Once again First Class weekender
Well I thought I would start the old aftermath thread seeing as how I got in a little while ago. I am so shattered after a total of 6 hours sleep all weekend!!! I will follow up my comments about the weekend later, when I have slept, but for now I can honestly say it was one of the best Southports ever for me, fabulous, fantastic and full of fun.
So how was it for you?
if you love the life you live then you'll get a lot more done
Once again First Class weekender
not home yet .. not even out of the car yet .. isn't technology wonderful .
Despite a few problems I had a great time. Didn't dance as much as I would have liked to do to illness but at least I did manage to get out and get some dancing in and not mope around in my chalet all weekend
the good
Meeting some great friends and some forum friends I had not met previously.
The fancy dress on Saturday .. even if half the people thought I was Zorro
the bad
not much. the heat in the main room which played havok with my chest.
the ugly
Having a chest infection and barely managing to breathe while dancing. Sorry to those I didn't get a chance to dance with .. next time I promise.
will post pics when I get home .. took a fair few when I wasn't dancing.
had a great time with good company. hugs all round x
Had 4 hours sleep last night, had to leave at 630 to get in to back 2 back meetings at work so thoughts on the weekend still jumbled ..... however ..
Overall, great event had really good time, but not for the reasons I'd anticipated.
Music was a bit more random than I remember, some very good DJs and sets but some that didn't appeal to me ... not actually a criticism ... music is always a personal taste. Latin room was a lot more popular than when I came last Feb and some great dancing ... but would have liked to see more specialist Latin DJs rather than the number of Blues DJs that played in the Latin room (though Dance Demon's set was lauded by all I spoke to )
Dancing standard was even better than I remember. some stunning dancing, including Simon & Nicole, the WCS instructors (sorry ... forgot names ) and of course Viktor ... just being Viktor. As for dances I had ... won't mention names (you KNOW who you are) but the Scottish posse and Sara White's team were outstanding as usual
Lessons ... didn't see all I wanted but it was nice to see truly advanced/intermediate+ lessons being taught by both S&N and Viktor. These were slightly marred by people doing the class who really weren’t up to standard (even after Simon's rather unsubtle comments about the need to be up to standard ), but the routines and the technical ability of these instructors was a joy to behold.
Must be more to say ... but need to remember what the bl@@dy passwords are for the documents I was supposed to review for my 2pm meeting
Oh yeah .... has anyone got any photos of THAT treasure CHEST? .....
I don't have any, but I have been promised some!
Currently whizzing down the M6, so far the signs persuading you to go on the toll road are exaggerating again about the congestion. (No I'm not driving...)
Had a great time, now suffering the usual exhaustion. Working too hard to get much dancing, (OK I did do 4 lessons which is a bit excessive, but Arjay and Melissa were too good to miss. (Though sadly I missed the cabaret, I'll have to get the dvd.)At least I managed to catch up with plenty of people, and promised lots of dances which I then failed to fulfill
Perfect barbeque weather, with KGD providing ample entertainment on the stilts, I'd not realised he was in to tree hugging!
One small minus point for me was the loudness, I never made it to the latin room, but most of the time everywhere else was too loud for me. Of course the new set up in the blues room means there are no quiet areas there, in the past you could chill out a bit at the restaurant tables, but of course the extra dance floor is far more precious. Maybe I should admit responsibility in the blues room, being involved with the audio set up, I think the quietest area there was the DJ "booth".
All credit to John & Wes for the huge amount of work they do, and the guys on the flooring, who worked at lease 18 hours solid, building stages, putting down flooring, and staying happy.
September seems a long way off...
Greg
I have been back for a couple of hours and don't feel too bad at the moment but went to bed relatively early last night.
Instead of doing the good and bad I would like to give out awards/smiley faces (mainly because I can't think of any bad):
Awards for general all round fuzzy niceness: Fletch (of course); Trouble (love you); DTS; Double Trouble and Gav; Caz and my new favourite Steven 666!
Awards for outfits: Fletch (of course); Trouble (looked stunning and fetish shoes!); Twirly bird.
Awards for dedication to dance - always being there: Fletch (of course); Caz and Tsh.
Award for barbecue organisation : Minnie M
Awards for barbecue food etc: everyone else including me for making filo pastry parcels in a chalet kitchen (and Lost Leader for being able to open the oven door!)
Awards for most fun dances : Agente Secreto;; Mr Under Par; DTS
Awards for most sexy dances: Captain Fantastic; Martin; Mr Darcy and Caz!
