Kelly's Daily Blog

Hey guys

I hope you are all having a great week, it seems like our warm weather is finally coming back.

I was thinking to myself the other day that it is crazy how sometimes when you make 1 single decision or change in your life, then your entire life could change completely. The life changing decision I made was deciding to start dancing at Strictly Ballroom again. I did not realize how much it was going to impact my life until I actually started to get back into it. I have always enjoyed ballroom dancing but for a while I had to stop because I was working in the Padel industry at that time, therefore I didn’t have time for it due to the fact that I had to do shift work and I was also coaching Padel and then I got into Pole Dancing which was fun for a while, however the type of dance that suits me the most is Ballroom and Latin.

I used to dance about 5 years ago so naturally I picked up on it pretty quickly. The part that changed my life was when I went to my first dancing social. It was a Pajama themed social and I met a girl there and we very quickly became friends and then all of a sudden she was introducing me to her friends and now I have inherited a really great group of friends. For those of you who have read my previous posts, you would know that I did not have a large group of friends. Now that I do have friends I am so incredibly happy and I feel like everything is finally falling into place.

Thank you for reading my blog post, I am hoping that you enjoyed it.

Bye xx

Hey guys

My previous post was about a Tennis players perspective on Padel. This post will be about a Squash players perspective.

I cannot say from any of my own experience what the difference is because I have never played Squash. I have spoken with an ex provincial Squash player and she also has a very long and strong history when it comes to Squash, she is now a very regular Padel player and gave me her perspective on how the 2 sports differ.

There are a lot of benefits for Padel players who have a Squash background. Squash players tend to read the angles off the back wall and side wall better than most Tennis players could. Most Squash players would find coming up to the net to be a bit of an adjustment, even though Squash players do volleying and smashing, the rules are different. That is when being a Tennis player is beneficial, because we are used to coming to the net, therefore it comes a little bit more naturally.

Lots of Squash players get injuries in their elbows, shoulders and even their knees. Padel is good for this because, you don’t do as much bending as you would do in Squash, therefore the chances of injuries lessens a little bit, I am not saying that Padel players don’t get injured, we are just comparing the injuries. The equipment in Squash also differs quite a lot, the rackets and balls are lighter in Squash, so getting used to the heavier equipment is also an adjustment.

Even though she still loves Squash, she doesn’t play it anymore and I understand where she is coming from because even though I still love Tennis, I no longer play it anymore.

Thank you for reading my post, please let me know what you think.

Bye xx

Hey guys

I hope you are all keeping warm.

Everybody always talks about how different Padel is from Tennis. This blog post is going to be based on a Tennis players perspective on Padel.

I have been a competitive Tennis player since I was around 5 or 6 years old and I can say without a doubt that Tennis was the love of my life, there was no other sport that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Tennis, it was even the only sport I actually watched on TV.

I was introduced to Padel about 4 years ago when I was offered a job to work in the Padel industry. At first when I started playing I didn’t enjoy it mainly because I kept hitting the ball straight into the wall.. classic Tennis player power struggle. The more I played, the more I got addicted to it and officially caught the Padel bug. I still played Tennis for a while until I eventually started coaching Padel. The Tennis started to affect the way I was playing Padel and visa versa. I sadly had to give up playing Tennis in order to focus on Padel mainly due to the fact that I was now coaching.

Even though people always say that Tennis and Padel are similar, I personally do not really see a lot of Tennis in Padel. There are definitely similarities when it comes to scoring and the basic look of the court. Padel and Tennis have very different techniques. The other thing that I struggled with in the beginning was hitting the ball after it comes off of the wall, I have now gotten the hang of it with a lot of practice. In Tennis you can let it go past you and when it hits the back fence it does not come back, but with Padel the ball comes back… with twice the speed. Let’s just say that getting used to the wall has been a journey. Squash players actually have a huge upper hand with the wall.

If I get into all of the reasons why I love this sport and how it differs from Tennis then this post would never end. Now I need o find a Squash player and get their perspective on Padel.

Thank you for reading my post, I hope you enjoyed it and if you haven’t tried Padel yet then do yourself a favour and give it a try. There is no shortage of Padel courts.

Bye xx

Hey guys

I hope you are all keeping warm in this very cold weather. It has been way too long since the last time I did a movie recommendation post. The movie I am recommending is called Back To Black, it’s a documentary movie about Amy Winehouse.

I am a huge fan of Amy Winehouse, ever since I started listening to her music, I just loved it. When you listen to her songs, you can actually feel the emotion in her lyrics and it keeps you wanting more.

I am not usually a fan of documentaries, but when I watched this one I loved it so much that I watched it again the next day. I always enjoyed listening to her songs, but when I saw what each song was about and what led her to writing the song actually makes me love it even more. When I hear her songs now, I appreciate them more because I know what each song is about and what each word means.

When you listen to a song that is sung by any artist, you never really think about what they went through to get the inspiration for that song. Not all singers write songs about past experience, but most of them do.

I give this movie a 10/10 and highly recommend it to all the Amy Winehouse fans or anybody who enjoys a truly great movie with a hint of sadness

I hope you enjoyed this post and will give this movie a try.

