galadhir

Friday Five on Thursday

2026-07-09T10:18:56Z

What would you do right now, if money were not an issue?

Move to Canada

What would you do for the next three years, if money were not an issue?

Move to Canada - somewhere cooler. Maybe get a beach house next to one of the lakes, and offer my children a house each nearby.

What is bringing you the most joy right now that requires little or no money?

Dancing - it's always dancing, although finding a place large enough to practice in does require money.

What types of things do you find enjoyable that require no money?

I would have said morris dancing but even that requires some money, if only for petrol or fares to get to the events. Is there anything you can do that doesn't cost anything?

Is there anything you've been meaning to do for a long time, but put off because of money?

Moving to a house on a canal, with attached mooring, and then buying a narrowboat for occasional cruises, and letting Son moor his narrowboat there too for free.

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Spinach

2026-07-06T08:49:31Z

Blergh! Some of the weird taste of last week's spinach smoothie was not just due to leaving the cottage cheese out. I'm having another one today, and the taste persists. Some of it must be because I was using spinach from the garden, and it really tastes as though it was grown in dirt. It was washed and everything but - hmn - definitely a very earthy vibe.

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Back to the sewing machine

2026-07-05T10:01:50Z

At the hafla there were a lot of ladies wearing very elegant galabeyas, while I was stuck wearing one that I had made for myself when I was a size 24 (and I am now a size 18.) So of course I was inspired to come home and make myself a smaller size fitted dress.

I found some fabric in Hobby Hut for £11 a metre, then followed along with Sparkly Belly's DIY Baladi/Saidi Dress tutorial on YouTube:

DIY galabeya

This was my first time sewing with stretch fabric, and I was very pleased with the result:

But of course now I have to decide on what colour sash and bra to make for it. I should have made it with a higher neckline and then you wouldn't see the bra, but as it is I've committed myself to another bra covering expedition.

(I'm thinking turquoise, for the contrast. Alternatively I already have a suitable charcoal grey satin bra, so if I can find some charcoal grey satin for a sash, that might be a cheaper option.)

I've bought some big beads and some mirror pieces to sew on, but ugh... it's turning out to be another time consuming and expensive project. I don't know why I expected differently.

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Shimmyfest 2026

2026-06-30T10:25:33Z

So... Saturday was Shimmyfest, and I was surprisingly not nervous at all. I think the nerves had been beaten out of me by the heat. After that 36°C day I no longer cared about anything in the world, and I was not looking forward to this hafla any more, even though I'd spent the whole year looking forward to it previously.

I packed my bag full of three costumes - the one I'd specifically made for the solo, the heavy metal one with a black skirt, which I thought would probably do for the show-back of the workshop I was attending, and a galabeya I'd made for the Saidi dance Elizabeth's group Allulah were performing. Plus makeup and hairbrush and props (in this case a Saidi cane.)

Fortunately the venue (which was in Christchurch near March) was quite cool and had a nice draft through the corridor when all the doors were open, and the day was only 30°C - which felt tolerable after the Friday inferno. I arrived early - earlier than the zouk, and the first workshop was already going on so I spent the first hour alone reading a book. Which was fine by me.

Then it was time for the workshop I was attending, which was a tribal style 'slow' workshop, teaching you the value of dancing with slow precision. This was supposed to start at 12pm and go on for two hours, and the hafla itself was to start at 4pm and last til 7pm. Giving me (I thought) two hours to browse the zouk and find something nice to treat myself to for my birthday.

The 'Slow' workshop however didn't actually start til half past, and it went on til 3pm, giving me only an hour to eat some lunch and get into costume for my solo, so browsing the zouk didn't happen.

The workshop itself was surprisingly rigourous and muscular. We learned the tribal sidewinder move, and the figure of eight with the hips while putting your weight on the 'wrong' leg. Then we learned a choreography to showcase these moves, and did some stretching to warm up and cool down.

This hurt my back and convinced me that perhaps tribal is not for me after all, but fortunately adrenaline and excitement was carrying me by that point.

Then of course she said that she didn't want anyone wearing black for the show-back. And I had only brought an extra black outfit. So after not being able to get into any of the emergency outfits she had brought I decided the galabeya would have to do for that too.

My solo was on first, and changing into costume for that defeated me. I made the mistake of taking my hair down to begin with, but with it down I became so hot that my hands were sticky with sweat. Plus I still had not lost enough weight around my chest that the bra I had made for my solo felt comfortable. Plus I put the mesh stomach thing on the wrong way round.

