Lindy Blog

I was scrolling thru Google plus this afternoon and linked onto Jo Hoffberg’s blog. Today’s entry was about what to wear for Herräng tonight, but I clicked back thru a couple of posts and came across this one http://johoffberg.com/2011/07/tiger-of-sweden/ which made me smile a lot. Because there's lindy with jeans, but also because I no these guys. Or rather I see these guys. They dance at the place I dance on a Wednesday. This is the girl that I always end up watching when she’s there and I’m not dancing. Partially because of the way she moves – she has such an old-school technique that's just great, but also because she’s always smiling. You can just tell she’s having fun. And its great to watch cos she plays with the music and with her partner and sometimes it doesn’t turn out as good as others but at the very least its fun. I’ve been reading a couple of lindy blogs this week which are talking about creativity, and the thing that stood out from it was a quote from someone saying you have to dare to dance ugly. Cos if you don’t, you’ll never push the boundaries of what you can do – you’ll never try anything that you cant already do. And more importantly, just cos it doesn’t look beautiful yet doesn’t mean it isn’t fun! The thing I have paid most attention to since going to Highland Swing in June, is Hasse and Marie saying “Love every step”!! because if dancing isn’t fun then why are you doing it?? Yes sometimes its really hard work, and can be massively frustrating, but at the end of the day if its not fun then why would you want to work hard. When I first started dancing in Sweden I spent so much time analysing what I was doing and critiquing myself, getting annoyed at my continued bad habits that crop up when I think they’re gone (obv not all but you think one is fixed and then it appears again) that I forgot to have fun. I would literally dance for 3 hours and spend the whole time just concentrating on what I wasn’t and should be doing. I think sometimes we need to be told to remember to have fun, so what if its not perfect, its only dancing, the world wont end if you take 1 step instead of 2 or end on the ‘wrong’ foot! And then coming back from Highland Swing I found that just that attitude of enjoying it, of relaxing more, that in itself made things feel easier, and I found myself doing all sorts of styling with my left arm and my feet without a conscious thought of next swing out I’ll put in this variation or that styling. And I think that what comes out of that is a much more natural, music defined finish.

I had a debate last night with a non-dancer which started as a comment on how its impossible to dance with someone who isn’t dancing to the rhythm of the music when you let go (which is an aside for another time) but which got heated about the time the non dancer introduced the phrase ‘a dumb follow’. Now this was a conversation which mostly wrapped up in the apparent revelation that moves are not set. But his definition of a dumb follow was one who just followed, who didn’t go off and do her own stuff and then come back to it. I pointed out several times that Lindy is a lead-follow dance and the idea is to follow, not ignore the lead and do whatever you want instead. But his idea of a good follow was one who added in different steps and jumps. The conversation felt like he thought the opposite of what I think to be true. That a good follow should follow exactly. Including following the beat of the guy if he isn’t following the music – otherwise you end up fighting against each other for the entire song, in my experience. (I’m not saying don’t add anything – I think styling, decorations and variations are brilliant, but they shouldn’t stop the lead.) But it did make me think about how much of each dance is actually followed. At GNSH this year we were told in one class not to step unless led, not to triple step unless that was led. Which was fun, but seems like the kind of thing that doesn’t regularly get applied outside of class. When dancing with regular dance partners it is easy to know of their level and to dance to their level (ie you would never wait for a beginner to lead each triple step) but in the world of Stockholm Swing Dancing, I am still finding new people to dance with every week who I haven’t necessarily met before let alone see dance, so its interesting to work out what level of following to apply. Its like how Sarah Breck uses the magic 8 ball analogy (I think its an 8 ball) – in class you should follow exactly but on the social dance floor you should make allowances. The question I’ve been pondering is how far does that go? And how then can you be sure that you’re following exactly what's being led and not just anticipating, or using visual leads to overrule your moves.

Highland Swing

Not in Sweden, but during my time here...  headed to Scotland in the middle of June for Highland Swing (http://thehighlandswing.co.uk/)

 (also, as part of my catch up, this is turning into a highlights blog rather than an everything...)

