That’s that and it’s over and done with

October 1, 2006

It is finally the last of anticipated days of this week. Cyrille called in the middle of the afternoon to say that he’ll head to London early and meet us at SOS. Sergio and I took the train for 8 PM arrival. Liam was probably on the next train.

Cyrille was highly impressed with SOS as expected. By my standards, it was somewhat on a weak side – possibly because of there being a big surplus of men. While there were some usual good people to dance with, it felt like one had to be quick about getting a dance partner lest you miss out on all of the okay followers. I’m sure most women were not complaining though.

Music was okay but perhaps subpar in a sense that I only liked 2-3 songs at most.

I’m recognizing and being recognized by a lot of people. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I wonder again if I would be better off coming less often.

Highlight of the day #1. This involved dancing with someone I could not agree upon timing with. At one point, she asked if I was dancing cross body on 1 and I replied that I was trying (if she would allow me). Later she claimed that she thought I was trying to dance on-2. That might make sense – maybe. Even now, I’m not sure what really happened there.

Highlight of the day #2. This also involved dancing with someone I could not agree upon proper timing. The big difference was that in this case, the issue was that there was absolutely no framework for an argument. No lead-follow agreement of any sort. Every move was a challenge and tug-of-war. After a while, I was so flabbergasted that I was completely amused and was made quite cheerful.

I don’t know. What does it mean when the highlights are disastrous dances?

Quote of the day 1 – “She likes chicken.

Quote of the day 2 – “We were equally matched in strength.”

Quote of the day 3 – “She’s equally dangerous with her kicks.”

No harm done - at least for me. My voice is still normal.

A memorable exchange – “Had I known that, I would have been tempted and thought about it for a second.” “I thought about it for more than a second.”

Ancient quote of the day – “So that I could learn more moves I cannot use. Why not?”

Sergio recalled that I wrote something like this on his sign-up sheet for on-2 class he was trying to organize about a year and half ago.

Okay. This week is over. Tonight was something of an anticlimax - probably caused by too high expectations. There’s nothing more to look forward to. Maybe that’s a good thing. I have now been in the UK for exactly three years.

Random phrases and ideas: Miss England. (Not a) Barbie doll. Arm wresting. Paella. A New York weekend. A football game at Manchester or West Ham or Bourdeaux. Hitting four corners of Cambridge.