Hyperreal

This has been a weird week so-far…

On Tuesday I found out my water was going to be off on Thursday (today.)

On Wednesday morning my shower wouldn’t turn off properly and dripped. Trying to fix it, I managed to break even more so it was a stream of cold water. Hmm…

It’s a “pressure balanced” mixer, fed from my combi boiler and mains cold water. The boiler is quite new, and the shower is quite old. I don’t think it can stand the pressure (if you excuse the rather weak pun.)

So, now would be a good time to figure out the water supply in my flat. There’s a tap under the sink that I thought controlled all the cold water. Nope. Turns out there’s a second tap for a second cold water supply entering my flat hidden in behind the bath where it is almost impossible to get to.

Of course, because the boiler is in the kitchen, I need to turn off both supplies to isolate the mixer from the water supply. Hmm…

A quick investigation of the shower led me to decide it would take a plumber to fix it. I arranged for a plumber on Friday morning. I was offered an emergency visit after 5pm Wednesday evening, but I figured I could live a day or so with some awkwardness in the supply of water to my bathroom, I’d be out most of Thursday, and I’d be able to go out dancing on Wednesday evening.

Before I headed in to work (after taking the morning off) I did some further investigation, found the manual for the shower and looked up the trouble-shooting guide. It said a shower that doesn’t turn off needs a new cartridge unit. Cool, that’s easy to sort then, assuming the plumber can get the part.

After thinking about that for a while, and doing some “pounds per hour” calculations, I decided I’d go buy the part myself on my way home. Found it too, at the second place I tried (just along the road from the first place.) Now all I need to do is persuade the plumber that this is what’s wrong, and get him to fit my new part. And how hard can that be???

So so-far this has been all fairly bad stuff. Meanwhile, some good stuff was happening. I had a good night dancing on Tuesday, and an even better night on Wednesday. On Tuesday I complained I had to do all the asking lately, but last night things seemed in better balance. I got some genuine compliments on my dancing, some good advice on a problem move for me, a chance to try out a couple of new moves, and (and this is maybe the one I’m most proud of) I managed to say “the cheekiest thing she’d ever had said to her” to a girl there.

Bad point last night was finding that my jacket had disappeared. Fortunately it hadn’t gone far – seems that someone moved it. I don’t know why. I’m sure it wasn’t me.

The other cool thing that happened yesterday was the arrival from Apple of my shiny new PowerBook (that I’m now typing this on) and iPod mini. (And some other bits and bobs.) Had them delivered to work, so had to carry the PowerBook (in its rather elegant case) to the plumber’s merchants’. I looked so out of place, even if I don’t wear a suit – me with my laptop case, dressed in “smart, but casual” next to all these plumbers in their boiler suits, and the like.

Wednesday ended with me having another look at the shower – to see if I could have one – and just making it worse. Now, it’s not a drip, or a stream, no – it’s gushing. Had a bath instead – first bath in ages and ages.

Today has been a bit mixed to. Even though I was extra prepared for the water being turned off at 8 am, it hadn’t gone off before I left for work at about 9.30. I had planned to be out tonight, but friends let me down. So I got home to find the water board are mid-way digging up my road, but there’s no evidence of them having even started to replace the pipes they were meant to finish today, nor any evidence that my water had been off at any time during the day.

So, if I had known these two things, I’d maybe have gone dancing tonight to Rutherglen, plus I’d not be faced with this dilemma…

I fully expect they’ll do the water stuff tomorrow. At the same time I’ve got a plumber coming to fix water-related things. How is he going to know if he’s sorted it if there’s no water supply to test it with???

I can see trouble ahead…

There’s been other good and bad things in work and stuff, but compared to some of this, totally forgettable.

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow, I guess….

… it was the worst of times…

What a day! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Some great things happened today, some truly awful things happened.

I’m going to my bed early tonight, but before I forget them, here are the moves from the class…

Beginners’: first move push spin, yo-yo, comb, step across.

Intermediate: sway flip-flop; into sway catapult, finishing with a two-handed return to go into double-handed yo-yo into a secret cheek-to-cheek; turn and spin out into a first-move one-handed catapult, back to the start…

Didn’t ever get the secret cheek-to-cheek to work to my satisfaction. Almost did my shoulder in trying.

Other moves were good, plus I tried out a couple of new moves that I’ve seen and got them working well enough to make me happy.

Also had some advice on my side-to-side, across, wrap-in problems. Apparently because it’s sort-of a sway, I should do the lead downwards thing you do with a sway. Will have to try that out and see if it makes the difference.

But that’s enough for tonight. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have time to go over the other things that want to make me laugh and cry. Over-all, I’m more in a laughing mood.

Good night!

(And good-night. )

So I was back at JJ’s tonight, “fashionably late” as Franck put it – thanks Franck, the more the women know my name, maybe the more they’ll want to dance with me and the better I’ll get. I wish.

So, beginners’ moves were… armjive, shoulder slide, wiggle, ceroc spin, octopus. All good stuff. Not sure how well the wiggling went, but it was a laugh anyway.

