29th September - Meal at Yum Yums

I arrived at Waxy O Connors tonight and had a good look around to try and find someone I recognised. Eventually, when I reached the ground floor for the second time I saw Rachel and Susanna. After buying drinks we went up to the top floor and decided to sit on the very top floor. I didn't know until tonight that there was another seating area up there. Other people started arriving. Simon had travelled all the way from Buxton and Andrea had come from Wigan so I reckon I had travelled the shortest distance tonight for a change. We eventually decided to move over to Yum Yums. The waiter led us to a long table near the window. I had been told by friends that standards have gone down in this restaurant since my last visit so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food was tasty and some of the dishes I like were still available. There isn't as good a variety here as there is in some other buffet restaurants, but we were all happy with what we had. There was one amusing moment when I went over to the ice cream machine. I found that the guy in front of me was having great difficulty trying to stop the ice cream spurting out. His dish was overflowing. Fortunately one of the staff managed to stop it. I was a little wary when it came to my turn, but managed to avoid a similar disaster.
At the end of the meal the others decided to go off to Sarah's for coffee so I said goodbye and went off to get a taxi. I ended up getting home before 11pm which is early for a Saturday night. Now that I know that people are willing to go into the city centre for a meal I may put one on the programme in future.

26th September - Tango Class

I arrived at Tango class tonight to find that we had two different teachers - Jan and Dino. They told us that Lucy (our usual teacher) had had a fall and sprained her ankle so she won't be teaching for the next couple of weeks. We started the lesson with a few simple exercises on our own. We then revised some of the steps that Lucy has been teaching us over the past few weeks. Dino turned out to be quite a character - he gave us various demonstrations of the wrong way to do steps which were very amusing. He was very helpful and spent some time with me going over the basic steps. Chris and I did the improvers class for the first time tonight. The teachers demonstrated some quite complicated steps and taught us some simple "decorations" too. I managed to get the hang of a couple of them. After the class Jan and Dino talked to us about other tango classes in Manchester. All the teachers in Manchester know each other well and are willing to take each other's classes if needed. On reflection I think tonight's class was the best one I've had. We learnt several exercises that we can practice on our own at home and I picked up
a lot of advice on technique from Dino.

22nd September - Dinner Party at Keith's

Chris gave me a lift to Keith's tonight. We started our jouney by driving past the ICI building where Chris used to work. We were both surprised to see how much of the building has been demolished - only the main tower still remains. We then drove through the Peak District to Chesterfield. The weather was good so we had some amazing views of the hills. When we arrived, we were greeted by Adele as Keith was still busy cooking. We looked at the brochure for the house that Keith has just bought - it is bigger than his current home and looks very modern.
When the meal was ready we went into the dining room. The starter was prawn cocktail and the main course was chilli con carne. During the meal we chatted about the day in York - we all agreed it was a great success. We also chatted about the next 25 plus weekend away which all five of us will be going on. The best part of the meal turned out to be the dessert - we had a choice - Mel's Rasberry Pavlova or Keith's Norwegian Apple Cake. I had the pavlova with a large scoop of Ben & Jerry's vanilla -really delicious.
After the meal we moved back into the lounge for an impromptu game of "Name that Tune". We eventually moved back the coffee table so that we had some room to dance.
Adele and Keith started going to ceroc classes a couple of months ago - they have mastered quite a few moves. Keith persuaded Chris and I to do some tango - I feel we are improving.
We left Keith's at about 11pm and made our way home down the motorway as we thought it would be quicker. Unfortunately one of the signs was hidden by a tree so we missed a turning. We stopped off at a service station on M62 to revive ourselves with large mugs of coffee and eventually arrived home at about 1.30am! It was a very enjoyable evening and a great opportunity to get to know each other better.

17th September - Worship leaders course

I was pleasantly surprised to find about 10 people in the chapel at Central Hall tonight. I was originally worried that there wouldn't be many people on this course.
The course is being led by Lynn, one of the Deacons from Chorlton. Sue, another minister from the circuit will be leading some of the other sessions. At the moment all the people on the course are women. Three of them are younger than me and they are members of Platt Lane and St Crispin's churches in Fallowfield.
We chatted about our different experiences in leading worship. I discovered that some of the members of the group had little experience of taking part in services.Lynn assured us that we would all work together to build up each other's confidence.
We checked our diaries and decided that the training sessions won't start until mid-October as many of us are too busy before then. I was re-assured by the fact that the sessions will be once every two or three weeks as I reckon that I couldn't cope with weekly sessions.
I'm looking forward to the course more now than I was before tonight. Everyone taking part seems very friendly and I felt comfortable about sharing things with them.

10th September - Modern Jive Class at Prestwich

I arrived at the class tonight to find that Stuart and Matt (teachers) were on holiday so Lynn and Ann were standing in for them. The moves we learnt in the beginners class tonight were Sway (extra spin added),Yo-Yo, Right Handed Comb and Wurlitzer or at least it was supposed to be a Wurlitzer but it changed to a Catapult. Never mind it was their first class and they did do well otherwise. In the break between classes I got quite a few dances - danced with Rob, Bernard and Jim. Also danced with a guy called John who I have met through tango classes - another good dancer.
At the start of the intermediate class it was announced that Jim and Lynn had stood in at short notice as Phil and Wendy were held up on motorway. So we learnt Nelson Spin, Lady Comb and Shoulder drop. All went smoothly and I managed to master all of them.
Things may go back to normal next time, but really I don't mind either way. Lynn did well tonight considering it was her first class.

