Competition Day - household chaos and shenanigans

 Time: 6am. 

Things to do: my hair, my daughter's hair. Makeup. Eat breakfast. 

Not necessarily in that order. Usually it's a combo of all those things,  running from room to room shouting 'where's this/that?'.

Sometimes the wake-up calls are even earlier. The Aussies, as the Australian Dancesport Championships are known as,  can have events starting at 7am due to the sheer number of competitors. Sleeping with your hair pre-done is a necessity if you want to save time (and sleep!), although it's something I've struggled to master. 

Makeup and hair are things I've never really practised - all my jobs either didn't care or didn't require it (and going out just wasn't my thing) and so I just never bothered to keep up with all the new trends and options,  especially in makeup. It's taken practise and advice (and last-minute repairs!) from people to bring me up to the acceptable level I'm at today. 

Next year my daughter moves into Junior, which usually means hair AND makeup, however she finds makeup quite intrusive so far and is only able to tolerate eye shadow and a bit of foundation. Most of our competitions here are small and under minimal or standard lighting so there's no need to go overboard on the makeup, but it is necessary for one or two competitions a year so we'll keep practising because of those. 

My hair is currently my personal challenge, as it is quite short. It can be put up, but I lack the skills and so if no one's around it just gets pushed off my face and a bit of sparkle chucked on so the world knows I tried! Long hair is easier, however for my day-to-day wear short hair is definitely easier so it's staying. Especially with 40 degrees Celsius days being the norm over the next 3 to 4 months. 

 Time: 7.30/8.00 am. 

Things to do: Leave home with two bags each and enough food to fill an IGA or small Woolworths Metro. 

Usually. 

Unless I'm tired and unprepared, and if that happens my bank account really suffers if there's a canteen running at the competition. 

Once at the venue, there's the stressing required to get everything and everybody out of the car and into the line up to get into said venue, get back numbers, etcetera. 

Time: 8.30/9.00 am.

Check the running sheet/program/Dancesport Live for the 1000'th time. Warm up on the floor. Whine about whatever has gone wrong so far, or whine about status of floor. If everyone else is complaining about the floor being too slippery/sticky, cease complaining and tell everyone it feels fine to you. 

Time: 9.00 am to 5/6pm or midnight-ish.

Depending on the competition, we're in for the long haul. The joys of being in all three styles of dance in Australia as an adult, and having a juvenile (soon to be junior) competitor. 

Our final competition of the year is now done, and our bodies have thanked us by falling ill immediately. The next competition isn't until March/April 2025, or at least that's the plan, so we have time to regroup and holiday before getting back into things 'properly'. 

But before I finish this rambling blog (that was a struggle to finish, NGL), I thought I'd do a wind up of some of my favourite dresses of the final competition of the year...

Without photos. Because the internet can be a weird place and I don't like upsetting people. 

Latin: 

Green halter neck dress, with feathers around the hem. Classic-looking and classy on the lady in question. 

Red two piece; halter neck crop top with a slit skirt. All shiny sequinny goodness. Banging! 

Ballroom:

Too many to remember or choose to be honest. 

I'm still loving the trend for patterns and different fabrics in lieu of stones to make up a dress. And I was so happy I could fit back into my black and white dress which embodies at least some of this trend. I feel like there was a fair bit of black and white in general this year, so it will be interesting to see what happens on the floor at the Aussies. 

On to the Christmas season preparations! 

Keep dancing! 

-randombaubles/everydaybeautyinlife