Sarah's Blog

Workout Blog, June 17, 2010

Finally, the soreness has worn off from my workouts with Monica and Adam last week..... just in time for it all to start over again.

Dreading the pain, but looking forward to  another week on the new plan!

Workout Blog

So, I started a new regime yesterday. After a failed attempt to dance to get fit, I realized that I can only manage to motivate myself if I have an obligation to turn up. This rules out group classes and also scheduling fitness stuff on days when I would normally work. Armed with hopeful determination, I signed back up at a gym last week and have booked myself regular Friday and Saturday workouts with trainers and, once my allergy shots cease to be weekly, I'll also be working out on Wednesday afternoons too.
Monica is my personal torturer on Fridays and Adam gets the honour of killing me on the other days.
I am writing this laying on my bed at 8pm on Saturday having worked chest and shoulders yesterday and back and legs today. Cannot fricking move!!!! And I dread to think what I will feel like tomorrow. :)
Really glad to have made this step. And watch this space for the agony of Sarah's workout blog .

New Leaf .... or, rather, revisiting a very old leaf!

I've realized that the only way I'm actually going to get myself to exercise is to do something that I enjoy.

That, unfortunately, does not include going to a gym, so, thanks to watching So You Think You Can Dance and talking to a client of mine who does go to dance classes, I decided to go back 30 years in time and start dance classes again. My plan is to have private lessons once per week and, in doing that, I realized that I need to get my basics back and so I've also started ballet class once per week again.

Did my first ballet class in 30 years last Tuesday and it kicked my butt (actually, my quadriceps) so badly that I have only just regained the ability to sit down or stand back up without needing to hoist myself up with my arms!!! Good stuff... agony, but god stuff.

Anyway, class is tomorrow again and, although I have a client that means that I won't be able to go for the entire class, I'm planning on doing about half an hour of it.

Feeling totally self-righteous, very old and partially crippled!!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody. May 2010 bring you happiness, wealth and wisdom in all the forms that are best for you.

Just got my schedule for school next term and I'm looking forward to teaching Kinesiology in Newington and MT3 in Westport. It's been a couple of terms since I've taught it and I'm really looking forward to it as well as MT3. Unless we have snow, it doesn't look like there are any holidays schedule this term for me and that's a good thing!

Went to see the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie on Christmas Day and Avatar 3-D on New Year's Day. I was expecting to be angry at the screenwriter's portrayal of Holmes but it didn't piss me off at all. The only problem was Downey's mumbling and speed of speech. Mum and Dad are planning to go so I look forward to hearing what they say. I suspect (and warned them) that Mum will tell me that she didn't get to see the movie because of Dad going, "what did he say?" throughout the whole thing!!

Avatar 3-D was phenomenal. Absolutely amazing. I loved the story and the graphics were so good that they didn't get in the way at all. None of those 3-D gimmicks where things fly out of the screen at you. Go to see it. Don't walk, RUN!

No matter what I do ......

No matter what I do, trying to update this during the school term seems to be impossible!

I've got just one more class of my AP1 Muscles term to go this week and then school's out until mid-January. I've had the pleasure of teaching with Matt DeMichele this term and I wish him all the very best

No matter what I do, trying to update this during the school term seems to be impossible!

I've got just one more class of my AP1 Muscles term to go this week and then school's out until mid-January. I've had the pleasure of teaching with Matt DeMichele this term. It was his first term of teaching at CCMT and I hope he enjoyed himself as much as I did.

Gigs appear to be over for this year but I'm hoping that some come in for the New Year. In the meantime, I'm enjoying a break.

Massage work has picked up a whole lot and I'm loving it. It's so fantastic to be able to help people!

Mum broke a small bone in her wrist when I was over in the UK and, on Hallowe'en had some surgery on her foot. She spent about 8 weeks in a cast on her wrist and about a month in a boot! She's now been downgraded to a splint on the hand for a further 6 weeks and will be seeing the foot doctor again in a week or so. She's doing really well with both and doesn't seem to be having any problems. Yippee!