Fri 

Got up at just after 4 which would feel overly early on an average day but particularly since the previous day had included a work party which I hadn’t managed to leave till 10. but I had been fairly well prepared so I really just had to grab my bag and head out. The walk down to the tube was really kinda nice. It was all light and quiet and sunny. Wandered into the tube station and then had to stand and wait for the man to come stamp my ticket. That was fine tho since I’d overestimated how long it would take to get out of the house and to the station so I had loads of time. Sat on the tube with some young folks I thought may be on their way home and a guy who looked like he was heading to the airport.

Wandered up to where the Train was but just not quite quick enough to catch the 5 past train. So then I got to stand on the platform for 15 mins. I could deal with that tho. And I enjoyed the train. It was comfy and fast. And the scrolling bar told me the time, the outside temperature (18*) and the speed (which topped off at 205 km/hr). I watched the time a little bit and played on facebook. Made it to the airport and found the right area. Was glad I had checked in before since I got there and there was an absolutely massive queue for security. I found a guy in high vis cos there was no way if I stood in that queue I’d make the plane. He said there was another security section down the far end of the hall so I headed that way. And there was no queue there at all so I felt much better then. But I did still have to walk across the airport and get strait onto the plane. Where I forget to put my water bottle by my seat and I couldn’t get out to get it since the guy next to me decided to sleep, so I was annoyed at that. He also decided to take up as much space as possible. I got massively annoyed cos I could only sit facing on way since he had his knee in my space. And his arm over the chair arm. And I ended up sitting as far across as poss with my arm across me and holding onto the chair. That was not good for the sleeping I wanted to do. Nor my mood. And I spent the whole time asking for drinks cos I was really thirsty.

The second plane was better tho. Having sat in Amsterdam for not too long, and bought starbucks, although I hadn’t realised that Amsterdam has security at the gates so I had to down a bottle of water and managed to get into the same situation again with not having a bottle on the plane. I did however manage to read the whole time.

Wandered up to the place to meet holly for a coffee. Was gonna say to her did she fancy coming shopping but she was already having coffee so I sat down for a little while before heading off. Found a new look and bought some shoes. Almost bought 2 pairs but figured they wouldn’t fit in the bag on the way home. Then had to grab shampoo and toothpaste – thank you liquid controls on planes. But I ended up having loads of time and headed in the direction of the pickup point. I ate my lunch on the far side of a small park since that had a bench and then headed across in the hope that I knew someone. There was vague knowings and I felt better once Helena and Katherine arrived.

Sat with Helena on the coach near the back. I enjoyed it tho since we got to listen to all the silliness and meet a few other folks. We took the long route there cos of the low bridge which had been pointed out to the driver but he had forgotten, or something.

So once we arrived there was registration, room finding, and bbq. Classes started for me with a Jazz class with Scottie, which was a lot of fun. He did well to aim for both the beginners and the level 5s. Was a quite a speedy routine with mostly Charleston and a bit of Cakewalk. I’m sure someone videoed it but I don’t know who… 

Then in the girls styling class we did a Showgirl routine with Annie. She said she had variations or a jazz routine or the showgirl routine. So I was like yeah showgirl! I thought the routine was so much fun, tho I don’t know if or how we could ever replicate it. I was excited tho cos we got to do the in a line kicking and the turning cross and the grapevine. That was all v exciting.

Danced with a girl (whose name I didn’t catch) when the dj started so that someone was dancing and cos I wanted to dance already. Got to dance with lots of fun people including Scottie Cupit (who’s really good for the confidence/ego) and Skye Humphries, but in a terrible twist of fate the computer died so I lost out on the second dance he offered. Stayed up dancing till 1. Figured I could probably have danced some more but I didn’t really no anyone that was still up and it was the start of the weekend.

First class of Sat we had with Hasse and Marie. They’re brilliant. I love the way they teach. I also managed to get pulled into the middle to demonstrate while Marie was busy with the music.