Awards for First Dance of the Weekend : Stoke Bloke !
Awards for leaving me panting and breathless: Lee B.; and tall young guy with floppy blonde hair.
Awards for cool: Caz (especially for Saturday night outfit!); and Vegetable !
Loads of other people to thank for dances (I finally worked up the courage to ask 23 people on Sunday night!), including Wuzzle and Ducasi and anyone else I have forgotten. It was the best of the 4 weekenders I have been on and my second time at Southport. Everything else was good including music and layout and extra room and the 2 classes I attended. I will continue to feel inadequate in the face of such a high standard of dancing and I apologise for everyone who suffered my lack of technique but thanks for saying yes to me. I only got 3 refusals and all were reasonable: "resting"; "I only do WCS" and "I'm too busy watching Simone and Nicole"!
I didn't get to meet lots of people but hope to do so in September!
only half way home. another 200 miles to go.
Brilliant weekender.
HIGHLIGHTS
Was a brilliant BBQ. My first one, will def go to the others.
Got some great dances in. One of my faves was with ASTO last night (cant remember song, something about a car (female singer)
The quality of dancers seems to be getting better each time I go (and mine seems to get worse )
The response I had from my DJ sets. Was pretty unsure how my music would go down. Had the RnB / Hip hop set and a Blues set to spare incase the first was not liked. Didn't need the blues set. Thanks to everyone who said they liked it, it meant alot to me.
Caz an the Pirate. I last saw Caz at 4:30 on Sat night. I went back out to DJ at 1 on Sun morning and she was still there with a pirate (cant remember his name). They stayed up till about 3pm !!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOWLIGHTS
The rain on Sun, no more out door dancing.
Left straight after my Blues room set and got back 4:30am. Glad Dolly Parton went down so well!
Had a good weekend despite not being able to dance. Loved the treasure chest.
Personally, felt the whole Saturday night Cabaret/fancy dress routine has now become a bit predictable and time for a change to something fresh. Although the wig wambam was funny, just wished I was not so close to him on the stage.
Thanks to Under Par for topping up my Brandy medication.
Gerry for unpacking my luggage.
Fletch and Dee for feeding me at barbecue.
DJ Phunky for introducing me to some new funky tracks. and being a good roomie and sorry for locking you in Saturday night.
Apologies to Zebra woman for distracting her from her blues room.
Dance Demon for swapping sets Sunday night so that I could leave earlier.
Everyone else who opened doors for me and generally helped me throughout the weekend.
Looking forward to September, dancing or not.
Yup!
What a brilliant weekend!!
It started off a bit bad, with first leaving much later than planned, my back going into spasm on the journey down (I hobbled around like a cripple!) and then arriving to find Skippy and I had been put in the wrong accommodation. I'd booked a 1 bedroom club, and ended up in a horrible one much further away from the venue. Luckily John sorted this out for us, and we got a lovely 2 bedroom club chalet in the round, and also aquired a new roomie, Paul F. You're great company, Paul (and I'm so glad you don't snore!!), but next time I need more dances......
The big find for me this weekend was Agente Secreto - what a fantastic dancer and lovely guy you are! I can't wait to dance with you again at Red Hot and Blue in July! Oh, and of course nice to meet your lovely wife, too.
Luckily my back didn't hinder me too much this weekend, despite the bad start, and despite having to give up dancing at 3am Sunday morning (). The rest of the weekend I had some absolutely fabulous dances, and again received so many compliments that I need to deflate my ego. Southport is sooo good for my self esteem!
Other highlights: The weather on Saturday. Dancing outside on the decking until 6am Saturday morning. The bbq. My friends. The costumes (mightily impressed with the winners, and with a certain forumite's chest!). LC's brownies. Dancing with my French friend again! My dances with PretzelMeister on Sunday afternoon. Er..... And lots more....
Not so good: Weater on Sunday - and the amusing incident of me almost losing my trousers on the dance floor!
Bring on September!!! (Just remember I'm meant to be in a 1 bedroom club chalet again, John... )
The good:
- Good classes, for AT, Rumba and salsa.
- Good dancing in the milongas, including discovering by total chance - and then hoarding - probably the best AT follower there.
- Zebra Woman's Sunday night Latin set
The bad:
- The lack of a Blues Room
- The lack of any facility for either small classes or private lessons
- Lack of seating (and hence atmosphere) in the Marquee
The ugly:
- Being stopped by the police 20 yards outside Pontins on the way in
- Encountering the world's most vicious kerb on the way back
- The numpties at the milongas dancing MJ - two nights in a row - who sugarfoot rightfully asked to move to a room playing, you know, MJ
Just a brief few words from me...
