Keeping Up With Juliette

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  This week was probably the hottest week it's been so far this year. We've been blessed with really nice weather for the most part of lockdown, which meant that me and my family could go on nice walks frequently and make the most of all the extra free time we had. However, on Wednesday and Thursday especially, the temperatures reached around 30°C, which could only mean that we had to bring the pool out again. By pool, I mean the classic British paddling pool that is probably just under a metre high but is great if you want to cool down in the summer. The weather was definitely abnormal and probably due to climate change but in this sweltering heat, we were thankful for the cold water that took me and my sister a while to get into but was really refreshing afterwards. For once, the weather forecast was right. It seems to be right mostly when the weather's nice and not when it's bad and you actually want to know if yo...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  For today's post, in continuation with my All about:____ series, I'll be talking about the well-known ballroom and Latin dancer, Shirley  Ballas! I was always sceptical about who would be best suited to replace the previous head judge of Strictly Come Dancing, Len Goodman, and when they announced in 2017 that it was Shirley Ballas, I didn't really know who she was at first. However, I remember my dad walking into the living room when she was introduced to Strictly and he said "oh my God, is that Shirley Ballas?" so I kind of gathered that she was a real star of her time. BBC Strictly Come Dancing As part of one of my Blogmas posts for 2018 (you can read the post here ), I wrote about my dance icons of the year and alongside Maddie Ziegler and Claudia Dean, I also included Shirley Ballas because my mum came into the room one day and said "you have to watch Shirley and her partner Corky dancing, it's a...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  Over the years, I have become a big fan of Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild documentary, where he visits people who have given up the usual rat race of life, to start living in the wild pretty much self-sufficiently. If you don't know who Ben Fogle is, he is an adventurer turned TV-show host who, before he began filming his New Lives in the Wild documentary, did many crazy explorations across the world. One of his famous explorations was where he sailed the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean alongside his partner, James Cracknell. I remember reading about this scary adventure during an English exam where we were given an extract of Ben's documented story. I found it crazy how his boat capsized many times and he still managed to cross the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite failing his A-level exams, Ben has managed to accomplish this as well as reaching the top of Mount Everest in 2018. He is a true inspirat...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  I feel like I'm saying this a lot at the moment but recently (for the first time in a long while) I went on a walk with one of my friends. I found it really nice because for once there was someone different that I could talk to in person. It was thundering and tipping it down and I was wearing some shorts and a hoodie (probably the worst outfit choice ever but oh well😂). However, if I was going on a walk, I would have rather it be then instead of another month later. We kept ourselves distanced from each other but we talked about the lost time. It's coming to be around 4 months since the schools shut down and what a strange old time it's been since then. I was, like many people, completely unprepared for the sudden Covid-19 situation. On the same evening that it was announced that the exams were cancelled, I was trying to be a naively diligent year 11 student and I went to an English  revision session after school. I ...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  For today's All about:_____ series post, I'll be talking about another one of my favourite dancers from the past, Dame Gillian Lynne! Although she died quite recently, I honestly think that through reading her autobiography, A Dancer in Wartime, Gillian is a very inspirational dancer and person. I wrote a whole review on The Book Hub of her book if you would like to find out more. It's really interesting!  Born as Gillian Barbara Pyrke in Bromley, Kent, on the 20th February, 1926, Gillian was noticed at a very young age for her natural dance talent. After underperforming at school, Gillian's mother took her to the doctors to receive answers for her fidgeting and lack of focus during lessons. When her mother and the doctor left the room for the appointment, Gillian couldn't help dancing and moving to the music that filled the room from the radio. When the doctor consequently returned, there was only one simple s...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  I've only just realised that this is going to be my 400th blog post! I can't believe how much I've actually written over the past 4 years and how many amazing memories I've recorded all on this blog so if you've been reading my posts for a while now, I thank you truly. You are honestly amazing! In today's post, I'll be giving a review of a film that I really enjoyed watching recently and that is Shawshank Redemption.  