I had a break next so went to sit in the tea/coffee area and someone said they needed more follows in a class so I ran into it. Someone laughed at me saying there isn’t enough dancing. But I knew it was a Hasse and Marie class so I was up for it even tho it was level 2. Took my jumper off and then remembered I was wearing my Swedish shirt. (it says “I’m sorry I don’t speak Swedish would you like to dance” in Swedish on it) Marie read it and commented and then later said I speak Swedish, I was like no I really don’t, I have the t shirt to prove it too!!

We had a joint Level 4 and 5 with Paul and Christi which was about Charleston. I liked the way they gave us time to think about how we usually do it before providing entries to get into cross overs, cross overs to back to back and Back to back to side to side. I also liked the joint classes cos there was a bunch more people to dance with. Hurrahs.

After lunch we had another Joint 4 and 5 class. This time with Scottie Cupit &Annie Ryan. I’d had a class with Annie before, but never with Scottie. He’s a lot of fun.

Level 4 class with Skye and Naomi started of course with swing outs, but covered mostly charleston. They had the craziest warm up too. They were talking about really using the floor and really keeping a pulse so that no matter what variations you were doing you still had the pulse in common with your partner.

The end of Sat classes was a blues taster with Scottie & Annie. There were a bunch of newbies, a couple of guys who thought they knew what they were doing, and a couple of really good ones. So they covered the basics mostly, with some nice bits and pieces. I had one particularly good dance, just at the end, where Scottie told us off for showing off so it must have looked good.

Highland games

Having not been before I didn’t no what the games were gonna be so I decided to join team spectators and we just watched and took photos. The games, it turned out, were Caber tossing, Balance beam and Sledging down the dry ski slope. I would have liked to do the caber toss but not so much in front of people. And I would have liked the balance beam. And then I almost did the sledging – I had a team to join for that, but noticed that the dry ski slope not a lot of fun for bailing onto, and I was wearing a small skirt and tights - not suitable for such an occasion. So I bailed on that. Plus the rain got really heavy before my possible team was called up so I bailed inside anyways to a place where I could watch without getting wet.

The Sat night party included a couple of highland dances, strip the willow, and another one I didn’t entirely recognise. They were a lot of fun but required way more effort than I was expecting. Got to dance with lots of good people, including Skye Humphries (YAY!!). Also managed to have some silly dances and some fast dances. We got in a shim sham and a big apple (which always makes me happy). And then there was soup to help us warm up from the cold. I also managed to get cold enough that getting sat on helped.

I stayed for the blues even tho I was really tired by then. Danced with a bunch of ppl and enjoyed the lazier feel. I did almost get lost tho due to the lighting situation. Being in a marquee we either had the choice of full lights or just fairy lights, only they were on a timed pattern which included a dark spot. And I managed to almost spin away into the dark spot, but was found before I got totally lost, hurrahs.

Sun our first class of the day was Charleston with Scottie & Annie. Annie wanted more effort than would normally be wanted first thing on a Sunday morning! But I put more effort in, got more forward, engaged stomach, felt and apparently looked better. So maybe there is some truth in this ‘more you put in means the more you get out of it’ idea.

Our joint level class with Hasse and Marie involved a pretend Marie to start with. She was doing music so Hasse pulled out a girl (who had been leading in our class) and asked her what do you want to do today. She said she wanted to be as good a follow as Marie. And then asked what Hasse wanted to get out of the lesson. He said he wanted to articulate his English so someone asked if he was gonna count in order (I liked the time he forgot and counted in Swedish!).

For the second half of lunch me n Andy had a private lesson with Scottie & Annie. I’d never had a private lesson before so was intrigued as to how that would work. Was massively useful. Annie was talking about relaxing all of me, and putting my weight further forward, and said I need to swivel more. Scottie asked if me n Andy were dating before commenting on the dancing! He was good for encouragement and said if he was being picky the one thing I’m less good at is sideways connection. Which is something I haven’t thought about before so that's cool.

