March 31st Competition Day

Where do I start......the day that lasted forever. It is 1:14am in Belfast and we are just wrapping up our day and night. We have been back at the Hotel for a couple of hours now and Macaela is finally asleep in bed.

Incredible is all I can say at this point in regards to our day .... the talent of these young ladies is remarkable.

Macaela danced amazing today, stronger than ever...so strong that she placed overall 50th out of 138 dancers and missed recalling by 2 placings. One judge even place her 11th overall and another placed her 24th overall....this year with a new judging system they through out the highest and lowest marks which unfortunately brought her overall placing down to the 50th spot.

Saying that we are thrilled ! Macaela danced amazing and looked so beautiful. Her new look....dress, hair and crown...was spectacular!

Thank you for all the support, we know how much you were all cheering for Macaela today. Without all your positive thoughts, good luck wishes and constant support this day would not have been possible.

I will leave off quoting Macaela..... "Next year"

Friday March 30th ....the Day before the Big Competition

Today was a busy day in Belfast. We started with breakfast with the gang and then stright to practice. The dancers had a great practice almost 2 hours long. Then it was straight to the City Center to go shopping....

The plan was to meet in an hour and catch the 2:00 City Tour Bus. Well the shopping went a little longer than planned so a few of us missed the 2:00 and caught the 2:30 bus. The tour was an hour and a half and that was long enough....very informative but a little too much talking, even the tour guide told us that ?

After the tour we went straight to the Waterfront Hall where Worlds will be taking place. It is gorgeous and I was only in the lobby, I can't wait till we see the auditorium tomorrow. We picked up Jessie and Macaela's dance cards and the photo id cards. Unfortunately they put Macaela Bardley-Tse on the first one, yes the first one and I have just noticed they have spelt Macaela incorrectly on the second one , Macela. So I guess we will be lining up again tomorrow morning for a third attempt at correctly spelling her name.

After the Waterfront it was back to shopping, we assisted Courtney with a few pieces...so much fun! Then back to the Hotel for a little sit down rest and to curl Macaela's hair for tomorrow.

We are doing something a little different with her hair and she is also going back to a bun wig....so check in tomorrow for her new look.

We had dinner tonight with the gang and now we are back in the room. Another coat of tanner is on and a little game of Boggle for Macaela and now her nails are getting done. Lights will be out soon as we will have a 8:00am wake-up call in the morning to go for a good breakfast to start the day off right.

We are hoping for a good nights sleep and lots of positive thoughts and dreams. Thank you to everyone for all the support, comments on the blog, cards , texts and very special mementos that were sent with us. We are so lucky to have such a great support team, we hope you know how much it means to us to have you all cheering for Macaela and all the dancers.

Till tomorrow.....

Our Thursday in Belfast

It is Thursday, our first full day here in Belfast. A day to recover and adjust to the time change, do a little shopping and await the arrival of Courtney and the Game Family.

We spent a few hours walking around the city center, picked up some staples...water, chocolate milk and some fruit. We also managed to find a few of our favorite shopping places while in Ireland. Picked out some cute things for Macaela as well as Caitlin and Emma (yes we did girls , different things from Dublin Caitlin) .

We saw the City Hall , Macaela is standing in front of it in the first picture and you can see the Waterfront Hall which is where the Irish Dancing will take place in the far distance sitting on top of Macaela's head in the last picture .

So we have crossed a few things off our list and can do some sightseeing tomorrow and maybe a little more shopping.

Courtney is to arrive shortly and we can't wait to see her....this is a very exciting trip for all of us and we can't wait for the weekend to arrive. We have arranged a practice room with the hotel staff, they are even going to put down their dance floor for us...how lucky are we.

Just back from dinner with our Pickett Family and of practice of course. We had a great time talking tonight and we are all looking forward to the weekend...only 2 more sleeps for Jessie and Macaela and 3 sleeps for Tomas and Shannon. We can hardly believe that we are so close, so much time and training has gone into preparing for Worlds this year.

We ended the day with a little tanning session....the girls were all giggles. A great way a end a great day.

Leaving YVR Tuesday 27th, Arrving Belfast Wednesday 28th

We arrived at YVR to meet up with Tomas and family, had a little bit of time to sit together and talk about the adventure we were about to begin. Once inside security we met Jessie,Rosalie and Scott at the gate. There wasn't much time before we boarded the aircraft for our flight to London, but always time to take a photo or two.

The Flight to London was great...... a short flying time of only 8 hours 7 minutes. The kids got to open some cards together, play cards for a short while and even caught a hour or two of sleep.

We all made it safely to Belfast without any mishaps, thank goodness. No delays, missed connections, or lost baggage. YEAH! We met up for dinner at the Hotel and ended the night with some wonderful desserts. Then it was off to bed for a long overdue sleep.

Last Semi March 27th 2012

Tuesday was the last class the Worlds Dancers not only had together as a group of 5 but also the last class for Macaela, Jessie and Tomas before they caught their flight to Belfast later that afternoon.

Traditions started a few years back for the dancers to give each other special good luck cards and good luck tokens. This year Macaela, Caitlin and Emma wanted to do something different. They made a 10x10 collage for each dancer. Individual photos, WCRO qualifying pictures for some, group shots, and a picture from the Pub Night and even a good luck Shamrock was placed on them to give an extra bit of luck for each of them. The girls had fun blinging them up with some rhinstones or little flowers, they looked great.

Caitlin and Emma secretly made Macaela her own collage when she was busy. They did an amazing job together making a very special momemto and adding a very personal message on the back. Macaela was so surprised that they were able to keep such a big secret from her.

Best of Luck to everyone, enjoy your experience at Worlds we are so very proud of you all !