In my garden, this afternoon.



Time in my hoop seems even more important right now, what with a busy job to hold down, hoop classes to teach, a family to spend time with ... oh, and that little matter of a wedding to organise. The big day is just two weeks from today, and I am both excited and nervous!

My hoop gives me the time and space to slow down, to breathe, to get off that mouse wheel if only for a short while.

I could have cleaned the bathroom this afternoon, but today feels almost like spring, so me and Monty decided to do some hoop practice instead. [Monty retired to his favourite sunny spot under the lemon tree, so he doesn't appear in this video.] I decided not to add a soundtrack to this video. All you'll hear are birds singing, the wind, dogs barking and someone's chainsaw. I swear every New Zealand neighbourhood has at least one resident who is obsessed with his chainsaw!!

Currently working on a few new moves and, as always, on smoothing out my flow.

Happy hooping,
Anne-Marie

One month from today ....

... God willing, John and I will be married. 

We got engaged in February last year and since then wedding plans have been made and cancelled several times over, as one stumbling block after another met us on the road.

We’ve never wavered in our commitment to each other, but we just didn’t know when we’d be able to have a wedding. With John out of work for much of the past year, all our money has gone towards day to day living – never mind saving for a wedding.

But a couple of weeks ago, one Saturday night, I arrived at the club to pick John up after his football match. He’d had a few drinks, and he wanted to know how I felt about just going ahead with the wedding any way, as cheaply as possible? One of his best mates had given him a lecture about how we shouldn’t worry about an expensive wedding, we should just invite our favourite people and … get married.

The idea couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Over the past few weeks I’d started to feel sad about the fact the wedding seemed to be stalled indefinitely, although I hadn’t mentioned this to John. I didn’t want a big, fancy wedding – I just wanted us to get married. So that’s what we’re doing and I couldn’t be more excited!

So now when I’m not working or hooping I am elbow deep in wedding plans. I refuse to stress about it; both of us want to enjoy our wedding and the build-up to it.

It’s been very gratifying to see how excited people are for us. Not just our families, who are obviously delighted, but friends and colleagues too. Entering into a marriage is not something to be done lightly, and it is risky, yet people still seem to believe in marriage. [Except for one friend of mine who was “jokingly” very rude about me getting married. I probably wouldn’t consider him a friend anymore.]

So many people have offered memories of their own weddings, or bits of advice, or even practical help. Today one of my colleagues – a professional photographer – offered to shoot our wedding for free, just because he knew we were on a shoestring budget. Incredible.

And in case you’re wondering … yes, there will be hooping at our wedding reception. Of course!