31st October - Salsa class

Looking back at my blog entries, I noticed that it's ages since I last wrote about my salsa class so I thought I'd do something to remedy this.
There were less people than usual at salsa class tonight. I think this was partly due to the fact that it was Halloween and partly due to the fact that there was a Euro Championship football match on TV. Anyway the class was good tonight. We used Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" for the "follow the leader" routine that we normally do at the beginning of the Intermediate class. Ali, (a Persian guy) amused us with his "belly dancing". It is a great record for salsa. The Scottish couple were generous - they brought some Halloween lollipops for us all. After the class, I got the chance to talk to Leona - she is off to Cuba very soon - the lucky thing! I look forward to hearing all about her holiday when she returns.

29th October - Final day of weekend away at Regent's Park

After another excellent cooked breakfast, we spent a while chatting before the morning service. This was led by Laurie for a change. It included one of Rob Bell's videos about forgiveness which many of us found very moving.
Elaine told me that after Friday's journey, she has decided to go home straight after lunch. Quite a few others had changed their mind about staying for the evening meal. Our final meal was just as good as the previous ones - we had roast beef and yorkshire pudding, followed by Black Forest Gateau.
After saying goodbye to the others, we set off for Manchester. Elaine decided to go back via the A49 and the M56 and it turned out to be much quieter than the route we took on Friday. We were both quite relieved and surprised to see that it only took just over an hour to get back.
On reflection, I think this was one of our best weekends away. I'm sure that we will be returning to Regent's Park next year as it's certainly a great place to stay.

28th October 2006 - Second day of weekend away at Regent's Park

We were all pleased with the cooked breakfast this morning - Sarah was right when she said that the food here is good.
This morning, we had the choice of going to Stapeley Water Gardens or Beeston Castle.
Most people opted to go to the gardens. I enjoyed seeing the parrots and monkeys.
They also had some scary looking spiders and small sharks there.
When we arrived back at Regent's Park we had a good lunch - Pizza and salad. There were also chips available but I resisted the temptation to have any!
We spent the afternoon wandering around Nantwich. Unfortunately it was raining so Cath, Tina, Claire and I spent most of the time looking in all the charity shops.
We also had tea in McCormick's cafe.
I arrived back at the centre to find that some of the others had been swimming and playing indoor hockey. The evening meal was Chicken curry - I thought it was ok though not up to Rusholme standards!
We spent the evening in the Leopard again. Karen,Tim and Kay had three bottles of red wine between them -they're obviously far more used to drinking than I am! Later on we went back to the centre and played "Taboo" until midnight. We turned the clocks back when we started the game so it was really 1pm by the time we finished.
The wine must have had some effect on the others as none of us stayed up very late tonight.

27th October 2006 - First day of Regents Park weekend away

Elaine met me at 2.30pm this afternoon and we set off down the M6. It looked like we had chosen the wrong route as it took over 2 and a half hours to get to Nantwich. However when we arrived it looked as if everyone had had the same problem, even those who had come off the motorway early and gone onto the A roads.
This conference centre looks like a really nice place. I'm sharing with Kay again, but our room is much bigger than the one we shared at Cloverley Hall.
Just before tea, Kay had a call from Tim to say he was stuck in traffic, due to an accident on the M6 - it obviously made things even worse than they were earlier in the day. The evening meal was good - Ham salad and Blackcurrant cheesecake. On returning from tea we were pleased to see that Tim had finally arrived.
In the evening, we split up into teams for quizzes and other activities such as juggling and portrait painting. Unfortunately, two members of our team decided to retire to the pub after the first quiz. Anya took sympathy on us and helped us with one of the quizzes, but we still came last - a new experience for me!
Later on we decided to go to the Leopard for a drink. When we returned we discovered that some of the others had gone to the Peacock instead. Robin and Richard joined in the karaoke - it sounds like their performance attracted a lot of attention!
We spent about an hour discussing Sue's art assignment with her (she has to produce something with the theme "altered state"). I'm sure she felt very inspired after our brainstorm.

23rd October - Modern Jive Class

I was both surprised and pleased to bump into Tony, one of Kay's friends from Stockport Jive class tonight. That meant that I had someone to chat to before the lesson started. We also had a dance in the freestyle session between the beginners and the intermediate lesson. The beginners class tonight consisted of the following moves :- armjive,shoulder slide,yo-yo and catapult. Intermediate class was a little easier than usual and included a pretzel,basket caress which is quite a nice move once mastered. I also saw my friend Andy from Sale tonight and my friend Pria from salsa class who I hope to see again tomorrow.

22nd October - Coffee at Slug and Lettuce

It was a select group of 25 plussers who met at the Slug and Lettuce today. I arrived to find Anya, Sue, Laurie and Beth were already there. Sue said she enjoyed the jive night last night. Anya and Sue ordered lunch - a rather expensive plate of salmon, french beans and rocket. Later Kay, Jill,Emma and Sarah arrived. There was a distinct lack of men there today - the only ones who turned up were Robin (who livened things up as usual!), Sandeep, Irish Andrew and Mike H. One good thing I discovered was that most people who were there today are going on the weekend away next weekend. Also the male/female ratio is 40/60 and there are quite a few new people going as well as a few regulars.
I also discovered that there weren't many at Rachel's party last night - Sandeep said there were about a dozen people there. I'm glad I went dancing now - I know I don't like crowded parties ,but a dozen is too few even for me.

