29th January - Modern Jive at Prestwich

Tonight was much better than Saturday. For a start, Maureen was there so I had someone to chat with between dances. It's the first time she has been for about six months, but she seemed to be managing fairly well.
The moves in the beginner's lesson were half windmill,basic push spin,left handed comb and side to side. I had a few dances in the freestyle break between classes.
The intermediate lesson went quite well and I managed to master the moves by the end of it.
I will miss my lesson next week because I have a church committee meeting so roll on February 12th!

28th January - Church Birthday service and meal

Despite the problems we had getting the Powerpoint projector to work I think this morning's service went well. Judging by their answers to Margaret's questions the children were listening to the Bible readings.
The meal afterwards went well. We had an excellent buffet with salmon, ham, pizzas and a variety of salads. Margaret's husband Daniel joined us for the meal. He took a shine to Louises's baby, Sam and managed to get him off to sleep very quickly.
There was a good variety of deserts including cheesecakes, strawberry gateau and profiteroles. At the end of the meal Margaret cut the cake and thanked the cooks. Sue had decorated the cake with primroses and pussy willow which were both made out of royal icing - they were beautiful and looked very real. I think it was one of the best meals we have had as a birthday meal - it was a great idea to have a buffet.

27th January - Big Jive Night at Stockport Town Hall

The Jive Night at Stockport wasn't as busy as usual tonight. I think that's because people chose to go to Prestwich last night instead. The lesson was fun. Kay and Tony turned up later. Kay introduced me to her friend Joanne. I had a few dances but not as many as usual. On reflection, I think I enjoyed last night more.

26th January - Salsa at Copacabana

I decided to go to the salsa lesson at Copacabana tonight. I managed to master the moves fairly quickly and enjoyed myself. After the lesson I went over to the back of the club to join Kevin and Lorraine. Not long after this, Paul arrived. He was pleased to see that I had managed to join him for his birthday celebrations. I had a couple of dances and then returned to find that Lorraine (our teacher) and Leona had arrived. We watched Simon dancing with a couple of girls - he is an excellent dancer. Paul says he has seen him teach some classes here in the past. I had the chance to have a couple more dances before going home. It was a really enjoyable night - I was glad I chose to go.

22nd January -Modern Jive class at Prestwich

Once again, the class was very busy. The beginners class gave me the chance to revise a move I haven't done for a while - the Octopus. In between classes I finally got the chance to get a refund on my ticket for Friday's jive night so it looks like I will get the chance to go to Copacabana after all. I also had a couple of dances between classes. The intermediate moves were a little complicated, but I eventually managed to master them. I finally feel like I'm settling into jiving again as I had a good night.

20th January - night out in Manchester

I met up with Brian in Piccadilly Gardens tonight and we walked down Deansgate to the Hilton Hotel where we had arranged to meet Debbie. It was very cold so I was glad of my winter coat, scarf and gloves! We met Debbie in the ground floor bar - a very swish place with marble floors and comfy sofas. Drinks weren't too pricey either. We tried to go upstairs to the bar on the 23rd floor, but found that it wasn't open to the public tonight due to a private party. So, after finishing our drinks, we braved the cold weather again and made our way back down Deansgate to the "Moon under Water". We sat upstairs and watched the disco whilst we caught up on each other's news. The place was considerably noisier and tackier than the Hilton, but we still had a good evening and succeeded in cheering Brian up which I think was the whole point in having this night out in the first place.

15th January - First Jive lesson of 2007

The jive class tonight was very busy. A lot of new people have joined the class so the dance floor was a bit crowded. I had to be very careful not to bump into people during the freestyle dancing between the two classes. As the advanced move didn't involve any dips or drops I decided to have a go. I was pleased with myself because I think I succeeded in mastering it.

