Category: Dancing

Glasgow in the sunshine – 6 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

I was going in to meet my brother in Glasgow on a very hot day.

Scamp very kindly gave me a lift to the station and for once I just managed to collect my ticket as the train rolled in to the station. It’s my usual luck to collect the ticket just as the train is rolling out of the station!

In Glasgow I wandered over to George Square to see what people were demonstrating about today. It appeared that it was all about GIRFEC or, Get It Right For Every Child. I don’t know who devised this acronym, but surely they could have made a better one. I remember being told by those who had been force fed this hype that it was the way forward in education, the ONLY way forward, in fact. Actually I’m surprised it’s still talked about, because it simply isn’t possible to get it right for every child in a class, but it’s professional suicidal to say that in a school. If there are 30 pupils in a class and one teacher and let’s say a period last for 45 minutes that would mean 1.5 minutes for each child. What can you teach in 90 seconds and not leave any time for questions? Zilch. Oh, I’m so glad I don’t need to worry about crap like that now.

However, I dutifully took some photos of the banner waving folk, just for the practise and then walked back up to the bus station to meet Alex. As usual we went for coffee in Nero and set out our plan for the day. Today was his choice of destination and he chose the financial district of Glasgow. I thought that would be good, because we could go there via the suspension bridge and the newly sprung mini skyscrapers on the south side of the river.

As we were walking down through the now almost empty George Square, I was surprised by his suggestion of going to Paesano for an early lunch. I didn’t think he liked Paesano pizzas, but that’s what we did and I introduced him to a No 5 (Cooked ham) and also told him he could add or subtract any ingredients. He chose a ’no cheese’ version and seemed to enjoy his lunch. I like that flexibility of Paesano. Add or subtract anything you want or don’t want.

After lunch we walked down to Argyle Street and got some nice shots of a bloke power washing the pavement there. I asked his mate if the bloke would do my car and he just laughed and said “Sure. Just bring it round!” We walked over the suspension bridge and on to the new financial district on the south bank of the Clyde. There is always something interesting in the “money making” places! What I found there was the PoD which was a wee man sitting on a seat with a 3/4 size guitar, playing for his own enjoyment, very quietly, while following the tablature on his phone. It really was a nice looking guitar, but he was playing so quietly I couldn’t hear the tune.

We crossed back over the Squiggly Bridge to the place where the “Old Money” is because that was the the place Alex wanted to photograph. The sun wasn’t quite as low as he’d expected and just not far enough round. He has an app on his phone that tells him when is the best time to get the best light, and today it just wasn’t right, but we took some shots anyway. Walked back up by Central Station and had another coffee in another Nero. They seem to be everywhere these days, ousting the Costas!

After that we walked up to the station where I was getting my train after I’d contacted Scamp and asked for a run home from Croy. Alex went to get his bus and I went home to get ready for tonight’s dance class.

This was the first time I’d been to Kirsty’s class for a while and we were doing a new waltz that’s not been released from copyright yet, so isn’t available on YouTube. I must admit I was lost to start with, but with a bit of thought and some encouragement from Scamp I think I’ve got the basics of it. Tomorrow I’ll know for sure.

It was a busy day, for sure and a hot one too. Really enjoyed the walk round Glasgow and the pizza, even if it took a while coming from the pass and was just a tad cool as a result. I’ll forgive them.

Tomorrow we might be taking Isobel to the tea dance in Glenburn.

 

Last Dance Class – 2 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

… for two weeks!

Drove to Brookfield for the last dance class for two weeks, well, the last Ballroom Basics dance class because the teachers are off on holiday. However, Scamp has managed to inveigle us into another dance class in Cumbersheugh to make up our dancing time. It won’t be the same dances and Kirsty’s style will be slightly different, but the language will be the same and a change is as good as a rest. Best of all, it’s just up the road, literally. No miles and miles of roadworks to navigate through!

But today we did have to navigate the 50mph then the 40mph and back to the 50mph and then back to the 40mph before we were suddenly allowed to do a heady 70mph then 60 mph then back to 70mph again all on the same stretch of motorway. It’s confusing.

Dancing today began with Tina Tango danced to Shivers and then a never-ending extended version of Sweet Dreams (are made of this) by Eurythmics (10:23 mins), thankfully cut short by Stewart. After that we went straight into the new Cha-Cha with the Cross Basic which I think I have now conquered. I even managed to get the ‘drunken sailor’ right a few times! A couple of Blue Angel Rumbas finished off the first set.

