This weekend I decided quite on the spur of the moment to pack up a weekend bag and travel home to see my parents. I had quite a bit of work to complete on my website, and I knew that my Mum and Dad could help me with it, so Friday night after lessons I virtually ran down to the underground station and then fought my way through the rush hour commuters, wheelie bag in hand. The train that I had booked was due to leave at 17:07 and I arrived on the platform at 17:05, just enough time to jump on the nearest carriage before the train moved off from the platform, that was too close a call even for me. I found my seat and settled down for the journey home.
It was great to see my parents at the station, and we had a lovely evening relaxing and sorting out images, text and setting the links for my website update. Having talked it through with my Dad, he suggested rather than moving my blog over to my website that I should just change the links in the menu. Which gives the impression that the site is all in one place but saves me possibly losing all my page links and archives. When I get the time to check out the process a little more, I may eventually move the blog but for now, let me know what you think. You can get through to my website using the Home Button on the menu on my blog as the page selections have been re-mapped 🙂
Anyway, enough of the technical stuff and on to the rest of my weekend. My younger Brother, Thomas was competing in a National Inter-Varsity dance competition in Blackpool. It is probably the biggest event in his competition calendar, and as my Mum and Dad were traveling up to watch him, it was a great opportunity for me to tag along, show my support for him and have a little catch-up.
We all jumped in the car and made the hour and a half journey North from my parent’s house to Blackpool on the Fylde coast in Lancashire. When we were small we used to travel up to Blackpool quite often, whether it was to visit relatives, go for a walk along the promenade, make sand castles on the beach, fly our kites or go to the Pleasure Beach, we always had a very good time. I felt a little nostalgic as we drove into the Town and I could see Blackpool Tower up ahead. The Town has changed from what I remember, the number of families taking holidays there has dropped with the advent of cheap air travel and guaranteed sunshine which has led to an unfortunate decline for the town. But the friendliness of the people is still there in abundance, and once you are in Blackpool, you don’t let a little thing like strong winds and a bit of rain stop your enjoyment.
We parked up and made our way over to The Winter Gardens, in its heyday this was the entertainment hub of the North West with many West End shows making their way there. The building is just as grand now as it ever was and the Theatre looked amazing. The Ballroom where Tom was dancing was huge, and after we had wished him luck, we made our way to the viewing gallery and settled in for the end of the morning session. In the morning, Tom was competing in the Ballroom novice two-dance and out of 170 couples who entered he came 19th which was an excellent achievement.
During the lunch time break, we walked down to the seafront to buy some chunky chips with salt and vinegar, an absolute must as you walk along the windy promenade. It would have been perfect, but a cheeky little seagull decided to air bomb us and left a lovely little present in our chip tray boohoo 🙁 I then went and bought some Blackpool rock (a hard candy dentists hate if you overdo it) for my friends at College, another tradition that you just have to share while you are visiting the Town.
Feeling windblown and refreshed in the sea air we made our way back to watch Tom in the afternoon session. He was competing in the Latin novice two-dance but unfortunately this time he only got as far as the second round, but I thought he was amazing and it made me want to take up my Latin and Ballroom again. There are just not enough hours in the day 🙂 The Glasgow University team that he dances for all danced fabulously. Saulius and his partner Heather came 3rd in the ex-student advanced 5 dance ballroom and 5th in the Latin ex-student advanced 5 dance.
This morning I spent some time in my Mum’s craft room making some Thank You and Birthday cards to replenish my stock, and after a lovely weekend visit I traveled back down to London and feel energized for the week ahead.
I would say your Dad is onto something 🙂 Your new website looks amazing and it all works really well with the menus so well done with that.
Always nice to see a bit of Blackpool too!
Thanks Stephen we’ll be tweaking the website I’m sure over the next month.
I love Blackpool and Lytham St Annes, happy memories.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Your new blog looks great. Glad you got to see the rents.
Thanks John, so good to get home eat Dads Mash and Sunday dinner and card craft with Mum, nearly blew her ears off practising singing in the craft room where my piano is though 😀.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Sounds fun. Always good to see Mum and Dad.
Looking good. Also loving the pic of your red dress too and easy link to your music. Good job. 👍
Thanks glad you liked the website my Dads evening hobby took on a new dimension and I kept asking to tweak this, add this, change that. I’m really grateful for him though.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great, dear Charlotte! My Congratulations! You look gorgeous on the photo! And not only…..)))))
Best regards,
Maria
Thanks Maria my friend Sam Pyatt took the photos we had a proper laugh trying to get a more professional looking photo shoot, he’s been working with London based models who know what they’re doing 😄.
