Cinco de Mayo!

Tonight I'm off to another Salsa party, this time in honour of the Cinco de Mayo. As NZ is considerably more than just South of the Border, I wasn't very clued up about the importance of Cinco de Mayo and had to get a quick education in the political history of Mexico, just in case it comes up in conversation and I say something really dim like 'Cinco de Mayo, what a guy!'.

Cinco de Mayo literally means '5th of May' and this is the date that a Mexican Army of 4500 clobbered 6000 invading French troops at the Battle of Puebla. Unfortunately this got on the temperamental French nerves of Napoleon III and he retaliated by sending in 30,000 troops that naturally took over and announced Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico (and then he was deposed 3 years later by the US). BUT, the Mexicans never forgot that they were victorious at Puebla and they celebrate it for what it was at the time - a brilliant victory. That's the attitude! It's always helpful to remember past victories and use them to create energy for the future. There will always be ups and downs and there's no point to fixate on the times that things went belly up.

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I've now been learning Salsa for about 9 months, with significant time off for back problems. I'm at the point where there are more fun times and fewer of those embarrassing 'OMG I terminally suck at this' moments. For keeping on track toward fitness goals, I'd recommend learning to dance as a way to get a social life that does not revolve around either drinking or awkward conversation. I've found parties and socialising to be somewhat difficult to negotiate in the past. Many times the whole 'purpose' of a social event is to drink or eat and it's easy to fill in the boring bits with another drink or snack. At a Latin Dance party the purpose is to first find a tiny clear space on the undoubtedly packed dance area and then dance for as many hours as you can handle. The next morning you regret nothing... well, I can't say that's true for everyone of course... there may be other regrets than carb bloat.. nothing comes to mind right now..

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Tomorrow is another important anniversary for me personally. 6th May 2003 was the date of my kidney surgery. It's hard to believe it's been 4 years! More about that tomorrow, I'm heading out into the public domain in 10 minutes and should get myself half presentable.