So I was struggling in the toilet thinking 'I can't get this on! But I've got to wear something.' Panicking for the second year running. Then I thought of combining the heavy metal bedlah with the white skirt and stomach cover and went with that:

I was a little disappointed not to be able to wear the outfit I'd specifically made for the solo, but it more or less worked. What a relief that I had packed that extra costume after all!

The dance got applause and two guys coming up to me afterward to tell me they had enjoyed it, so that was great and I'm calling it a success. Now it's time to retire this one and make something new.

Then into the galabeya for the Slow showback. This was much less of a hassle to wear, and had been much less of a hassle to make too. (I am now 4 stone - 56lb - lighter and I still can't buy bellydancing outfits that fit me. I quite like making stuff but oh how I wish I didn't always have to.)

Then I flung a different belt on and went out to perform the Saidi dance, by which time the exhaustion was beginning to work its way even through the excitement. I began to feel weird and achy before I even got home, being very glad to reach the end of the drive before I stopped functioning.

Sunday I was mostly dead, and on Monday I made the mistake of going to Louise's class, so today I am dead again but this time with added pain in every joint. It was worth it, but I'm glad I only do it once a year!

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A name for the sword

2026-06-25T08:50:35Z

As a person who can't speak Arabic (can't anything Arabic, speak, read, write - I can't do any of it,) I'm relying on Google Translate to give it a name.

For the moment I've decided its name is "Enlightener," because I can't resist a pun. I would like it to be light on the head, and I would like it to give light in the sense of being shiny. But if any spiritual enlightenment was going on, I would not be opposed to that either.

I don't think any of that translates to Arabic, where they have different words for light meaning weight, light meaning the radiation you see with, and enlighten meaning understand something. But all the same it's going to be called مُنير (Munyr) which I think is pronounced Muneerun.

We'll see how it fits and adjust if necessary later :)

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galadhir @ 2026-06-24T16:29:00

2026-06-24T15:42:28Z

So it was my birthday yesterday, and for my present I got the belly dancing sword I had been trying to get for the past three years. Huzzah!

I just happened to be browsing on Etsy and saw that someone in the USA was selling a proper sword for a price that was reasonable enough it would be worth me paying the postage to post it over to me in the UK.

Honestly this shows how dire the sword situation is here in the UK. All we have available here are these props from Swords Kingdom which look fine on the photo but are very obviously props and not real swords.

In the US you can buy swords like this for a really decent price from Kult of Athena, but they don't ship to the UK. OTOH, I've seen a whole class of belly dancers with swords like this, so perhaps the situation was different a few years ago.

Anyway, I suggested this one to DH as a present he could buy me for my birthday and now it is finally here :)

It comes with a scabbard and everything, so will not poke holes in my bags any more.

It's much heavier on the head (and on the arms) but I will acclimate to it - in fact it's less painful already.

This is a proper sword and it needs a name. Any suggestions?

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It's too bloody hot

2026-06-24T14:46:49Z

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Daily questions

2026-06-23T11:40:09Z

22. If you have a backyard/garden, do you save rainwater for watering the plants in the summertime?

Yes, we have four water butts that catch water from various points on the roof. When they run out I use my (cooled) dirty washing up water. I use eco-friendly washing up detergent and none of my plants have ever objected to this. In fact I believe that the dirt is food for them.

In the worst droughts, when the water butts are empty, the used washing up water is enough to keep the newly planted plants going. If plants have been in the ground for longer than a year they are expected to have formed enough of a root system to handle going un-watered.

23. If money were no object, would you rather have a gardener, a cleaner, a chef, a masseuse, a beautician, a florist or a hairdresser (or someone else) to be ‘on call’ for you every day? Choose one :D

Oh no, how am I to choose between chef and masseuse? I hate cooking and would love a personal chef to make me tasty, healthy meals. But I also have pain all over my body and massage often sorts that out for a day or so. If I could have a massage in the morning every day I might almost be pain free.

I'm going to go with chef, because I do hate cooking and I don't have the time to do it well myself. Plus I hate the thought of a daily massage even if it would make me feel better.