Feeling quite pleased with myself I expected the next set would be Joy’s Waltz, which we had both practised and were happy with. But surprise, surprise, it wasn’t. It was the Quickstep which we hadn’t practised. However, after bit of one to one with Stewart, and encouragement from Scamp, it fell into place. Another section of this difficult dance done. Just to make sure we were all exhausted, we finished with one track of the Midnight Jive which is non-stop kicks, spins and cross steps.
It felt great to walk out into the sunshine after all those mind bending dances. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to practise them on Thursday at the tea dance.

Back home I re-read an email from Churchill insurance to make sure they really wanted THAT MUCH! for a year’s car insurance. No way was I paying that. That was before I logged in to Money Supermarket and found out that Churchill’s was actually a sort of middle ground insurance estimate. Scamp checked Saga and Esure just to be sure and they were coming up with close to the same numbers. Maybe Churchill aren’t so far away from the mark after all.

Scamp was desperate to get the grass cut, both front and back and I thought I might go out and take some photos later in the afternoon. So that’s what we did.The grass does look a lot better cut short and I did manage to get one photo I was pleased with, so we both achieved our stated goal. I phoned Scamp from St Mo’s to ask what she wanted for dinner. Fish ’n’ Chips from the chip shop in Condorrat was the answer. That suited me too, so I set off for that place. The phone call was also a test for the new connection. EE is now gone and has been replaced by Tesco Mobile. Double the data for less than I was paying for EE, plus the price is frozen for the 24 months of the contract. Best of all, the phone works better with the O2 masts that Tesco use than with EE’s. At least for now, anyway.

PoD was a male Common Darter dragonfly sitting on the boardwalk of St Mo’s. Lovely warm light from the late afternoon sun.

Tomorrow I think we’ll go out somewhere for a walk.

 

A day at the horses – 31 August 2023

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Not the galloping kind, but really big horses.

It was a really beautiful morning with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. I kid you not, we do occasionally have good days up beyond Hadrian’s Wall. We discussed where we might go to enjoy this sudden change in the weather after yesterday’s sudden showers. Scamp’s first suggestion of Drumpellier didn’t really excite me and my first suggestion of the Kelpies was always going to be a winner with Scamp. So, we went off to see the big horses. We were so busy talking while I was driving, we missed the slip-road for Falkirk and were heading for Stirling. It didn’t matter, I knew we could turn off just outside Stirling and head along the M9 to Grangemouth and from there it was an easy road to Helix park where the horses live.

We paid for the luxury of parking near to the Kelpies, the giant horses we’d come to see. I’d been there just over a week before, but I didn’t mind going again. There is always something to photograph in the park. Today it was one of the canal boats that grabbed my attention, but the big horses got PoD. We had lunch outside the cafe because it seemed such a waste to sit in a hot cafe when we could enjoy the fresh air outside and look over the park. Just for fun, after our lunch we shared an ice cream boat. It’s a wee boat shaped dish made from thin plastic with two squirts of Mr Whippy ice cream, and a ’99’ with two spoons to share. Just for fun, like I said, but it felt so relaxing sitting in the sun having lunch. Sort of ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’. The Monet version, not the shocking nakedness of the Manet one!

Another walk round the horses to say goodbye and we walked over the canal and along the towpath to the carpark. I suggested we might go and visit Klondyke Garden Centre on our way home. It was a bit out of our way, but it would be a change from our usual plant specialists. Scamp was in her element. So much so, she couldn’t quite decide what she was going to bring home. In the end we bought a Chrysanthemum ball, a variegated Berberis, a Basil plant and a small ornamental grass. She also found a fruit stall in the centre and bought lots of interesting veg and fruit. An expensive visit, but very worthwhile. I think we may go back!

On the way home, I stopped at Tesco, terminated my connection to EE and joined Tesco Mobile. Not as good coverage as EE, but cheaper with more data allowance and the promise not to increase the price over 24 months. Just waiting now for my PAC code to complete its change over to Tesco. I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, and it was all completed in about ten minutes.

If you care to take a look at what was happening this day in 2022 and then go back a day (it’s easy), you might believe in synchronicity!  Carl Jung was a clever man!!

Tomorrow I think Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps and I’m going to do as little as possible!

 

Not going far – 29 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

I had enough exercise yesterday. I didn’t want any more today.

