taxi4ballet

Don't throw them away! In an emergency they might be slightly less dead than the current pair...

DD managed to break her pointe shoes yesterday, and I've rung round every shop I can think of today without success - ordered a pair over the phone though, so here's hoping they come in the morning... Otherwise we'll have to go through all her old ones and pick out the least knackered!

We used to have a wonderful organic slug killer in the shape of a resident toad. Unfortunately he came off worst in a fight with our lawn mower a couple of weeks ago...

Best of luck to everybody at casting tomorrow And if there is anybody going who has a spare pair of Bloch Serenade pointe shoes in a 3C please pm me urgently!!!

Hold on a minute - Tring has extra mds places but can only offer them to students assessed out of W/L? Are you sure?

If there is anyone interested in the study of molluscs then I suggest they come and have a quick five minutes walk round my garden with a bucket; they'll be occupied for weeks...

I'd love to know whether there is a gymnastics forum somewhere out there on the internet where they are all busy discussing the pros and cons of ballet!

If he is worried about being teased you could always ring round the dance schools that are within reasonable travelling distance for you, but far enough away for it to be unlikely that there is anyone there that he knows. Hopefully there may be a school that has boys in a class at his level.

The majority of European school are cheaper but they tend to be non-residential.

Can he try both, and see which one he enjoys the most? He might like one of the teachers and other children in the class more than the other. Because he's so young there's plenty of time for him and at 6 he needs to really enjoy what he is doing.

Just to let everyone know - problem solved, thank goodness. We've found two lovely schools which are happy to work with one another, and between them they can offer dd all the classes she needs. It's such a relief, and thanks to everyone on the forum for all your helpful advice.

Fiz, did you get any ironing done in the small hours? !

My dd knows that she wouldn't be able to take up a place without funding, but she has decided that she would rather audition and run the risk of having a place offered and turning it down than to never try at all. You've got to be in it to win it!

How do the girls cope period-wise if they can't get on with tampons and aren't allowed knickers?

Our school just didn't 'get' it either until I pointed out that grades 6 and upwards give you UCAS points and are on a par with the dance A-level. They seem to understand things better if you give them something they can actually relate to.

Quite hard to decide when the are ready - much easier to decide when they're not!

Not so easy at time-of-the-month

The asparagus has now produced hundreds of tiny green bell-shaped flowers.

A lot of the bones will still be cartilaginous and won't have formed proper attachment to ligaments (according to doctor brother-in-law).

Doing a rain dance now, although it's probably not necessary!

It's on blochshop.co.uk (sorry, I don't know how to do a link) Choose pointe shoes, and then you can refine the selection

I think I just googled Bloch, maybe it was their international site - I'll try to find it again and let you know.

If it's a disappointing no, then it might help to explain that they see lots of lovely children and they would like to take them all, but there just isn't enough room for everybody this time.

English Youth Ballet go to Norwich, check out their website. Edited to add: performances on 29th & 30th June

Tesco also do a seamless style in nude & black and are reasonably priced. The small is about a size 6/8.