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galadhir @ 2026-06-22T10:24:00

2026-06-22T09:29:34Z

Made myself a smoothie for breakfast - spinach, cottage cheese, milk, chia seeds, blueberries. Drank it, thought 'this tastes weird and it didn't fill the glass. Odd.' But shrugged and finished it.

Last sip, suddenly realized I had forgotten to put the cottage cheese into the blender. 100g of cottage cheese standing out on the counter, intended to be the protein that kept me filled until lunch time. what to do?

Added a teaspoon of cocoa powder to the cottage cheese and blended that too and ate it as a rather bitter and unlovely chocolate mousse.

Today is clearly going well.

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Friday Five

2026-06-19T14:44:37Z

1. What is your biggest waste of time in your home?

The computer, 100%. When I'm not at the computer I'm usually doing something useful.

2. When at work, what is the activity that you find wastes the most time?

I work at the computer, so it's very easy to just check what's been posted on Facebook or Tumblr, and then I'm back to wasting time scrolling social media.

When getting busy with a date or significant other, what ritual could you do without?

I don't know what this one means. Is 'getting busy' a euphemism? Do you mean 'when going on a date?' I don't go on dates these days, and when I did I didn't have a pre-date ritual other than deciding what I was going to wear. (And you can't do without that.)

What is the biggest waste of time on the Internet?

Instagram, I think, or maybe TikTok. Although I personally waste most of my time on Tumblr.

What do you do at a restaurant to waste time when waiting for your meal?

...talk to the people I am eating with? Is that a waste of time? Or is that a big part of going out to eat?

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Second half of summer holidays 2026

2026-06-19T10:12:59Z

Now I've had time to mostly do the laundry, I should also take time to recall what we did in the second half of the holiday, when the weather got a little better. (It also took me this time to get round to reducing the size of the holiday photos so they don't take up too much of my storage.)

As some glimpses of clear sky and warm sun emerged, we went to a National Trust nature reserve whose name escapes me, where there were two breeding pairs of ospreys and Son could tick ospreys off on his birding journal.

To make us feel like home it was a very boggy area and there were walkways bordered with metal curbs. They must have been warm, because Daughter and I found this handsome chap sunning himself on the rim.

They're just called 'common lizards' but I've never seen one before in my life, so they can't be that common. I didn't even think we had lizards in the UK.

(To be fair we only have three species of lizard in the UK and one of them - the slow worm - has no legs and kind of counts with the snakes.) A neat thing about common lizards is that they bear live young rather than laying eggs.

So that was very satisfactory. The next day we went to Kendal Pride and took part in half the procession. It turned out to be quite long, and I find walking hard, though the physiotherapy has been working. Still, I bugged out half way through and went to a cafe to wait for DH to finish. (He was taking photos of everything.)

The children stayed with me (they're very kind), and when DH got back we had lunch at the cafe, then I completed the course and found the event, where there were stalls and a stage with various performers. An excellent turnout.

The next day we went to Beatrix Potter's house, which was very comfortable and filled with antique furniture which she bargain hunted herself. It was plenty large enough for one person, or even a couple, but nothing like the enormous, prideful, historic stately homes we'd been touring, and I liked her much better after seeing it.

They did tell us that there was an infestation, but clarified that it was an infestation of ten felt mice scattered around the house for people to spot. We found all ten, including the one who was in a hole in the floor. One was singing in the piano, and two were in the dollshouse arguing about the bed.

Obligatory photo of Son in the window seat at Beatrix Potter's house taking a photo of the very nice hearth set-up. Surrounding her fire she had a bread oven and a compartment that heated water, with a tap attached. We were impressed.

The garden was lovely too, and contained several spots that appear exactly the same in the books.

For lunch that day we went to a pub near the cottage. The most unimproved pub I've experienced ever since they started to get family-friendly. Bare boards, bare tables, a bar and not much more. They were not having with this 'gastro-pub' lark! But they did do an enormous bowl of tomato soup and bowls of chips so large we shared one between three.

And that was it! On the way home we diverted to see one of the largest prehistoric stone circles in Cumbria.

It had sadly been vandalized in the 18th Century (blown up with gunpowder!) so some of the stones were cracked and all of them were lying down on their sides. But it was so peaceful there - peace that pressed into you like a great weighted blanket. The sun shone and the quiet and calm was astonishing.

