Hyperreal

Last night was the Stirling Glitter Ball – celebrating all things Christmassy and glittery! I had a fantastic time.

Stirling’s a great location for a party as it’s so central that it can attract people from all over Scotland. Of course the result of this is lots of familiar and semi-familiar faces… Cool! (Though I’m embarrassed by the number of times people greet me and say it’s nice to see me again, when I can’t remember ever meeting them in the first place. I’ve always had a really bad memory for faces, but the huge number of people I’ve met and danced with this year has really left my poor brain a little bit fried. )

When it comes to dancing, it’s the people that really make it for me, and there were a fantastic bunch of folks there last night. Lots of old friends, quite a few new ones too. Was good to see them all…

We arrived in the middle of the “fun” class, which I’m sorry I missed, as it’s a good way at the start of the night to see who’s there and make some mental notes of who to ask for dances later… But no matter…

Let’s take a look at the venue…

The Stirling Albert Halls. Grand name, and grand venue. It’s got a great floor for dancing on, a good size, though it was a bit crowded at times, especially before the second room opened upstairs. The bar staff were helpful and the prices were fairly reasonable too. I didn’t spend much time upstairs, but that room looked good too.

I’d say it was a perfect venue for a dance. I’m looking forward to whenever the next dance there is.

Now the music…

Overall I really liked the music. There were four different DJs during the night. Downstairs in the main hall it was Tiggerbabe, CJ, then Trampy. Upstairs was Tiggerbabe, then Dance Demon I think.

I only ventured upstairs once but found the music and general atmosphere way too bluesy for me. Downstairs was much more typical for a good Scottish Ceroc party. Lots of stuff of various style and tempo, but pretty much all of it I could dance to. Towards the end the music slowed down perhaps a bit too much for my liking. I don’t really know what I want though… It makes sense to play slower music as the night draws to an end. We’re all getting tired and probably no-one would appreciate lots of banging tunes at that point of the night. But slower dancing lacks the same fun for me. It becomes ponderous. I also find it difficult to fill up all the spare time we’ve got, plus when I blunder, maybe mis-lead a move, the consequences take longer to unravel, like a car crash in slow motion. I try to just sit out more, but I get asked to dance, and I don’t think that “it’s too slow” is a good enough reason to not accept when someone is willing to endure those three or four minutes with you.

Oh well… Lots of my favourite songs were played and I had a great time dancing to all of them. Must get in a request or two next time for a couple of tracks that I just find extra good, that I didn’t hear last night.

I’d normally be writing about my dancing now, but I’ve got noting new to say here really, and I was trying not to think too much last night about how my dancing was, and to just let myself enjoy it. Can’t turn off my crazy analytical mind, but today, on this topic, I’m choosing to ignore it. I had a great time. Most of the people I danced with gave some indication of enjoyment too, plus a fair number came back for seconds, or thirds, or fourths (eek!), so I can’t complain…

Strangest question of the night… “What fabric conditioner do you use?” I was wearing a rather nice, rather soft cotton t-shirt. Actually, now I think about it, maybe that’s why the ladies kept coming back…

Even stranger question of the night… “What’s the English for ’staving your thumb’?” Who would have thought the English lack such useful variant of such a descriptive word? Turns out that although (theoretically) the English know what stave means when it’s used in such phrases as “my window’s been stove in”, meaning “crush inwards, force out of shape”, they lack understanding of the word when applied to fingers or thumbs, where it means the exact same thing, leading to a rather sore finger. Apparently it’s only used in Scotland, the US, and some English dialects. (Hope that clears it up for you KT and others… )

Anyway, I had a great time, it was great to see so many of my friends – especially those I haven’t seen or had a chance to dance with in a wee while.

Big thanks as usual to all my partners, friends, and everyone who made it such a great night. Special big thanks to the especially nice lady with her nice new car who went out her way to give me a lift up to Stirling and back. Cheers!

Next up is the regular Jumping Jacks night on Tuesday (which I’ve been told will have a Christmassy theme - is that right?) and then the Edinburgh party at Marco’s on Friday. (I’m looking for a lift home on Friday if there’s anyone who can help a poor dancer? ) (Oh, and I also know two ladies who might be glad to hear of any spare tickets for Friday, and I’d be very grateful too, as then I could dance with them. Let me know if you know of any please? Thanks. )

Hopefully my ageing body will make it through the week! See you soon!