Wednesday 29 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

My weekend began with a trip to Wellingborough. My God, that was rubbish! There was almost nobody there. Me and Lynn were the only people from MK as well. The place was half empty. And then the band came out — they’re called This Little Girl. And, while I freely admit they play better than I ever will, that’s not the same as being good. Every track they placed sounded nearly identical. Each one started off too slow, and seemed to get progressively slower as it went along. (Not good!) And the [girl] drummer looked bored mental, which might explain the drumming.

Now, let’s be honest, the first time I visited Wellingborough it was fairly empty, and the music was a bit tame. (Although nowhere near as bad as this one!) But that didn’t stop me and Lynn having a great night. Still, I think Lynn is still recovering from the cold she’s had all week. Not really firing on all cylinders, sadly. In the end, we left the building at about 10pm. Still, it’s not all bad news; looks like next time around Mike might have a copy of the DVD from Roade for me. Should be good…

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Friday 24 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

It’s taken me this long to recover from Wednesday night. I don’t know what Debbie’s game is, but she worked us hard that night. I can only assume that with the 50s and 60s night on Saturday, she wants us all to be at our best. Whatever; I was wrecked by the end of it. And I wasn’t the only one!

We started off with the Baby Workout. And then it was straight into a crazy little routine: Natural Top, American Spin, Sombrero, Change of Hands Behind the Back, Return [change hands], The Gate, Catapult, Charleston, and then straight back into another Natural Top as we start again. Not only that, but the final time through, we danced it to crazy fast music. By that point I’d travelled around the circle and arrived at Pete’s partner, and even she seemed flustered at this point. (And she’s damned good!)

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Tuesday 21 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

So, an uneventful Monday class last night. Aside from me getting there late, and Pam giving my girlfriend a knowing grin when she arrived. I spent the evening dancing with Lavinia. Among other things, Laura got us all to dance the complex double-Sombrero routine that caused me so much trouble in the Wednesday class. Everybody here managed to keep up OK. (Except me. Embarrassingly, I managed to forget what I was doing once or twice!) We also did the Rockabilly, which Laura still can’t pronounce and I still can’t dance very well. I now have the steps, it just doesn’t look very stylish.

Ah well. Looks like there’s a few people from this class coming on Saturday night. And as usual, Lynn is coming with my to Wellingborough on Friday, and Lavinia can’t do Fridays. Looks like it’s going to be a fun weekend!

In other news, the weekend that the excellent Firebirds are playing Far Cotton is also my little sister’s birthday. *sigh*

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Monday 20 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

And so, here we are again on Monday morning, after a weekend of fun. Well, kinda.

Friday night saw me at my Ballroom & Latin class. I was feeling kinda down, but by the end of the class I was quite happy again. There was a mere nine dancers present. Just as well really, because one of the first things Steve said was that “your girlfriend’s next door neighbor was here on Tuesday”, followed by my girlfriend’s name. Somehow nobody else in the room seemed to catch that one. (Well, she did say she was thinking about coming along…)

Unfortunately we spent some time with the Argintine Tango, which I really don’t like very much. I ended up making my left knee sore with all the bending us men are supposed to do. Ah well, never mind.

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Thursday 16 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

OK, so it probably has nothing to do with the T-shirt at all. But I wore it to my dance classes (plural) yesterday, and I happen to think I danced particularly well. I still didn’t quite get the Natural Top, but Debbie cooked up a fairly evil routine involving it, and it didn’t give me and Adelaide much trouble. She even commented that I’m a good leader. Lynn & Lavinia can’t make it to Ashton this weekend, but apparently Adelaide will be there, so that’s something.

(In case you care: Natural Top, American Span [catch right], Sombrero, Change of Hands behind the back, Return [change hands], The Gate [Catapult ending, catch right], Charleston. The fun part is when you try for repartition.)

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Wednesday 15 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

So here we are, on Wednesday, and I’m only just getting around to recounting what happened on Monday!

Well, actually not a lot happened in the Monday dance class. Laura got us to dance the Panic Routine with a Change of Hands around the Belly. I looked at Lynn, and Lynn looked back at me, and we smiled. Yeah, we’ve done this one before. Consequently, we were awesome at it! Ah, I remember why I like going to beginners’ classes.

We also had a little go at Double Trouble. I danced with several pairs of ladies, some better than others. It’s clear that some of the girls aren’t used to dancing right leg. Some of them tried to spin in completely the wrong direction, some started on the wrong foot, and so forth. Some of them were quite good, especially that really tiny girl. I didn’t see this, but apparently on one go Lynn managed to smack Lavinia in the face during one of the American spins. Poor sod!

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Tuesday 14 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

Saturday afternoon I sent Val a text asking if she was able to join me at Far Cotton. Much to my surprise, the reply came back in the affirmative. To be honest, I was having fun working on Maddock (my Haddock replacement), and I wasn’t really inclined to put down tools and drive over to Northampton to sit on the sidelines and watch everybody else having a good time. But I’d asked this lady to come along, and she had kindly agreed to come, so it would be rather rude to not turn up.

Val claims to vaguely know where Far Cotton itself is. I poked and prodded my map and sent Val some directions to the club. I don’t know if it actually helped at all. And then I got into my own car and started driving. Now the first time I drove to Far Cotton, I found it very easily. But this time, for reasons unknown, I had significant trouble finding the correct exit to one of the roundabouts. I drove round it a dozen times before finding the right road. How odd!

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Monday 13 Sep 2010 by Orphi the AweKid.

After years, indeed, decades of leading an empty life where nothing ever happens, today it seems like my life is happening around me faster than I can blog it! And I’m only blogging the best bits.

Friday night saw me at my Ballroom & Latin class as usual. Lois was already there, and after a few moments her boyfriend appeared. From the little girls’ room. Hmm, interesting… But anyway, it’s nice to see those two back together. They make a cute couple. I spent the evening dancing with Val. I managed to embarrass her by mentioning my girlfriend’s bruised lip. Anyway, I’m hopeless at the Foxtrot, and not much better at the Quickstep. The Saunter Together wasn’t too bad, but with it being progressive, everybody missed the start of the dance and struggled to catch up thereafter.

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