And then we came home :)

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Physio bot and family summer hols 2026

2026-06-11T21:17:23Z

I was doing my usual routine at the gym on Wednesday when something went crunch and I suddenly could not hinge at my hips without agony. However, because I'm used to having pain in the sacroiliac when I do the workout I didn't think much of it. I finished the routine and then cycled home.

It continued to be painful however. Whenever I moved from sitting down and standing up I was in agony for about five minutes, and I could not bear weight on my right leg.

Obviously, by the time I decided it wasn't getting any better, it was the weekend. And we were going on holiday on Monday. So I self-referred myself to physiotherapy, and got an immediate appointment with an AI on the NHS.

This was/is a bit skin-crawling because it tries very hard to be a human, but it isn't a human, and it's infuriating because I can only explain what's happening via multiple choice statements that often have nothing to do with what I would actually like to say.

It guided me to talking about the ongoing back problem I have had for years, and made it impossible for me to talk about the painful hip. Then it gave me some exercises for the back.

Deciding that I would at least get physiotherapy for the ongoing back problem, I figured I would do the back exercises, and after a week of exercises to restore flexibility to my lower back I have had three days of much more walking than I've been able to manage for years.

It hasn't really helped the hip, but I'll take it.

Much more walking is happening because I am on holiday in the Lake District, where all there is to do is go walking (pretty much.)

We (me, DH, Son and Daughter) are renting out a historic National Trust farmhouse for the week. Or at least, some other people are renting out the big farmhouse, and we are renting the small workers' cottage attached. It's on the grounds of the Sizergh Estate and there's pretty much nothing but nature around us.

The distant speck of a white house is where we are staying, viewed from the front door of the Big House of Sizergh Manor.

And here's the view from the kitchen window:

So far we've gone into Kendal in search of Kendal Mint Cake, taken a steam train to Windermere aquarium, and taken a 19th century steam yacht gondola on a trip around Coniston Water.

Tomorrow we're going to a nature reserve so Son - who is a keen birder - can try to see an Osprey. It has poured down today, but I'm told it will go back to patchy showers and sunshine again tomorrow. I certainly hope so!

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A question a day

2026-06-05T10:52:55Z

Have you learned anything new in the past year (a new hobby/craft/language/fact)?

In the last week or so I discovered Indian Club Swinging and I am attempting to learn that. I have learned how to do forward hearts and I can do reverse hearts in a wobbly and slow way where I have to think about every movement before I do them.

I like to take things up, but I do have a tendency to abandon them as soon as they get difficult, so have I really learned anything in my life at all? Your definition may vary.

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A question a day

2026-06-03T09:26:46Z

Do you still pay for things with cash? Have you been somewhere recently where they don’t take cash anymore?

I always try to have cash on me in case I meet a homeless person or Big Issue seller, but I tend to always pay by card. (Which means I wouldn't notice if anywhere didn't take cash.) I have to remind myself to use cash occasionally on a 'use it or lose it' basis. (I don't want to lose it.)

Have you ever used a photobooth? Are they still around where you live (where’s the nearest one?)

I have used them many a time, every time for getting some sort of official ID - passport, drivers' license, student IDs etc.

They don't seem to be around any more. There used to be one in Tescos, and in the Post Office but it's not there now (neither the photobooths nor the Post Office.)

I assume that now everyone can take photos on their phone it's no longer profitable for the photobooths to exist. Which is a shame, because it's actually quite difficult to take a photo on a phone that is acceptable for use in official documents.

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galadhir @ 2026-05-31T16:08:00

2026-05-31T15:18:03Z

Has anyone tried Indian club swinging as an exercise?

It looks kind of fun and makes the big claims that all types of exercise make these days.

I'm wary because I know that I tend to start things and try them a couple of times but then give up. On the other hand I do enjoy twirling things and I enjoy weapons. So I might like it?

I'm not currently enjoying the weightlifting, and I seem to have strained or injured my right arm, which is exactly the opposite of what I went into it for. Replacing an hour of weightlifting twice a week with twenty minutes of club twirling a day could be an improvement.

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Shamed into working on my novel

2026-05-28T09:11:42Z

We're being overlooked again both from inside and out. The heat-pump people are back to try to figure out how to zone the house into upstairs and downstairs so we don't have to heat the whole house at the same time. And the neighbors are putting up a fence just outside the kitchen window.

