Kat's Cambridge Catch Up #10 | A Month of New

Hi everyone! August has been a sort of busy month for me. It was a month of trying to things, learning new skills and overcoming fears. Let's just say, I'm very proud of the things I was able to achieve this month!

- NEW TATTOO -

So if you follow me on Instagram (I mean, you should!), you would have seen I got myself a new tattoo! I had been waiting for that day to come since May! I was tattooed by a guest artist named Amy at Beynur's Tattoos in Littleport. I will do a blog post about it soon but here is the gorgeous tattoo!

- BACK to DANCE -

I did a three day workshop at Bodywork Company to get my dance fix. It was intense yet so fulfilling! The classes I did were 3x choir, 2x (jazz, musical theatre) and ballet, barre fitness, Zumba, tap and contemporary. If my timetable for aerial works out, I would love to return to some dance lessons! Of course, videos are on my Instagram!

- YouTube - 

I've added a couple of new videos on to my channel. Check them out! Some circus ones and a beauty one! Yay!

- Riding a BIKE -

Soooo.... I didn't know how to ride a bike a few weeks ago. I tried once on a Year 8 camp and then tried to learn about few years ago before giving up and letting my bike rust. I managed to get around Cambridge for almost a year without a bike, just walking or taking the bus to places. Learning to ride a bike was mainly due to me possibly working between two schools in one day and walking to both would take an annoying chunk out of my day. Also, Daniel hated walking everywhere. People kept saying that learning to ride a bike is easy...

Yeah, not easy. The fears of my past experience crept back up - falling, going too fast, my stupid reactions etc. I spent some time riding up and down a little street after I got my bike and then down a longer street - freaked out and almost riding into a group of people. I spent a few very early mornings riding up and down my street where I knew I would not see anyone and them not seeing my attempts. I was nervous and embarrassed but I kept trying. Going onto busy roads was (and still) frightening but I made it through all of them. I still have lots of things to work on but I cannot believe I can ride a bike now! Still nervous...

Le bike - her name is Gertrude.

- FRIENDS & FOOD -

Bec and Mon (from uni) came to visit us from Australia during their holidays. It was really nice to see them! It gave us a good excuse to try some new places to eat!

Toasted sandwich and iced coffee @ Hot Numbers Coffee, Cambridge

 English breakfast @ Fitzbillies, Cambridge

Punting along the River Cam with Scudamore's Punting

I met up with Thoa (pharmacy days) in London for a catch up. We had an unsuccessful morning of finding food. Duck & Waffle ended up being super fancy (and booked out) and Coppa Club had an electricity issue. We wandered down to Borough Market just in time for brunch to be served. After casing the place out, we picked a chicken wrap and chorizo paella to share, paired with Pimms and Sangaria. Woo! I spent the rest of the afternoon in Camden Town (where I bought juggling balls) and missed my train home due to my poor direction skills. Arg.

@ Borough Markets, London

Daniel and I met up with Mathew, Karen and Rohan for dinner as I haven't seen them in ages! It's always a good laugh with those guys!

Burgers galore! @ Hudson's Ale House, Cambridge

I went dancing with a group of circus pals at local alternative club. I haven't been out to a club since my early 20s. It was soooooo good! The club has themed nights which is great for variety. We went to an 80s night and a 90s night. Great fun!

Pizza, pasta, mains & desserts @ Gattuso's Trattoria and Pizzeria, Cambridge

- NEW CIRCUS - 

Dabbled in a bit of hoola hooping during circus drop in. The lovely Emma, was kind enough to take some time to show me the basics whilst I was resting my wrist. Did I mention I hurt my wrist at the beginning of the month??? I thought it would be healed by now but it still hurts from time to time and a grip has suffered slightly. Anyways, I want to incorporate some fun hoola hooping in a routine I'm creating for the circus show in October!

I've tried to take juggling a little bit more seriously. More like, 'okay I'll try again to throw balls in the air'. Most of the time I try to get out of it. I've managed to do a 3 ball cascade some of the time and also learning a couple of different throw patterns as well. I bought some juggling balls to try to give me more motivation! Thanks to the local jugglers who are so patient with teaching me this skill. It's so hard!!!!

I only managed to do a couple of days of acro due to my injured wrist. I did some partner acro with Daisy who is part of Cirque du Spinsters. It was good working with someone of a similar size to myself as we could try flying and basing each other. Then I did a group acro sesh at the local park during the bank holiday. The weather was so sunny and warm. Just gorgeous. Will and I were able to tick off some moves we had been working on during the year and showed some new friends moves as well. An all round great day. 

In terms of aerial stuff. I completed courses on two new apparatus for me, cloud and hoop. I was really surprised that I took a liking to aerial cloud. I remember thinking it was kind of nothing special but since working with it, it feels so comfortable. Hoop was a bit tougher but having some trapeze helped in certain ways. Hoop is unkind to my body (ouchies) but I was able to do lots of pretty stuff. There are snippets of me using the cloud and hoop on my YouTube channel, so check it out!

I'm back to work in a couple of days time for the new school year. Lots of things to sort out but I cannot wait to get back into routine!

P.s. Cats are still being cat-ish.