Tuesday at Home and a Night Out

Tuesday, got off to a slow start. I stayed in bed for an hour reading. I'm currently reading a book about productivity, for both work and home. It's quite an interesting read. I got up and got showered and after breakfast I took the dog on a two hour walk. 

I had a couple of errands to run when I got back.  One was to post a present off to my sister for her birthday this week and the other was to pick up a prescription for LB. The Post Office and Pharmacy were next door to one another, so it didn't take long and meant I could tick a couple more things off my to do list for the week.

After lunch, I needed to do a Lateral Flow Test, as I'd been invited to go dancing in the evening, with a friend that I met at dance classes pre-pandemic. Once that was done and was negative, I could book my ticket. It is for a swing dance lesson followed by a live band, who I think play ragtime, blues and 20's jazz, which sounded good. I hadn't done any swing dancing for nearly two years, so I was both nervous and excited to return to it. The lessons and event were at a different venue that is trying to build up their events, so it was interesting to see what it was like.

To get me in the mood for going dancing, I re-watched some videos of the Jazz Solo classes I did before Lockdown. It was interesting to be reminded of the level at which I was learning, before everything shut down. Some of the steps and routines were quite tricky. Not sure if I could do them now, not without a lot of practice anyway.

This afternoon, I decided to do a bit more ironing, whilst watching the new film version of Jane Austin's Emma on Netflix. Later I started getting ready to go out. It had been so long since I'd been dancing, I had no idea what to wear. I don't really wear vintage anymore, so I needed to choose something both presentable and comfortable for dancing. I opted for trousers, flat shoes and a couple of layered tops. The first time I go anywhere, it's always a nightmare to decide what to wear.

I had to set the sat nav to find my way to the venue, as the area wasn't that familiar, even though it's only 10-15 mintues away in the car. The traffic was bad too, but my friend and I were still early, so we had time to sit and have a chat before the class began.  I enjoyed the class, it was a good mix of young and older dancers, so I didn't feel too conspicuous. At times it felt like I was actually dancing, by which I mean the steps, albeit just the few we learnt that night, were flowing reasonably well.

The band were good and my friend and I had lots of time to catch up with each other's news. I enjoyed watching the more experienced dancers too. It's inspiring, although I doubt I'll ever be as good as they are.

We left about 10.45pm, as my friend needed to get a bus and train home and I was home for just past 11pm.

I'm not sure if I'll go every week, but it has whetted my appetite to get back to dancing, so we'll see what happens.