Three musketeers ride to the Rocket sans D'Artagnan

July 1, 2006

Final lineup was Sergio, Cyrille and me. Mimi wanted to get up early for a 5K run Sunday morning and thus bowed out. Cyrille was on the fence until France defeated Brazil in normal time. I picked up Sergio and Cyrille at Churchill College, where they were watching the match with Zern, and we merrily went down M11, etc to Holloway enjoying a nice clear road. Much of the talk on the way was between Sergio and Cyrille and tended toward being very gossipy. I learned a little more about the golden age at the Catholic Church back in 2001 or so (a.k.a. the Golden age according to paraphrase Ivan) as well as Sergio's take on the social dynamic in Cambridge Salsa scene, which I find to be either distorted or outdated. But then again, I'm still a relative newcomer and outsider. I was also asked a question, "Whom do you like to dance with?" and made a measured reply, which prompted a comment, "You're giving a politician's answer."

After a quick stop at the ATM and at a convenience store (where there was a bizarre incident of theft and assault seconds before we entered), we entered the Rocket around 11:30 PM. I was dismayed to find the place relatively empty with just over 300 in attendance by the time of our arrival. The room upstairs opened only sometime after we arrived - around midnight, and it took a while for things to get started. Of the first half dozen or so dances upstairs, I was involved in four of them (another way of saying this would be that I danced during the first four songs with only one other couple dancing at the same time during two of the songs). It brought back some memories of similar situations at Club Salsa and also at the Brit Salsafest.

Slowly more people migrated upstairs where music more suitable for CBL style Salsa was being played, and having a show upstairs about half an hour later finally brought sizable crowd. There was still plenty of space, but the atmosphere became more festive. Until the show, I was feeling a bit embarrassed about having brought Sergio and Cyrille to an empty party. The air was a little too hot and humid and the music was muted, handcuffed by the volume restrictions due to inadequate soundproofing system to satisfy the local council. I recognized few friendly faces from London SOS and also from the LDA (I learned that the class started very late on Tuesday so that I would not have missed anything by being 30 minute late). I also had some very enjoyable dances upstairs after the show. Sadly, the upstairs room was closed at 2 AM, which brought us back to the downstairs room, which reverted to mix of Cuban/CBL and thus less enjoyable. We left around 2:45 AM.

Quote of the day - "Thanks for making the bed."

Compliment (?) of the day - "You were being pretty funky."

It came from Sergio, so I think it probably qualifies as a compliment.