ZuMba Summer Term

I know, I know, all these emails, these bank holidays, and ZuMba schedule deep down old posts but don't despair, here comes the Summer Term schedule just on time for your bikini count down.

Soooooooooo , come and join me and PARTY yourself into shape on:

Monday, 10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Tuesday 10 am, Coronation Hall, East Grafton

Tuesday 6.30 pm, St Peter's School, Marlborough

Wednesday, 10 am, Marlborough Football Club

Wednesday 6.30 pm, St Peter's School, Marlborough

Thursday 10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Thursday 6.30 pm, St Peter's School, Marlborough
Friday 10 am, Church Hall, Ramsbury

FREE trial session /£6 a session/£4 for the second session the same week.
See you there or there!
Info via this blog under Label Hips don't lie/Zumba . Because they never. Lie.

Contact details in My Profile for those who might have missed it.
Become a Follower to get the latest news about ZuMBA classes, schedules, events and other bits and tats.

1,2,3...ZuMBA!

Countdown is on till bikini time, but don't despair

ZUMBA is back on tomorrow Tuesday 26th April.

Please, note!!!

A change of location

The Wednesday 6.30 pm class which was until now held in Ramsbury

will be from now on held in Marlborough, St Peter's School.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Classes planning for the next days

No class in Ramsbury on Friday 29th April, we have a wedding dress to gossip on.

No class in Marlborough on Monday 2nd May

Come and PARTY yourself into shape,

See you there or there!

Love seats

Told you I was working on how to go from a list to a painting. Here comes the list of Pablo's Favorite spots on earth with a little help from Pablo...Neruda for the title.


Residencia(s) en la tierra
Collage and Oil on canvas
50x50





Since you can't really read, or maybe you have Steve Austin's eyes, I don't know but don t spoil my fun, I can also give you the list as a list, yey!


Marlborough N51.421731 W -1.7250568
Beg Meil N 47.857268 W -3.983917
Amsterdam N52.3496349 E 4.882806
Lauris N 43.7471967 E 5.312343
Zapallar S-32.5503842 W-71.4583482
Rio de J S-22.9878707 W-43.1911991
Ghisoni N 41.854986 E9.401207
Solenzara N42.1053926 E9.2130048

Zumba with Lau Last Minute News

Class in East Grafton tomorrow will start exceptionnally at 10.30.

Sorry for inconvenience. If you can't make it, check out other times and locations below. see you there or there.

ZuMba with Lau News

Hips at the ready, ZUMBA is back on

tomorrow Monday 28th Feb with exciting NEWS:

1 new evening, 1 new location :

Monday 10 am, Marlborough, Football Club

NEW Tuesday 10 am, East Grafton, Coronation Hall

Tuesday 6.30 pm, Marlborough, St Peter's School

Wednesday 10 am, Marlborough, Football Club

Wednesday 6.30 pm, Ramsbury, Memorial Hall

Thursday 10 am, Marlborough, Football Club

NEW Thursday 6.30 pm, Marlborough, St Peter's School

Friday 10 am, Ramsbury, Church Hall

Come and PARTY yourself into shape,

See you there or there!

Keep yourself always posted on ZuMba with Lau,

register as a follower on this very blog.

ZuMBA with Lau News

No half term classes this week as I'm working on new moves, songs and styles ...to keep it spicy !

Hasta pronto!

Keep yourself always posted on ZuMba with Lau, register as a follower on this very blog

The published diary of a PTA mum

Who's taking the minutes today?

In case you are wondering, meeting went well. Of course last time cake was banana loaf with vanilla icing, but unlike me these are decent people and nobody have gone “Wot? shortbreads from the box, all you got to ease my pain for dragging myself to this meeting, girl?
No it was an easy meeting. It‘s not always the case. First because I hate meetings , ... uh because..I’ll explain later...So easy meeting because ... I’ll explain easy later as well....
Now the suspense is killing you, I know, but have you read the title, it’s called “who is taking the minutes today”. You did this to yourself. But don’t despair because “who is taking the minutes today?” in our committee happens to be the second sentence of our meetings usually, just after Hello and Who’s for coffee, Who’s for tea? OK technically the third but at that point the meeting looks nothing like easy. Some are staring at the window, some have forgotten sugar/milk/tea/coffee in their tea/coffee, some even have forgotten to put coins in the meter because let’s face it taking minutes is quite boring. It’s like watching a tennis rally without being able to smash the ball at one point.
But you need to sit through it, you need to take minutes to make the meeting official and to enable the people who cares, (i.e probably 5 parents) and mostly the members of the Committee not able to make it to the meeting that morning to read what was decided and even more importantly to be able to justify any decision that has been made in case of any problem seeing that we are a registered charity it’s kind of the less we can do.
And in any committee the answer to the questions would be? The Secretary of the Committee...but sad and true, in ours, since the last one stepped down, we haven’t found anyone in our charming state of the art international state school who would commit to the job. I know the first question you want to ask is why? Well can you ask tomorrow? Or don’t you give an absolute damn to who took the minutes? It’s a good story you know.
We have decided back in September that the minutes will be taken by a volunteer, each meeting a different one. Worked well at that meeting but this time my question just died so quickly that I had to cover the body quickly and mumbled “OK I’ll do it”. And I did. Not that I don t know how to do it. I was the Secretary last year.