So the heat pump people are in the kitchen (where the lines from the heat pump come in through the wall.) The kitchen which is only a doorless archway from my desk. And outside the kitchen window, barely six feet away, the neighbors are working on the fence. They have a garden, and the fence is a long way from their house. But it is not a long way from my kitchen window, and with the window open to catch the morning chill I can hear everything they're saying, and they can watch me at the sink.

(We could hold a conversation while I was at the sink and they were over the fence.)

Again, it is a good thing that the fence is being mended, though I would have preferred the new one not be so high, or so visibly made of plastic. And it's a good thing that the heat pump engineers are figuring out how to fix our heating, but ugh.

So, in order to (a) look busy when the engineer pops his head round the corner to ask me things, and (b) not be watched in the kitchen, I have been shamed into opening up the file of my cozy fantasy and adding some new words.

It's pretty good, that's the thing. Every time I re-read it I realize with a shock of surprise that it's not bad at all. And yet I never want to write. I'd rather do almost anything else, and frequently I do do almost anything else. I guess my self discipline has atrophied. It's like I was never a professional writer at all.

I suppose the difference is that none of my heart is in this. I'm not writing it because I feel driven to. I'm writing it because I can write - I'm fairly okay at it - and because it's fairly enjoyable to create a world out of nothing. I enjoy reading my work back and seeing what I made. That might be enough reason, honestly, but it's not a pressing one.

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galadhir @ 2026-05-25T20:55:00

2026-05-25T20:14:54Z

ooh it's so hot! It's so hot. Too hot

35°C (95°F) today. Too hot for me, but I still managed to walk around the boat show and look at a number of narrowboats. (With the aid of sunscreen, a linen dress, a big hat, an umbrella used as a parasol, several liters of water to drink and another liter to pour over my head so I had wet hair and damp clothes.)

Then I came home and huddled in front of a swamp cooler for several hours before I slowly stopped feeling feverish.

Now it's 22°C and all the doors & windows are open as we attempt to cool the inside of the house down. It's getting dark and I must water the garden.

35° is expected tomorrow as well, so it's not happening tomorrow. (And by 'it' I mean 'anything.') I am planning a day of huddling by a swamp cooler until it finally goes away.

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Apparently it's summer now

2026-05-22T10:56:26Z

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUgh! 28°C today after several weeks of 11-14°C. I'm not acclimatized. Give me a run up at least. And it's going to be 32°C on Monday. Half of me is Neanderthal! I have the red(ish) hair, I have the pale skin that doesn't tan. I'm not built for this.

I cannot picture me cycling for an hour through the heat, then spending an hour weight lifting, then cycling back for another hour. Not without making myself sick. And it is Daughter's birthday party in London tomorrow.

That will involve much travelling by train and underground to get there, a lot of noise and socializing while there, and then much travelling back. That's enough in itself to result in a fibro flare-up. Doing it immediately after a strenuous day under hot sun would be extremely reckless.

Especially because we are also planning to go to the Crick Boat Show on Monday (32°C! You never used to get temperatures over 30° in England in my lifetime and now it's normal, apparently.) And I'm planning to go and help Son pump the boat out on Tuesday. All of which things require me to be reasonably functional.

I feel bad because I had almost a week off last week - I don't want to get out of condition - but equally, I ought not to be sick for Daughter's birthday. I think I might give today's exercise a miss and hope that I have become acclimatized to the heat by next Wednesday when it's time to do it again.

Chronic illness calculus. So much fun :)

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In which I put it on

2026-05-19T18:45:31Z

I made a much better attempt at putting the blue outfit on. There were some alarming stitch-popping noises as I pulled the pre-fastened bra over my hips, but it fits, the sleeves do not impede my movement and it looks pretty good. The white mesh over the stomach really makes me feel better about the whole thing.

I think there need to be more hooks and eyes. But it works, and by the end of June it should be a bit more comfortable, and I think I will be happy to stand up in front of an audience in it:

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Finished!

