31st December - Second day of New Year weekend away at Pentrenant Hall

Despite going to bed so late last night I managed to be up before 9am. After breakfast we had our morning worship. This was led by Norman and Colin who challenged us to have a positive vision for 2007 . Rachel gave a moving testimony about the struggles she's been having lately with regard to her job - she is hoping to change her career in 2007 and I hope next year will be better for her.
After the service, Kay and a few others went off to prepare lunch whilst the rest of us sat around and chatted. The original plan was to have lunch at about 1.30pm, but it soon became apparent that this would not be the case when Sarah came in to say that the main oven had gone out and they were having problems re-lighting it. Eventually the staff of the hall came to our aid and let us use theirs. The meal was finally ready at about 3 and it was certainly worth the wait. We had chicken wrapped in bacon with roast potatoes,carrots and stuffing followed by a lovely forest fruits pavlova.
After lunch we split into three groups. About half of us joined Colin to solve his murder mystery puzzle, another group made decorations for tonight's party and the rest of us (including me) scrapbooked the childhood photos that people had brought along ready for one of tonight's activities. We then decorated the two main rooms ready for the party.
After putting on our party gear we gathered at 8 in the dining room for the buffet, wine tasting and "Guess who" quiz using the childhood photos. We had great fun trying to match the descriptions and prices we had with the wines. When the answers were handed in we found that no-one had done all that well in identifying them - the highest score was 9 out of 24 and the prizes were awarded to Phil (who seemed to take the whole thing very seriously), Chandresh (who didn't taste any of them!) and Karen. We then moved into the lounge to dance. Anya brought in a delicious looking chocolate birthday cake for Simon and we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
At the stroke of midnight after lots of hugs we all joined together to sing "Auld lang Syne". Tim handed out sparklers to Kay, Susannah and I and the four of us went out to light them.

We went back in to find Colin had connected his camera to the TV to show us the photos he had taken. We gathered for some more group photos and then went back in the lounge for some jiving. Simon then suggested we should have a game of Taboo and as we were still in high spirits we thought it was a great idea! I eventually went to bed at about 2am.

30th December - First day of New Year Weekend away at Pentrenant Hall

I met Charlie at Piccadilly Station this morning and we started off on our journey by catching the train to Shrewsbury. During the journey, he showed me the Christmas "present" he had treated himself to - a small remote-controlled Dalek. When we arrived at Shrewsbury, Phil was waiting to meet us. Despite the weather, we had a good journey to Pentrenant Hall. I found out on arrival that I'm in a room with 5 others, three of whom I know well (Julie, Jenny and Rachel).
Also found out that Phil and I are responsible for cooking tonight's meal along with a new girl called Debbie who is from Coventry. Therefore, when Anya returned from shopping we started to prepare the meal. Dinner tonight was salmon with a pesto and parmesan crust followed by apple crumble and custard - all absolutely delicious. I was pleased to see the crumble was well received as I had a major hand in making it.
By dinner time most people had arrived. There's quite a few new people on this weekend - I think they're very brave spending New Year with a group of strangers.
In the evening we split into teams for a series of quizzes and memory games. I was responsible for the general knowledge quiz and I was pleased to find I hadn't made it too easy or too hard.
Unfortunately our team came last again. I would say that this was partly due to the fact that Ian dropped out after the second quiz due to some misunderstanding with Marie - it's a shame he's so sensitive.
After a short coffee or wine break (!), a few of us stayed up to play "Articulate" - a fun describing game similar to Taboo. Even though we used every opportunity we could get to move our opponent's piece backwards our team narrowly lost, but we still had great fun. I was the last person to go to bed tonight in our room ( at about 1 am), but managed to do so without disturbing anyone.

25th December - Christmas Day

Woke up early enough to open my wrapped presents before going to church. My main present was a standard lamp which Mum and I put together over the weekend. Other presents were a bracelet, fluffy socks(!) , bath scrub and chocolates. I bought Mum a new cafetiere and Dad an electric razor.
Even though I went to church a bit later than I normally do I was still first there. People were slow to arrive, but by the time the service started the church was half full. One of the best things about this morning was saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone at the start of the service and hearing them say the same to me. The service was led by a retired minister called Ian Mutton as Margaret was preaching at Moston. It was more formal and less child friendly than our usual Christmas day services, but we still had the opportunity to sing some good carols including our church's favourite - "Come and join the celebration".
The rest of the day was fairly quiet. Mum made a lovely Christmas meal - Chicken with all the trimmings folowed by apple strudel and ice cream. Watched the special edition of Strictly Come dancing - it was good to see Colin Jackson and Erin won. I will miss the competition now it's ended. Also watched "Vicar of Dibley" - very funny.