Best wishes
Charlotte
It looks professional indeed and stunning! Good luck!
I think it’s a great idea to cross link your blog and web page and make them act as one. The new theme looks good. A few quick things – I couldn’t open your web pages clicking above. When I right clicked and chose to open on a new tab it worked fine. Not sure the issue, but you may need to look into it. The photograph in the about section is, of course, beautiful, but perhaps a bit distracting – it’s hard to read the text, at least when it is in front of your face. Other than that, I think it all looks great.
Thanks a lot Trent I’ll check it out again.
Best wishes
Charlotte
I love your new website Charlotte.
The photo of you in the red dress is beautiful,I’m glad you had a good weekend,
And got to see Tom dancing in Blackpool..xx
He was fantastic as was the team, sorry we didn’t see you, hope you feel much better soon.
Best wishes
Charlotte
A joyful weekend you had. I totally enjoyed your weekend along with you. From the train back, your parent house and the town that you used to visit and your brother dance competition.
You and your web side look great!
Thank you, I had a class at the Royal College of Music and during our review of my website I was provided with some really useful advice that I worked on with my parents. I always seem to be running to catch public transport now, I count it as part of my exercise regime 😀.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Both the blog and the website are first class. Love the colors and pictures. Well done.
Thanks Annette, so happy you liked the new look, we’re hoping to update the look each season.
All my best wishes
Charlotte
Congratulations on your website. Another adventure awaits – even if only digitally. 🙂
Thank you, so many new adventures digitally I can’t keep pace with technology I get my Dad and Mum to spend hours learning then teach me 😄.
Best wishes
Charlotte
now that is a great idea!
Very nice. Lovely layout.
Thank you Jovian, I’ve got a few things I’d like to do but we don’t have the technical know how at the moment 😄. We think we’ve managed to speed up some of the loading now with the help of the WordPress support people.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Lovely. Amazing. Wonderful. And the blog’s not bad, either. 🙂
😀😄 thank you very much.
Best wishes
Charlotte
New site looks great! 🙂
Thanks Stephanie, I need to try to find some recital opportunities and hope that a more professional looking website rather than a student website will help.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Your opening photo is quite breath taking, Charlotte. Too bad that your brother and his partner didn’t win, they looked terrific. They had a great support team behind them. What a wonderful weekend for you. So glad that you got to spend it with the family. Nice blog too!!! Darlene
Darlene do you sell any round striped table mats to put under a large vase, someone dragged my Mums vase along a gloss top and scratched it and she’s looking for something to put under it?
Thank you 😊. You should have seen some of the girls outfits in the intermediate categories, there was a slinky yellow Latin outfit with three big bright yellow long tail feathers very eye catching, I could just imagine people’s faces if I walked out in a recital with some of the more flamboyant gowns on 😄 one day! Lol
Best wishes
Charlotte
Haven’t dropped in for a while to make a comment but have been following you, otherwise. It does take a while for the tabs (e.g., Blog, Videos, Gallery) to open but otherwise this new site is fun and in’site’ful. Looking forward to more posts!
PS. Happy Losar! (Feb. 27th, this year). Year of the Female Firebird, which, come to think of it, I imagine as you.
Lovely to hear from you thanks for popping by. We think we’ve managed to speed up the links now, to do with photo sizes and lots of views in a short time window I think. I must get a female firebird costume one day, is it every year?
Best wishes
Charlotte
Your blog looks great! You look gorgeous in the red dress! Congrats to your brother on his placement in the dance competition. You have a talented family. Hugs! ❤️
Thanks Janice, I forgot I was so competitive if I’d had my dance shoes I’d have asked if I could make a late entry and forced Tom to do one of our old routines hehe. These competitions are quite exciting to watch the atmosphere is very friendly and supportive. Hugs 💕 to you.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Beautiful.
Thanks Don 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
The site looks great. 🙂 One of my relatives lived in Blackpool years ago and shared photos with me, so I’m slightly familiar with the area and it’s on my list of places to visit.
It’s lovely on the beach in the summer with a soft ice cream and lots of people enjoying donkey rides and shows, i went to see Cirque Du Soleil there one time with my Auntie who lived in St Anne’s which is a seaside town just down the coast a bit quieter.
I hope you get there one day, if you ever visit England I’d love to give you a list of my favourite places to check out.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Very nice new, happy you have time with familly , congratulations to Tom and Natalie.
Great work with your blog, good work !