After almost not making it due to a rather painful neck problem... I was so glad that I did.. Only decided to come for sure on the Friday morning...
For me...it's not so much about the dancing, which was rather nice (when I could actually remember what to do... ... most of the time I was C***), the great bbq and all the entertainment... particularly had fun with the Jenga(!)...
.... but more so for meeting up with wonderful, fabulous friends I can only get to see a couple of times a year...lots and lots of very special people.. just wish I couldve spent more time with them..
...things that spring to my mind at the moment are... Saturdays' weather, (Awesome), to be able to dance outdoors, also the mostly wonderful DJ sets, especially in the Marquee during the WCS swing sets.... and great chalet mates.. (non-forumites)..
Although there was only a few tracks last night in the Blues Room I wasnt quite sure of.. (didnt know whether to jive/lindy/??? ...) we just both laughed and chatted through most of the dance.. on the whole I enjoyed it all..
It does get better and better each year and although I sometimes think... maybe not this time, I'll do something else instead.. I always come away thinking... thank goodness I did!!!
The only drawback is tiredness and tender sore feet.. If I find a magic cure for that I will be sorted forever...
I hope all arrived home safe and sound and thankyou to those of you that made it another lovely experience for me.. youre all truly special..xxxxx
love n hugs
Jan xxxxx
Will post more later (when not so tired!) but just wanted to say (esp to Minnie M) a big THANK YOU for the birthday celebrations, cake, candles and bubbly stuff!Unexpected and delightful. Thanks to people for birthday cards, hugs and kisses and dances. It was a lovely way to celebrate my birthday.
Southport for me this time was rather so so..............................so, so FANTASTC it is difficult to put into words. At other week-enders it has sometimes taken me until mid way through the week-end to really get into the zone but this time I managed to get right into the swing of things after just a handful of warm up dances on Friday afternoon and, apart from a slight dip on Saturday afternoon, the dancing for me was out of this world.
The organisation was superb as ever - absolutely no complaints at all. The extra flooring in the blues room was an extremely good improvement. The flooring was great to dance on and I had some excellent dances in that area on Sunday evening. Having the extra floorspace really proved its worth on Sunday when the outside decking had to be closed due to rain.
Talking of the weather - Friday was ideal, a lovely balmy evening made dancing outside on the decked area a real treat. Saturday was a scorcher - there were a few cases on sunburn and it was really too hot and sunny for me during the early afternoon for outside dancing, but again evening dancing outside was lovely. It was also perfect weather for the barbeque, which by general agreement, was the best SP barbie ever; Best weather, best attendance, best food, and best organised - Huge thanks to Minnie M and everyone else who helped make the event such a success.
Music was generally great in the blues room which is where I did about 98% of my dancing, Blue-shoes set on Saturday evening and Zebra Woman on Sunday evening were my personal favourites. I ventured into the Latin room for the first time ever on Saturday night at around 1:00am when the blues room got really crowded and had several great dances. It was inevitably pretty hot in there but it was nice to have the space for some more expansive moves. I Only went into the main room for about 15 minutes in total.
Can't comment about the classes because I did not do any apart from the last 15 minutes of one of Arjay and Melissa's west coast swing classes. First time I had tried any WCS, thought a good way to start was to just join in at the end of a class and quickly pick it up from there I also did not bother trying to watch the cabaret.
This time it really was all about the dances and what dances they were. I am going to mention some names but I have to point out that I have a terrible memory for names and faces so I am bound to miss out some people - please do not be offended. I had so many good dances it is very difficulty to remember them all anyway:
Tessalicious - dancing with you was indeed totally tessalicious!
Kel Warminster - What a big sword you've got , Loved the cat 'o nine tails, prepare to be boarded! Huge fun.
Double Trouble - loved the portable Pimms bar, shame you cannot make September, wish we had more dances - you were fab.
Trouble - up to your old tricks again, I never know what you're going to pull out of the hat.
Helen B. - at last we managed to be on the same dance floor but we still didn't dance enough. Loved the tagging, hope to keep you out of the WCS marquee a bit more in September
Little Monkey - wow, what a great dance we had on Sunday night. More next time please. Chocolate cake
Astro - you really seemed to get right into things at your first SP and made quite an impression.
Lynn - another forumite I had not met previously, finally managed to grab you for a dance on Sunday afternoon, so pleased I did cos it was great.
Joanna C - the pleasure was all mine but you didn't need to let me look up your skirt I hope we get to dance again soon.
