Another Stirling Tea Dance

Once again I headed over to Stirling for the monthly Tea Dance. This time proceeded a cheery journey in the company of Freya, Piglet, Douglas & AussieTime – than you to Freya for driving and an amiable lunch with my travelling companions with the additions of Firefly, McJester & Johnthehappyguy.

Between the lunch & the tea dance – they were studious students at a workshop and I discovered St Ninians – see previous post.

And as 3.30pm rolled around Tiggerbabe started dolling out the tunes, Franck laid out the cake and fun began with delightful dances, congenial conversation, daring debates and most delicious coconut cake.

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Wandering in Stirling

Had some time to kill in Stirling today between lunch and the monthly tea dance. So I did what I do I went walking to see what I could find. And wandering along in the balmy sunshine I discovered St Ninians Church and spent a pleasant hour or so investigating what I could of the church and it’s surrounds.

A very short history of St Ninians Church

The old Parish Kirk of St. Ninians was blown up by Prince Charles Edward’s forces, who had used it as a powder magazine in 1746.
While Stirling Castle was under attack during the Jacobite rebellion, the original church was used as a powder magazine and was blown up by the retreating Jacobite army in February 1746.

All that survived the explosion was the fifteenth century chancel and the tower which has been added to the Kirk as recently as 1743.

The present church was built in 1751 and altered in 1937, replacing the earlier church. The original 1732 tower is still standing.

Photos @ Kodak

an experience out shopping

headed into town to do a bit of shopping and as I was wandering along this lady asked me if I wanted a make over - as first I was going to say no - but then I thought what the hell it can't hurt it'll just be some make-up and it's always nice to try something new - and said yes.

well it was a bit more than just a make up stall - it clothes and make-up and it was all being done on radio - so next thing I know they are asking my style issues?!?! apart from the fact that I was on stage in some of my oldest clothes ... I said smart casual - so shortly I was redressed in a smart casual outfit followed by make up - apparently I have lovely skin :)

the outfit was very cute - and if it wouldn't have cast me nearly 2 weeks salary I would have gone and bought it.

Anyway once it was all over and was back into my own clothes they handed me a small black sports bag saying thank you and here is your gift bag. And a pretty fine gift bag too.

Inside the sports bag there, was a large towel, a lush bath ball and discount voucher, a small make up bag, several perfume samples and Lancome samples.



proves you never know what will come your way if you say yes things rather than no....

Beach Ballroom Chill

This is the closing event of the Beach Ballroom weekend – and has a very relaxed atmosphere and takes place at the Northern Hotel with fab music by Tiggerbabe!

Originally I hadn’t intended to got to this party as having been away from Friday night – figured some time at home – those damn domestic duties just won’t do themselves - and an early night was in order.

However with such impassioned pleas for me to come to the event and having found my groove – it seemed worth the back and forth driving involved – so after some frenzied washing and cleaning I was back on the road to Aberdeen.

And it was so WORTH it – the only bad thing was having to tear myself away before the end so as to make it home at a reasonable-ish hour.

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Beach Ballroom

This much anticipated Scottish Ceroc Event takes place in the Beach Ballroom (hence the name), the featured teacher this time was Amir Giles so while I was meandering around the grounds of Balmoral others were cramming their heads full of the delights of Jango.

The Beach Ballroom party was delightful!!! As well as bringing together all the Scottish dancers there were a number of southern boys up for a visit – so even more boys to play with :)

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Getting lost in the flowers

To get out of the rain I ducked into the small conservatory – and was seduced into spending the best part of an hour in the intricate of the blooms.

These two are my favourites




Other favourites are on Flickr

Balmoral

Today a tourist I was! I departed Aberdeen for Balmoral – the holiday residence of the Queen. Balmoral is a working estate who’s major crop is timber the ground apparently is pretty crap for growing much else. They do however grow enough produce for the Royal table and flowers enough to supply 2 arrangements weekly – one to the local church and the other …. Somewhere else. When the Royal Family is in residence obviously more cut flowers are required in the castle

As Balmoral is an actual residence – visitors only get to enter one room of the building – the ballroom where there is an interesting array of items on display but the real appeal of Balmoral is the grounds and the stories that go with them.

As part of your entry fee you get an self guiding audio tour – which is brilliant!! Sadly as my day went from calmly over cast to soggy and rainy it was hard for me to make the most of it as I tended to have to dash from building to building.

Due to the bad weather I decided to take the tractor tour – this tour is well worth the £2 cost – it goes for an hour and takes you further a field than you can go on foot. With some of the highlights being

John Browns Cottage
The Estate Village
The Highland cows
A west view of the Castle – is a different view that normally seen
Memorials to Victoria & Albert
Alberts Cairn

And I even bought my first souvenir!!!



I so feel like a real tourist now ;)




Photos @ Kodak

And the travelling fund does grow!