Then I managed to miss the start of the warm up for Skye and Naomi’s class cos I was running around trying to find a pen and paper to scribble down what had been said in the private lesson. Got in before class started tho. We did Sailor kicks but with a much more bouncy entry. Which was a lot of fun, but did mean I almost killed Helena at one point. Only cos she was sitting down next to the dance floor and we may have had a lot more momentum that was strictly necessary, but it was a lot of fun! Also, adding the bouncy entry to the overly flexing dance floor meant you could get quite a lot of height!

So then I was standing in one of the dance rooms getting to be a prop for Bene but I called in back up (in the form of Hasse) to make the move work. He made us show it. And then he did the exact same thing with me. And it was really just a keep closer in it. So then he made us do it again and it worked. We did it once he was out of sight to make sure it wasn’t just cos Hasse was watching. Then we managed to get filmed twice doing it, and also the other ending from Hasse and Marie’s class. Cos apparently they hadn’t gotten the video in the class. So then I managed to sneak into the level 5 class accidentally since I was demonstrating there.

That was a Scottie and Annie class. We had side by side Charleston, with some cute little turns, some filler bits and then switches with a crazy variation. Annie made switches hard by making me realise that I always do them with my right toes in the air and she wanted us to do them by swivelling on your toes. (which does actually look better)  So I was like ok I can do that. But apparently that took some concentration – I’m blaming it on being last class of the weekend.

So then the final bit of weekend was the Teacher’s forum. I’ve never been to one of those before but it was really interesting. People asked really sensible questions about how they’d gotten into dancing, and about starting new scenes, and whether being a professional makes dancing less fun.

Then I managed to sneak in a dance with Hasse to no music in the tea and coffee area cos I hadn’t had a chance to dance with him, and then also asked about Bug since it’s a Swedish dance and I didn’t no what it is (its like lindy but just steps and usually forwards rather than backwards) and then headed for the bus. Got to sit on the back cos that was where all the cool kids were, and was a fun place to be. Meant that there was silliness and also alcohol. Seb made it very hard to say anything since he could reply to almost anything with ‘that's what she said’!! But we also got some Finnish music played at us, and I managed to insult someone by saying he looked at least 12 when it turns out he’s 23 – oops.  

So then the bus dropped us at the Sunday night after party venue. That seemed very small in comparison to the marquee but we still managed to get some dancing in. there was also a brilliant moment when Lavender coffin was playing and everyone was singing along, and then Jack’s computer cut out again. So he tried to sort that out, but in the mean time, everyone just carried on singing it, so the people dancing could carry on dancing. It was beautiful. Just made me remember why I love swing dancers, not just the dancing itself.

Kicking out time rolled round way too early so I Told various people to come to Leeds for the swing exchange since that's the next time I’m in the country. Got lots of hugs and headed on out to the after after-party since it was at the place I was staying.

Mon morning came around all too early tho. My alarm went off and I had to move unfortunately. Had a v quick chat and had to borrow some money since the buses in Edinburgh don’t give change and I only had a tenner. So then I rushed off. Got on a bus hoping I would recognise it when I got there. Had to walk the whole way down prince’s st since apparently the coach doesn’t stop there, as we thought it might. So then I made it to the airport eventually – feeling rushed as ever. Found a queue in which the very nice older gentleman in front of me explained I could check in on a machine. He said you then had to queue again for dropping luggage but luckily I had just hand luggage. So then I could head down to gate. Got to pause briefly before getting on the plane.

Got off the plane in Amsterdam checked the board which said my next flight was already boarding. So then I walked fast across the airport but had to go thru passport control. I was like no! But found a guy in high vis to question since there wasn’t a chance I could make it thru the queue and make my plane. He said I could jump most of the queue so on I went. Felt better letting a girl whose flight was closing ahead of me. Then walked across cos of course the plane was as far away as possible! Made it back to Sweden and was glad that the rest of it was with no rush at all. Got to direct some ppl to the train and jumped on myself. Thought about cycling home from the station but was glad when I got on the tube and sat down. And then made it home.

The Girls came...

At the start of June (this is how behind I am) I had a very exciting weekend, when Ella and Christina came to visit… 

The girls were due in on a late flight so I had a nap before meeting them at the tube. Took them back to the flat where we had a nice gossip before bed. 

