Today

Another evening with Wine Circle last night. This time it was the Mendip Wine Circle's annual competiton and dance. These frolics were conceived when nobody had any money, neither club nor participants, so the BYOWFKF&S is the norm. Actually that suits Paul & me as we'd rather have a small late supper and the food at a sit down dinner is generally awful, unless you're paying at least £30 per head.

So we flossied ourselves up in our sparkly best, either deliberately or accidentally, (depending on your viewpoint) avoiding the need to dress in Mediaeval costume for the St George's Day theme.

God! We only go about 2 of these doos a year. And an evening like last night reminds you why. 3rd rate performers (at least this gang had backing tapes and were under 65), the best decorations that can be shoved up in a school hall in a couple of hours and some seriously odd people.

Still, we were with friends and danced away to Buddy Holly, Billy Fury and Beatles hits of the 60's and 70's. The band had the wit to realise that the number of people that could actually do a quickstep was limited and getting smaller, heart attack by heart attack.

In My Day

When Paul was at Eastbourne and Lewes ambulance stations we used to be the movers and shakers in getting dance evenings going. I remember begging the remains of foil after the cutting out of yoghurt pot lids from the local dairy so that we could cover the walls in sparkle. We slaved producing buffet food (none of your BYOWFKF&S for us! And got a disco.

It was all right in the 70's to dance to "YMCA" and "Brown Girl in the Ring" or at least it seemed so at the time and there was always "Saturday Night Fever". And nobody seemed to want to dance a quickstep.

I always enjoyed getting up to dance and Paul didn't seem to mind. His dancing style has barely changed - moved to the left, bring your right foot up, move to the right, bring your left foot up, stare into the middle distance. Repeat ad nauseam. That's unless you want to do a bit of air guitar. They don't play much "Status Quo" these days, though.

Actually, I'd love to rekindle my knowledge of the quickstep. Strictly Ballroom, anybody?