Intermediate moves… can’t remember if the first one got a name, but it was a basket variation unwrapping the girl behind, swapping her hand behind your back, turn to face and block (all these three bits in a “snap”) and from there you could spin or whatever. (You are in a left-to-left hold at the moment.)

Second one went in place of the spin or whatever, where you’d come round to have the girl on your left hand side, facing the same way and you’d turn her into a left-handed sway. From there you’d go into the move proper – a travelling sway pivot, I think it was called. First step back to finish the sway, then walk forward, pivoting the sway the other way, then a simple step and push out for a right to right hold.

Last move was a “classic” man wrap. Start with a catapult-type draw-through of the lady, but drop your hand to the side instead of up and back. Turn to face the lady, going into a half-nelson. Bring your left hand up and guide the lady’s right arm around in a turn. Keep turning until you’re dizzy (I was!) and then step out for a double handhold for the basket variation again.

Please correct any aspect of these descriptions that are wrong!

I got the first two moves OK, though by no means perfect. The last move I had a bit of trouble with. First I kept forgetting I had to turn to face the lady; second, usually by the time I got there she had already started the walking round bit without my help. Oh, and last, I couldn’t get the end of the move right – how to smoothly transfer to the double handhold. In a lot of these walk-round moves I miss the end because I’m too busy going round in circles to see what the teacher is doing!

The move I’d like to keep for the future is the sway pivot thing. Now it starts with a left-left handhold, which isn’t easy to get, but I figure if I did the move backward it might also work. To move from a left-left to a crossed over r-r, l-l handhold must be quite simple.

In freestyle, boosted with the experience of doing some swaying in class, I led a few classic sways, and found that holding onto both hands as you come out is a good way to get a crossed handhold. I like it when that happens because then I can do double-handed turns and returns, and even a two-handed yo-yo, though I’ll need to go back and figure out how these moves finish up (I recall a secret swizzle at some point?) to give myself a good exit strategy back into a more conventional handhold.

I suppose because I was happy with my new-found swaying ability, I felt a lot better about my dancing tonight. Apart from that, I don’t think my dancing was really much different from last week, where I was on a bit of a downer. There are probably lots of other wee things that were affecting my mood tonight, but they added up… It’s funny how the little things can make a big difference.

That said, both at the GUU last week and at JJ’s tonight I found I had to do a lot more asking than I have been used to. OK, at JJ’s I’m used to having to ask, but even some of the people who have often asked me in the past didn’t tonight. I’m still trying to work that one out. Maybe it’s just something about the crowd on the night. Or maybe it’s because all the keen women have danced with me enough and got bored. (Or worse, because they just don’t like dancing with me.) I’m trying to not let it bother me, but a guy could easily get paranoid…

So there’s a baby aerials workshop a week on Saturday, but I need to have a partner. Don’t think this is going to happen. Talked to one girl about partners and such things, but she wasn’t biting. Had a good suggestion of someone else, though I don’t think that’ll happen in time for the 9th. Never mind, just having someone to work with on the more grounded moves would be cool, and maybe if I’m lucky I could have a partner in time for the pre-comps workshop coming at the end of July. (Don’t see it somehow, but I live in hope!)

Still in two minds about the champs – I’m intending to go, but not sure about the Lucky Dip. I could be so out-classed, both by the competition, but even worse, by my partner. But it’s always possible I could just end up having fun.

So that was it… Thanks ladies for the dances, and cheers to everyone involved in making my night a better place to be.

Went busking in Perth yesterday and had a really good time…

It seems that this busk wasn’t publicised much, if at all, at the Glasgow classes, perhaps because no-one sane would go all the way to Perth just to dance in the street for a couple of hours. Thing is, to get to the Stirling busk which was publicised, I just jumped on a train, and to get to the Perth busk I jumped onto the very same train (well, a little earlier) and just got off one stop later. No big deal. Perhaps if I was driving it would have been different though…

Anyway, I arrived in good time, and met some other early birds. Unfortunately, the position we were hoping to use was taken over shortly after by a bus full of religious types. When Franck et al, arrived, we set up further down the round and off we went. Unfortunately the bus had a bigger sound system than us, and as they probably thought we were all god-less heathens, had no qualms about drowning out our music, making it hard to dance.

So we scooted along the road a bit, set up again, and this time we weren’t bothered by anyone. In the end, I’m sure we got a bigger crowd than our rivals, and very sure that they weren’t getting rounds of applause after each song.

It was nice to be back in Perth, it’s such a lovely place. If I wasn’t happy where I am, and in the job I do, I’d consider moving to Perth. Its streets are clean, the people are friendly – it’s just nice and cosy, without being too small. Perhaps I’ve only seen the good side of Perth and it isn’t all as nice as the parts I’ve seen. Anyway, I don’t suppose it matters.

So, as I said, the busk wasn’t publicised in Glasgow, so it was no surprise that I was the only person who had made the trip from the west. There was at least one person who had travelled probably a similar distance from Aberdeen, though she was combining the trip to the Perth with a visit to Edinburgh later for the party at Marco’s.

There were, naturally, lots of Perth people, and quite a few from Dundee and Fife. All in all, that made about 20 dancers in total, fairly well balanced between guys and girls.

