Planes, trains and automobiles

November 19, 2006

Commuting can be stressful and exhausting, and having a car can save a lot of hassle. When one becomes used to having a car, it is very easy to become dependent on the car to the point of it becoming a near necessity rather than luxury – even if it really is luxury. Long and tiring commute certainly claimed Cyrille as its victim this weekend and prevented him from joining Sergio and me for a trip to SOS.

Driving to SOS is not really faster in winter compared to taking a train thanks to Londoners driving back after their weekend holidays (but not staying later because of earlier sunset) and causing heavy traffic around the time when it is convenient to travel to SOS. As we were making plans to leave for SOS, I thus told Sergio that it would be faster by train on the way to SOS, but that it would be faster by car on the way back - we took my car anyway and risk a long trip a.k.a. a test drive. The traffic tonight was a little worse than usual. It did not help that I missed an exit on A12 and that I failed to find a parking spot quickly when we finally arrived. Thus we arrived only shortly before 9 PM – Liam who had a later start from Cambridge arrived at SOS before we did so he obtained ammunition to tease me more about my driving, etc.

One other mishap had to do with my iPod battery. Shortly before I left work to have dinner before picking up Sergio, I noticed that my batteries were running low. I charged the batteries during what little time I had while at work. When I arrived home, I plugged my iPod to my laptop thinking that this would help to recharge the battery as well. Unfortunately, I learned that my laptop drains power from iPod if the computer is not turned on (or if the laptop is in sleep mode and is closed shut). Thus whatever amount of charging I did at work, which probably would have been sufficient for the drive there and back, was ruined. However, it did mean there was even more lively conversation than usual on the drive back.

Because the social hour at SOS only lasts 2 1/2 hours at most, losing almost an hour is pretty significant. Losing another 10 minutes because of a birthday dance for Miriam and a freestyle Salsa demonstration by the reigning winners of a World Salsa Championship held at Las Vegas felt even more precious than it might have been otherwise.

To make matters worse, the DJ predictably played the best songs for these two private dances. The two songs were La Palomilla by Joe Cuba Sextet and Abaniquito originally written by Tito Puente … but I am unsure whose version was played. Incidentally another version of Abaniquito was played earlier in the evening, but the version played for the Salsa champions was a nicer version. Incidentally the DJ started playing Indestructible by Ray Barretto before switching to Abaniquito when the pair requested that a more danceable track be played instead.

I have no idea what was played during the first hour, but from 9 to 9:45 (or the first half of our stay) was dominated by sappy songs whereas the second half lasting from approximately 9:45 to 10:10 and 10:20 to 10:30 was a bit better. The DJ was Robert of Mambo City.

A comment made by Sergio on the drive back was along the lines of “I used to think the commute to SOS was worthwhile. But compared to what’s at Cambridge nowadays, it is not so obvious anymore.” I suggested that this had to do with Cambridge now having better people to dance with as well as improvement in the quality of music.

As for me, I had a quite good time despite the brevity of the time available for dancing. With couple of exceptions, none of the people I danced with were people I have danced with more than 2-3 times in the past. A few partners were completely new. Overall the quality of my dances and my followers was noticeably higher than it had been in my last several trips. It goes without saying that it’s nice to have good dances with people you haven’t danced with before. It’s better when it happens several times in a course of a day – this is something that never happens in Cambridge (in fact, finding one new highly enjoyable dance partner in a week is worth a minor celebration in Cambridge… I think the frequency has been well under one per month this year).

Despite having many really nice dances, the biggest highlight by far had to be the last dance of the evening - with Martina. Towards the end of this dance I couldn’t help but laugh continuously because I couldn’t believe my luck. Typically I would be scraping the bottom of the barrel for the last dance at SOS because there typically would be no one obvious (and sometimes no one period) to dance with. In last half year or so, the only time I had a nice dance partner for the final song at SOS was the time when I took Agnes with me – I didn’t dance with Agnes for the last dance but lucked into finding someone who was pretty good. Martina on the other hand… I am just glad that I finished the dance without embarrassing myself in anyway by having any awkward collisions or piss-poor leads and by keeping her at least mildly entertained throughout. Despite having danced with quite a number of good dancers tonight, she had noticeably better control and more elegance in her movements (as well as being a superb follower in general). Perhaps her aura of haughtiness and inapproachability (at least as felt by me in the past – not that I have gotten over it even now) helped me this time around. It was just bonus/gravy that the last song was also nice although not particularly memorable.

Another highlight would be getting a handshake from Mauro during middle of his dance shortly after arrival. He might have been showing off by demonstrating how cool and relaxed he is to take a full bar of music for a handshake. That’s second time in a row he seemed to go out of his way to be friendly to me. No complaints from here – it’s always nice when people are being nice with me. Other friendly greetings were made with Sean (who let me know about an upcoming plans at the LDA including a social on Dec 23rd and that LDA will be running drop-in classes as opposed to 6-week courses from Nov 21st to Dec 20th - presumably because they figured that holiday season will make 6-week session difficult for most people), Tamambo and several women from the LDA classes.

While the drive to London was dominated by music and conversations about music, the drive back was more freewheeling and with a lot of banters, gossips and nutty ideas. One story Sergio told me about was about a connection he made between a party at St Ives recently and Eva (of Mauro and Eva fame). Apparently after being tossed around by whole lot of men at the St. Ives party, Eva apparently approached Sergio (presumably because she recognized him from SOS) and started a conversation with him. Sergio apparently didn’t know who she was and apparently made generic replies and/or nodded blankly to whatever she was saying. Tonight on his way out, he received a flier advertising one of her (and Mauro’s) class. Then and only then, Sergio realized that Eva who was talking to him at St. Ives was the Eva at SOS. I told Sergio that there probably are not too many UK Salsa dancers, whom Eva would have recognized but would have failed to recognize her in return. I don’t think heavier makeup and costume is enough of an excuse. I suppose I had that one night where I didn’t know that I was chatting with Janet Fuentes of Lady Salsa fame, but this is not a fair comparison.

I also tried to twist Sergio’s arm once again regarding the Tuesday’s Bachata event – being quite heavy handed at times. Sergio said he will mention Bachata night to Natalie and see if she’d be interested. By the way, one of the fliers I was handed on the way out of SOS advertised an all-dayer event with Tony Lara & Daniela De Francesco and Palanke prominently featured on it; Tony obviously will be here on Tuesday while Palenke (dubbed the #1 Latin band in the UK) will be playing Sunday at the CDC event.