It started about 9am. I’d slept fitfully because I’d galloping heartburn. Must have been that chilli!
I took a Nexium tablet to help with the heartburn and we went down to breakfast. Then I did one of those stupid things. I had a full breakfast. Egg, bacon, sausage and tomato, on top of a Nexium tablet that was fighting with my heartburn. Duh!
After that it was dance shoes on, new dance shoes. A short hour long class to break them in. Stewart and Jane demo’d the routine we were going to learn. It was a Quickstep sequence dance called Cameron Quickstep! Then we were all called on to the floorRoughly 80 people converged on the dance floor and attempted the first few steps. Surprisingly it was a Car Crash. Not the brightest idea Stewart. Sense prevailed though and he split the class into two sections and called one half on to the floor at a time, then the second half. I think it was then it dawned on him that it was going to take twice as long as normal to get through this, for us at least, complicated set of steps. Soooo instead of taking twice the time, he just taught it quicker! Well, what else would you do with a quickstep? The car crash became a shambles and after the hour that had been allocated, we knew the first section and very little else. We weren’t alone. There were a few mumbled voices about ‘not knowing what we were doing’, and ‘just not getting this.’ I was glad when the hour came to an end and we were released into the wide, wet world for the afternoon.
We went for a walk into the town. I was looking for two things.
- Coltsfoot Rock from a wee health shop.
- Coffee from The Bean Shop.
We set off to find what was available. Unfortunately the jar of Coltsfoot Rock in the shop was empty. It looks like the Coltsfoot Rock lorry had had a puncture or some other mishap. On the plus side, The Bean Shop was open and it had amongst its coffees, Cuba Turquino beans! Yes, two bags please and some tea and a bag of Christmas blend coffee beans.
I went off to put the coffee and tea into the boot of the car while Scamp went shopping. Back from storing the coffee I went shopping too and then we had lunch in the cafe of the recently refurbished Perth Theatre. It was quite noisy inside with teenager ‘lovies’ shouting and carrying on upstairs. The coffee in the cafe was a bit tasteless, worse than Costa and if that’s not damning enough, it also took ages to come. It’s an interesting place. Much more modern than it was, but it did take more than two years to complete the makeover. My final thought about it was “Style over Substance”.
Our lunch had given time for the rain to stop and now the clouds were clearing and it looked like we might actually get a walk, either in the gardens across the river or through the park. We chose the gardens after Scamp bought four sherry glasses in a charity shop for three quid. A real bargain. They went into the bag with the coffee in the boot of the car for safe keeping while we went for our walk. I took a few photos from the road bridge over the Tay, then we crossed the road and took the long slope down into the gardens. Too many junkies and ‘wideos’ hanging around under the bridge, so we went the other way and bumped into another bunch of dancers out for a walk who were also complaining about the lesson this morning. We walked on and they went the other way. We crossed back over the Smeaton’s Bridge where today’s PoD came from. From there it was a short walk to the Salutation Hotel.
Tonight was a ‘Black Tie’ event and we’d come prepared. We were cutting it fine for the drinks reception, but the food tonight was much better than yesterday. Scamp didn’t have a starter, but her main was Salmon and dessert was Cheesecake. I had Mackerel Pate to start then Chicken followed by ice cream, trying to put my stomach under less stress than last night. Dancing was good, but constant and exhausting with a break in the middle for two semi-professionals to strut their stuff to the amazement of all. That’s when you realise you’re only playing at this dancing thing. The ones who devote themselves to it are on a different plane.
We finally gave up about fifteen minutes from the end. I don’t think our feet could take much more. Tomorrow we have another ‘free’ hour’s dancing in the morning before we all head home.