The dancing was quite good for me. I’m still struggling with getting more variety into my repertoire, but I enjoyed the moves I could do, and found myself one or twice in unusual territory where I tried my best to act like I meant it. Compared to the previous busks, this one probably had a greater number of less-experienced ladies at it (I never know about the men) but that made it easier for me to relax. The dances with the more experienced were rather fab though.

I think I got a better balance between dancing and leafleting, and the people of Perth seemed really friendly. Didn’t get as many people stopping and asking me questions as, say, in Glasgow, but there could be all sorts of reasons for that.

We finished up after maybe two to three hours, and retired to a near-by restaurant where we sat out side and shared pizza and laughs. The sun came out (it was a good day for dancing, not too hot, but dry and bright) and we were happy.

I had planned that I would see most of the people again at Marco’s in Edinburgh last night, but I was really shattered. I almost fell asleep on the train home, and once home, I thought for a bit and figured that going to Edinburgh then would end up with me just needing to come home shortly after I’d arrived. I considered having a wee snooze, but decided I’d still not be rested enough, it would be getting late and I’d inevitably end up with an abbreviated evening no matter what I did.

So, instead I had a chilled-out evening, watched some stuff on the telly-box and went to bed early and slept the sleep of the just.

Feel very much refreshed this morning, though my calves and fingers are a bit sore…

I took some pictures of the day, but I’m not really impressed by most of them. I might see if with some creative cropping I can get a few that are worth putting up on my web site. I’ll let you know…

Thanks to everyone involved, was nice to see you all again/for the first time (delete as applicable).

Cheers!

Just back from the GUU. I really shouldn’t hang about chatting for so long, but it was fun. Sorry to the other guys I was supposed to be going for a drink with – I’ll be buying next time, promise!

Because it’s late, this’ll be a short one, but I’ll try to update it later, so watch for that.

Beginner moves: first move push spin, back pass, octopus, side-to-side shoulders.

Intermediate moves: Some wurlitzer variation, involving shoulder hooking, and wrapping in and across; octopus with a added turn of the lady after the man’s turn and a spin; one-handed catapult into a spin; one of those spins was a ceroc spin, but I can’t think just now which one.

All the moves I managed fairly easily after a few goes. I must be getting better in some ways… A few people told me I was doing well, both with the class and freestyle. However…

Well my freestyle dances weren’t so bad, but I’ve forgotten almost all my intermediate moves. I feel like I’ve got back a month or two, when I’d just started the intermediate classes and all I knew was a pretzel and a couple of basket variations.

Help!

Just back from the GUU. Magic night. What a contrast with yesterday!

No headache, no problems at the bar, not so many problems with my dancing, but a pretty big problem with the music – and no, this doesn’t lead into another bitch about slow swing and latin.

The problem tonight was – there was no music! Due to some sort of mix-up, we didn’t have a DJ, or any sound system. We had to do the beginner’s class to counted beats…

…until DJ Franck rode in to the rescue. A hurried set-up and we got to finish the class and actually dance to music!

I’m not sure if Franck chose particularly different music than last night, but tonight I had no complaints. I guess all the factors that affected me yesterday just piled up on me, pushing me into a mega downer and the music must have fallen in the hole I was in. (How’s that for stretching a metaphor! )

Let’s see how the rest of the night went – beginner’s class… arm-jive, man-spin, ceroc spin, in-and-out, octopus. I don’t do enough ceroc spins. In fact I do very few of the block spin I’ve been taught. Something to think about…

Intermediate class had some good moves… tea-pot sway with two-handed turn/return; secret swizzle into double-handed comb; “octopush” (does it have a different name?); false pretzel with spin out.

The swizzle thing was the first time I’d done a single to double hand-hold. I’m surprised how well it went. The “octopush” involves blocking the lady on her second wrap in, turning and pushing her back and doing a step across, back the way you came, I think. I’m not convinced I was ever actually doing this move right, though it’s meant to be real easy once you’ve got it.

The false pretzel was cool, I’ve read a description of it, and heard it talked about (usually in negative terms, normally by the poor follower who is made to feel a bit of a fool) but this was the first time I’d been taught it, and thus done it. I like to surprise my partners, so I’ll probably keep it in reserve when I need to wake someone up, or am just feeling like some mischief!

And the tea-pot sway was cool too. I thought you were supposed to step back on the right in the sway, but we were taught to step back on the left here. Maybe it makes something else easier, but I think I’ll try to step back right, as it feels more natural to me. This moves’ also a good way to get into a sway position if you’re unsure about the normal lead. (Like me!)

I enjoyed the freestyles. Every dance was a pleasure in its own way. I was asked to dance by the lady who gave me my best dance at the party on Saturday, so I guess she must have enjoyed it too. Wasn’t quite as magical as the last time, but still a lot of fun.

I think because she’s such a good follower, I feel both honour bound, and free to do more adventurous things. This sometimes leads me into paths where I don’t really know where I’m going, but I’m finding it easier to improvise my way back out. As I’m basically making these things up as I’m going along though, it leads to surprises for my partners as they don’t recognise the move. (Hey, nor do I!) I only hope I’m not doing anything bad. Once or twice I did a block kind-of-thing where my partner was expecting more of a flowing move. If I’ve messed up it could hurt.