Fletch - you seemed to be everywhere at once and always in a different fab outfit. Did you decide to give Arjay his sympathy dance on Sunday?
Lory - gorgeous as ever and giving it plenty in the bar area. You're a real star.
Snow White - you danced your socks off as usual. Somehow I only managed one dance with you, I must do better next time.
Twirly Bird - you don't just twirl, you swoop and dive and may even hover. Missed you on Sunday.
Minnie M - lovely chilled dance on the decking. The barbeque was a triumph.
Caz - did you ever stop dancing?, your stamina is amazing.
Mel 'n Tonic - another new find for me - Incredibly stylish, loved the polka-dots.
Eyore - I loved all our dances.
Ruby Red - You always shone in the blues room.
Steven666 - you followed really well
Sadly there were some forumites I failed to dance with (or at least I think I failed to, but not knowing everyone's face I cannot be sure) - for example Twirly, Sparkles, Lemon Cake, Cat, Shiny Wee Star, Freya, Nebula and no doubt others.Really sorry for that - I will definitely try to seek you out in September if you will be there. I also have to say that I had lots of really fabulous dances with non-forumites. One or two said they lurked on here so huge thanks to all of them too. The standard of follower really was quite outstanding and I barely had a single dance with was less than very good all week-end.
So this was without doubt my best ever week-ender. September can't come soon enough. Will post again with all the stuff I have forgotten later.
Last edited by Lost Leader; 2nd-June-2008 at 06:30 PM.
But not this February when the same extra dance floor was in place - and I don't remember the volume being such a problem.
I had a theory - I thought I remembered big speakers by the side of the stage in the big room, but there weren't any there this weekend. So I wondered if Pontins have perhaps upgraded the sound system in the big room (possibly one which is capable of a much more punishing volume before it goes "into the red") , meaning that DJs were playing louder than in February.
Then, because the main room was so loud, the volume got turned up next door so that was too loud too.
I'm afraid WCS music is all starting to sound the same to me - it's nearly as bad as Salsa.
Love dance, will travel
Oops - forgot to mention the dance gods CJ and Chef ! Thanks to both of you as I was hoping to catch you this time as I missed out last year.
Right.....here goes then.
Best DJ's
Dance Demon - Funky, different and uplifting. I LOVED your set on Sunday night.
TWK - Similar to DD's comment but plays some quite obscure tracks. Love it.
Mick S - Lots of soulful, funky tracks to swing your pants to. Hope your foot is better soon.
Lee Bartholomew - an impromptu set on Sunday was really good and got everyone in the blues room on their feet.
Best leader
Tiger Pants - I wish I could clone you and keep one of you all to myself.You're amazing
Forumites
Getting to know better, having great dances with and meeting lots of new forumites, including - Astro (award for nicest person in the world), Lost leader (lovely dances), Agente Secreto (more lovely dances), Alecs (enjoyed our chats about, tits, willies and poo) , Little Monkey (The child catcher with orgasmic cakes), Beowulf (hope you feel better soon, I enjoyed our dance on Friday night), Twirly (contagious and very dirty laugh...love it).
Loads more of you, I know...lovely to meet you all.
Highlights
I asked Sara White who some black guy was and she nearly fell over when I said I'd never heard of Viktor She described him, in terms of dance hierarchy as having a seat next to God I stalked and grabbed him for a dance...be rude not to.
The BBQ was really great. Very well organised and the weather was perfect. Big hugs to MinnieM who worked her ass off to ensure everyone had a lovely time and lots to eat and drink. Looking forward to Troubles "Guess the Pants" competition, especially the commando shots.
Saturday afternoon on the decking outside the Blues Room was the best bit for me. I had some really great dances in the sunshine and caught up with lots of peeps I haven't seen for a while. Friday night was also fabulous. I hardly sat out a dance and got asked lots and lots which was lovely. Jon and Wes took a gamble leaving the marquee down, but it paid off. Dancing outside on Friday night was an amazing experience and the music ALL weekend was spot on.
The Bad
My ankle giving me agro all weekend, still...could have been worse, could have been MickS.
Missed Saturday night all together. Me and Gav went to bed for a few hours kip Saturday evening and woke up 8am Sunday morning. Gutted...!
All in all a fabulous weekend, all the more special for me as it's the only one I'll be attending this year. Thanks to Jon and Wes for another lovely weekend and thanks to Gav for lots and lots of lovely dances and for rubbing my ankle for about 12 hours a day....you're a saint to put up with me.
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