Quick review of gig at Farnborough Jazz Club, UK

The Farnborough Jazz Club have just posted a review of the appearance that my UK band made at their club in September, 2009:

"Last week, Friday 11^th September, we enjoyed a completely different sound from Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Jazz Band. A really hot swinging combo, being pushed along by Sarah’s rocking tenor sax. She sang some great blues numbers too and presented the band with true American-style professionalism, a band we all thoroughly enjoyed and would love to hear again. Sarah last played for us about 18years ago, when we held jazz at Badgers Mount Hotel, although she did not remember the occasion. Soon after, she moved to the US and what a wonderful transformation growing up there has done. Many thanks for your magic, Sarah."

Their website is: http://www.farnboroughjazz.co.uk

I have to say that it was a fantastic gig. For me, the most memorable part was Chris Marchant's playing on the rhythm section solos on the last number, Redwing: his woodblock work was pure Baby Dodds on Ice Cream (you know what's I'm talking about). Oh My God! Annie Hawkins and I were still speechless about it the following day. What a great gig. What a great bunch of musicians for me to have the honour of playing with!

Off on Tour

I'm finishing packing and will be leaving at 3pm for the trip to JFK Airport to catch my flight to London to start my UK tour. I'm really looking forward to the tour and can't wait to spend time with Mum and Dad  and see some of my friends and all the musicians I'll be playing with. Looking forward to, hopefully, some good gigs and, with any luck, get to see some of you who may be reading this blog.
Here I go, Here I go, Here I go!

Getting ready to go to the UK

I'll be hitting the UK at the beginning of September and my focus is looking towards that right now. I'm looking forward to seeing and playing with a bunch of my friends again and, for the first time in a long time, I'll be playing at a UK festival and then hanging out the next day so that I can hear some of the other bands too.

We're on break from school right now and I hope all the students at CCMT are enjoying their time off. My schedule for next term will be Sunday afternoons all term, Wednesday evenings for the last 8 weeks of term and 4 weeks of Saturday afternoons in the middle! Looking forward to meeting some new students and co-teaching with someone I've never worked with before.

For those of you who contacted me about my recent health concerns - all is ok. For those who don't know, I lost some sensation in the entire right side of my head and spent the day at the emergency room at the local hospital getting a CAT scan and bloodwork done. All checked out ok and, since I had the same thing about 10 years ago during a very stressful time in my life, I wasn't really concerned. I've had further bloodwork done and, again, nothing showed up. I've been getting some craniosacral work done from John at work and I think things are resolving. We're putting it down to some muscles that control my jaw getting tight and pressing down on some of the nerves in my face. Bearing in mind that 2 days before the numbness showed up, I'd played at the CT Jazz Festival, this makes sense. Anyway, we're working on it and I think it's getting better. Thank you all for your concern and kind messages and again, there's nothing to worry about.

And I think that's all for now.

Post-Maribo Update

Am back from spending a weekend at the great Maribo festival in Denmark with New Orleans Delight. We played 4 gigs and had a whole lot of fun, including a last gig where we formed Kjeld Brandt's New Orleans All-Stars from the entire personnel of New Orleans Delight and the Hot Five Jazzmakers from Toronto, Canada. That sort of thing can usually turn into a mess, but, thanks to, I have to say, Derek Winter's bandleading expertise and the fact that everyone in the band was seriously listening to everyone else in the band and wanted to play together, it was really good.

It was, as always, a pleasure to play with New Orleans Delight and I can't wait to see them all again, although I don't know, at this point when that will be.

Oh, and another thing - the new cd was released and it is, how do I say this...... gosh-darned good! Looks great and sounds great!You REALLY need one in your collection! :)

Photos and stuff will be forthcoming.

New cd to be released at Maribo Festival - July 17, 2009

I am delighted to announce that my new cd of me and Derek Winters with the wonderful New Orleans Delight will be released at the Maribo Festival on the weekend of July 17, 2009. Details of the cd are available at the New Orleans Delight website:
http://www.new-orleans-delight.dk/cd/Sarah CD/CD Sarah.html

Even though I say it myself, it's darned good! The band is swinging like crazy and every moment is great. I can't wait to see and hear the 'hard copy'!