13th January -Jon's Housewarming party

Thanks to the simple directions we were given we found Jon's house in Glossop quite easily tonight. Jon had asked us all to bring spicy snacks and he made two different curries for us. There was also a good supply of samosas. Kay arrived at the same time as us. I wasn't expecting to see her, but she explained that Jon's house was half way between her house and her parents' place. She had realised that this weekend would be her only opportunity to visit her parents this month so she decided to stop off at Jon's on the way.
There was a relatively small number of people at tonight's party - about 15 in all.I thought that was a good thing as it meant I had the opportunity to talk to everyone there.
We asked Sarah if many people had shown an interest in going to the proposed Centre Parcs weekend in February and she said that about 15 people had said they would go so it looks like it will go ahead. I won't be going as it's a bit too short notice for me. Kay's Pancake party is still going ahead on the same weekend and it looks like there will still be a good number of people there.
It was quite easy to find our way home from Jon's tonight - we just followed the signs back to Manchester - the journey took less than an hour.

12th January - A wheelie good day!

I had the day off work today so I decided to have a look around the sales and go to the cinema. I bought a lovely set of earrings and necklace in a fairly new shop called Muse.
As the weather was fairly good I decided to go for a ride on the big wheel as this was likely to be my last chance to do so. The wheel is due to come down in about a week's time. Although it wasn't a very clear day I managed to get a good view of the main landmarks of the city. This is a better wheel than the one we had two years ago - it feels more stable and a ride is 4 revolutions rather than 3.

After my ride I went to the Printworks to see "Miss Potter" It was a charming film. I was touched by the tragic tale of the romance between Beatrix Potter and her publisher and impressed by her determination to be independant and make a living out of writing books at a time when women were expected to be home-makers and rely on their husbands for their main source of income.
Judging by the trailers it looks like I will be making a few more visits to the cinema as there are some good films being released this year.

10th January - Starlight Express

Mum was fortunate enough to get free tickets for the opening night of Starlight Express at the Opera House tonight. We got really good seats too in the second row of the circle.
The show tells the story of Rusty, the steam train who is inspired by the Starlight Express to take part in a race against a Diesel train called Greaseball and an Electric train called Electra to win the heart of Pearl the observation car. The races in the show are shown as 3D films. They were very effective and we found ourselves dodging flying shrapnel and bats even though we knew they weren't real!
I was really impressed with the roller-skating too, especially the "Hip Hop Hoppers" who could break dance on roller skates!
In all we thoroughly enjoyed the show and agreed that it was one of our best ever freebies!

9th January - First salsa lesson of 2007

Tonight's salsa lesson was a bit like being thrown in at the deep end! I hadn't been to a class for well over two weeks so I was a bit rusty. Les decided to teach us reverse turns in the improvers lesson - something I don't recall having done before.
I managed to master them by the end of the lesson though. In the interval, I had a dance with Rob who didn't seem to take any notice of the fact that I told him to "take it easy"! The intermediate lesson was quite complicated too.
However on reflection, I think I did enjoy tonight. I have been presented with another dilemma. Paul(one of the guys from Salsa class) is celebrating his birthday with a night at Copacabana on 26th. The problem is that this clashes with the charity jive night which I have just bought a ticket for! I have decided that I will go to Copacabana if I can sell/refund my ticket as I rarely get the opportunity to go there.

6th January - Pub night at Cheshire Line Tavern

Tonight's journey to the Cheshire Line was my best one so far. All but one of the lights on Alan Turing Way were in my favour and it only took half-an-hour to get there. It was good to see some of the people I had spent New year with again. Sarah brought her laptop with her to show us all of her photos and the ones that Colin sent her too. They brought back some good memories.
I also chatted to Leigh about her job as an air hostess. She says that we won't see her in February as she will be flying to Dubai, Miami and San Francisco! Part of me envies her for being able to see all these places as part of her job, but I'm sure it would be difficult to be away from friends and family so much.
Like me, Kay has noticed that there are no 25+ events that clash with the Big jive nights at Stockport in January and February so we both plan to go dancing on those nights. I hope we can manage to persuade a few others to join us.
My journey home tonight was pretty quick too - I managed to get in half-an-hour. I'm getting to know the A34 well now and feel more confident about late-night driving.