23rd December - Blitz Jive Christmas Party at Stockport Town Hall

I was pleased to see that Tony and Sean were already there when I arrived tonight. There was a good supply of mince pies on the tables. Eddy came over and sat with us for a change.
The lesson tonight was fun - the instructor wore a Santa suit. Tim arrived halfway through the lesson. I managed to catch his attention and showed him where we were sitting. I had a dance with him. I noticed Pria- my friend from salsa class and went over to have a chat with her. I then had a dance with a couple of the guys I know from classes at Prestwich. Sue from 25 plus arrived quite late - she said she had a friend visiting from London so she had been out for a drink with her before coming to the dance. I had another dance with Tim and a dance with Tony. I decided to leave just after 11pm. Tim seemed concerned that I was leaving early, but I explained that it would take me a while to get home.
Perhaps next time I go to Stockport I will stay a bit later. I was surprised to see the roads were quiet tonight - I expected it to be busier with it being Christmas.

22nd December - Happy Feet

I know "Happy Feet" is supposed to be a kids film, but I was still quite keen to see it. After all, it combined two of my favourite things - penguins and dancing!
The cinema wasn't packed, but there were quite a few kids there. The film was good - the animation was very clever. The singing and dancing was amusing. I'm cetainly glad I went to see this film.

20th December -Works Christmas party at La Tasca

There were quite a few people there already when I arrived at La Tasca tonight. I met Jonathan and his girlfriend Liz and had a drink with them. Zoe then called us to our tables for the meal. We had the raffle - the prizes were more valuable this year, but there were less of them. I was therefore very surpised to win a bottle of Jameson's whisky. The meal was lovely - they served us a wide selection of tapas dishes. I sat with John, Guy and Phil from our department and Christine and Charlie from our Careers services Unit.
After the meal we chatted whilst the staff cleared away the tables so there was some room for dancing. The disco was good - the DJ played a good selection of records. I joined a few of the girls from the sales and marketing department on the dance floor. I left at about 11.30pm. In all it was a good night.

19th December - Final salsa lesson of the year

I arrived at La Tasca tonight to find that there weren't many people there. However we had a good evening. I finally got the chance to learn bachata as we did it as the warm up for the intermediate lesson. We did rueda for the intermediate lesson. Lorraine taught us some fun moves like ping-pong where you have to bump hips with the person next to you. Afterwards I had a dance with Rob. I'm going to miss my salsa classes for the next two weeks as we don't start back again until 9th January.

16th December - 25+ Christmas party

We arrived at the party quite early tonight. There was already quite a bit of food laid out in Nigel's front room. Some of us thought it was a bit cold and we soon found out that this was because the heating wasn't switched on!
I saw quite a few people I hadn't seen for ages tonight. I also met a few new people including a guy called Steven from Buxton and two guys from my side of Manchester called Phil and Kevin. Kay sold Phil her ticket for next week's dance at Stockport - she has changed her mind about going as she wants to go home early for Christmas.
The secret Santa gift lucky dip seemed to go down quite well. I got 3 Kinder eggs, Vanessa got some silly reindeer antlers and Mark got a candle. It looked like quite a few people had bought chocolates as gifts.
The evening ended with dancing in the lounge. Kay and Tim tried to do ceroc, but there wasn't really a lot of room for that. Nigel insisted on turning down the music at midnight because he didn't want to disturb his elderly neighbour. We arrived back home at about 1am.
On reflection it was a good night. People seemed to have been very generous so there was plenty of food to go round and there was a good party atmosphere.

15th December - Christmas Markets and Activities Christmas meal

I had another day off work today so I went for another look around the Christmas Markets.
It rained all day so I went to have a look at the Dazzle Jewellery exhibition in the Town Hall for a while. I go to this exhibition every year and the jewellery on show always impresses me.
Two of my favourites were Jane Adam and Vicky Ambery Smith When I went outside I managed to get a decent photo of the Christmas angels in Albert Square at last.