Scamp was out early to get her nails ‘done’ again, then she was meeting Shona for coffee. I was asked if I wanted to join them, but I decided they would get on better without me!

Instead I stayed home and read for a while and looked through the photos that had arrived in Flickr overnight. The window cleaner arrived and I spent a wee while blethering to him. Basically, I did nothing, or as close to nothing as I felt I could get away with.

After Scamp arrived home with her new lilac nails we had lunch and then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was one of those days with gusty winds blowing the rain clouds around, creating what the weather fairies delight in calling ‘scattered showers’. PoD went to a rather demonic looking photo of what looks like a pair of horns behind a bush. It’s actually a macro of an earwig’s rear end! There are over 1000 species of earwigs in the world and only 4 are native to the UK.

The competitor for PoD was a shot of a Peacock butterfly with its wings locked together to keep a sudden rain shower out of their delicate upper surface. As soon as the rain stopped the wings folded out and it sat there taking in the warmth from the sun that had appeared after the cloud cleared.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. Pasta Carbonara with mushrooms, shallots and finely sliced bacon. It seemed to go down well and will be worth trying another time.

A short dance practise in the evening  just to make sure the Joy’s Waltz and the new short(ish) cha-cha are firmly in my head.

Tomorrow is an early rise. Scamp and the rest of the witches are off to Pitlochry on the bus for the day. I’m driving them to the Town Centre to catch the bus which leaves at 8.45am! I hope they have a great day. No singing on the bus, though!

Dancin’ Saturday – 26 August 2023

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Driving through the roadworks. Roadworks that will last until the end of September!

We drove over to Brookfield for a reasonably successful dance class, and ignoring the roadworks, it was a pleasant enough drive. Two new members, two girls. One just likes to dance and the other one wore a Fit Steps tee shirt and thought she could do it all. Oh dear, wrong thing to say.

While Jane and Stewart took them aside and explained what we were doing in class, we practised our Joy’s Waltz. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a great improvement on last week. We did actually manage once through the entire routine without a mistake, well, almost without a mistake. Then it went to pieces again as it often, but not always, does! I am improving and when I get things like the Outside Spin right, I can feel that I’m getting it right.

A couple of easy sequence dances to ease the new starts in to this strange old fashioned way of dancing, where everyone does the same moves at the same time. After that we hurtled in to the new Cha-Cha with the terrifying Cross Basic. I don’t know if it is really basic, but it certainly has the ability to make us both cross. For once, Stewart agreed with me about who was moving clockwise and who wasn’t. I’m glad someone agrees with me sometimes. By the end of that part of the lesson, things were making much more sense.

Another sequence dance and then a chance to practise the Quickstep. If there is a great stumbling block in our dances it’s the Quickstep. It really is well named. The steps come at you so quickly it’s almost impossible sometimes to stop and find out where you are in the routine.

All things considered, it was a worthwhile class where we learned a few things and got a chance to practise lots more things in a big dance hall.

We took the M8 – M74 – M73 – M80 route home and stopped at Tesco on the way to pick up lunch. We’d already decided tonight’s dinner was coming from Golden Bowl.

Rain showers all afternoon, but I braved them to take a walk in St Mo’s where PoD was a ladybird hiding under a knapweed flower.

Watched the qualifying for the Dutch GP. Interesting but not as enthralling as the World Athletics Championships, especially the pole vault where the Swedish vaulter Mondo Duplantis cleared an incredible 6.1m.

Tomorrow Scamp is heading to Glasgow for a perfume making class. Thankfully I wasn’t invited!

Waltzing around – 24 August 2023

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This morning we had a quick practise of the waltz. I needed it.

We spent so long yesterday arguing about whether we were going clockwise or anti-clockwise when we were doing the Cross Basic, I forgot all the stuff I’d learned about the Outside Spin. So this morning we concentrated on the Outside Spin. After a couple of mistakes I got back to the basics of it, and this next section is for my benefit. It will make no sense to anyone reading it, except me and perhaps Scamp:

After the Drag Hesitation, and the backward steps turn right and plant my right foot, then spin clockwise on it around Scamp. After that it’s a Back Lock and we’re nearly finished.

I think that’s it. It seemed to work yesterday and this morning.

