10 out of 10

Ok, in my blogs so far, for some funny reason I never mentioned my salsa classes. I guess it just stems from the fact that even when I was learning to dance in India, I had to keep it a secret from a lot of people for fear of being teased by them. My interest in learning to dance was sparked by my friend Kuldeep, when at an office party he just casually said he could do salsa. Now Kuldeep and I had fallen out of touch for a long time before that, and I didnt know that he was learning to dance, so when I heard that, I was gobsmacked. But that very moment, I was like...if he can dance, I gotta start learning too! So I joined the same class as him, and pretty soon, I could shake a leg too. Well, I guess I could shake a leg since a long time, but I just didnt know that I could...but after I joined that class, I knew I could do it!

At first, it was more to make me feel that there was SOMETHING that I could do, that a lot of others cant. U see, I'm not exactly brilliant at studies, well I'm good, but not the best; I'm not good at any sport; I cant sing, nor play any musical instrument...basically, I had always been 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. So I sought to rectify that situation, and dance seemed like a good outlet back then (this was early 2008, by the way - its not like I've been dancing forever!). Anywayz, in a few weeks I realized that dance had become my single most important source of relaxation in the entire week. I would look forwards to Sundays just so I could rush off and have some fun at class. It was also my only source of exercise during the week!

Well, I danced for most of 2008, and picked up a bit of skill in different forms of dance such as rumba, cha cha cha, waltz, jive and salsa. But alas, the dream had to come to an end at some point, and it did. By end of 2008, my work and other commitments overtook my commitment to fun and learning, and my dance lessons came to end, leaving me kind of sad, because I had started to love it so much.

Of course, I moved to London in September 2009, and my lifestyle in Mumbai, including dance, soon became a thing of the past...life and priorities were different here, and I honestly never realized how much I missed dancing till I saw the e-mail in early January announcing the start of Salsa lessons thru the Cass Latin American Society. I jumped at the opportunity and haven't looked back since! We had 10 lessons during sem 2 and five in sem 3...and for the first time in my life, I did not miss even a single class. Mondays suddenly became my fave day of the week, and there was a pep in my step thanx to finding my one true love again!

So today was the last class, and this class was my most memorable experience at Cass. I think my fave part of this year and the whole Cass experience was reconnecting wid Salsa again. And for that I do owe a huge thanks to Paola, the lady who started the Latin American Society and put the whole thing together. Thanx to her efforts, I've learnt some more dancing, made so many new friends and I enjoyed my time here in London.

Going back to my blog's title, I had my last dance at Cass at the end of today's class with one of our teachers Saulo, and after we finished, he said '10 out of 10 for her, she's a very good dancer'. Now I'm sure I'm still just a 2 out of 10, but hell, atleast I'm making my way up that ladder. In any case, big thanx to Saulo for saying that. U just made me feel so worthy today, u made my day!!!

OMG! Did THAT just happen to me?!

Hmmm, well, I'm sooooooooooo excited right now that my hands are shaking!!! I know it's probably gonna sound really stupid to you, but something happened last nite, atleast I think it happened, and I really needed to blog it!!!

Ok, goin thru the basics first, it's about my twitter account...u can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/sneha1908 by the way! I'm following a whole bunch of people, including Nicky Byrne from Westlife...I did warn u in my introductory blog that my WL stories are gonna start sooner or later!

Anywayz, this has something to do with the world cup, so let me give u some basics of that too... Ireland did not qualify for the world cup because they lost to France in the qualifiers. The pain is magnified for all us Irish fans because the goal that France had scored was due to a handball by Thierry Henry, but the referee did not see it, so the goal was allowed. Now Mr. Byrne, being Irish, was completely outraged, along with most of the footballing world, but to no avail! FIFA ruled out any rematch, the goal stuck, France qualified, Ireland did not. And Nicky went on some kind of public crusade against Thierry Henry.

So much for the background...now for the real story. Last evening, Mexico beat France 2-0, so I tweeted Nicky Byrne this '@nickybyrneoffic mexico beat france 2-0...u must be over the moon!!! does this signal the beginning of another rant against thierry henry?!'

Two minutes later Nicky tweeted this 'F%#k off thierry ! Stick tht up yer Eiffel tower !!! Good nite god bless and oh close the door behind ya..' The second half, I believe, is in relation to the concert they just finished around that time last nite, but the first half stems directly from what I tweeted him!!! I checked twitter for all posts addressed to Nicky in the hour or so before mine, and there was absolutely nothing about France or Henry, and 2 minutes, literally 2 minutes after I tweet, he tweets wid that response!!! I instigated Nicky, wowie!!!

I mean, at that point, even at this point, I was over the moon...a celeb read my tweet, and tweeted in response to that!!! I mean, thats pretty much the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me! Actually, that really goes to show what a fuck-all life I've been leading so far, but who cares...NICKY TWEETED IN RESPONSE TO MY TWEET!!!

I'm FLYING WITHOUT WINGS!!!

The rant begins...

Why have I named my blog 'Flying Without Wings'?! Quite simple really, its my fave song! Its a Westlife track from their first album, and I have been in love with this song, and with them since then! Let this also serve as a statutory health warning to you that u will probably hear a lot about them in my blogs...so don't say I didn't warn u!

The main reason I have now decided to start blogging, other than because my cousins have recently started blogging as well and I feel inspired by them, is so that I can share a bit of my life and lifestyle with all u guys! So going into a bit of history...I moved to London on 9 September 2009 to do a M.Sc. in Investment Management from Cass Business School. It's a one year course, and I'm almost at the finishing line! Before that, I was working with Ernst & Young, Mumbai with the Financial Services team doing bank audits. Now I aspire to move to investment banking...what a leap!

What I intend to be blogging about, other than my interests, is basically my life here in London, and how different it is from what it used to be in Mumbai. That's where the 'Flying Without Wings' comes in again! I 'flew' here, away from my nest (pretty symbolic, huh?!) to learn to be independent...little did I realize that being independent requires a heavy price!

Well, that was just the basic intro to my life...I only covered the bare basics, and I'll keep updating the history as I keep blogging! Meanwhile, watch out for my next blog...hopefully, it'll be sometime soon!