PTA-litically correct

Zumba in Ramsbury this week

EXCEPTIONNALLY this week, ZuMBA evening class in Ramsbury won't be on Wednesday evening but on THURSDAY evening.

Time and venue, 6.30 pm and Memorial Hall, unchanged.

Sorry about any inconvenience on your tight schedules.

See you there or next week as usual.

Family Tree

Or how it all started....of course when I arrived first time at my in laws', these beautiful antique shelves were not that full and it seems that these last ten years have been kind of productive!

Of course where you see bowls and wood shelves, I see rainy mornings obliterated by Nutella on bread and the cousins herd basking on fluorescent green grass in bright sunny dawns...Some kind of magic I told you, Proust and his madeleine can go for a walk comparing to this.

My father in law who patiently build this wall of fame should be made shareholder of that bowl company by now. This picture was made for him and bears his name.

"El Patriarca del fin de la tierra"

Oil on canvas 80x60cm

The published diary of a PTA mum

I can't believe there's a f*** meeting this morning...

...And we are back on, first day of the half-term... I have managed to duck pretty much any obligations attached to my highly important status of co-chair of the Committee for a good full month of January and a bit of February to be totally honest ...not bad, but of course now it’s piling up and must look a bit dodgy. Seems like yesterday that we were having a meeting about the colour of the icing of the cupcakes for the Xmas Tea ...yes, Xmas Tea was nice and I will tell you about it when I’m fully awake, when I have sorted out how to have a nice cake for a meeting which starts at 9.00 am in the music room when its 7.30 am and I’m still in bed and so are the 3 children I’m supposed to deliver at school in time...we wouldn’t want to start a new half- term by being late, would we? ...Guess we will have to, so my first resolution of the half term, let’s see... killed in 3.33 minutes. You will easily understand why I don’t even bother to have New Year’s resolutions.
OK, icing of the Xmas cupcakes for the Xmas tea was vanilla-y yellow and there is also a whole story about this, but stick with me here, still no solution for the cake this morning...And I think I could convince myself to be sick just now. I haven’t been sick since 2007 so I’m fully enrighted to it ( is that even a word?). And I could dump this meeting on my co-Chair, and this sad little cake story? Not fair, not at all fair...but I know she would forgive me, she is my co-chair, my lovely half, my partner in bad and worse...
Still pondering over this while toasting numerous slides of bread I’m not even entitled to, since I have eaten like a pig over Xmas and, then January was very cold, and I’m back now on the diet I started in 1984. But I have to kill it immediately.
My co-Chair, my friend, my beacon in the fog has actually decided to go back to work and this morning is her first day. And she sent me 3 texts, 4 emails about this since she’s quite acquainted with my tendency to block out of my memory any news I’m not totally fond of.
Cake for the meeting will be shortbreads from the box. Sad, but very unilaterally decided better than nothing. And anyway a cake would be lost on me cause the diet. I 'm a much better unselfish person when I ‘m allowed carbs....

The good ZuMBA student List

As you might already known if you have browsed this blog, I have a thing for lists and here is a chance to slip one under this label. It can be called the good Zumba student List or rather how to go from "all the gear and no idea" to "all the gear and no fear...shut up and let me ZuMBA".

I would recommend for my ZuMBA classes to:
-bring water, it is an intensive work out as well as a funny one, you'll need it,
-confortable clothes to move in and sweat in,
-training shoes to support all the twisting and bouncing, most of the dances we'll have a look at are done in high heels for sure...but let's give that a try in a little while...!
-bring water, it is an intensive work out and you'll need it,
-not worry about your age, I'm 21 or 65 depending on who's asking,
-not worry about sense of rythm, that can be trained and if really not, it does not mean you won't like the music and that's all I need ,

-not worry about having missed a class or the first one as I'll keep the classes as they are for 4 weeks then make some changes so anybody can step in litterally any time,

-bring water, it is an intensive work out as well as a funny one, you'll need it,
-fill a disclaimer before taking your first class to let me know anything I need to know, if in doubt, ask a doctor as ZuMBA falls more into the category of fitness and aerobics than dance ( even if it looks like it),

-don't be afraid to pace yourself during class, walk the steps instead of jumping them, stop if you need a dring or a rest.

