venta

Hurrah, we have the internet back! Someone had sliced through a critical cable, and Virgin Media Man has now, I dunno, knotted it back together or something. Expect a volley of blog posts, as various rough drafts from the last fortnight come out...

At the beginning of September, I went away for the weekend with my occasional dance team, Boojum.

Note for new(ish) readers: I do a form of traditional English folk-dancing called rapper. It looks a bit like this. It's from the north-east, and no one has ever heard of it. It involves short, bendy strips of metal which we (inaccurately) call swords, and usually happens in pubs. I belong to a team called Mabel Gubbins, based in Oxfordshire. Since Boojum formed in 2001 - of people scatted from Newcastle to Canterbury - I've also danced with them.

Boojum have always gone in for meeting up at odd times, in odd places, dancing wherever anyone would have us. We've had a lot of fun. But... we've decided to call it quits.

( We've travelled the country for pleasure )

Last weekend saw me, with Mabel Gubbins, at the annual Lamb Ale held by Kirtlington Morris. As events go, it's rubbish for a rapper team. There are two pubs in the village, neither of which will let us inside to dance, so we do a lot of scuffing about on concrete. However! It's a grand social occasion, we get to see lots of other teams and generally hang out and eat lots of nice food.

( Carrying on in Kirtlington )

On Saturday the mother (who was visiting) and I were up bright and early, on an overground train to Camden Road. We were heading to Cecil Sharp House (headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society) for a day's clog-dancing.

( George, the elephant, went on his holidays... )

The illustrated guide to a weekend away with a rapper team:

( A party! A birthday party! )

As mentioned in my last post, this weekend was a weekend of rapper and very little else.

( The Mabel Gubbins Catering Arm )