Fortunately I don’t think I inflicted pain on anyone tonight (excluding one girl I’ll come to in a minute…) In fact, I got laughter and big grins out of partners that a few weeks ago wouldn’t not smile, but maybe just got nothing special out of my dancing. Hopefully they were laughing with joy, rather than at my shocking leads.

At the other end of the skill range I was still able to induce mirth. By some strange coincidence I managed to dance with three girls in a row, each of whom were attending for their third night. All were making good progress, one good, one better, and one very good. They were all laughing at various points during our dances. I managed to get both of us in stitches though near the end of a dance with one of them when I was demoing a yo-yo (as she hadn’t learnt it yet.) Unfortunately I managed to create a new variation on the return where by some bizarreness I managed to end up with one of my fingers in the poor girl’s mouth!

I’m going to call my new move the “bite me” return. Lucky for me, she didn’t!

Anyway, on balance, a fantastic night!

It’s just a shame I won’t get a chance to dance again until next Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone I danced with, during the class and freestyle, our fab teacher, our stand-in DJ , the demos, the taxis. In fact, a big thanks to just everyone.

So what do you think? Is it good or bad to leave your partner in stitches? Go on, leave a comment!

Cheers!

Hmm… Just back from JJ’s, and I’ve got to say I had a pretty bad night.

OK, you’ve got to understand I arrived at Ceroc with a headache just springing into life, which didn’t help my mood or concentration at all, so I wonder how I’d feel otherwise, but that didn’t happen, and I can only report what did.

The first thing that made this night so bad is the bar policy. Or maybe it’s the barman’s policy. I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he has such an attitude, I just thing he enjoys pissing people off.

Here’s the thing… If you’re buying stuff, and ask for water he’ll give you a pint glass with ice and water. Cool. But if you’re not, he’ll give you a plastic half-pint glass with just water, no ice – even if you ask for it.

So you think, well maybe I’ll buy a bottle of water. Uh-uh, not making that mistake again – £2 for a bottle of water that normally costs 50-60p. That’s taking the piss.

The first time I went to JJ’s the barman had jugs of water with ice out for us. What happened to that?

At the GUU on Wednesday, we always get jugs of water (sometimes with ice, if they’ve got it.) Maybe I’ll stick to the GUU in future.

Unhappy.

Next thing is the music. This isn’t really a biggy, and I’m sorry to do this, but I’m in a moany mood. Thing is I’m a young(ish?) guy, who likes clubby dance music. OK, so a lot of it is too fast to dance to. That’s cool. I’m also a relative beginner, and I don’t “get” slow and latin music. I can dance to them, sure, but using the same moves in the same style as I’d use for “Call on Me”. So if I dance with a more experienced partner, she’ll want to put extra interpretation into the dance that I’m not always comfortable with. So maybe I should pick a less experienced dancer for these tracks, but a lot of girls don’t like the slow tunes, maybe for the same reasons as me, but also they probably don’t want slow dances with people they don’t know well.

So, sorry Franck, but I didn’t really like your selection of music. I’m sure that lots of people probably did, but I’m just reporting how the night went for me.

Maybe I’m being too harsh… I did manage to dance as much as I wanted to, there were maybe only a few songs that I just wouldn’t ask anyone to dance to, and I’d always say “yes” if asked and manage through a slow song.

Bottom line is I prefer up-tempo music that’s not so challenging for me. Maybe as I get better that’ll change, but I think that then I’ll prefer up-tempo music that is challenging for me.

Whatever.

The last thing I want to moan about is my crap dancing. Things just weren’t working for me tonight. I don’t blame the music, I don’t blame the barman, I maybe blame the headache, but what that comes down to is I blame myself.

Moves that I had no problem leading as recently as Saturday were messing up tonight. Every time I tried a pretzel it went bad. What’s going on?

My selection of moves was also really poor. How can I still be doing three yo-yos in a row, without having a next move sorted out in my head?

OK, so not all the dances were bad, in fact some were really good, a lot of fun, but as the night went on, my performance and enjoyment diminished.

Not good.

The classes were good though. There were quite a few newcomers tonight and for the most part, they seemed to do well. Beginner moves were first move, shoulder slide, catapult, in-and-out, and a basket. Fairly tricky for a beginner, but everyone I danced with was managing (if not at the beginning, then by the end.)

Intermediate moves were catapult flamenco walk something?. Nice move, a good move to give you a crossed-over hand-hold. This was perfect for the double comb that followed. Came out of that into a left-handed basket walk thing. (Except there wasn’t much walking???)

It took me a while to get the catapult thing, but I had it sussed in the end. The hardest part was figuring out how to turn the girl to my other side to walk the other way. Once I had that figured out, things just fell into place. We were originally shown the double comb with the right-right grip below the left-left. But then we found the return on the catapult left us the other way up. This led to some confusion, and me twice almost bashing my face with my arm. (To the great amusement of my partner at the time. I found it funny too though.)

