This week was the 'Strictly come dancing' for us girls, organised by Lisa and June. Now normally with these sort of things I accept them with some caution 'cos it usually involves some following instructions that my rebellious side is likely to object to. But I thought 'hey, whatever' and shrugged off any thoughts of resistance and gave it a go.
Lisa got a place sorted with some reasonable floor space; the Shanghi restaurant. And June brought some music along with her Irish wit... which was needed to whip us into shape. Being a bit cautious at these sort of activities, the sort of organised 'make-a-fool-of-yourself' sort of deals; I was one of the last to get a partner.... if life isn't complicated enough June had to ask 'man or women' since we each had to adopt the relative parts. June asked that question as I was paired up with Debbie, who turned out to have the most fantastic figure... well, I couldn't exactly carry out the women's part with that sort of competition could I?
But as we got into it, learning the first few steps of the barn dance, nerves gave way to having fun and all manner of fits of giggles as we each fumbled along, stepping on toes and so on. We even got the staff to join in, they were really great. Debbie managed to win a certificate for best social foxtrot, which I have to say I had a hand in..... well .... almost.
It was only a few days later that I discovered my dance partner was actually a star - well, she had to have been to be patient enough for me catch up with some of the dance steps when I lost the sequence; no, I mean shes a star of some home-grown Sci-Fi web-movies that Lisa had mentioned that Debs and others had done... well worth a look http://www.dirtsideatomic.co.uk . Despite the limited resources, they've done a brilliant job between them. So now I can say, I've danced with Agent Poodle.
Saturday alone
Unfortunately Mrs Kate was still fighting off one of those Winter colds when we did the dancing event so she gave it a miss; she was still suffering when Saturday came around when we had agreed to meet up with Di and Paula. So I went along, alone ... well, you have to keep up appearances don't you?. Besides, I felt I really needed a good dance at Naps, having failed to 'get into the groove' on Wednesday after Junes dance lessons, and not having the opportunity at all since NYE.
The evening started out Ok; we met up in Tribeco and from there onto Taurus. Afterwards we had a drink in the newly redecorated Velvet which was surprisingly quiet... but it still had the smell of paint which made it uncomfortable - the discomfort increased when they turned the sound system up, so from there we went into Crush 2 (ex-AXM). Crush 2 was fairly crowded, a different clientele from the that of the old AXM, but most likely due to what might be their party-piece... all drinks costing £2. In there we met up with Jane and her group of girlies, had a laugh with a couple of GG's who insisted on taking everyones picture.
From here we went to Naps.... which was the point at which the evening went downhill; Naps was initially quiet, but the music wasn't upto much and the clientele was a little more of the 'admirer' social group.... I don't know?... there was something in the air... in a nut shell, a punch up (not involving any of us!), the deceitful man, well-dodgy admirers, strange sights (verging on the 'dark-side'), couldn't find my dance-groove.... or as I put it to Mrs Kate, there were far more negatives than positives for this part of the evening; perhaps we ought to try new places?
On a last point for today's entry... it's almost spooky; Di has just posted a photo of some graffiti she's seen, it says 'Enjoy Life, this is not a dress rehearsal'. Never a truer statement made. It's 'spooky' because of some of the things we were talking about only a few hours before.... If only Di, if only....
