double shot of blues & fusion in valencia



Two weeks ago, I went to Valencia for Double Shot of Blues & Fusion, a weekend of intense blues dancing and feelings and fun and love. I can't even begin to describe everything that happened in just three days, and I don't want to, but here are the photos:



I didn't see as much of Valencia as I would have wanted - you never really do when you travel for dancing, unless you stay for a few days extra - but what I saw, I really liked. Of course, the sunshine and the feeling of spring in the air might have something to do with that.



On Friday night I had dinner with Liam and Miranda, who is one of Liams' best friends and rapidly becoming a good friend of mine, too. I love it so much when that happens. And obviously, Liam does too: he barely talked at all during dinner (which is rare ...), and said afterwards that he just wanted to listen and enjoy mine and Miranda's conversation. <3



Rosie stopped by just in time for dessert!

Then we went dancing, and omg, dancing was so good in Valencia. Everyone was there! I did spend a huge amount of time dancing with Liam, but he's just too good ... We agreed that we can't continue to do events like this, because we'll have no dance friends left after a while, but so far, people have been incredibly nice about our ridiculous behavior.


Hugs happened, too.


We barely saw our airbnb hosts because of the weird dance weekender sleep schedule, but every morning when we woke up, they had prepared a beautiful breakfast for us in the kitchen. And as you know, breakfast is the way to this girl's heart.



There were classes! And some great ones, too; here with Dan & Jenny, and Ruth & Mike.



The Saturday venue was beautiful. My knowledge of Spanish is limited to what I can guess from French and Latin, but I think this was some kind of opera house? Anyway, I loved it. And I had such great dances.

Also, I made finals in the invitational mix & match! And I had so, so much fun. I got to dance with Samuel, Trevor and Dáire in the finals; I had a blast, and as usual, all the nervousness disappeared as soon as I walked out on stage. And the day after, I found out that I got 3rd place! I don't really understand it? This is one of the biggest blues dance festivals in Europe, and not only did I make finals, but I placed? What is happening?!?! I feel flattered and thrilled and simply overjoyed. I must be doing something right. You can see the finals here if you want; my spotlight is at 7:12.

(Just as the finals were about to start, I was stood next to Anna, and must have looked a little down, because she asked how I was feeling. - I wish my Swedish support crew was here, but I can't see them, I said, scanning the crowd. - It doesn't matter, your UK support crew is here, she said and squeezed my arm. And I really felt it. <3)


such cute boyfriend omg very wow


In the break between classes on Sunday, I had coffee! (Sort of coffee.) For the first time in my life! People have tried to get me to like coffee for ages. Why didn't they just pour a bottle of Bailey's in it from the start?


Massage happened, too.



On Sunday night, I had dinner with my friend Andrew (sitting outside eating tapas, without a jacket, in February? Yes please). It can be really difficult to get that kind of thing to happen at a dance event - you want to spend quality time with all your dance friends who live in other places, and at the same time there's so much happening with classes and naps and plans and everything else that needs to fit in a weekend - so it's nice that we made it happen this time. He's an all around lovely person, and I'm really happy we got to spend some time together.


Sunday was another lovely dance night. Stefano Ronchi played late night (by which I mean early morning) and it was so very beautiful.

Also, I handed Gordon, who happened to be a person within reach (sorry Gordon), my camera to take a few photos of me and my love:





I'm so lucky to get to share this life with him.

Lars Danielsson | Liberetto

viktiga människor i februari



Vad mycket du reser! säger alla jag träffar, mamma, min chef på jobbet, alla vänner. De ser det på facebook eller instagram eller i bloggen, några hör det på telefon. Ja, det har blivit så: sex helger i rad är jag bortrest nu, sedan är jag hemma en helg, sedan borta några veckor till ... Det är det mest spännande och samtidigt det tryggaste liv jag någonsin levt och jag njuter medan jag kan. Och när jag väl är hemma, gör jag mitt allra bästa för att hinna träffa viktiga människor. Till exempel:


En söndagsfika med Åse alldeles efter att Liam åkte hem i början av februari. Det är ju svårt att låta bli att oupphörligen förälskelsebubbla om honom, men ingen av mina vänner har sagt upp bekantskapen än i alla fall.


En sånglektion med min allra käraste lärare och mentor fick jag in. Inte för att jag hinner öva något mellan gångerna, men jag accepterar att det är så just nu. Det är bättre att jag går dit och sjunger än helt låter bli. Och jag går alltid därifrån skuttlycklig och glad.



Ett träningstillfälle med Marianne; vi ses en gång i månaden ungefär och lär varandra grejer, en väldigt givande skill share. Hon är bäst! Och vi är medvetna om lyxen i att ha den här tomma lokalen helt för oss själva mitt på dagen.





Quizlaget Mårrans vänner, som återuppstår ett par gånger om året för att sedan åter gå i ide, gjorde sitt bästa på fina Tidbloms en onsdag. Dock fick Mattias stanna hemma med jetlag, detta faktum sörjde vi.


Till och med en lunch med Kristoffer hann jag få in i februari! Detta är jag mycket nöjd med, eftersom våra arbetstider krockar så mycket det bara går ... Men skam den som ger sig när det gäller att träffa folk man vill träffa, till slut går det.

Stor & Jireel | Nightime

sunshine & dating in delft




So, a few weeks ago, as you've seen, I spent the weekend in Delft, for a blues dance weekend called Crash!. I've already shown the dance photos I took as their official photographer (here and here), but it wasn't all dancing ...


.. it was also Liam. :)


Friday night we went on a date; I hadn't seen him for two weeks (which doesn't sound like a lot, but can certainly feel like it). We went to this brilliant restaurant called De Centrale. The food was delicious and I highly recommend it!



Doing the daily duolingo at the restaurant. I love being there when he does that, because his Swedish pronounciation is SO CUTE. It's so cute. Then we went dancing!


Saturday brought lovely weather. Actually, the whole weekend had lovely weather, we were really lucky to get to experience Delft like this.


We walked around in this beautiful city, looking at things like canals


and cheese.



And later we ended up in a pancake restaurant, watching Sweden slay Great Britain in curling, just as I knew we would. (Out of all the unlikely things we have in common, being emotionally invested in how our own country's team does in curling is a really fun one, so we made sure to watch all the games between Sweden and Britain.)



Sunday morning, tired and smiling, just the way I like him.


In the break between classes, I took a walk on my own with my music, to digest all the feelings and impressions; you know how I have to do that after a couple of days of travelling. It's all so much.






Delft really is as pretty as they say.



And it was a delight getting to spend a sunny February weekend there with him.

Elbow | What Time Do You Call This?