Not sure what my move of the night was – might experiment with the fancy trigger-fingered catapult… Have to find someone I like to do the double comb with… A quite like baskets, but I’m not sure my lead on the one tonight was very good – at least I found all the girls doing there own thing, no matter how I tried to lead them!

So the night wasn’t all bad, but on balance, I’d give it a thumbs down.

Hope I get myself sorted out for tomorrow!

Thanks Franck for all the good stuff, sorry I had to moan about the bad stuff.

And thanks to the dancers who put up with me. I promise I’ll try harder next time.

Cheers!

Who needs Southport to have a good time? Not me, that’s for sure!

Just back from the Glasgow Party, and the numbers were way down (compared to the only one other time I’ve been, but others said the same.)

The obvious reasons were that lots of people were at Southport, another lots of people didn’t come because of the absence of the first lots, and the rest just couldn’t make it due to other circumstances.

That said, there were still enough people to make it worth going (for me).

The moves in the “fun” class were a “twiddle twiddle” (I think that was the name!) (basically two travelling returns in short order); a double-handed to the left turny thing with lots of crossed arms in front and behind the guy, and a catapult ending; an accordion sit down thing, with a spin out back to the twiddly thing.

Even with Southport on, there were a good range of dancers, all up for fun and the reduced numbers didn’t reduce the demand for the best… That’s cool, cos excepting one or two, I prefer to dance with the more normal ladies who are a closer match to my own down-to-earth moves. (Does that sound bad? Condescending? I hope not. All I meant is that the hotshot dancers can make me feel poor in comparison.)

Getting back to the point I was trying to make… there were lots of good dancers to dance with, and I danced with as many of them as possible, some twice. My strategy for the night was to dance two or three and then sit out once or twice. This allowed me time to rest and let my dizziness calm down. (Yes, I’m still suffering from (cronic?) dizziness, but it didn’t seem so bad the last few days, so maybe it’s going away. Hope so!)

I suppose there were a few ladies I didn’t dance with. I’m trying to work out why. I’m coming up with a few reasons… Some it might have been because I didn’t get round to their tables as I did a sweep across the room. Some maybe because they were in two high demand. And others because I didn’t know them and didn’t see them during the class, and so didn’t know how I felt about them. (Which, now I think about it, implies that there might have been some I didn’t feel good about. And I guess there was, indeed, maybe a couple of these women, and it’s probably because during the class things didn’t go so well, and so I wouldn’t expect dancing with them to go so well either. )

I guess there would also be a few I just plain missed.

So, sorry to all the ladies who were dying to be asked to dance but were overlooked by me. (I hope it didn’t ruin your evening! ) Thanks to all the ladies who asked me though – it’s a pretty much guaranteed way to get a dance with me at least.

To those I did dance with, thank you so much. I had a fantastic night. OK, some dances were better than others, but it’s hard to figure out why… I had a fantastic dance with a woman I’ve maybe only danced a couple of times with before. I don’t remember the previous ones being so special – maybe this time it was something in the music… Whatever, it was the best dance of the night.

I should say something about the music… While all the music was great to dance to (although some was a bit “challenging” for me) I’d personally prefer more up-tempo “dance” music than there was. I know that’s not to everyone’s taste though.

What was a problem though was too often it sounded like the sound system was having a nervous breakdown. The music would stutter, and even cut out now and then. Not so good when you’re trying to lose yourself in the mood. I’m not sure where the fault was, so let’s leave it at that and just hope it gets sorted out for next time.

I was really surprised that people started leaving even before 11pm. As well as the lack of dancers and problems with the music, I guess there must have been others reasons for going, as there were still plenty of people who stayed.

By midnight though the numbers were really, really low. And it was at this point I left. I’m not entirely sure what my reasons for leaving were. I thought I’d danced enough with the people I wanted to, and as I was getting tired, another dance only leave them with a lesser memory. I wanted to get home, to have a bite to eat and chill for a bit, write this up and still get to bed at a decent hour to be refreshed for tomorrow. There may have been others, but I can’t figure out my mind tonight.

I had a great time though, probably better than the last one. This was probably because I’m feeling more confident, have expanded my repertoire of moves, and am prepared to experiment more. All these factors spread out into other things, and add up to a big grin on my face.

I think I’ve covered everything…

Cheers to everyone, to our fab Teacher, and to the respected DJ. It was a really great night.

See you all next time, if not sooner!

Back to the GUU after a week off last week.

A good night, but a slow start. It’s getting back to the way it was before where it takes quarter of an hour to get enough people to start the class… In fact, the numbers seemed a little bit lower than normal through the night – perhaps it’s the football, or maybe people have changed nights to the new Thursday night. It wasn’t a real problem though.

Beginners’ moves tonight were: armjive push spin, slo comb, step across, in-and-out, basket. For the same reasons as it was good to do the shoulder drop last night, it was good to do the comb tonight. I’m getting better at moves that come straight from the return with no step back. Still need more practice though.