I was a bit sceptical at first about watching this film because it lasted for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Although it's not nearly as long, it kind of reminded me of Gone with the Wind, which lasted for about 4 hours. It was an absolute classic and I guess you got attached to Scarlett Ohara's intense personality but you did end up shuffling in your seat a bit by the end of it. We had to watch it in 2 parts because it was so long. However, with this film, I didn't even notice ...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, If there's one thing that I have really enjoyed doing during lockdown and quarantine, is not having to get up early in the morning. Even when I've had some homeschooling to do, I was able to take my time in the morning and get up a little later and that was something that I really enjoyed. Admittedly, come September (or whenever we're going back to school) I will definitely have to get up at six in order to catch the bus to college in the morning but I guess that's just part of being a sixth form student. However, for now at least, I can enjoy the simple luxury of not having to necessarily look at the clock. Today, I woke up at 8:00am and watched a bit of YouTube. The person I've been really getting into watching is Steve Backshall. He's a wildlife show host and I used to watch his Deadly 60 program on CBBC, before going to school in the morning. He is famous for handling some of the most dangerous animals, ...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, Firstly, I just wanted to say how grateful I am for your viewership on my previous post about Black Lives Matter. I posted what I would believe to be an unpopular opinion, considering what the majority of people have said on the media but I did believe that my message was important so if you haven't read that post yet, then I'll link it below for you to give it a read. Secondly, there are also far too many of you guys who are amazing readers of my blog but are not subscribed so if you haven't already done so, please click on the subscribe button at the top of this page and enter in your email address. You can unsubscribe from this at any point but this just  ensures that you receive a notification every time I upload a new post because I know how much you really like to read them. And without further a due, let's get on with today's post! 💜 In continuation with my All about:_____ series, I'm going to be tal...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,  I am going to give my own opinion on a recent and hot topic that I'm sure you've all seen already, in today's post. If you don't want to read it, then you don't have to but I honestly believe that my message is important so if you're sticking around, I would also gladly appreciate it too! This is just a pre-warning. 💜 I'm sure many of you have already heard about the tragic case of George Floyd and despite it happening in America, I'm sure we've all seen the event hit the headlines, worldwide. I say tragic because it is. Although there's been a lot of speculation about the true innocence of George Floyd because of his many past and serious convictions and although we don't know for certain what led the policeman, Chauvin, to act so aggressively that day, I do think that at least one thing is for certain. If this was definitely due to racism, I think it's a tragedy that a man...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, I would definitely consider myself to be more of a flexibility and bendy type person. I try to stretch everyday to keep up my flexibility, especially as a dancer and I do like doing the odd bit of acrobatics from time to time.  However, in terms of strength and stamina, I definitely lack in skills. My sister said to me that I should be working out more, to further develop my skills as a dancer so we've been doing regular workouts together, every other day. All I can really say is, what a struggle!😂 We begin by doing cardio exercises to a whole entire piece of music. Easy, I said, until we actually got started. Let's just say that next time, I'm not choosing a super long song from The Greatest Showman! 😂 We then stretch out to not pull any muscles and we begin the workout. Again, I said it was easy, until I actually got started. I would like to paint this rosy image to you that I've been working out for so long tha...

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, As I mentioned in my Dance Saturday post last week, I will be taking a short break from my All about:____ series today and post something a little bit different. Don't worry, the series will return next week but today, I thought it would be interesting to write about 5 ways you can improve your general flexibility. Whether you're a dancer, gymnast, someone who likes yoga or someone who wants to become more flexible, these tips will definitely help you! I hope you enjoy this post! My first tip, really helps to increase the stretch in the back of your legs and your calves. When you go down on one knee from a lunge position and you lean back so that your front leg is straight, in order to increase the stretch, you need to place one arm underneath your front leg and flex your front foot. This makes sure that you can feel the tension in the back of your leg, which shows that you're stretching it properly. If you do this ofte...