2026-05-19T08:37:17Z

That last leg didn't sound like much but boy was it tedious and fiddly!

made two long beaded swags and sewed them on to the bra. This was the step I was most nervous about (getting them symmetrical) but it went off without a hitch and looked absolutely fine.
sewed on 10 hooks and eyes (8 hooks on the top of the bodystocking, 8 matching eyes on the bottom of the bra. Two hooks and two eyes on the cuffs of the sleeves.)
sewed on four sets of press-studs (ie four bits with the bump and another four bits with the hollow.)
realized that I'd sewn on the press studs for the right sleeve on the wrong side of the strap and fixed that.
worried that the press-studs were too small and I should have gone for a larger, more powerful size.
was haunted by the idea that the press-studs might give way, and the sleeves fall down to dangle uselessly from my wrists during a dance, but the fiddly hooks and eyes would make casually removing them impossible. So...
decided to remove the hooks and eyes from the cuffs and close them with elastic instead. Didn't have any elastic.
removed the elastic from one of my old homemade Covid face masks and sewed on two strips of elastic to each cuff. That way, if a sleeve falls down, I can simply slip it off and toss it disdainfully aside, and it can be part of the dance.
congratulated myself on learning something from that time my home-made harem trousers started falling down while doing a sword dance. (Be prepared for your costume to sabotage you.)
tried on the bodystocking - fine (maybe a little large but can be taken in later.)
tried to hook the bodystocking to the bra and put the whole thing on. Failed. The bra is still too small. This was not unexpected - it still isn't the end of June, so I am not in my full shrunken form. Sewed silver material to a bra extender for use just in case.
Didn't manage to get all the hooks and eyes engaged all around. It's like getting into a spacesuit. The whole donning process may need assistance or practice. Lesson learned - make a bodystocking with shoulder straps next time, this is ridiculous! But other people seem to manage it, so maybe with practice it will become possible.

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In the pauses of life, we sew

2026-05-15T10:47:03Z

So, work continues on the African Wax Print outfit:

Cut up the jewellery wire danglies and remade five of them with fishing line. OMG, it's so much harder. I'm trying to thread 1mm white beads on a transparent line - I can't see what I'm doing. I can barely make two in an evening before I'm tapped out. But they do move better, I have to grudgingly concede it.
Stitched them on and decided that now they lie much flatter I need a sixth to balance them out on the other side

so that's a job for this evening. After that I will need to make the long swags and the beading will be done.

I've made the white bodystocking, but I do not possess any hooks & eyes, so I need to get some hooks & eyes, which will need to be evenly stitched around the top of the bodystocking and the bottom of the bra, to hold it up.

I then decided that currently the whole outfit is a piece of two halves - the bottom half is all white and the top half is all wax print. So I decided to make some detachable sleeves on the model of these ones from Sparkly Belly. Mine will have straps and cuffs of wax print with the left over white mesh as gauzy sleeves.

I've made one of these sleeves, but the cuffs have come out a little small and will need hooks & eyes to shut them (see above).
The straps of the sleeves are supposed to press-stud onto the straps of the bra, but I do not possess any press-studs. I'll have to get some of those too.
One more sleeve to make. Press studs and hooks & eyes to put on. One more dangly and two beaded swags to make and stitch on. Then we're done :)

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The bra continues

2026-05-11T11:04:59Z

So, I have made some progress on the African wax print bedlah:

sewn silver stretch fabric around the bra band (because both my teachers think it's 'not classy' if you can see any part of a bra's original structure.)
sewn the wax print fabric around the bra cups.
sewn the wax print fabric around the straps (in a tube so that the bra straps can still stretch inside it.)
stitched on two lines of big holographic dangly sequins, and one line of lace to mimic the belt. (Except that the lace is the other way up to give myself a bit more cup size.)
I've cannibalized a necklace that I will never actually wear to give myself a center piece & stitched that on.
I've made four danglies to hang from the front just behind the center jewel.

I'm making the danglies and the swags with jewellery wire, because I had a phase of making necklaces, so I happen to still have the supplies & equipment hanging around. At least it means that things should be unlikely to snap mid performance.

Now I've just got to make 1 - 5 other danglies (depending on how it looks when I pin the first five on) and a couple of similar (but much longer) beaded swags, and then stitch them on. After which it will be finished, and I can start on the power-mesh.

I want some kind of white-and-wax-print decoration on my arms, just to balance the whole thing out. Possibly a wax-print armband holding up a white gauzy sleeve? Or just a dangly strip of white gauze? The possibilities are limited with the wax print fabric because it has no stretch in it. I'll have to workshop that a bit!

But the rest of it I think will be done by the end of June, as long as I keep up the momentum :)

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The Friday Five

2026-05-10T09:14:02Z

Thanks to starandrea for pointing me to thefridayfive for this one.

What do you consider your current main fandom? (This can include hobbies and collecting. Anything you feel fannish about!)