Bye xx

Hey guys

I hope you are all keeping warm as we start to approach Winter.

The last few months have been incredibly hectic and I have had to make some big decisions, not always easy decisions. The biggest decision that I had to make was one that I made toward the end of last year when I decided to move back in with my parents. The reason for me moving back was because living on my own was causing some stress for me financially and emotionally. I have always been the kind of person who has been quite shy, and find it difficult to make friends because I don’t drink, so therefore I generally stay away from bars and clubs, this makes it very difficult to meet new people. When I was living with my parents, I didn’t think about how much it affected me, because I was still surrounded by people… my parents, and so therefore I was not alone. When I moved out I realised just how alone I actually was, therefore I decided the only option I really had was to move home, because I was also struggling financially so I really didn’t have any other option.

Now this is not meant to be a sad post or anything, I just wanted to give you a little insight into what got me into the situation. You know the saying “Mind Over Matter”, well my dad always used to use that phrase and I always believed in it, but not as much as I do now that I had to move back into my parents house. A lot of people that are in my situation would look at it as a step backwards, but after a while I realised that it is actually a huge step forwards, because moving back in with my parents allows for me to start being financially prepared again, and also work on my social life.

So for the next few months I really tried my hardest to make friends and I did, not a lot but I made two really good friends, and I feel like that was a huge accomplishment. I also started to get financially ready… took me a couple of months but I finally reached my goals and I owe it all to “Mind Over Matter”. The reason I say that is because when you set a goal and you truly believe that that goal will happen then it will. So with a little trust and belief in the future I have finally moved back into my apartment.

This time I feel less stressed financially and socially and I am actually enjoying it a lot more. I also got a new job working for my parents, I have been working for them for about a month now. This has been a huge adjustment for me, because I have been working in the sports industry for years, and now I am in the finance industry, but I am loving every single minute of my new adventure and I will tell you all about it in my next blog post.

Thank you for reading my post, I hope you loved it and I hope you think the right thoughts and all of your goals and dreams come true for you.

Bye xx

Hey guys

I hope you are all having an awesome year so far and keeping warm because it seems like Winter is heading our way very quickly. It seems like it has been forever since I last posted, mainly because I have been so busy and slightly lazy, but I am now back to my every week posts.

The last couple of months have been crazy to say the least, it will take a few posts for me to keep you up to speed, I am going to write this one about the biggest change in my life.

For most of my life I have a lot of issues with my jaw and that stems from me having an under bite when I was younger. Generally you get a surgery to get rid of an underbite where they break your jaw and put it back into place…. I did not do that. Instead we went the safe route and got braces (I was going to get braces anyways because I had the most awful teeth ever, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone). The braces very quickly took away my underbite and so we thought all was good, no need for surgery because my problems were solved. Little did we know, that was the beginning of all the issues.

My jaw started to really get sore for a long time so my parents took me to a dentist, he told me I had TMJ. For years we went on thinking that, that was the issue, after countless doctors visits with lots of different types of doctors we came up with a temporary game plan, I did sessions with the Chiropractor, had Botox and even went to a physio who specialises in TMJ. Even though we did all of that and jumped through so many hoops…. IT WAS STILL SORE.

My parents recently decided to take me to their dentist, he is the best in the business, he is also a lecturer and trains a lot of dentists. He managed to do the impossible, he gave me a proper diagnosis and we got a game plan. He could immediately see that I did not have TMJ, but something much worse…. I have Mio Facial Pain Disfunction Syndrome (M.P.D.S for short). He told me to go to an Orthodontist who specialises in this king of stuff and so straight after my appointment with him, my parents and i went to Pretoria to see the Orthodontist. She had a look and took some X-rays and told us that all of the angles in my mouth are wrong basically, more at the bottom jaw. The fix for all of this is braces for 4-6 months and then I get surgery.

I currently have my braces on now, even though they are not comfortable… especially when I get them tightened. I can say without a doubt that there has been a significant change in my jaw, I have had them for over a month now and my pain is gone.

I cannot express how grateful I am to my parents and to the Dentist and Orthodontist who could finally help me. This just shows that even when things look like they not going to get better and you start to lose hope, it can all change in a moments notice when you see the right people.

I hope you all enjoyed my post and I will keep you updated on all the other things that are happening in my life, because there is a lot.

Bye xx

Hey guys

Today we were going to go to the beach and do some exploring, but we decided to have a relaxed day. We slept in until about 09:00 which was really nice and then went to 34 South and had a Bacon and Banana Waffle stack, this was so delicious that we actually had it like 3 days in a row. My mom is not a huge fan of Waffles and even she enjoyed it.

We then went back to the apartment and did some reading, tanning in the sun, watching tv and doing sand art. We ended off the day by having dinner at Marios.

Even though we didn’t really do much, we still had an absolutely amazing day, because we got a chance to relax and do nothing which is sometimes the best way to spend your day.

Tomorrow I will post about what we did on day 5 and I will soon be posting about the History of Christmas

Bye xx