Intermediate moves were…

• A half-pretzel variation, with a wee walk round bit, slide away and wrap back into a clockwise spin. Good move. I like these pretzel variants. Keeps the girls guessing!
• A first move variation with a change of hands into a clockwise spin out. This is quite similar to the sway tornado I’d done before, but there the spin was anti-clockwise. Was difficult to get the change of hands sorted out at first, but if you’re on it at the start rather than remembering half way through the move, it helps big time!
• A double-handed yo-yo variant, with the left hand upper-most. The yo-yo led into crossed-over hands on the girl’s shoulders for her to do a wee lean back. Back up, spin anti-clockwise, return.
• Shoulder slide push spin. This is at least the third time I’ve done this move and I’m not much better. I managed to make contact with my partner once or twice for the push, but most of the time I missed either just due to bad aim, or because she was past me by the time I was ready to push.

Tried again to dance with a greater variety of partners than usual, but I still managed to dance with most of my “usual suspects” too. Had a go at doing some of the moves of the night in freestyle (didn’t do the lean-back one) and also remembered one or two moves from last night. (I think – I’ve forgotten them just now!) Went pretty well.

I met a couple of girls who were there for the first night as a result of the busk we did a few weeks back. Hey, my efforts to get more cute girls in paid off! Cool!! (Not that I’m saying that the girls we already have aren’t cute!)

Heard some sad news – we’re going to be losing a couple of our most popular dancers to a far off land soon. I’ll be sorry to see them both go, but will especially miss my favourite hijacker.

Otherwise a good night. Lots of good dances, can’t remember any that were less than great in fact. Banging choons. Lots of fun!!! Thanx to everyone, oh, except the porter that locked us in! (Long story, not worth telling.)

Looking forward to my next dance… Saturday can’t come soon enough!

How was it for you?

Just back from JJ’s. A very good night.

I’ll try to keep this post short… Let’s see what happens…

Beginners’ moves… Yo-yo, shoulder drop, first move, man spin. Good to get practice on the shoulder drop. I’m now much better at it, but, like the comb, because it comes straight on from a return I usually miss the opportunity to use it. Memo to self for next time: try more shoulder drops and combs. Memo to the women reading this: I’m just practicing the combs because I need to, not because I fancy you. (Though there’s always the chance that I do… )

Intermediate moves:

• Half pretzel with lean and wrap out into spin. Cool move. My move of the week.
• First move tea cup? Something like that. A nice variation to the first move that I’ll also try to keep.
• Side-to-side shoulders, let go, slide across, weird spinny thing involving a sprint round the lady, return, slo comb.

I didn’t manage to get that last move at all. Never was in the right position as I span my partner.

During the freestyle, I tried to dance with fewer of “the usual suspects”, and more people who were new to me. (Been trying to do this more the last week or so.) I really enjoyed pretty much all my dances. One good thing was that I danced with more beginners, and so I was better able to impress them with my limited repertoire of moves. Great for my ego and confidence. (Really need to find a way to build up a richer set of moves though.)

So, good dances, great music, fab new moves, a real good night. Thanks to all involved!

What more can I say? Remember to leave a comment!! Cheers!!!

(Hey, I actually managed to keep this post short!!)

PS> Thanks for noticing my hair cut (those of you that did.) And shame on you if you didn’t!

So, now I had my ticket, and transport, I was going to the Corn Exchange!

I was a bit worried as it was a “ball”, and I’d be expected to dress up a little. We had been warned “no jeans!” I wondered about black jeans, but decided not to risk it.

In the end my travel companion did go for a casual look of t-shirt and (black) jeans and didn’t have any problems, but it was nice to make an effort anyway.

In fact it was a real effort to find a suitable pair of trousers to wear. And then find a shirt (or two) to go with it. I think I did quite well in the end, though I’d be interested in hearing other people’s views, so make sure and leave a comment!

After getting back from Stirling, a little recovery time was needed, so we didn’t get on our way to Edinburgh until about quarter to 9, getting in about 10-ish, once we had found the place. (The tiny map we had on our tickets wasn’t really much help.)

The Corn Exchange is a fantastic venue. It’s clean, stylish, and roomy, with a good set-up of the main floor being mostly clear of tables and chairs, with a couple of wings for all the clutter of people. It did mean though that it was slightly hard to find people on occasion.

The floor was great. I had worn my “sensible” shoes, but after the dancing in Stirling, and a little bit of walking in them I decided that’d be too sore to dance in, so it was just as well I had also brought my comfy “tiger feet” shoes. And the funny thing is that even with their rubber soles, they were a great match for the floor. Slippy enough to spin and slide when I wanted to, but not over the top. Next time I’ll just leave the “sensible” shoes at home.

There were loads of people there, though not many I knew. Three out of four of the lady “dancers for hire” (proceeds to charity) I knew, one from Glasgow, one from a Glasgow party and the forum, and one from the Stirling busk. The forth one I sort-of knew by association. Apart from them and one or two guys, that was it. I had no choice but to ask strangers to dance! Of course, once you get started it’s not so difficult and I danced with a fair number of Edinburgh’s fine ladies. I even got asked to dance by some of them!

I guess at around 11-ish, a larger bunch of Glasgow dancers turned up. Most of them had been at Stirling, and must also have needed a fair amount of time to get home, recover and get ready for Edinburgh. Still, it was a shame they weren’t there earlier to give us more time to dance together.