Saturday it took us ages to get out of the house but eventually we made it. We cycled to Skansen, which was a little bit of an adventure in itself. Or to Djurgården anyways. There were a lot of people in the centre of town. And when we got to Djurgården, we discovered that the rail there was full so we then had to cycle back into town to leave the bikes, and walk back along the front. Which did mean that we had chance to get a coffee along the way. Skansen is this wonderful place which is a cross between a zoo and a beamish style museum. It has a bunch of old buildings (inc Sweden’s tallest wooden bell tower) and had some people folk dancing, and an option to play on stilts. We were excited by the animals, particularly the bears (tho Ella was fond of the escaping bunnies). We spent most of the day there before cycling home and having dinner. Then we then headed out to a truly Swedish pub (or in other words an Irish Pub!!) which was a whole bunch of fun. Particularly cos Ella could keep people warm just by sitting by them (we forgot to get sunscreen!!)

Sunday we were better at getting out of the house altho we did end up having to run a little bit to make the boat to Vaxholm. But once we were on we could relax and enjoy the fresh air and prettiness. And Vaxholm it turns out has a crazy golf course if nothing else. We managed not to explore much of the island but enjoyed the wondrous crazy golf where we may have managed to entertain the locals by being terrible but amusing. We also got lunch there and I introduced Christina to the world of lingonberry juice. We also managed to wander around some shops and see two Ferrari’s before jumping back on a boat to head back. I wanted to make sure the girls had gotten to see some of the dance scene so we headed straight up from the ferry to Stora skuggen, home to Sunday dancing. It’s a great little spot – a wooden gazebo next to a lake up somewhere near the uni. And  I think we managed to confuse the locals by being more English people than they’re used to!

So then we eventually left there, tired and well danced and headed to find dinner at the Indian I sometimes go to for lunch. After that we met the boys at the pub (an actual Swedish one this time) before almost falling asleep there (Ella particularly) so we headed on home.

And then they both had to leave earlish Monday morning, which was very sad for me. My room was suddenly very quiet. But I was massively glad they had come. And if anyone else wants to visit I do have a sofa or space on my floor….

End of May / Start of June

Written a very long time ago but apparently didnt get uploaded... 

Wed 25^th May was a day of tiredness. And then dancing was rubbish! Or not entirely rubbish. But I was massively tired and the night was just lacking in top notch dances. Had a couple of good ones, danced much better with one of the guys I usually dance with than I had pre blues workshop. But the first 3 guys I danced with were just terrible. One that didn’t bother listening to the music, one that has no rhythm at all and the close Finnish guy who was being ridiculous. He spent most of the time trying to get me into close embrace and then some, and I spent most of it pushing him away really hard. I was so annoyed by the end of it cos there was no need to be in close embrace and it wasn’t like I wasn’t being really obvious in my discomfort! 
On the plus side tho, there was a band. And we did get a shim sham tho since it was Frankie’s birthday. And some ppl gave a speech about it but that wasn’t great for me since I didn’t understand anything being said. 
Did manage to get the last dance as a guy came and asked me. He pointed out it was the last one, which may be part of the reason I danced with him, since his white shirt was towards see thru and dripping – he had clearly danced lots – and that’s not really a fun time when your left arm connection is onto sweat. But it was probably better than not dancing the last song.
Then I wasn’t sure whether to go to the pub or not. David pointed out that my eyes were empty, and they aren’t usually at the end of the night. Which was cos I was missing the lindy high. Usually at the end of the night I’m all buzzy and excited. And thus the pub is a good plan. But instead of listening to my tired head and going home I went to the pub. Partly due to feeling bad for making people wait while I extolled the virtues of Leeds and its swing exchange (I did try Helena!!) So I went to the pub where I sat and chatted to a guy I didn’t no for a while, but mostly they were talking Swedish, so I didn’t stay too long.

Thu evening we decided to watch the second half of godfather 2. Which turns out to be really quite a good film. I found both halves pretty interesting, unlike the others who preferred the old stuff.