21st October - Jive Night at Stockport

I had a fairly good journey down to Stockport tonight - roads not too busy and it was quite easy to find a space in the car park. Kay arrived about 15 mins after me and introduced me to some of her friends. Then came the lesson which featured one drop and a very awkward step called the Latin Flick where the girl has to support the man as he turns round - I'm afraid I'm not strong enough to do something like that! The freestyle section went well though. I saw and danced with several Prestwich regulars and a couple of men I'd never seen before. One guy claimed he'd only been dancing for 6 weeks, but I thought he was quite good for a beginner. Saw Eddy and had a dance with him. He didn't ask how I got there, but he would have known if he'd read my e-mail! Also saw Sue from 25 plus - wish there'd been more of our crowd there ,but had a good night anyway. I left at about 11pm and had a really easy journey home - it only took 30 mins. I was really pleased with myself tonight - I found it easier than I expected to drive to Stockport and I had some good dances and learnt some new moves.

16th October - Modern Jive Class

Back to Jive Class after a week off.
Beginner's moves learnt tonight - Armjive,Wurlitzer,Hatchback,Step Across.
Nothing new but a chance to revise Hatchback which I don't do v.often.
Intermediate moves learnt included Keyhole - complex but managed to master it when I had a partner who knew what they were doing (!) and Catapult,Duck under which was easier but looked good.
Looking forward to Saturday's jive at Stockport now. Hope to see plenty of Prestwich crowd there as well as some 25 plus people.

15th October - Harvest Festival service

I arrived at church early this morning and started to get the kitchen ready for coffee. Amy had done a good job of setting up the harvest display on the platform.
Then Margaret arrived and asked me to help her with photocopying - this turned out to be a mistake as we soon managed to jam it and ended up having to make do with just 20 or so service sheets. The baptism party arrived about 10 mins before the service started, but we had plenty room for them as there were no Guides in church today. Despite the lack of service sheets, the service still went well. The children were keen to take part and the baptism seemed to fit in well with the rest of the service. Margaret talked about planting seeds and seeing the fruit and sharing the harvest which seemed to bring both parts of the service together.
After the service, we seemed to be very busy making coffee and tea. Sue had made a lovely birthday cake for Brenda, Norman and Harold which disappeared fairly quickly! Fortunately we had a few helpers so the washing-up didn't take too long.
I must make sure we are better prepared for the next parade on Remembrance Sunday especially as I won't be at the service!

14th October - Chinese Meal at Pearl City Restaurant

I met Debbie in the Old Monkey Pub tonight. Sue, Michelle, Haydn, Ray and Dave arrived not long after us and we chatted about what we had been doing since we last saw each other. Dave O passed round his photos of Claire and Mark's wedding last month - it looks like they had a good day. Neil, Sue F, Alan K and Nicola arrived later. By the time it got to 9.15 pm we were all feeling hungry so I decided it was time to make a move. Michelle led the way to Chinatown - apparently the restaurant isn't a buffet place as we first thought, but it looked good anyway. We ordered some prawn crackers and then started to choose our meals. I decided to have Vegetable Spring rolls followed by Chicken Satay. Stuart ordered 3 courses(!) - Spare ribs,soup and Lemon Chicken. The portions turned out to be fairly generous so I wondered how he'd manage to finish it all. Haydn seemed to have the best deal - he had steamed duck with mixed meats and seafood -it looked enough for 2 so we all helped him to finish it! We sang "Happy Birthday" to Michelle and toasted her health. She certainly chose a good restaurant as everyone was pleased with their meal.At about 11pm, people started leaving. Ray was first to go, then Haydn who had to catch a train back to Glossop. Debbie agreed to share my taxi which turned out to be a 7-seater MPV! Although the city centre was busy because of the boxing match at the Arena, the taxi driver said he hadn't been too busy.
I'm quite pleased I went out with Activities tonight for a change as it was good to see everyone and I enjoyed the meal.

7th October - 25+ Moveable Feast

Once more I'm quite pleased with myself as I managed to drive all the way to Anya's in Offerton without getting lost! That was partly due to her straightforward directions. Rob and Louise were busy preparing the meal when I arrived. Andrea arrived soon after me and we spent some time chatting about Rob and Louise's holiday in Cornwall. Andrew arrived just in time for the meal. The first course was African Peanut chicken with rice and salad. During the meal, Louise told us about Rob's romantic proposal on the Big wheel in York. They have set a date for their wedding - Easter Saturday next year.
Fortunately, Andrew agreed to give me a lift to the next venue. We spent the journey chatting about our jobs in IT. We arrived at Sarah's at exactly the same time as Sue and Lesley. Nigel and Alan were already there. Lesley brought a lovely dessert with her - almond and coconut torte with pears and cream. Sue told us all about the London Ball that she went to last week - there were over 500 people there! Sarah says that our next big dance event will be a celidh in February which Alex is organising. Also there is likely to be an Autumn Ball at Haigh Hall where we had Sunday lunch in March.
Alan gave me a lift back to Anya's for the final part of the evening. I don't think he really enjoyed his weekend in Blackpool - don't think he'll be going back there in a hurry! I just about had time for coffee at Anya' and a short chat with some of the others to find out what they had had for their meals. I was told that Sandeep made an excellent curry. I was one of the first to leave tonight, but I didn't mind.
The journey home was fairly good once I found my way back to the A6. I certainly feel more confident about driving as a result of tonight. I'm really glad I went.

2nd October - Modern Jive class

I realise that it's a while since I last blogged about one of my dance classes.
I enjoyed tonight's class as I had quite a few dances during the freestyle session inbetween the two classes. I managed to follow the more experienced dancers fairly well. The second class proved to be quite a challenge - even some of the more experienced dancers had dificulty mastering the moves. After the class finished, we had a tango demonstration. Apparently Tango lessons are starting at the Heaton Park Social club on Wednesday evenings so the teachers came to dance for us and try to encourage us to join their class. They seemed a slightly odd couple - he was black and stocky and she was taller and slender and wore a flowing red dress, but they danced well together. However I don't think I will be learning tango in the near future. Modern jive and salsa is enough for the time being!