Last night I performed my dark tribal fusion solo at the Student/Teacher show and COMPLETELY fucked it up by forgetting the entire first part of the choreo. I have no idea where I went wrong but I was a whole 6 or 8 counts out. I got the very start right and did manage to catch up for the end part, but no idea what I did in the middle! I guess I will have to wait to see the video to figure it out. I'm proud of myself tho cause nobody realised I'd made a mistake - my improv skills have obviously improved.

One up side of the evening was other dancers telling me my eye make-up looked great, but the REAL highlight was my cab teacher telling me that my eyes/expression was making the kiddies in front row nervous. YAY ME!!! I must have been putting some real energy into 'the look' with being so pissed off at stuffing up my choreo. ;-) What were kids doing up that late anyway...

Do you think being able to scare children now qualifies me as a bonafide gothic dancer?

Copied from Black Sheep tribe: bsbd.tribe.net/thread/7a8...336180e3d91

1. Best costumes on stage- name only your top two faves.
- Shakra
- Asharah

2. Best music selections in a performance. Again only two.
as above!
- Black Lambs
- SuperKate

3. Funniest stage moment that made you bust your side laughing. Only one now.
Since others have mentioned the horse head I have to say Karim and his leather pants!

4. Vendor who had you coming back for more, procured your wallet from your purse and gave it back empty.
That was a tie between Black Lotus and Melodia.

5. Favorite workshop at TF.
Shakra

6. Most awesome item you saw whilst browsing the shopping.
hmmm, EVERYTHING!!!

7. Best meal you enjoyed at TF whether on site, off site, at a friends, whatever.
Black Sheep pot stickers

8. Person you most enjoyed running into at the fest.
Nisha

9. Most inspiring person at TF whether on or off stage.
Sashi

10. Oddest thing you overhear at TF.
The story about the penis thieves

11. Best music you bought at TF.
Collide

12. Fave day or night at TF and why?
Every single one!

13. Person who gave you the warmest fuzzies at Tf this year and why.
Laura because of her proposal to Bonnie

14. Hottest dude at TF this year.
My dude! For coming with me, being a volunteer and recording performances for me.

15. Best performance by a troupe you havent heard of or seen b/f this year's TF.
The Sexy Scallywags and Verbatim

16. Who you most missed at TF this year- Teacher? Friend? Troupe mate? Performer?
My dance partner, Sarah

17. Most blissed out, spiritual, foofy-la-la, hippy-dippy moment you experienced at this year's TF.
Motif, and Laura's proposal

18. Nicest compliment you received at TF this year.
That everyone thinks New Zealand is an amazing place and wants to visit

19. Best nature or scenic or day trip experience you enjoyed this year.
Our road trip after TF and visiting the wolves at Wolf Mountain Sanctuary

20. Honorable mention- your choice!
Everyone who made the two Kiwi Tribal Fest virgins feel so welcome!

Well our trip has finally come to an end and what a final week it has been! We've been from Lucerne Valley to see more wolves, down to San Diego, up to Orange County and finally up to Monterey where we are staying tonight. Tomorrow we just have the (fairly) short drive back to San Francisco airport for our flight home. Wow!

The Wolf Mountain Sanctuary was amazing. We got really up close and personal with some socialised wolves, and some not so socialised wolves! We have great photos and video footage of both of us being licked, head-butted, and generally being 'welcomed' into the pack. Mark ended up with a very sore arm and shoulder when two of the pack decided he was the best stomach scratcher they had ever met! It was just an unbelievable day.

Friday afternoon we drove down to San Diego, which I liked more than San Fran. We went to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be - I think Auckland Zoo would be on par, if not better. Anyway, the highlight of being in San Diego was staying in Old Town and getting to have Sunday brunch/lunch with Laura and Bonnie - what a blast! They are two of the loveliest people you could ever wish to meet and Laura had us in hysterics with her stories.

Sunday afternoon we drove from San Diego up to Orange County where Sashi lives. It was fantastic to catch up with her again and I even had the opportunity to take one of her classes - such a blast! She is so funny, but has some mean and nasty warm up/stretching moves. Let me tell you my legs are still hurting from the damn 'dynamic stretching' she had us doing - bloody works tho! We had a really lazy day on Monday, which was a public holiday here, just hanging out and watching movies. One of her cats has a fetish for long hair and of course fell instantly in love with Mark.

