Keeeeeep dancing!

Well, it's that time of year again....Strictly Come Dancing is going to be gracing our screen again soon with its selection of half-baked celebrities and corny judges and I will be loving every minute!!

This time last year (well, yesterday if we're talking to the day) Rich and I got together properly. We'd had a few mis-starts but we count yesterday as our official anniversary. The last year seems to be inextricably entwined with dancing. Shortly after we got together, we were watching Strictly and Rich idly mentioned that he'd love to be able to dance like that, you know proper ballroom or jive... Well, I wasn't letting an opportunity like that pass me by! I have been on the mailing list of a dance studio in Sheffield for ages but for some reason had never been able to find a class to suit. As luck would have it, they were starting a beginners' ballroom and latin dance class that very Monday evening!! We went, loved it and have been going pretty much every Monday ever since.

Inevitably, the class has dwindled in size somewhat over the last year. There was an initial drop-off of people who discovered that one or other of them had 2 left feet or no sense of rhythm or who just found that dancing was not for them. Then a few more couples have moved cities or jobs and not been able to make Monday nights any more. Now there is a hard core of 8-10 couples left and there is a really good atmosphere amongst us. We've tackled the waltz, quickstep, tango, jive, cha cha, rumba, samba and latterly the foxtrot (which is difficult!). Our favourites have changed over the year. We started off loving the waltz and quickstep but not really liking the rumba or samba. Now I have a lot of time for the tango and the both the samba and the rumba. The jive is a laugh but I do find the cha cha a bit boring....

We went on Monday night after a couple of Mondays off. It was great. We learned some new steps in the samba which we danced, at one stage, to the "cricket theme tune song". You know the one - the steel band playing, "dum dum dum der dum dum da dum dum, dum dum dum der dum dum, der der der da dum"!!? (Yes, I know this makes no sense if you don't know which music I'm referring to...he he he) It was so joyful and uplifting; you can't fail to be happy dancing a samba to that!! I'm smiling just thinking about it.


The samba steps are a tad "silly" perhaps. I think the new steps we learned last night were the volta and the spot volta and, to be honest, they reminded me of that game you play as a child with a brush between your legs pretending to ride a horse ("Horsey" we called it with stunning imagination). Lots of trotting on the spot or in a circular motion. But, when you put the steps into the sequence with your partner and the music, it all comes together and you really appreciate the carnival, happy, summer, Brazilian exuberance of it all. A good thing to do on a stormy Monday night in Sheffield!!


So, it's been a good year and we're still dancing and smiling and learning new things together. What's not to like?


Weight wise, I'm sticking to the straight and narrow and did not weigh myself yesterday morning in advance of to my weigh-in in the evening. What difference would it have made?? Supper Monday night was little off-piste as we were rushing back from dancing to watch the Sheffield Wednesday game on TV (recorded) and didn't want to be too late to bed. I slammed together seafood pasta but in a carbonara sauce rather than a tomato based one (Rich doesn't really like tomato sauces for pasta) and I will admit to a couple of slices of garlic bread (a heinous SW crime taking into account the delicious melted, garlicky butter and the crust of parmesan I chucked on it.....drooool). But lots of veggies in the pasta and no beer or wine or dessert and lots of exercise over the day.

I didn't think it would derail my efforts but I took a virtuous salad for lunch which I scoffed after swimming. I'm pretty tired to be honest, wonder if I'm fighting off some form of lurgy. So I didn't do my new "usual" distance of 60 lengths but powered through a reasonably fast 50. I then had a tiring series of meetings and dashing off to weigh-in in heavy "back to school" traffic followed by racing home to cook and give free legal advice to Rich's brother. Knackering. Luckily the advice required didn't take as long as I thought it might and we were all done and eaten in time to watch the football and the cricket (yes, at the same time with Maestro Rich weilding the remote!).

So, are you waiting to hear how I got on at the weigh-in??

Thought so. Well, I am pleased to report that I've lost 2lbs taking me to 7.5lbs in 4 weeks. I got my sticker and award for having lost half a stone which is all very gratifying. Especially as my evening had been such a mess. I had hoped to dash to WI, get weighed and then leave so I could get home early. But my work meeting overran causing me to hit the traffic causing me to miss the weigh-in section of the class. I then had to sit through the talky bit until she had finished and get weighed at the end. It was sooooo slow. There were more people than I've ever seen in a class and everyone seemed to want to chat. I was starving, late and really conscious that I still had a full evening ahead of me. Gnashing my teeth with frustration. I hate being late!

Anyway, all was well when I found that I'd dropped 2lbs and when I got home to find a nice tidy house and kitchen and that the legal advice was not too onerous.