It has to be belly dancing at the moment. I have that 'I want to spend every spare moment on it' rush. I am constantly going to YouTube to watch new-to-me dancers do their thing, and practicing my solos and trying to design new dances and costumes.

It's a grief to me that I don't really like classical style, but a joy when I find something I do like. I'm sure I'm going to attempt to make some hybrid that I do like, just as I do with canon and fanon when I meet it. I believe every dancer has to create their own personal style, so that's hopefully not as arrogant a prospect as it might be.

What was your first fandom?

If I consider fandom as a thing that I participated in alongside other people, then it was Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. If I consider it as solo pre-internet hyperfixation that caused attempts at fic-writing, it was A Wizard Of Earthsea as a child.

Do you have any favorite headcanons or fan theories?

Absolutely every one of my favourite characters are alive and happy, and most of them are also doing great things for their worlds according to their particular talents.

Have you ever created fanworks?

I certainly have. There are 98 of them on Ao3 and you can even consider my latest belly dance solo one of them, as it has a Stargate Universe inspired concept. I must write or podfic a couple more, to get to 100 ;)

Are you still active in any old fandoms?

Not really. I tend to be a serial monogamist when it comes to fandoms. I have never gone back to the same one twice (unless you count the SGU bellydance, or a Celeborn fic I wrote specifically for a friend who asked me to.) I remain extremely fond of them all, but when I move on I tend to do so absolutely.

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galadhir @ 2026-05-06T12:28:00

2026-05-06T13:43:48Z

ugh, I am not feeling great today so I'm having a day off of cycling and weight lifting. It's spitting outside, so I would have normally not cycled anyway. I would have driven to the gym and done the weight lifting, but I have a headache and I feel sick and my limbs and back hurt, so maybe I could just not.

I have lost another half stone, to a total of 3.5 stone, ie 49lb (approx 25kg) and I am continuing with the diet (though I'm eating more and slowing down atm.) It seems more and more likely that by the end of June I will be too small for my nice blue belly dance dress. So, I have been busy combing the charity shops for skirts and making bedlah to wear instead.

The black one is the right size for me now, and I can pair it with a black trumpet skirt and be dramatic. This is the one I was making for the heavy metal solo that we still haven't decided music for.

This silver and African wax print set is uncomfortably small for me atm (and also not finished) but the possibility is that it will be the right size (and finished) in June. I would pair this with a layered white skirt that I also found at a thrift store.

This would require me to buy or make a white power-mesh thingy to cover my stomach, because I am not going out there with my stomach out (I possess a black one already.)

I am however very encouraged by the fact that Soheir Zaki (RIP) seems to have had many different colours of bodystocking which she paired to her outfits, so I have a good role model for refusing to let it all hang out :)

And if the black set becomes too big for me before then, I can just sell it. There are a lot of plus sized dancers out there who never get catered to by anyone, who would probably like a new set.

Doing belly dance costuming on a budget by making it yourself is the way to go if you don't want to drop £200 or more at a time for a professionally made set, and while I'm changing shape it would be stupid to buy anything really nice. The downside is that everything looks very hand-made. The upside is budget, but also that I am learning all sorts of new sewing techniques as I go.

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Mayday tomorrow!

2026-04-30T11:19:25Z

I'm psyching myself up for Mayday tomorrow. First of May is the official start of morris dance-out season, when we go from practicing in our indoor practice hall to dancing out on the streets.

On Mayday itself we 'dance the sun up' - meaning that we aim to be dancing as the sun rises. This is at 5.15 in the morning. According to morris legend (that we just made up) if we do not perform this ritual, the sun will not rise for the year to come.

But we're hitting the ground running with morris events:

Last Sunday was the St. George's Day Fair in the Fenland town known as March, and Ely & Littleport Riot danced the whole day there.
Tomorrow is Mayday and we will be there at dawn.
Then Saturday is the town of Ely's Eel Day festival, and the Riot will be dancing all day for that.
And on the Monday Bank holiday the Riot will be dancing at Denny Abbey, where there will also be a maypole set up. We will undoubtedly also be helping the staff to teach maypole dancing to a horde of small children who've come for a day out.

DH will be dancing in all of these, and I will be playing pennywhistle among the musicians.

This has been an amazing surprise to me. When - as a young person - I pictured my life, I didn't think it would have so much dancing in it. I'm so glad it does!

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