flowers

I got flowers today.

I hate socialized medicine!

After a little experience at the Dr's office today I must say I HATE socialized medicine!!! I already didn't think it was a good idea and now I know it is a bad idea.
So I was comparing US vs UK health care in my head after the visit (walking home since I have no car) and came up with a couple of things that I thought should be fix in the US:
1- Some things are expensive, especially if you have no insurance.
2- Pre-existing conditions need to be covered by insurance (under Obamacare they are).
3- Homeopathic or alternative medicine needs to be covered by insurance (I'm not sure if this is under Obamacare).

That's all I came up with that needs to be fixed with American health care. Do you have more?
Before I completely trash socialized medicine I will follow through and give the full story at a later date.

This one is for you Debbie!

I went up to Southport to have Ron fix my back and to watch BYU perform. This is a great little town! If you ever have the chance to come to England, must come here! The picture is of the Theatre BYU performed at.

I was driving back to Southport from Colne and got stuck behind this tractor for a while.

My rental car actually had four doors. It wasn't a tiny thing I usually see on the road.

Jared (this is his second time on the team) and Rosemary (she was on the latin team and now lives in the UK)

Ron and his wife Leslie. Ron is the Head Athletic Trainer for the Dance Dept at BYU. I was his first grad assistant. He is my favorite former boss!

The bridge you see going into Colne. My cousin Debbie told me I should go find where our Riding ancestors came from. Well, I went on FamilySearch and found which town Christopher Lister Riding is from (Colne) and then found it on Google maps and realized it wasn't that far from Southport, so I decided to just drive there and check it out. Of course I got lost and did not call my brother for directions, even though that is what I normally do.

Colne is very hilly and cute. The cemetery is also hilly.

The cows were making a fuss.

Someone wrote music on their gravestone. Can you play this?

This guy was from Colne and died on the Titanic, thus the toy boat in front.

This is the building that looks like a church on the top of the hill overlooking the cemetery. I did not find my ancestors, as they left Colne in the 1850ish range and the oldest gravestone I saw was 1864, so there must be an older cemetery in town. I will have to call the city council up for more information before I head there again.

Research

I started a facebook page to recruit ballroom dancers for my research and if anyone wants to keep track of what I'm doing they can just read about it. It's called Teri Riding's PhD Research on Ballroom Dancers (click and join).

Blackpool

This week is the Blackpool Dance Festival, which is the biggest ballroom competition in the world. I went with BYU in 2004, but since I am only 2.5 hours away I had to come watch BYU compete again. My friend Jared was an alternate on the team in 2004, so he tried out and made it this year.
Sometimes teams don't come to Blackpool the years BYU goes because they don't want to compete against them because they win alot, but this time the Chinese, Germans, and UVU came as well. I made it in time to watch band call, which is the official rehearsal the day of competition. All the teams looked good at rehearsal and they were good during competition. I am glad I wasn't a judge, I thought it was close. BYU did an in-your-face Proud to be an American routine, which made me nervous since in the world there is anti-American sediment, but BYU got first! Here are the results 1. BYU 2. Chinese 3. Germans 4. UVU. UVU had a REALLY good opening sequence, so I was surprised they got 4th, and the Germans did a Soviet military Romeo and Juliet, which was technically good, but weird. (click on Germans and you can watch a You Tube of their routine at another competition.) The Chinese were also technically good, but had more artistry than the Germans.
Plus I got to hang out with one of my former dancers Rosemary. She married an Englishman and lives here now. It was fun to see her and Ron, my coolest former boss ever! I also did some recruiting for my future research to get them to participate.
Here are some pictures, but my camera battery died, so I didn't get very many.

Winter Gardens is the Ballroom where the competition is held

The famous Blackpool Tower

Inside the ballroom
The beginning of BYU's routine, they performed 2nd, Jared is somewhere in that back row of guys, they all look different with slicked back hair and the tanning


All together now
Plus my camera does not do action shots well, but this is the opening lift

pop, shame

When I lived in South Africa I heard the word "shame" all the time. South Africans use it as a catchall word. I've noticed here in England people use the word "pop" the same way. I never folded shame into my vocabulary, so chances are pop won't be either.