That was this morning. This afternoon we drove to Glenburn to a very small group of dancers. First dance of course was a waltz. That’s when I realised I’d left the Outside Spin in the house, I must have, because I certainly didn’t have it with me! I just couldn’t remember how to get my feet to complete that simple couple of sentences in italics I’ve just written. It just wouldn’t come. Disaster! Thank goodness for sequence dances Stewart interleaves between the ballroom and latin dances. They repeat and repeat short ‘sequences’ of moves. That’s where they get their name from and also why they are so popular. After you’ve danced them for a while, they become embedded in muscle memory. I haven’t repeated the Outside Spin enough times yet to embed it.

After the halfway point of the tea dance, after the actual tea and coffee had been served and cleared away, the first dance of the second half is a waltz again and this time I stumbled through the waltz again, but this time it was a bit clearer and I remembered some of Stewart’s prompts and also Scamp’s hints. It was better, but not very elegant.

Barry and Cath, two long serving salsa dancers, and excellent tango dancers joined us after tea time for a blether. Also another dancer lady, Margaret McIver, sat and talked to us at tea time, but the two teachers sat in their little cliques and hardly spoke to us at all. That is not my idea of what teachers should do. They should encourage folk to join in the dance community and mingle. Maybe it’s just me, that I always find fault with teachers!

We left as usual just after 3pm to avoid the worst of the school transport, and we had a fairly easy run home.

I grabbed the opportunity of a few shots of our Japanese Anemone in flower in the garden and that became PoD.

Not the best dancing day, but maybe I’ve finally solved the problem of the Outside Spin and all it needs is practise now.

I think we both felt the temperature dropping a bit today. That seems to be the way the weather is going for next week according to the Weather Fairies.

No real plans for tomorrow, but we may go out to lunch.

Dancin’ – 10 August 2023

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We were off today to Glenburn to do some dancin’.

I’d been doing a bit of studying this morning. It was mainly centred on the latest iteration of Joy’s Waltz. We had a half hour or so of practise last night that went over the waltz and a bit of cha-cha. Today I knew that Scamp would want to put that practise to good use. Even after a bit of last minute revision, I wasn’t sure that practise would make perfect. Getting round the floor without doing too much damage and without crashing into anyone would be a win for me.

I don’t know what the Paisley council have been doing with their spending plans, but they must have found some extra money in a biscuit tin in a cupboard because that’s the only way they could manage finance the roadworks around Glenburn where we were going for dancing. I lost count of the number of diversion signs and roads being dug up as we drove out there. Worst of all, the road we usually drive home was closed off with a lorry and a few dozen traffic cones. How were we going to navigate round that? The only way I could think of was driving through Paisley itself and that’s a nightmare journey I didn’t want to make. The best thing to do was to put it behind us for now and enjoy the dancing.

The weather today was humid, very humid. I think we got up to 25ºc on the car thermometer and the temperature in the hall must have been similar. Again, we were lucky in whose table we sat at. Chatted away with David & Carol, John & Madge until we had enough folk to make the floor look busy. Waltz, of course, was first and for the first dance I was quite pleased that I managed to achieve my two goals. After that, it was two sequence dances followed with two ballroom or latin dances. We managed to navigate the sequence dances, but my skill level at ballroom and latin dances went gradually downhill. Even muscle memory wasn’t working towards the end. Plus, as Ella Fitzgerald sang, It was “Too Darn Hot!”

We drove away from Glenburn and decided to go back the way we always would and see what happened. Worst comes to the worst, we’d follow the diversion signs until we got lost and then rely on the sat nav. However as we were coming down the hill to the Hurlet roundabout where the road had been closed, it had magically been opened again and we simply drove home by our usual M77, M8, M74, M73 route.

Scamp decided that the sun was going to shine when we got back and took her folding chair out to soak up some of its rays. I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and got a PoD of a lazy dragonfly sitting on the stones that provide grip on the boardwalk. Being cold blooded, I imagine they get a fair bit of heat from the stones which warm up in the sun. I extended my walk down to the shops and came home with some fruit and some flowers, because, well, it was Thursday. When I came back I joined Scamp in the garden with a can of Brewdog stout (Try it Jamie, it works) and a Pimms for Scamp.

Dinner tonight was sausage, egg, beans and chips which was a bit unusual, but worked quite well.

Tomorrow we’ve no real plans, but a change may be afoot. Heavy rain predicted to mark the end of the hot clammy weather.

Driving and dancing – 5 August 2023

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That’s all we seemed to do today.