This morning had us leaving OC at about 6:30am to head up to Monterey, via Los Angeles - let me tell you Auckland rush hour traffic ain't got nothing on that! It wasn't too bad really as they have a separate 'car pool' lane, which means if you have two or more people in your car you can use it and the traffic in that lane moves much quicker than in the other 4 or 5 lanes. Once we finally got past LA and found the Pacific Coast Highway it was a great drive. Really nice coastal scenery, but its no where near as stunning as home. Monterey is a really lovely place and we got to watch a sea otter and some seals playing just off shore while we were having dinner. We are hoping to have time to visit the Aquarium here before heading back up to the airport. We've just finished re-packing our luggage and had to buy two extra bags than what we came over with - thats what you get from shopping at Tribal Fest and buying 7 pairs of Melodia, plus goodness knows how many tank-tops, t-shirts and all the other touristy "stuff" that we have picked up along the way!

You know you are in America when the Hummer is a small vehicle. I'm not kidding. Some of the 4x4's here are HUGE. Even the lift-kits have lift-kits!!!

Anyway, since Tribal Fest we have driven from Sebastopol, back to San Francisco to change rental vehicles (NEVER do a road trip in a Ford Escape - very thirsty vehicle!), then down thru Los Angeles to a little town called Julien to visit the California Wolf Centre and now we are back up in Victorville and heading to Lucerne Valley tomorrow to the Wolf Mountain Sanctuary. Phew! I have no idea how many miles that equates to but we've done all that since leaving Sebastopol Monday afternoon.

Going to the California Wolf Centre today was truly amazing. This was the first time either Mark or I had seen wolves for real and it stunned us both. We have some great photo's and video footage. I can't wait for tomorrows trip out the the Wolf Mountain Sanctuary - apparently we can get up close and personal with the wolves there.

We are hoping to be in San Diego on Saturday and are planning on going to the San Diego Zoo on Sunday, then its back up the Pacific Coast for our flight home on Wednesday..

Holy crap! I don't even know where to start... I really was going to blog every day of the festival, but the last three days of it were pure madness! Too much stuff going on and no where near enough sleep.

Friday was the beginning of the 3 days of performances and there is just too much to mention! We did record quite a few, but had problems with the battery dying on the video camera so we missed out on recording a lot that I'd like to have. I don't have the program in front of me and my mind is a complete blur so I've no idea who performed when!

The Saturday show started at 10am and I unfortunately missed a few great acts as I was busy stalking the Melodia stand outside. OMG! Talk about a feeding frenzy! I managed to get pants for the girls who asked me and bought 4 pairs for myself. Yes thats right FOUR - don't worry I can completely justify each and every pair. I took a picture of all 7 pairs laid out on the bed. ;-) Saturday night show ended with the Indigo - not only were they incredible they brought the Brass Manizari (sp) Band with them! It was a total hoot and I have 90% of it on film - the damn camera battery died just before the end, which involved cup cakes. ;-)

Sunday was amazing as well. I had a workshop with Tempest, which was brilliant and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the show - Rachel's solo nearly made me cry and Kami Liddle was spectacular, as were many of the other dancers who names have unfortunately blurred into one big mess in my tired brain.

Highlight of my entire week/end was meeting Sashi and spending time with her and meeting her friends. That woman is amazing, beautiful, funny, talented and I'm so lucky to be able to call her a friend. I've met so many fantastic people (who I have to find on Tribe so I can keep in touch with them) and both Mark & I have enjoyed ourselves so much we have already talked about how we can do it again! Current dream is next year Gothla, year after Tribal Fest! ;-) My favourite photo so far is with Bonny and Laura, which wins the award for the worlds cheeziest photo! Oh, another highlight was getting to witness Laura proposing to Bonnie on stage at Friday nights show. I will have to organise a Show & Tell session when I get back so you can see my loot, photos and
the show footage.

Anyway better get going - I'll up date you all on yesterday's trip from Sebastopol to south of LA later on.