8th September - Trip to York

Today started quite early for a Saturday - 8.30am. We had quite a good journey to York and thanks to Phil's preparation and my navigation skills we found the car park in the centre of York quite easily. When we arrived at the Monkbar Hotel, Keith, Helen and Adele were sitting at a table near the reception desk waiting for us. Chris turned up not long after us. He brought Pam, Karen and Elaine with him. It was good to see them all again. Lots of other people started to turn up. It was good to see several people I recognised from the ball. We split up into three groups to do the photo treasure hunt. Mel led our group and Elaine and Karen joined us too. We walked along the walls to the Minster. We found it quite easy to find the ansewrs to the clues. When we arrived at the Minster we went on a guided tour led by a Spanish guy from Barcelona who was very knowledgeable and told us some interesting things about the Minster. After the tour we made our way back to the hotel for lunch of sandwiches and tomato soup.
The options for the afternoon were a trip to the Jorvik Viking Museum, a visit to the Railway Museum (including a ride on the York Wheel) and a walk around York. I decided to go on the Wheel with Sandra and Lucy. As it was a clear day we had a fairly good view though you do tend to see more countryside than landmarks. We had a brief look around the museum when we came down before walking over to the river where we had arranged to meet some of the other for a river cruise. Chris and I bought ice-creams. We sat with Keith on the boat and chatted about his business trip to the States that he is going on next week.
After the boat trip we decided to walk back to the hotel. I discovered that Chris's sense of direction isn't all that good when we discovered (after walking for about 15 mins) that we were going in the wrong direction. At this point I decided we would be better off following the map and sure enough (thanks to my map-reading skills) we eventually found the hotel. We bought drinks and sat down for a chat with some of the others. Eventually the rest of our group joined us and we went over to the dining room for our evening meal.We had a choice of either salmon or beef for our main course. I was quite pleased that I chose salmon as the beef was accompanied by large stodgy-looking Yorkshire pud. Also vegetables seemed to be in short supply - we only got two trays between 6 of us (we reckoned it should have been 1 tray between 2). Never mind - at least that meant we had more room for dessert which was apple pie or chocolate cake. I had the chocolate cake and it was really good. Keith announced that our team , the Normans, had won the photo treasure hunt. The prize was a large box of toffees which we shared between us. People started to leave at about 9pm. Some had to be driven back to the park and ride where they had left their cars. I was glad we didn't have this hassle as we had parked in the nearest city centre car park. We said goodbye to Chris, Pam, Karen and Elaine and set off back to Manchester. On the way home, Phil had a minor accident when someone went into the back of him as he stopped suddenly at a roundabout. Fortunately little damage was done and he and the other driver agreed not to make any claims on each other's insurance. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. We arrived back home by about 10.30pm. I was very tired. On reflection it was an enjoyable day - we found plenty to do in York and I made some new friends who I look forward to seeing at the dinner dance in November.

1st September - Trip to Chester

I met Phil and Brian at Piccadilly Station this morning and Phil drove us down to Chester. We had quite an easy journey and arrived at the Park and Ride stop on time.
Debbie was there waiting for us and other people turned up gradually. There were about 20 of us altogether. We travelled into the centre of Chester by bus and walked to the Cathedral. Some of us had brought packed lunches with us so we sat in the cathedral gardens whilst the others went to the cathedral cafe for lunch. I sat and chatted to Helen and Alan about our holidays as I haven't seen either of them for a while. We all met up again behind the cathedral and started to walk along the walls.
Tim and Debbie gave us a guided tour. Tim seems to know a lot about the history of the city from his school days. The weather stayed fair so we had a good view of the city. When we reached the racecourse we saw that the Chester races were on. Vanessa and a few others stayed there to watch a race, whilst the rest of us walked on. We ended up at the Wesleyan Methodist chapel where we stopped for tea and coffee - you can always rely on the Methodists for hospitality! We sat outside and discussed plans for the forthcoming thank you party in hushed whispers as we are supposed to be keeping it secret from our group leader!
After this we split into two groups - some went to the river and others went shopping. I went round the shopping precinct with Jenny, Kay, Emma, Debbie, Helen and Brian. Tim joined us later as he said he lost touch with the others when he stopped for an ice cream. Some of us bought clothes. I bought soap from Lush - one of my favourite shops.
We returned to the car park by bus and made our way to the Shrewsbury Arms for our evening meal. We noticed that it looked a little more expensive than we expected. However the service was quick and the food looked good. Phil, Eddy and I had chicken stuffed with bacon in a creamy leek sauce and Brian had the Thai curry. We enjoyed our meals - I felt too full for dessert so I treated myself to an Ardbeg single malt instead - they have a good selection here. A couple of people did have dessert - Tim had a Banoffee charlotte, Brian had Toffee pavlova and Sarah had apple pie - all of which looked good - portions were generous. We sat around and talked for a while.
We all agreed that Debbie had made a good job of organising the day out.