Hyperreal

Went busking in Perth yesterday and had a really good time…

It seems that this busk wasn’t publicised much, if at all, at the Glasgow classes, perhaps because no-one sane would go all the way to Perth just to dance in the street for a couple of hours. Thing is, to get to the Stirling busk which was publicised, I just jumped on a train, and to get to the Perth busk I jumped onto the very same train (well, a little earlier) and just got off one stop later. No big deal. Perhaps if I was driving it would have been different though…

Anyway, I arrived in good time, and met some other early birds. Unfortunately, the position we were hoping to use was taken over shortly after by a bus full of religious types. When Franck et al, arrived, we set up further down the round and off we went. Unfortunately the bus had a bigger sound system than us, and as they probably thought we were all god-less heathens, had no qualms about drowning out our music, making it hard to dance.

So we scooted along the road a bit, set up again, and this time we weren’t bothered by anyone. In the end, I’m sure we got a bigger crowd than our rivals, and very sure that they weren’t getting rounds of applause after each song.

It was nice to be back in Perth, it’s such a lovely place. If I wasn’t happy where I am, and in the job I do, I’d consider moving to Perth. Its streets are clean, the people are friendly – it’s just nice and cosy, without being too small. Perhaps I’ve only seen the good side of Perth and it isn’t all as nice as the parts I’ve seen. Anyway, I don’t suppose it matters.

So, as I said, the busk wasn’t publicised in Glasgow, so it was no surprise that I was the only person who had made the trip from the west. There was at least one person who had travelled probably a similar distance from Aberdeen, though she was combining the trip to the Perth with a visit to Edinburgh later for the party at Marco’s.

There were, naturally, lots of Perth people, and quite a few from Dundee and Fife. All in all, that made about 20 dancers in total, fairly well balanced between guys and girls.

The dancing was quite good for me. I’m still struggling with getting more variety into my repertoire, but I enjoyed the moves I could do, and found myself one or twice in unusual territory where I tried my best to act like I meant it. Compared to the previous busks, this one probably had a greater number of less-experienced ladies at it (I never know about the men) but that made it easier for me to relax. The dances with the more experienced were rather fab though.

I think I got a better balance between dancing and leafleting, and the people of Perth seemed really friendly. Didn’t get as many people stopping and asking me questions as, say, in Glasgow, but there could be all sorts of reasons for that.

We finished up after maybe two to three hours, and retired to a near-by restaurant where we sat out side and shared pizza and laughs. The sun came out (it was a good day for dancing, not too hot, but dry and bright) and we were happy.

I had planned that I would see most of the people again at Marco’s in Edinburgh last night, but I was really shattered. I almost fell asleep on the train home, and once home, I thought for a bit and figured that going to Edinburgh then would end up with me just needing to come home shortly after I’d arrived. I considered having a wee snooze, but decided I’d still not be rested enough, it would be getting late and I’d inevitably end up with an abbreviated evening no matter what I did.

So, instead I had a chilled-out evening, watched some stuff on the telly-box and went to bed early and slept the sleep of the just.

Feel very much refreshed this morning, though my calves and fingers are a bit sore…

I took some pictures of the day, but I’m not really impressed by most of them. I might see if with some creative cropping I can get a few that are worth putting up on my web site. I’ll let you know…

Thanks to everyone involved, was nice to see you all again/for the first time (delete as applicable).

Cheers!