Eating, drinking, and Folk Dancing in Thurnby

The Rose & Crown aka the village pub, Thurnby, Leicestershire
Aug 2009

Thurnby is a little village near Leicester
Ordinarily, I would never have found a reason to go there
but Christina's friends, Mandy and Hugh, were celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary and Thurnby is where they live

It's a pretty village, with some really old buildings
i especially loved this one

a smiley fox guards a doorway

The "party" was being held at the village hall
and it was decorated in the simplest style
there was this woven wreath of leaves and fern

there were balloons in the shape of champagne bottles and glasses
food was catered by a friend, and ale was supplied by a local
(I'd forgotten to take pictures of the ale casks)
Unfortunately, i didn't dare touch the ale..
i knew it would be bitter
well.. i'm a weaking so sue me

and then came the dancing!
it was fun really..
whenever i got into one, i couldn't stop smiling all through it!
for the record, i danced four times:
first with a gay man, then with an old man, and the last with a married woman
in my third dance, i was the guy
O_o

anyyyyyywayyyyyyyyy
folkdancing is pretty simple, when it comes down to it
how graceful you dance is altogether quite a different matter

so..
there's the promenade..
where you cross hands with your partner and circle the room

various combinations of dip and dive
when you go under an arch made by other couples
(or make one yourself and let other people go under it)

the swing..
where you basically hook arms with your partner and swing them round

the star
where four people put their right(or left) hands together and walk around in a circle

the step
where you just step forward and backward!
duh....

and there was something else called the figure of 8
where everyone's in a column
and you weave in and out of the line

the best part of the evening was the little old ladies
how i adore them..
one whispered conspirationally that she had many sins..
then she winked at me impishly:

"Tell us about your sins. You're too young to have many!
and suddenly, i felt as if i had none
the powers of hypnotism!
she found it amusing that i thought for a long time
i finally told her i thought eating chocolate wasn't a sin
(it is on top of the list for Christina)

the other, sprightly and sweet, was my dance partner
and.. she had a better grasp of the order of the steps than i did!
i was confused all the time because i was dancing as a man

the moment she heard what i did for a living
she told me her husband's had two hip replacements
he in turn joked that she had almost lost her heart to a snake charmer in singapore

it took me aback cos in all my years in singapore
i'd not seen a snake charmer by the river side
i'm quite determined to go hunt down this guy on my trip home
;)