Drove to Brookfield in the morning. It was a small group of only four couples, quite normal on a day with a dance in the evening. The floor in the room is still not quite right after a kids party with a bouncy castle inside about a month ago. My guess is that the bouncy castle scraped the floor and someone decide that polish or oil would repair the damage. It really won’t be properly fixed until footfall wears that skin off. So we had a shortened room again and also a shortened class time because the bowling club who use the hall were having an afternoon and needed time to set up. So a small class, a shortened floor space and fifteen minutes less time to dance.

We started with a sequence dance then went into the class proper with the new unnamed cha-cha routine which Scamp suggests should be the “Slippy Cha-Cha”! She should suggest it to the teachers. That was ok, but not wonderful, but much better than my attempt at Joy’s Waltz. Given that we hadn’t practised it since May, that wasn’t really surprising, and also, Jane did her usual and added in an extra feature, a Curved Feather. Were do they get these names from? Although they are much better than Michael’s dancing by numbers. At least Curved Feather give you a clue what shape you’re (supposed to be) making on the floor. I could hardly remember the start steps of the original waltz and had to rely on Scamp’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the dances. Even she was struggling with this one for a while. One more track of sequence and we handed the floor over to the eagerly waiting bowlers. They were like a well drilled army. Pulling out the tables and assembling them under the eagle eye of Mrs Sergeant Major who was in charge of the operation. We left them to it.

I made a bad decision on the way home and tried the route through the Clyde Tunnel, only to find, as many others did that there was NO THROUGH ROAD. Barriers and diversions everywhere. I eventually gave up and took the easy way out by driving back west along the M8 then the M77, took the first exit and joined the M77 again heading east this time. After that I just followed the car in front over the Kingston Bridge and home.

A roll ’n’ corned beef and another roll ’n’ fresh made bramble jam was lunch for us with Scamp substituting tomato for corned beef. While Scamp read, I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and got PoD on the way home. It was a bunch of wild geranium flowers against the sky that caught my eye and my ultra-wide lens. Once the image had been dunked in Lightroom it looked quite the part!

Dinner was Chicken Milanese, then we sat and read for a short while before we got ready and headed off to the dance. Weather was the usual Scottish. Bright sunshine then immediately after that, torrential rain that changed back to sunshine again then the cycle repeated. I think the blue car now knows the way to Brookfield itself. Twice in one day is maybe too much, but there were extenuating circumstances today as there is no class next week because the hall will be being used for a village fete. Maybe the feet treading on the slippy floor will wear off the shine!

Sitting with Peter and Gillian, Naimat and Audrey and another couple whose names evade me as ours probably did to them. Good banter with Peter and Naimat, while Audrey, Gillian and Scamp did their best to add some decorum to the evening.
We danced all but one of the sequence dances and as many as we could, of the ballroom and latin dances. We really need to do more practise. We didn’t need to practise the salsa dances, they just came from muscle memory. We even got praise from Jane afterwards!

We stayed to the end and did a bit of cleaning up round our table then say our goodnights and drove home straight down the M8 to the M80 this time. No getting tangled up in Cycling World Championships that cause the earlier debacle. Even got parked right outside the house! A very good night.

Tomorrow we might go visit the cycling in Glasgow, but we’re hoping to get the train there. No road blocks on the railway we hope!

Blackpool Tower Ballroom – 29 July 2023

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We drove to Hamilton. Went on a bus. We danced. We went for a walk. We came home. It rained.

That’s the synopsis, here’s the detail:

The alarm woke us at 6.45am. After a quick breakfast and a cup of tea we drove to Strathclyde Park in Hamilton and parked as we’d been told, on the park road near the Holiday Inn. The bus arrived and we were driven down to Blackpool, listening to music played from a phone into a microphone. I hadn’t realised this was the ‘system’ that was being used until we were coming back. We are in the 21st century, aren’t we? The bus was a bit cold, but after a while the sun warmed it up. We shouldn’t complain, it was a comfortable enough journey.

We were dropped off at the Tower Ballroom and were shown to our seats in the ballroom itself. Lots of small round tables with seating arranged to let everyone have a view of the ballroom floor. Our Afternoon Tea was served on them. Posh little finger sandwiches on the bottom layer, macarons and brownies on the middle layer and scones with pots of clotted cream and jam on the top, and of course, tea or coffee.