I reckon during the three hours I was there, I must have danced around 20 times. Which at 3 minutes a time, is a full hour, or a third of the time. That’s pretty good for me. Especially as I was feeling tired and dizzy. Some of the dancers were great. I didn’t manage to get to dance with one or two I’d have liked to, though at my level sometimes dancing with the best dancers isn’t so good for my confidence and ego. While women assure me that a few simple moves done well is better than lots of complex moves, not necessarily done especially well, I’d like to be able to impress and surprise every woman I dance with.

I didn’t have the confidence to try any of the more exotic moves I’ve recently learnt. I’ll need lots more practice time before I’ll be able to feel comfortable doing anything but the simplest of moves.

The music… Well it’s funny… There wasn’t much of the sort of music I’d normally listen to. Much of it was older, some had a latiny feel, some swing, and bit of straight-down-the-line rock’n'roll. I much prefer modern up-tempo music to listen to, and, at least at the moment, to dance to. Maybe as I get better I’ll come to appreciate these other styles of music for dancing to. Certainly it appeared that plenty other people liked the music.

Aside from one or two dances or dancers, I enjoyed myself enormously. I felt that I could have danced a good hour more, though thinking how I feel today, it’s probably just as well I didn’t.

I’m totally shattered today, my feet are sore, my legs ache, my arms don’t like me much, and even my fingers are complaining. I woke up yesterday with a bit of a sore wrist – dancing with it wasn’t painful at all, but it hurts just a little bit more this morning. I’ve hardly had any sleep, so I think I’ll go for another wee snooze in a little while…

Big thanks to all the dancers, the DJ, and Twinkle Toes for organising a fab night.

Cheers!

I went to Stirling yesterday to dance in the streets. Here’s what happened…

Before I left I was a little concerned about the weather. It was a bit drizzly in Glasgow, and the forecast for Stirling was very similar to the one for Glasgow. Tiggerbabe, however, reassured me that the busk was on, and the weather would be fine.

So, figuring that it if did rain, it wouldn’t be too bad, and I’d at least have some company, I headed off.

When I got to Stirling, on route to the Albert Halls, I came across some sort of military parade – RAF to be exact. This meant that after that had finished there’d be lots of “men in uniform” wandering around town. Perfect target, some would say, for a Ceroc flyer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We had just met up, waiting for a few key people, when it started to rain. And it was heavy. We took shelter in the Halls’ cafe, had a coffee, and waited… As it neared 1pm, the rain wasn’t showing much sign of giving up, but nor were we. We decided to head off to our arranged “dance floor”, and hope the weather would improve.

Which it did!

By the time we had all got to the main street, and got the equipment set up, it had stopped raining at the sun had come out!

We danced for about two hours. Unlike last time I busked, it took me very little time to put the flyers down and pick up a girl to dance with. So, lots of dancing, a fair amount of leafleting, and quite a bit of stopping to catch my breath. Great fun!

At one point I was approached by a woman who told me she was up on holiday from Sussex or Surrey, in England, but did Ceroc dancing, and then asked me for a dance. This was a pleasant surprise, normally the tourists are telling you they aren’t local, and don’t want a leaflet, even though there could well be a Ceroc venue close to where they come from. I told her about the forums, and she suggested that she might have a look. I don’t think she’ll get this far though… Anyway, it was nice to have a couple of dances with her, and I hope she enjoys the rest of her holiday.

Besides meeting visitors from far-off lands, it was a pleasure to meet some of the Stirling crew, and the few folks who came from Perth and Dundee.

Once again, after it was over, Franck laid on refreshments in a nearby restaurant/bar. I think it was called Pivo. Quite a nice place, though their fish-heavy menu might put me off going there in other circumstances.

Also supplied by Franck were tickets to a Charity Ball being held at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh last night.

The only thing stopping me going was transport to and from the venue. (I could probably get there using train and taxi, but getting home after 1am would be a problem.) Fortunately, I managed to find a kind soul (thanks!) who was able to give me a lift there and back!

And so I headed home, tired, but smiling.

Hi to everyone who was there, thanks to the ladies for the dances, cheers to Tiggerbabe for a fine selection of music, and even more thanks to Franck for everything.

Stirling was pretty good for a visit. Must go back soon!

Just back from the class in Rutherglen Town Hall. What a fab venue!

Everything is new and shiny. Such a contrast to the GUU.

The floor is great, though I’d have to say it’s wax finish is not a good match for my shoes as I felt it a bit sticky at times. I need to get proper shoes for dancing in.

Also lots of good dancers were there. A lot of folks I already knew from other classes, but there were quite a few I don’t remember seeing before. I met or had pointed out to me a couple of folks from the forum that I also didn’t know, so “Hi!” to them, – in fact, “Hi!” to all the forumites who were there.

The hall was a bit smaller than I was expecting, but it wasn’t too crowded really. Better than a typical night at JJ’s or the GUU where it can be a bit tight.

Altogether recommended. Get your ass along there next week.

But how about the class? What were the moves?

The class was good. The beginners’ class was very easy. No, make that very, very easy. As a new venue with lots of new people I guess that was appropriate though. By the end the beginners I saw seemed to have got the hang of it, and had some moves to work from. Cool.

