eases up by the end of the day. If it turns out I can’t dance, I will just have to socialise and enjoy listening to the music for one evening. Good thing nothing can stop me from talking!

Am off again to the coast next week and should have some more photos and news for you.

A Walk Around Brighton and Eastbourne

Last weekend found me again at the coast. It had been a glorious week and continued on through the weekend.

The last time I was in Brighton the children were small. Their father and I took them down to the Pier and spent the afternoon along the promenade. That is as much as we saw of Brighton, and probably as much as we could cope with at that time with small children in tow.

This time was completely different. My guide grew up in Brighton and I received a running commentary on the area along with some amusing anecdotes. Unfortunately, my camera decided to go on strike on Saturday. Initially it was quite a bummer, but me ever the optimist and it being a glorious day, I decided that fate just wanted me to relax and enjoy being in the moment. Brighton will still be there and I can come back another time.

As I didn’t have an opportunity to take photographs, I will refrain from commenting on the architecture, of which there is a wide variety of styles and colours. I will say that I did find it all interesting.

We wandered around through the famous Lanes to look at the many unusual shops, restaurants, cafes and tattoo parlours. We eventually made our way through the crowds to walk along the seafront. As it was a very sunny day, there were many people out with their children sitting on the beach and enjoying the sunshine.

My guide took me to a lovely seafood restaurant that looked out toward the promenade and the sea and had a late lunch. The place was packed, which is always a good sign. It was wonderful to eat, drink, have lovely conversation and watch the world go by.

As with all good things, lunch came to an end and we wandered back to the car via a different route, this time through the main shopping precinct. Brighton is a very busy, bustling town and seems to have all the main high street shops as anywhere else, as well as a few cultural amenities. As and when I visit Brighton in the future, I will let you know what is going on. I was quite interested in visiting Brighton for the fact that they do have Argentine Tango there!

I have been spending the last few weekends in Eastbourne. Compared to Brighton, Eastbourne has a quiet, genteel charm. The town is relatively small in comparison, is very clean, slightly shabby with Victorian architecture mixed in with some of a more contemporary design. The seafront is extremely well maintained with some very beautiful buildings on the main coast road. The beach has a blue flag. You can walk along the lovely seafront all the way towards Beachy Head. I haven’t been that adventurous yet. There is plenty of time for that.

After having had a wonderful champagne brunch to celebrate Mother’s Day, we went for a walk down to the seafront and to do a little exploring. We also managed to get my camera working! I was really pleased as this was the first time I was able to take photos of Eastbourne and the weather continued to be gloriously sunny.

We didn’t really go very far beyond the seafront. It was so beautiful and the tide had gone out a bit. We wandered onto the beach and I took some photos. I just loved the way the water made patterns in the sand.

Before we headed back home, and as a special treat, we went to Favo’Loso for some fantastic ice cream and coffee. This place is a combination of a cafeteria, ice cream parlour and diner. It was packed full of families out with the kids. Some people might find that quite daunting, but I found it rather nice. My children may be grown up now, and although I prefer to have my evening meals child free, I still find it pleasant to see families out together as long as the children are relatively well behaved.

I found an article from The Independent about Eastbourne that you can read here, and which will give you a flavour of this lovely seaside town.

You can also learn more here and here.

If you would like to see some more photos, here is the link to my web album or you can view the slideshow on my sidebar.