Category: Brookfield

Dancin’ – 18 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It’s Saturday and that means we were dancing in Brookfield. It was another warm day, but with a lot of clouds hiding the sun.

Quite a full dance floor. We started with the Electric Slide. Just a repetitive piece of nonsense. Next was the American Smooth Waltz. It’s beginning to fit into place, but not as fast as Scamp would like. That took up about a third of today’s lesson.
For a break we danced the Sally Ann Cha-Cha. Also a bit of fun, but much more interesting that the electric slide.
Jane’s favourite, Rona’s Rumba was next. It was to commemorate a dancer called Rona who passed away a couple of years ago. It’s probably a lovely dance, but I’ve now heard a few of the old hands saying it has too many turns and it doesn’t flow well. They could be right. I just find it hard to dance. That was another third or more of the lessons gone.
Two more sequence dances, The Mayfair Quickstep and the Melody Foxtrot finished the class.

We drove home through very light traffic and were home in no time at all. Unfortunately I didn’t time it this time.

I didn’t want to go walking in St Mo’s again after yesterday’s disappointing walk. Instead I helped Danny, the bloke next door, to rip out the old wire fence that separates our two gardens. He’s determined to get a fence up to allow his grandkids to play in the garden. It was a tough job, but I got the remains of the old Blackcurrant bush removed and a lot of weeds and invasive flowers removed. It’s half past nine just now and he’s still working away at it. Not me. I’ve had enough for one day.

We’re hoping to go to Isobel’s 90th birthday party tomorrow. I’m intending taking my camera to record the event, although I’m sure Isobel will complain bitterly!

PoD went to a Calendula flower from the garden.

Dancin’ – 24 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today was Saturday and every Saturday we go dancing, well, not really every Saturday, but most.

Today I wasn’t really looking forward to driving for three quarters of an hour to get to Brookfield for a dance class that would entail me ‘dancing’ the Samba. It’s not a real dance, just a way of shuffling around the floor to music. That’s not dancing!

Right, I’ve got that out of my system and I can now talk about what we did today. Drove to Brookfield and it was a busy dance floor. Lots of folk willing to have their hip joints dislocated for no good reason. Oops, there I go again. You’d think I didn’t like Samba! I’d rather dance Salsa or Soca or anything other than Samba, but I must cool down now and concentrate on what I did enjoy, and not mention SMA again tonight.

We had a Waltz to manage first and it, at least had some redeeming features. For a start, it’s got ‘real’ music not just heavy beats and no structure, and once you learn the names like “Syncopated Whisk” and a “Double Reverse Turn” it becomes a bit clearer. I just think it makes me sound clever when I say “Oh yes, we were doing a Double Reverse with a Syncopated Whisk”. I don’t know what it means, but other people listening to me might believe I was fully ‘au fait’ with the subtleties of this dance. Don’t be fooled people. I was just “doin’ a wee bit of spinnin’ roon the flair”. Scamp, on the other hand, knew what all these mysterious words meant. Either that or she’s a very convincing liar!

After the statutory hour and a half of gyrating round the floor without bumping into too many people, I was so glad when Stewart called a halt to the proceedings and sent us on our way, probably with his head in his hands and asking himself what he’d been teaching for that hour and a half.

We drove home through fairly heavy traffic with some of the signs on the gantry reducing our speed to 20mph. Do these people really understand what 20mph looks like? How many folk could honestly say they have driven at 20mph on a motorway. Very few I’d imagine I’d think.

Long story short, we went through the Clyde Tunnel and on to meet the M8 on the other side of the Clyde and from there it was an easy drive home through glowering clouds constantly threatening rain that never came. Lunch was half a Ginster’s for me and Toast & Banana for Scamp. Then an hour to work on the answers to Wordle et al.

In the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a drooping weed and a lifebuoy with the title “The Titanic Sinks Tonight”. They’re on Flickr if you choose to peruse them. We watched the Great Pottery Throwdown which is actually a lot better than I thought it would be. I can’t remember being shown how to ‘throw pots’ but in my first year at Cumby High I do remember John Swan teaching John M and me how to make slab pots and coil pots too. I’ve actually still got both pots somewhere about the house.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a carpet cleaner. What fun we have!

Dancin’ – 17 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Out early to go dancing at Brookfield.

We arrived way too early. Quarter of an hour early, because the long straight along to Paisley was almost empty of traffic. I don’t know why, but it if hadn’t been for the 40mph zone where they are constantly repairing something, we’d have been half an hour early.

The first warm-up was the inevitable “House of Bamboo” which I must admit now that I’ve mastered it, is just a bit of fluff. A waste of time. Stewart likes it and thinks it’s great. I’m not a fan.

Next was the Feta Foxtrot – I have no idea where that name came from. It’s quite a ‘nice’ dance. Nothing too difficult or demanding. Of course my mind went a blank after I’d filmed it, but then with encouragement from Scamp, and strangely from Jane, we managed to do it with included ‘Sway’ which is a lean to one side or the other. The Sway actually added interest to the dance and I just know that Scamp is going to love it.

Next it was Blue Angel Rumba. I find it a bit of a clumsy dance with nothing to recommend it. We danced a couple tracks, I think, mainly to take our minds off the Feta Foxtrot with its Sways.

Next was my nemesis, the Samba. This really is an awful forward, back, back, forward piece of nonsense. Maybe if you’ve had a few shandies it’s great, but for non-alcoholics at 11am it’s not all that much fun. I couldn’t go forward for going backward. It’s just crap, that’s the only word for it. I failed miserably in my attempts to get my feet going in the correct direction. No, it’s not for me. The music we danced to reminded me of Soca but without the fun. I didn’t like it. Did you notice?

Another sequence track got me out of Brookfield alive. Having said that, I did enjoy a lot of the dances this week, just that awful Samba wasted it for me.

The drive home was the exact opposite of the drive to Brookfield. Stop, go and stop again. I don’t know what was going on ahead of us. Maybe an accident or a breakdown perhaps. Somebody ahead of us was having the worst Saturday of the year. I decided to try going through the Clyde Tunnel instead of sitting behind cars that were crawling along. It turned out to be the best option. Maybe a little bit longer in time, but at least the wheels were turning all the time.

Lunch was Fish Finger Sandwich for Scamp and a Piece ’n’ Banana for me. After that, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s in the late afternoon. The light was getting quite low but I managed to get a shot of a chunk of moss clinging to a tree. Nothing special, but nice colours and textures. An easy PoD.

Dinner was a Three Egg Omelette each. I thoroughly enjoyed it and although Scamp would have liked only two eggs, she managed to finish it. Dessert was a slice of Madeira cake with one of the big strawberries from Jamie’s Christmas present on top.

We watched a poor, almost comical, episode of Grantchester. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing satisfied me today. Maybe I should just go to bed and hope for a better day tomorrow.

No real plans for tomorrow, but some research needed.