Have a nice week, all the best for you and them ! 🙂
We had a lovely weekend it was great to catch up with them, I miss family time. I’m pleased you like the blog and website. I saw it was your birthday at the end of the month I hope you’ve something enjoyable planned.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Thanks Charlotte – Nothing planned , but , life often makes me beautiful surprises 🙂
The best for you
Pascal
Congratulations to your brother! Champions – the two you!!! It’s always good to touch home base once in a while, your Mum and Dad will always be there for you, if learn all you can from them. [and i believe you do.]
We’re a very close family I miss them so it’s good to go to visit. All my family are very supportive, when I read your blog it makes me feel close to my Grandad because he’s always reading his history books, watching the history channel, it’s nice to know what he’s talking about 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
I’m glad you find it interesting and have someone that helps you to relate to. Our grandparents can teach us a lot because they’ve already been at the age you’re going to. Enjoy your career, but don’t forget to enjoy your youth!
I won’t don’t worry 😊
Your family is a talented bunch. I wonder what your Mum ate while she carried you guys. 🙂 I really like the style of the new website’s pages. Now, well… the navigation bar for the Blog is a little out of place. Hmm. I’m not sure how the new layout was constructed to help incorporate the Blog. I can only assume the new layout is created outside of a Premium WordPress theme. Yeah. You may be able to Import/Export all of your Blog posts into the new Blog layout. Depending on who the Web Host is… Take care.
Well there’s a funny story my Mum got really big carrying me she put on four stones in weight that she puts down to her favourite pregnancy food Cornish Pasties. I was 10Ibs 2oz and she lost the weight in a month because she couldn’t eat another pastie.
Thanks for your help, Dad changed the bar, the blog is WordPress and the website 123Reg.
Hope you’re well 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
The new website looks very sophisticated and professional! Well done to Thomas, look forward to hearing more about his dancing.
Fabulous that’s what we were aiming for.
Thomas needs to practice more they’re not that far off the final, he’s really an excellent dancer he always got the highest grades in our exams, he beat me once! 😳 that didn’t go down well 😄.
Best wishes
Charlotte
The website looks fine! Congratulations to Thomas and Natalie! I’m glad you enjoyed your weekend at home with your family; you are a talented lot!
Best wishes, Clare x
Thanks Clare, I wish I’d had time to catch up with some old friends too, especially as one of my best friends had a baby at Christmas and I’ve only seen her once.
Best wishes
Charlotte
I love your new website. Very eye catching and informative, which is what a site should be!
Thanks Marie, I need to start to try to get some recital opportunities or I’ll be working in the office again 😄 but I quite enjoy telesales and the year-end accounts anyway.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Haha, hard work pays off, whatever the road!
Oh, your new site looks terrific, Charlotte. I really love it!
Thanks Marcus I’m happy you liked the changes, we’ll be tweaking it as we go along.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great to read your updates, dear Charlotte… It seems youhad a lovely weekend. Say congrats to your brother. I admire good dancers and he is clearly one, no matter what!…
The pic of you with the candies is lovely. And now I will check out your website more in detail. Looks great at first sight, I like the banner and design!… :star: I see you there wink! 😉
PS: I am back.. Charlotte: I am glad that you didn´t migrate the contents from here!. Like two different blogs. Well done. The new blog is very proffesional and looks wonderful!
Thank you my friend 💕 I’m really pleased you like it. We did think about fully integrating the blog but we wanted to keep all the old comments and history in tact I didn’t want to risk losing anything because I love reading back sometimes.
My best wishes
Charlotte
Reblogged this on Wag 'n Bietjie.
Thank you that’s most kind of you 😊.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Great..!!
Glad you liked it Dharmesh.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Well done for making the train and getting a seat. Great photos. Especially the one with the tower in the background. Well done to your brother too. That’s an excellent result.
That was so close and it wasn’t an open ended ticket for any train because it’s cheaper!
It was great to see him dancing again.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Love your new website!
Thank you 😊 glad you liked it, thanks for letting me know.
My best wishes
Charlotte
Love your new website! Both pictures are very nice. And I just listened to the Ave Maria, you sound even better than a couple years ago. Practice makes perfect as they say!
This is so awesome to see on wordpress. I am myself both a writer and a stage hand. I’ve spent a lot of time in the arts in my life, in both music and backstage work. I love reading about your experiences from the UK point of view. Here we don’t have as many great opportunities in the midwest of the US. Keep writing! <3 this is awesome
Great bog and site Charlotte ! Everything works well. Glad it is all working out fine 🙂 Here is where you could announce any new posters..?