Yates was absolutely packed out tonight when I got there. I managed to get to the bar and ordered a Mudshake - this is the only place I know that still sells them.
We walked to the China buffet restaurant which is on Nicholas Street. I must admit I wasn't that impressed with the place. It was quite cramped and reminded me of a school canteen. The food was good but there was nowhere near the variety that you get at Buffet City or Yum Yums. Brian and I went home after the meal as we didn't fancy going to the Crown. I hope tomorrow night will be better.

9th December - Pub Night at Cheshire Line Tavern

I arrived early tonight to find Mark H,Nigel and another Mark ordering food. It looked pretty good. Jenny, Debbie and little Sarah arrived later and we spent most of the evening talking about Jenny's youth work. It was quite an amusing conversation, but I won't explain why! Most people seem to be planning to go to next week's party. The new programme was passed round - it looks pretty good. Northern Lights seem to be continuing to organise events which is good to hear.
When I left I found my car was slightly frozen up, but fortunately it didn't take long to defrost.
Had a fairly good journey home - I now feel confident about driving to that pub.

8th December - Alan's birthday meal at Lal Qila

I met up with Sue, Dave, Alan K and Dave O in town tonight. Sue is on crutches at the moment as she broke her ankle a few weeks ago and has just had the plaster removed. We arrived at the Albert pub to find Alan and Mike were already there. The others arrived not long after and we made our way to Lal Qila. It's a restaurant that I've not been to before, but it looked good. There were 19 of us all together so we sat on a long table at the back of the restaurant. The service was pretty efficient. I had fish tikka and the people sitting near me had various different types of biryani and lamb and chicken specials. That meant that there was more rice than we needed. The food was certainly very tasty and filling. I think some people regretted having starters.
As I haven't seen most of this group for a while we had plenty to talk about. Al is planning his usual party between Christmas and New Year at his house. Kay and I told the others about our planned New Year long weekend away. She is helping with the catering so that means I will have to find someone else to give me a lift which will be fun!
After the meal, we tried to decide where to go next. Some of the group wanted to go to a club in town whilst others wanted to go to the Woodstock in Didsbury. We therefore ended up going our separate ways. I went back into town with Karen, Al and Pat and then went home by taxi as I was quite tired.

4th December - Christmas markets and dance lesson

I was off work today so Mum and I went to look at the Christmas Markets in Manchester city centre. We started off in Exchange square where I had a lovely jerk chicken wrap at the Shlurp stall.
We then looked round the various jewellery and Christmas ornament stalls in St Ann's square. The strong smell of aniseed drew us towards the boiled sweet stall at the end - it was so strong you could smell it from outside the church on the opposite side of the road! We then went on to see the stalls on Brazenose Street and bought sweets there. In Albert Square I sampled olives, salami and little ginger biscuits, but we didn't buy anything else as we know you can get all the food for a lot less at the local supermarket! I was quite impressed with the giant Angels in the centre of the square. Must remember to bring my camera with me next time!
We were lucky that it stayed dry all day today -it didn't start raining until we arrived home.
Despite the bad weather I still managed to make it to the Longfield Suite tonight for the jive class. We had two new guest teachers tonight - George and Jackie. it was good to see that they both had mikes so we got good advice on technique for both men and women. The moves learnt in the beginner class tonight were arm jive,manspin and shoulder drop. The intermediate class was just a variation on the beginners class with some syncopation and styling added. It was all well taught - I hope we get these instructors again next week.

3rd December - Dance afternoon at La Tasca

I was surprised to see there was no-one dancing when I arrived at La Tasca this afternoon. I sat with Bernie and her friend Jenny. Not long after I arrived a few couples started dancing. Lisa, one of the instructors then welcomed us and did a short follow my leader session to warm us up. I had a few dances with members of our Tuesday class and one with the Chinese guy who is a really good dancer. The afternoon ended with a Tai Chi demonstration and another dance led by Lisa. She then invited any guy that wanted to to join her on the dance floor and showed off by adapting her style to suit each of her dance partners.

2nd December - Decorating the church

I was quite relieved to see the tree was already up when I arrived at church this morning. Jean,Barbara, Elaine, John and Amy arrived not long after me and we started to decorate the tree. John was the only one prepared to climb up the ladder so we passed the ornaments to him to hang on the tree. I also planned to hang up the banners today, but found they were too creased and needed ironing. After we had finished Jean made coffee for us all - it was very welcome. The church looked much brighter when we had finished.