-bring water...and a happy face, it is an intensive work out and a funny one, I sure will need it!

It has so started...!

Thanks to the lovely ladies who came to be the first Zumba dancers from Ramsbury and Marlborough! I hope you all had fun and look forward to be back next week to PARTY yourself into shape!
Classes will start tomorrow in Great Bedwyn and following general request, I'll also have an evening class tomorrow at 6.30pm at St Peter's school@ Hope this one fits your planning. See you there or there!
Monday,10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Tuesday 10 am, British Legion Hall, Great Bedwyn

Tuesday 6.30pm, St Peter's School Dancing room , Marlborough
Wednesday, 10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Wednesday 6.30 pm, Memorial Hall, Ramsbury
Thursday 10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Friday 10 am, Church Hall, Ramsbury
£6 per class/ FREE trial session
Info via this blog under Label Hips don't lie/Zumba . Because they never. Lie.
Contact details in My Profile for those who might have missed it.
Become a Follower to get the latest news about ZuMBA classes, schedules, events and other bits and tats.

Cheaper by the dozen

As I was saying, it's about the bowl and it's not only about the bowl.It's about everything else. Life. Family. Family life. Mess starting way before breakfast. And who said you can have only one obsession per painting?

"Where are my keys? We are late."

Oil on canvas

120x28cm

Be ready to ZUMBA!

In 2011, be prepared to hold to your New Year's resolution:

this is the miracle of ZUMBA!
The fitness class which actually makes you
want to go to fitness class.
It's Latin-inspired, easy- to- follow, calorie-burning and EXHILARATING.
You are dancing, you are toning and you are SMILING.
Whatever your age and dancing skills,

Come and PARTY yourself into shape!

Mon, Wed, Thursday 10 am, Marlborough Football Club
Tuesday 10 am, British Legion Hall, Great Bedwyn
Wednesday 6.30 pm, Memorial Hall, Ramsbury
Friday 10 am, Church Hall, Ramsbury
£6 per class/ FREE trial session

Info via this blog under Label Hips don't lie/Zumba . Because they never. Lie.

Contact details in My Profile for those who might have missed it.

Become a Follower to get the latest news about ZuMBA classes, schedules, events and other bits and tats.

The published diary of a PTA Mum

Excuse my French
The author of this column prefers not to divulge her name and whereabouts to avoid being a target on the playground. She has been successful in avoiding PTA obligations, first by not knowing what it was anyway (aaah, bloody Frenchies..) and after having forgotten not to ask, by slaloming her way between a certain amount of English speaking schools in various countries until it fell upon her on one English grey postnatal depressed morning.
Since then, she’s still trying to figure what has got into her as she has no time anymore for her favourite soap operas or for chatting online non sense with abroad friends or not even to try to figure out what has got into her. You, yourself will try to figure out why she would even add to this evident non sense of hers by writing about it in really poor English...but well at least we are even. Welcome to the club or more precisely the Committee.
You should know at that point that we are talking serious here. Some sacrifices have been done: she had to buy a business planner to write in things like “lunch with Summer Fair subcommittee”, to talk to more than two people a day and these people not being sales person at the supermarket round the corner, and to learn how to say "thank you for your comments" when all she wants is to scream "well, just come and do it next year, you *** (fill the space with your favourite, my treat).
Her 4 kids have to put up with nastiness too: no more organic meals forced down, frozen lasagna round the week since she's too busy baking for the bake sale and no more yoga/ballet/gym/karate/tennis driving around, go play on your WII and let me write the newsletter which should have gone out in December.
She will stay happily married unless she can’t find someone to help her husband flip 250 burgers on the BBQ for the next Summer Fair.
Fingers crossed.

Super Bowl

It is about a bowl. Strangely shaped with 2 ears kind Shrek's and a name on it. Hopefully yours. It's at the same time kitsch and beautiful, you don't really want to buy one but you can't help checking up if there is your name on display, well let's say if you are French you can't... but actually since Beverly Hills 92010, you have way more chances to find your name on a bowl in a little Breton sea resort shop if you answer to Dylan or Brandon. Jennifer will work perfectly too. It's not like you really need names on these sort of things and most of the time I end up with an item belonging to someone way hairier than me or still wearing nappies but it means so many still asleep looks, so many sleeves accidentally dipped into hot chocolate and so many toasts with various calories counting that it is in fact pure poetry. The most absolute perfect way to represent family life on bank days and bank holidays. I.e my obsession.
"Not really awake yet"
Oil on canvas
50x70 cm