Fri night the boys at work decided they were all gonna have a sauna (in the work sauna) and then have a bbq. They were supposed to start at 4 which would have meant they would be finishing up about the right time for end of work for the rest of us. only the sauna broke. So they had to call in an engineer! So I went home. Cos I didn’t no how long they were gonna be so had left the boys instructions to let me know when they were done cos I was up for the bbqing. I headed back to the bbq and managed not to get any food despite the boys being somewhat silly and burning everything that wasn’t being eaten including spare buns (in the packaging) and at one point the entire bottle of lighter fluid, which luckily didn’t explode the way we expected it to. I got berated for about 20 mins about my having not gone into the sauna by one of the Swedish boys. He said if it had been the other way round he would have loved a sauna with 12 girls, even tho they apparently don’t look when in the sauna. He couldn’t understand why I would think it was weird at all, even tho I pointed out that it was a colleagues, and they speak a different language so we don’t know what they’re saying half the time! So then we all stood around the fire before heading inside to the warmth and more drinking. There was wine from the wine lottery, and someone felt bad that they had missed a birthday so we were celebrating that too. Hugo had gone to pick up a friend from town and came back disappointed that the bbq was out so he, friend and I went to macdonalds since I decided food was a good plan. So having exhausted the alcohol in the office (or given up on it I’m not sure) we headed out. The first place that we tried to go to said that one of the guys was too drunk, and then the second place was closing so we went to the Viking bar restaurant place where we managed to sit down for a while and drink one beer before they were closing. Then we lost a whole load of our Swedes but headed to a club called rocks, where they insisted on stamping the club name half way up our arms, which I thought was weird, but where we danced for quite some time after losing our two remaining Swedes.

Sat I was heading up to meet the boys on Gamla Stan so I grabbed a bike from the waterfront and had to run with it across the marathon. Its pretty hard to do but there was sufficient gap, and I wasn’t the first one to do it so I didn’t feel too bad. There was some chaos in the bike lane tho as ppl were standing in it to watch. I made it up to meet the boys for coffee tho before we wander off and around. not sure where all the time disappeared to but we headed back to the boys house where I almost fell asleep. Hugo was very kindly in charge of food while James was being the entertainment with his series of jokes based around a set of business propositions. The idea was that you had a proposition and the other one asked how it was going, for example the skiing business was going downhill (!!). So then our post food entertainment was to watch the football. I was glad that Paul and Eleanor had come back for that since apparently I cant watch football without making stupid noises and it felt less stupid since she did it too. Then I got to cycle home on Andy Leishman’s bike which is currently living with the boys. It confused me since its not at all like the city bikes, I was missing the back pedal break, I had to stop to work out how to change gear, and I managed to get my jeans caught in the cogs at one point too, but apart from that a successful cycle home.

Sun me and jess cycled into town for more coffee with the boys before heading to the Archipelago fair. The four of us then went for a cycle round some of Djurgärden. That was a lot of fun. Felt like a really childish type thing to do, to be out cycling with friends, but in a really fun way. It just seemed like one of those things that people don’t do anymore, the kind of thing you do at like 10 but not since we’re in a foreign country and had no (responsible) adults with us. So we headed down one side and then me and jess turned back since I had to get to dancing and she wanted to go home. So I cycled to the tube to find that the place I meant to leave the bike was full, so had to keep cycling to find another bike stand. Luckily the next one I headed to had one space so I could sneak in there and jump strait on to the tube to uni. Met Adam and his girlfriend so they could show me the way across to where the Dancing was in a large wooden gazebo. It beautiful. Its this large wooden gazebo in the sunshine in a park next to a lake. Really makes you feel like you’re on holiday. And I managed to dance with a guy who was massively enthusiastic about my spinning particularly and thus span me ridiculously fast. A girl came to talk to me after and garbled excitedly in Swedish before I could tell her I’m English, but apparently she was saying that she really liked the way I span fast and then finished up by sticking my knee up in a kinda random way. I told her it was just cos I had too much momentum and it was the easiest way to stop it, but its cool when people think accidental styling looks good. On the way home I mostly remembered the way back to the tube station. I still had energy at that point and thought about getting off early so I could cycle the rest of the way home but having sat on the tube for more than a few minutes the tiredness kicked in and I almost fell asleep before getting home.