I started a 3 month contact today. I didn’t want a contract that long – wanted some time off for doing the tourist thing – to that end I figured I would lay down some requirements and put myself out of the running.

My requirements were simple

Must finish @ 5pm
And must have 3 Fridays and 3 Mondays off

But they must be pretty desperate as the still wanted met o interview – which happened last Wednesday and concluded with “the job’s yours if you want it”

So now I am the newest contractor of ITI Life Sciences.

Seems like a very laid back & Friendly office to work in.

And so the travelling fund does grow.
!

On the Mend

Despite the abuse dished out to my feet over Southport the tendonitis in my left foot appears to be clearing up or at the very least it has eased off significantly *knock on wood* something to be said for dancing in thongs

My Life as a Ceroc DJ!

Last night (Monday 5 June to be exact) I officially started my life as a Ceroc DJ!!! @ Ceroc Scotland, Dundee. And thankfully my playlist was received favourably now I just have to do it again next week *gulp* and the week after and the week after….

I wonder how long until I get my first “your music is crap” feedback?

My Adventures in WCS

Finally got to try WCS!! Robert & Deborah taught 1 beginner and 2 improvers workshops over the course of Southport – the improvers classes built very smoothly on to what was taught in the previous classes with out excluding those that hadn’t attended them.

Robert & Deborah’s teach style is clear, fun & funky and you had better behave or Deb will “go all New York on You”

The biggest issue I encountered with WCS was/is anchoring properly and not stepping forward until lead forward.

In class many of the guys would just expect the ladies to step forward as the move was being called out by the teachers. So when I attempted to actually dance WCS I wasn’t anchoring properly & in coming forward threw the poor guys timing.

I’m sure Sheepman was much relieved when with a wail of “I official suck @ WCS” I returned us to the Modern Jive fold and left WCS for another day & victim.

And thanks to Paul – from somewhere south of Dundee for going over the WCS stuff

Acts of Dance Bravery

Aka dance stalking
I committed 2 acts of dance bravery over the weekend

First – Asking Robert Cordoba to dance after only 2 hours of WCS lessons!!
Robert was a very gracious lead – he lead and just let me follow as I would and I had an absolutely lovely dance – and even managed proper WCS when he lead a sugar push.

My second act of dancing bravery (which required all my stalking talents) was to ask Viktor to dance. Viktor is such a sweetie, who made me giggle when he hummed along with the music and asked for a second dance so sweetly I thought I would melt.

Sunday Bliss @ Southport

Sunday arrived sunny & fine and I headed to the Latin Quarter for my 3rd instalment of WCS and was pleasantly surprised at the difference in the atmosphere – it was much more relaxed, casual & mellow vibe than previously – there were also less people around – which one would think would be a bad thing but it wasm’t well at least it wasn’t for me - what it meant was that there was room to move and see what was going on around the place rather than just a seething mass of people.

As to where the people had gone, some had to go home Sunday afternoon and others were still asleep (20 sturdy and compulsive souls had danced through the night to 9am.

Sunday afternoon in the blues room was the absolute highlight of my weekend.

I finally found my groove, the weather was delightful warm enough to not need a jacket and cool enough not to get over heated dancing.
And some highlights within my Sunday afternoon were

• First convincing Isabella to ask Paul F to dance and then chatting with her after


• Being introduced to yet more forumites by the darling MsFab


• Watching the dancing

And

• Dancing of course (wink)

And in amongst all this social activity I even made it to a couple more workshops – Viktor’s - Jive Masters Secrets & Nigel & Nina’s – Advanced Jive

Lovely day for a drive!

IT was a merry band of 3 – Little Monkey – the most cheerful of ladies, Trampy & myself that departed Dundee on a fine June morning & with the assistance of TomTom we made our way to Potins Southport (a holiday camp very English tradition it would seem) where we banded together with numerous other groups of dedicated dancers to participate in the phenomenon that was “Jiving Away”

The journey was filled with chatter and chuckles and chocolate cake and all things good and car trippy. Including the required chants of are we there yet and how much longer.

Southport

Well I survived my first Southport! And much to my surprise I am planning to register for the Feb 2007.

Southport takes place at Potins – a holiday camp and is approx 6hr drive from Dundee, this one specifically took place 2-5 June 2006.

The basic stats of Southport are

• 1500 dancers


• 3 rooms of freestyle


• All day/night dancing in the blues room


• 3 rooms of workshops


• 26 teachers


• 12? DJ's to keep the music going all weekend

I found the evening freestyles on Friday and Saturday night rather overwhelming – rooms so full, hot, hyped, that if you had asked me at 3.30am on Sunday morning as I gave up and took my sore foot and weary head to bed I would have said it’s been interesting and all but wouldn’t bother with another; But then Sunday happened and made the whole weekend worthwhile.