It takes two to tango...

It's time for a bit of a dancing update here... I have another site in Dutch where I write detailed reports, but since a lof of people reading my Tink blog don't read Dutch, here's an English update:

In the regional competition which we've been taking part in for just over a year now, we've done really well. At the moment we're dancing in the A-Class for both ballroom and latin, so only one class away from the absolute top. It's only the top class that wears the beautiful dancing gear, but with only 1 or 2 competitions away from it in ballroom I've now purchased a dress (picture to the right) and tan colored shoes (see picture below) to go with it. For latin it will be a bit longer before we reach the top level as we have some tough competition there! I expect to wear the ballroomdress for the first time in March or April, so stay tuned!


In the national dance competition we just finished our third competition. Unfortunately there are only a few participants in our class, and if there are only a few participants they don't give points to all couples dancing a final round. So progress is really slow, and at this rate it will take a good two years before we get promoted to the B-Class, which is when you have to wear the official gear in this national competition. Having said that, this is the competition we'll be focusing on as this is the one where we can see progress once we've reached the top in the other competition.

To help with the progress, we've decided to sacrifice our two week vacation planned for March, and take a two week dancing bootcamp during that time instead. Our dance trainer is developing a program for us. It will be tough, but most definitely worth it!

Apple Rulezzz

I remember it well, the day in 1999 when I decided to swap my PowerMac for an ordinary Windows based PC... I was working as a CRM Consultant at the time, and a lot of the tools I needed for work were not available on a Mac. Since then my personal laptops have been Windows-based, and for work I've used both Windows-based machines and Linux.

This past week I bought my first iPhone as well as my first iPod (Classic). And I have to say - I'm very impressed! I love the user-interface of the iPhone, absolutely love it! It's a vast improvement on the Windows Mobile based smart phone I had before. I love the fact that you can store a webpage on your 'home screen', the applications that you can download from the AppStore, and the fact that it has a mini iPod included. The only trouble I have is that I sometimes mistype, I guess my fingers are too thick to hit the right spot on the touch screen.

I store my entire music collection on my MP3-player, and the iPhone doesn't have enough space for it, which is why I also bought an iPod Classic with 120 GB of space. Plenty of space left for any future music acquisitions! The difference between the iPod and the Creative ZEN Touch I had before isn't as big as the difference between an iPhone and any other phone. But the quality of the sound, and the iTunes software is much, much, better.

As I mention in the title of this blog, Apple Rulezzz... I'm so pleased with my iPhone and iPod that I am even considering a Mac Airbook for when I need to replace my current laptop! Having said all that, I wish Steve Jobs, the man behind many of Apple's successes, a speedy recovery! We need more people like him!

Swan Lake

Saturday evening we went to a performance of the "Swan Lake" ballet, by the Tatarstan Ballet/Opera group. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed...

Somehow I didn't feel absorbed into it, like I normally am when the performance is good. There were a few good dancers, including the jester (a role I had not seen in the swan lake before), and the Princess. The Prince however, was a disappointment. There was also a very long break between the third and fourth act, which was confusing to the audience, especially since the lights in the theatre went on. People were wondering if the performance was finished.

The other surprising thing was the end of the performance, when only a selection of the group came on stage for the applause. Several of the players never even appeared. Yesterday (Sunday) evening, they showed the swan lake ballet with the choreography of Noureyev on Mezzo TV, and the contrast couldn't have been bigger.

I don't think I'll visit a performance by the Tatarstan group again...