It must have been a magnificent building in its heyday. Now it’s a bit tired and in need of some TLC. The ballroom floor, however is lovely to dance on. No slippy patches and no uneven floorboards. You can feel the 12,000 square feet suspended floor move gently when there are a lot of dancers on it. It’s almost nine times the size of the ‘Strictly’ studio dance floor and is made from 30,602 separate blocks of mahogany, oak and walnut. We danced quite a few of the sequence dances and also attempted a waltz and a foxtrot, the latter being much more successful than the waltz. Practise is required for sure!
Great fun watching the two organists on the stage and seeing the big white Wurlitzer organ and its pianist rising and falling while being played.

After our almost four hours of dancing and eating, we changed shoes back to normal walking ones and went down to a windy beach for a wander. The tide was miles out, so no chance of a paddle today. We walked along the sand to the Central Pier and took a few photos, then walked back to have fish ’n’ chips at Harry Ramsden’s along with half the bus party!

Fed and watered Scamp suggested a walk along to the North Pier and we fought our way through the crowds to get there. Just like Glasgow on a Thursday night. Drunk youngsters everywhere. We were both sober, I was driving later. We walked along the pier then Scamp noticed that our bus was just stopping in front of the Tower Ballroom, so we headed back at a much less leisurely pace. We needn’t have worried, we had plenty of time to catch our breath before everyone was on board.

Stewart organised a singsong on the way home, still using his home made LoFi. Just as we were almost passing Larkhall he played Donald Where’s Yer Troosers! I was not amused and told them that I absolutely hated that song and always have.

It had been raining on and off all of the journey home although it had stayed dry for most of the day. By the time we got back to Hamilton the rain was lashing down. Drove home and we had a wee drink to celebrate the day. Would we do it again? Probably, but maybe not next year.

In a break from tradition, this is not the PoD. I just thought you’d like to see inside the Tower Ballroom.

Tomorrow we’ll have a rest day, hopefully.

 

 

Slippin’ and a Slidin’ – 22 July 2023

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We were dancing in a restricted floor today. About a third of the floor was cordoned off because of the risk of sliding on a very slippery floor. Something to do with a kids party last week.

Only four couples and the teachers so the reduced dancing space wasn’t really much of a problem. Nobody seemed to know what had been applied to the floor, presumably to clean up after last week’s kids party, but it did make the floor quite slippy. Thankfully resourceful Jane had a solution. She poured some water in the corner of the area we were dancing in and encouraged everyone to dip their shoes in it and then wipe it off. It was supposed to make the suede soles more grippy, and it worked!

Two sequence dances to begin with then we launched into the nitty gritty of the Rumba routine we’ve been learning. We knew the figures in the rumba, but these were the little nuances, what Tom Paxton called “the John Wayne dance steps”, the details. If you don’t know who Tom Paxton is, Google him! We learned a lot, especially from Jayne’s instructions, but also from watching Stuart’s footwork. It brought the Rumba to life and made us feel we were ‘dancing’ it, not just going through the motions.

Another sequence dance to allow us to clear our heads, then a little Cha-Cha routine that was composed almost entirely from figures we already knew. I think this was a hastily ‘invented’ cha-cha to have something that could be danced within the reduced area we had available. We picked up most of it and Scamp filmed the demo and shared it on the class WhatsApp page, so we all have something to work on. Again there was an emphasis on the quality of the steps. This may be because we’re booked for a trip to the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool soon!

We drove home along a busy M8, but one without roadworks or 40mph restrictions. Oh Joy! We went to Tesco when we got home because I quite fancied a roll ’n’ sausage, but either the bakers were on strike or the ovens had packed in, but there were no rolls to be had, not real rolls, anyway. They had soft baps, but they’re not real rolls, not Scottish Roll! So it had to be a plain sliced loaf instead.

Dinner had been discussed on the drive home and we settled on Chicken & Pea Traybake. Simplicity itself unless you are scaling it up to feed six as we were a year or two ago in Cumbria. Thankfully it was only the two of us today and all the requirements were available in Tesco.

I was going to go for a walk in St Mo’s after lunch, but there was a soaking drizzle by then and I wasn’t interested in getting wet just to take some photos, so instead I took some photos in the garden instead. I still got wet, yes, but at least it wasn’t far to go to get into the dry again. PoD went to a bunch of daisies. I liked the fact that when I’d strimmed this area in the garden yesterday, I’d deliberately missed the daisies. I hate to chop them down, the are such survivors!

Tomorrow looks better than today, but there are no certainties about the weather these days.