Review of 2015 Part 2

TANGO PRESENTATIONS
Regina and I entertained the day patients at Hayward House with some dancing and informal chat. That went down well and with some gentle pressure from Phil we smartened it up into a more formal presentation.
19 September. With much help from friends Maggie, Graeme, Phil, Ling, Jon and Cheryl we assembled in Beeston library. It was house full of 50 with a waiting list of 12! It was very well received and we were very pleased with the feedback.
8 December, This was Kinoulron WI's Christmas Party and this time it was just Maggie, Graeme and Phil that were the necessary support. They had allowed men to attend and the response was beyond my wildest dreams! They loved us. One comment from a lady was that she felt she was intruding by watching us dance.  What a tribute to the fact that we were really connecting with our partners and not straying into Show Tango.

LOCAL TANGO
We have regular classes and a monthly milonga, thanks to Lisa. Ling and Jon run a practica in Bramcote and they are one or two other events that occur in Derby - Chester Green Tea dance and a Mike Isaacs milonga.
I regularly helped Bill Newby's with the beginners at his monthly Workshops.

FRIENDS
I kept contact with Ken, Tony and Lesley, Joan outside of tango. A wonderful group came to watch "The Tango Lesson " at the small private cinema in Nottingham, as part of my extensive birthday celebrations.
Cheryl visited for the Test match and we witnessed one of the great days of cricket EVER. Broad
8-15, Audtralia all out for 60.
I helped Nancy with her tango and she found me the worse student of Spanish of all time.
I spent a lot of time with Jenny, helping her to move from a large house in Ruddington to a small one in Edwalton. I laid her oak floor after a couple of false starts and with the help,of Daniel.he knows nothing about floors but reads instructions and interprets them logically. I read them to reinforce my pre-conciecved ides!

Review of 2015 Part 1

I have not posted at all in 2015 and that was because of.......Google. Not only do they not pay their taxes, more seriously they messed up me writing to my blog. I set off on Sunday 15 February for two weeks in Costa Rica, with Ian, on a VJV holiday. I dutifully got out my iPad on arrival with a view to posting initial feelings but oh no! Mr Google had other ideas! I was told I was not logging on from my normal place. Quite, I was on holiday, thst is what I wanted my blog for! I was asked a series of questions as if my password did not identify me. The only question I could understand was what was the exact date I opened my gmail account. That I have a cake on that day and friends send me cards!!
However Costa Rica was great, lovely scenery, wonderful colours, great wild life (I like sloths!), and an enormous number of birds. Costa Rica does not have a military force. What a sensible country.

Unfortunately I have to mention Miami airport which in simple terms is not fit for purpose. Training airport staff must be quick because all they are prepared to say is "Get in line, SIR". No matter if it is the correct line but it looks neat if we are all in line! We had a short time to make a connection and airline staff issued us with a priority red card. When airport staff saw this they said that is nothing to do with us that is the airline!! Not fit for purpose.

TANGO
19-21 March, I went to Tango Feast in Devon with Phil and Mel. Sharing a caravan with them was fun! Everything about the event was good. Great welcome, only 100m to the Hall, good floor and music. Somehow I did not enjoy it. I felt I was looking in on a party to which I had not been invited. I can't blame anybody but myself.

24-26 July, Phil, Regina and myself enjoyed some dancing in London. We did Tango on the Thames, Corrientes and Tango Gardens. All were excellent and all were friendly places and we felt welcomed and had some good dances.

3-4 October, Regina, Phil, Mel and I enjoyed dancing in the Tower Ballroom again this year, with a follow up tea dance in Fleetwood.

29-30 December, Regina and I danced at 3 milongas at Eton. I had never been to the Eton/Windsor complex and so enjoyed looking at the outside of the school and Castle. The Eton milongas have a reputation and are a must for many friends. From both our points of view it was good but nothing special. Nothing really to complain about and we both had good dances but am still trying to,work,out why it is so highly rated. Emperor's New Clothes syndromes?? I was asked to dance in .lane - they like to be very strict about some things - I was actually in a lane, it was just that nobody else was in that lane with me. There were only two lanes about 4 ft apart. I thought there could be two more lanes in between