On Monday we decided to be as Swedish as possible. The boys did better by going for a swim in the Baltic but I joined them for the sauna part of the evening. They came to pick me up but I wanted a city bike so Paul offered to go get one so me and James went to find him but took a different route and managed to lose him completely. Which made me laugh. But did mean that while me n James took our bikes to the nearest rack to work, Paul left his in the work garage which meant I had a bike to cycle home on. Unfortunately I was in charge of providing music which didn’t work so well. We discovered that Hugo cant work an ipod – he couldn’t even switch it on, and that I have no music suitable for saunas. But we sat around there for a while anyways. The boys kept making it hotter, which is not always a good thing. But I did come out feeling a lot more relaxed. And then I had a nice cycle home before bed.

Tue was a change of plans night. The initial plan had involved watching Godfather 3 but then I had left work on time since I was starving, and the others all ended up going to the boys house to watch tennis so I mostly lay on the couch.

Wed was again a dancing night. Felt a little weird since everyone (ie Jess and the boys) were at ours to watch Godfather 3 without me when I was heading out for dancing, Met Adam on the way in and also spotted Chris Härm early on. He’s the guy who taught the last class I was at in London just before moving here. So I managed to grab a dance with him as well. He’s a lot of fun to dance with, tho I didn’t feel on top form. Had another couple of dances where I just underperformed for no reason, but did get an ace blues dance in there. Managed to make eye contact with someone who wasn’t dancing at the time, which is kinda bad blues etiquette but oppositely repeated that when he was blues dancing and I wasn’t so I didn’t feel so bad. Danced with a bunch of the usual suspects. And spent a while chatting too. Then at the end I stood and waited for Adam before he pointed out he wasn’t up for a pub trip but that was ok since I was fairly tired and going to bed less late is a good plan, so I got a hug by the tube station and headed on home.

Thu was very much a do nothing kinda day. I had thought about getting up and being useful and doing stuff. But decided after laying on my bed till mid afternoon I should write it off and write a to do list for Friday instead! So that’s what I did! I did notice that the weather was lovely, but I had no idea what to do with the afternoon, and really I didn’t fancy doing anything so I dyed my hair. On the grounds that that had been on my to do list for the weekend!
I did text the boys to see if they were up to anything exciting or planning anything for the evening, but they Paul was writing his book (still!!!) and Hugo was apparently out buying a tent. I did end up going to the boys house in the evening tho to borrow their bike cards for the imminent arrival of ‘my people’! And then curled up in the armchair for a small while, while apparently giving amusing comments on the tennis. I think fashion is important in sport, and that Paul should spend less time looking at tan lines! I also finished the biscuits we’d started the previous week since they’d been sitting on the side since then (and had not gone soft!). But the really amusing thing was that I then walked home and watched the sun set. Or not even really set. Walking down my street at quarter to midnight, the sky was a fairly dark blue, but in the gaps between buildings you could still see the orange as well as a pale blue between the two. Very weird. I do think the sun is going to teach me to not sleep for the next few months or so.

Today (Friday) was my productivity day. I went to the System (which is basically an off-licence) where I stood around wondering if I’d actually ever really bought anything from an off licence before and felt very out of place. Then I carried my winnings there home before going out again, this time to the ever more exciting grocery store. Success all round. Or at least I’m pretty sure I found most of my shopping list. Then I came home, I cooked up a whole load of food waiting to be cooked. And then I read a book. I did look out the window and wonder about taking my book elsewhere but decided it made more sense to just sit on my windowsill since that was fully in the sun, and meant I had running water and snacks at the ready. And then finally because I once more had more time than I was sure what to do with I went for a cycle. The route of which I put in my cycle blog entry. And hopefully will manage to post 2 blog entries! We’ll see… - nope total fail on that.