Hyperreal

We went to Kirriemuir on Saturday for a couple of dances…

There was a tea dance in the afternoon, then a late party in the evening. We were also meant to attend the party on the Friday night, but didn’t make it…

That was mostly my fault as I missed my train to Dundee and didn’t get there until past 10pm. We could have still made it for 11, and assuming it would have gone on until at least 3am, it wouldn’t have been a total waste of time, but we were tired and decided instead to have a night in playing scrabble.

So on Saturday, after a wee trip into Dundee (well, that ferry place along the way) we headed up to Kirriemuir, and arrived at about 3-ish, perfectly in time for the tea dance, though inevitably the workshops were running a bit late so we needn’t have rushed.

The tea dance was good. I found it difficult getting back into the mood of slower dancing though, not having had much of an opportunity to practice much of late. I think I also felt a bit more energetic at the time and the chilled pace didn’t match how I felt.

Anyway, as the afternoon went on I got more into it, and enjoyed myself. Lots of good music and lots of good dancing.

There weren’t many people who had come just for the dance, so it was mainly the “residents” there, very few of which I knew. That didn’t matter though, and I made several nice discoveries amongst the dancers down from Inverness.

As that came to an end we went off to find food… We went to the Drover’s Inn, just down the road a bit in a wee village called Memus. It had been recommended to us, and both the food and the real wood fire in the pub didn’t disappoint. What did disappoint was that it wasn’t really a “drover’s” inn, as it was actually a converted old post office, and had probably never seen a drover (in the action of droving) in its life. (There’s a real Drover’s Inn up at the top of the west coast of Loch Lomond which I recommend strongly to anyone passing.)

Anyway, it was a nice place, with friendly staff, and as I said, good food and a warm fire. Not so bad. While we were there, we also managed to get a wee snooze which helped set us up for a long night of dancing.

So… back to the hotel, quick change and scrub up and we were ready for more!

The music in the evening was much more like a typical party night, which was both good and bad. Good, ‘cos I wanted some good, energetic dances; bad, because I was beginning to run out of energy. That said, I really enjoyed the set played – my only problem was my own tiredness (oh, and a sore foot!)

Talking of the foot, thanks to Cheeks for a fantastic foot rub, which really helped.

Coupled with the lack of energy, I felt a lack of inspiration. I was feeling a bit rusty, and felt my dancing getting very repetitive. Even though there were lots of good dancers there who I had many really fun dances with, I don’t think I was dancing to the best of my abilities.

With the change of clocks that night, 2am came very quickly, and I was beginning to fade. I think we lasted until about 3am before giving up and heading home while we could still stand up.

Sunday was another day of scrabble, walks round the village and catching up on episodes of Heros.

Overall, a really good couple of days. Lovely company, lovely weather, lovely dancing, lovely food, lovely lovely. Can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend.

If you were at all involved in making it, I give you my greatest thanks.