The intermediate class was a little more complex. We had a couple of basket variations that blended into each other to produce a move that reminded me a bit of the sway move we did on Tuesday. They led into a secret swizzle. And from there into a two-handed back-pass. I can’t remember the exact names of the moves. (Though one was definitely called the “basket ….. thingy”. I’ve been referring to moves as the “… thingy” for ages, never realising I was using a technical term!)

The first basket ended with a double-handed turn into an elbow lock. This was perhaps the trickiest part of any of the moves as I would never know when my hands went up for the turn whether they would back down in the right position. It varied a great deal on who I was paired with – maybe something to do with height.

The secret swizzle thingy (technical term again!) was pretty cool. Again, quite similar to the double-handed yo-yo we did on Tuesday, but, of course, with a different ending. This is my move of the night.

I didn’t dance as much during freestyle as I would have liked – having another dizzy day – but I still managed a fair number of dances with quite a few people. Enjoyed myself, I think I managed in some of the dances to get more variation into my moves. It’s funny, but I find it easier to do the more complex moves with the less obviously-good dancers. I think I sometimes can have more fun with the less experienced as I don’t worry so much about messing up. And as a result I can experiment more. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy dancing with the best women – it’s just a different experience. On nights when I’m not feeling tired and dizzy, my preferences probably change.

I impressed myself also by managing to remember the moves from Tuesday (with the help of some other guys who were demonstrating bits of them to someone else) and showing them to a couple of folks that missed them. I even almost managed to get them right!

So, a big cheers to everyone I met, talked to, or danced with. Thanks!

Altogether, not such a bad night. A good start for Rutherglen. Not sure when I’ll be back, but it’ll be soon.

If you were there, why don’t you leave a comment below… Just hit the comments link…

Another good night at JJ’s.

I arrived a little late, missed most of the Ceroc Essentials, but was good to go for the beginners’ class. First move push spin, yo-yo, comb, step across. Good fun! Got a few good dancers, and a few really new dancers that I was really struggling with. I wonder why they so often want to spin or turn the wrong way from where I’m trying to lead them, no matter how awkward it is. I try to make my lead a little less subtle, but it can’t be working…

Freestyle is good. I’m still not getting the variety I want in my dancing – still too many first moves and yo-yos. I tried in one dance to severely limit the number of these moves, and I didn’t do so bad, though instead it was lots of octopuses and baskets. At least I know a few basket variations, so it wasn’t so bad.

On to the intermediate class. I really liked the moves we did tonight. So, here we go…

• A sway variation where you turn the girl round stepping back as she goes into the sway. Then forward for a two-handed turn, step back.
• Into a two-handed yo-yo variation. Actually I think the yo-yo bit was fairly standard, but it led into a lean, and finished with a right-to-left slide away, and wrap in, much like the side to side shoulders variation I’ve been having problems leading. This has helped that.
• From there into a half-octopus, stepping backward around for a bit and into a turny-spiny thing, caught with the right hand and straight into the sway…

There was very few problems for me with these moves tonight. I feel good about that. The biggest problem is me forgetting what I’m trying to do half way through the sequence of moves. I’ve always had this problem though.

I like these cross-over hands, and double hand turns. Seen so many moves involving that kind of thing, but never had a clue how they work. Now I do. Neat.

Second freestyle went quite well too. Got more adventurous and asked some girls I hadn’t asked before to dance, rather than sticking to the usual suspects. Was rewarded by one of the girls asking me back (with was really great for my tender male ego.) In fact, I got asked more than before, so I guess I’m getting to be known by people as a friendly face, if not a fantastic dancer.

A few of my partners were quite difficult for me. I enjoyed these dances, but I came off the floor feeling floored. They were just a bit too exuberant for me. I’m quite a wee guy, and some women are simply just bigger than me – taller, larger frame, that kind of thing – I don’t mean over-weight. And so if these women are putting their heart and soul into their dancing, things can get a bit messy. Fun, sure, but messy fun.

In the past I’ve been shown a few ways to rein in exuberant dancers, without really being aware of what the problem was. Now I’ve realised, I get to apply this knowledge. It’s hard to enjoy a dance though if you’re always trying to close it down and control it. I don’t know what else to do, and I don’t want to turn these women down, as they do give you a fun dance.

So I met some nice people, danced with nice people, chatted with nice people, listened to good music. Synergy brought it all together into a great night. Thanks everyone!

One negative point. The bar-man was a bit off. Unhelpful, though not quite rude. But totally charmless. Anyone else agree?

I’d like to finish up this post by saying that, again, I’m thinking a “partner” would be useful to help me learn these intermediate moves. I’ve found that from one week to the next I’ve usually forgotten all the moves we did and there is no time during the class to practice moves you’re not totally sure about. It’d be good to find someone with about the same level of experience who attends the same class who’d like to get together maybe once a week, typically at the weekend so we can practice the moves we’ve just learnt and also maybe try out moves we’ve seen somewhere.

I’d be interested in anyone’s point of view on this.

Cheers guys!

(and remember to leave a comment – just hit the “comments” link below…)