5th January - A welcome change

Surprisingly enough for this time of year, my friend Eddy seems in a good mood.
He emailed me today to say he was going to Jon's party in Glossop next weekend and would offer me a lift. He also agreed to get me a ticket for a charity Jive night at the end of the month. I have now made my mind up about what I'm doing next Saturday i.e. going to Jon's. It's the first time in ages that I've had to choose between 3 different options(the other ones were a Greenbelt workers curry and Alan's curry) It's nice to be in this situation - far better than having nothing to do!

4th January - Back to work and Panto at Opera House

It seemed fairly quiet in the office when I returned to work today. I discovered from Andy that my manager,Richard didn't have a good holiday as his father died on Saturday. The funeral is next week so I doubt he will return until the week after at the earliest. I sent him a message of condolence by text (!) which he seemed to appreciate. I suspect the next few days will be quite hectic for me as I will be in charge of the UK GRAD project until he returns.
This evening, Mum, her best friend Judy and I went to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the Opera House. I must admit that pantos are not normally my scene, but we got free tickets because the dry cleaners where Mum works cleaned the costumes.
We all enjoyed the show. The singing was good and the costumes were excellent, particularly in the final wedding scene.

3rd January - Coffee with friends

As today was my final day off work before returning to work, I decided to head into the city centre. I had a brief look around the shops and then joined some friends from the Activities Unlimited group for one of their coffee afternoons at Cafe Nero.
The first ones to arrive were Dee and Dave O closely followed by Sue and her brother Dave. We chatted about our new year celebrations. Anthony, Alan K and Nicola joined us later. Anthony has just returned from spending a week in Scotland just outside Oban. Sue tried to encourage people to go to Alan's birthday meal a week on Saturday.
I have decided not to go to this as I'm not going to any meals out in January.I need to lose some weight after the festivities! Sue's brother then took a couple of photos for the website before we went home.

2nd January - New Year, New Life

When I switched on my mobile this morning I was greeted with some good news. Angie, our former minister, became a Grandma on 18th December when her daughter Jessica gave birth to a baby girl called Lia. It was good to hear that all was well with Angie and her family. I must try and find an opportunity to go and see them later on this year.

1st January - Final day of New Year weekend away

Once again I was the first in our room to get up this morning. Just before breakfast I rang Mum to wish her and Dad a Happy New year. As I was finishing my call, I was surprised to see Sian coming in after a morning run! I joined the queue in the kitchen for porridge which re-fuelled us ready for the day. However it looks like I've started the New Year with a cold. Partly because of this and partly because I hadn't brought my kagoule with me I decided not to go on either of the walks planned for the morning and join the team who were making the soup for lunch. Geoff was in charge of the cooking and Jenny, Kay and I helped him by chopping vegetables.By the time the walkers returned we had two large pans of broccoli and stilton soup and sweet potato and carrot soup waiting for them. Whilst we were eating lunch Kay asked me if I would travel back with her. She had fallen and hurt her knee on Friday and preferred to have someone with her in case she had to stop for a while. Naturally I agreed as it made life easier for Phil too. When I told him that I was going with Kay he offered Jonathan a lift as he only lives a few streets away from him.
After finishing our packing and exchanging goodbye hugs we set off home. We dropped Eve-Marie off at Welshpool station just in time for her train - she was travelling all the way to Eastbourne! We had a fairly good journey home despite the fact that it rained all the way. I don't know how Kay managed to drive so far after having only had 5 hours sleep the previous night. We arrived back at Mum and Dad's at about 5pm. After having sandwiches with Mum and Dad I went back to my own place for a much needed early night! The weekend away was a great way to start 2007 - I hope this year will be a good one.