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Thread: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

  1. #81
    Senior Member Minnie M's Avatar
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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat View Post
    Out of interest, who taught the Lindy / Balboa classes?
    Paul & Natasha - they actually have their own classes and web site

    I was very disappointed that they didn't social dance at all ALL the other teachers were out there 'doing' the floor, even the WCS pro Christopher Hussey was dancing with all


    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    After all my pestering for some suitable swing music to Lindy Hop/Balboa to, apparently someone played half a dozen suitable tracks while I wasn't there!
    Looked everywhere for you Gav

    I had a couple of swing (Lindy) dances with (orgasmic) Marc Burns got there just before Hev Mate

    THANK YOU BLUESHOES (brill set)

    Will write full report later - just in from work and very tired


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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by Minnie M View Post
    I was very disappointed that they didn't social dance at all
    Well if there's no music to Lindy or Balboa to, what would be the point? Maybe they don't do or like MJ or WCS?

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Just leaving Jaks at 2am Monday morning and who should be coming along but PMJD with a large cake carrier, containing an assortment of cakes, which looked mouth watering.

    Thought it would look greedy if I'd turned around and headed back - that would have been out of order.

  4. #84
    Registered User Von's Avatar
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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Hey all
    Not posted much here but thought I'd have a wee shot cause I wanted to thank some folks for some pretty special dances.
    (sorry if I don't know your forum name!) (ps if you know me you'll know a "wee shot" is quite long!!!) (and it's in the style of Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars!)

    I was one of the "bertha boogie bus" lot (ie the 9 seater from Aberdeen - infact I was a co driver!!!!) and Yip it was a bit of a Scottish invasion har har!
    Actually still giggling at the story that someone asked how many we had in the nine seater and there was a pause till we thought about it and said eh 9!!!! (too little sleep!)
    It was my first skeggy and before that I've only been to one other weekender south of the border and that's southport when it was jive addiction - so I'm not doing a compare and contrast just a big thanks and comment about what I enjoyed.

    Anyway to keep with the format
    Journey
    Long, funny, cake filled (cheers Paul), confusing! (cheers frankie/Wuzzle), unconfusing (cheers donna/Battlecat), pumping tunes (cheers cheeks for deejaying!) and entertaining( cheers andy cat abhi and kayleigh) - enough of the bus cheers - we had a blast (for a long time!) and also John our wing man in his car!

    Accommodation
    Just right for the mini parties and gatherings at both our and the birthday party for Heather - sorry neighbours!!!! Sides still sore from laughing

    Joe Public
    Very jealous of the electric scooters and side by side tandem bikes they were scooting around in - I think we should have buggies for drag racing to get us home at 6am!!!!

    Classes
    Loved loved loved loved Katrina and Christopher - they are fabulous - super dooper and better than sliced bread, actually fried bread with beans on toast - THEY ROCK!
    Had brilliant fun in James classes - always do - he is a super star and HUGE congrats at him passing his exams - super boy!
    Did Simon and Nicole's coasters class and want that to be the way I dance from now on - seriously loved it - it is the future!
    Didn't manage to do other classes as time just seemed to fly - but did sit in on Keith and Bev's classes and loved it - had my legs been working I'd have had a shot for sure - but lucky for the boys they weren't and were spared me wrapping my legs round their waists!!!!!! Lol

    Social dances were a-maz-ing (said in my best Craig Revel-Horwood voice!!!)
    I had many and I didn't catch many names as I was so nervous, soo many people I was a bit over whelmed

    Arthurs
    super dooper room and I think I was torn between it being and jaks for being my favourite. I'm still a very big beginner at WCS so I was a little nervous, a big thanks to those who spotted this nervous nelly and took her up for a boogie, especially to Robert - I came off the dance floor floating (felt like I had been dancing it years!) and a huge thanks to Ricky (not sure of spelling) from Bedford who really helped me with a few bits that were wonkey with my WCS - really helped loads and thanks for being super.

    Reds
    Yeah the floor was wonkey in places and a bit stiff - but what a brilliant room - felt like I was appearing a scene from tom cruises cocktail - har har har!
    Had brilliant dances with Geoff from Oxford and on the Friday a super dance (after I got over my nerves) with a guy Tom (got a second dance so I was mega chuffed),
    Had an absolute riot with super dooper paul (pretzel), and giggles with "our" john and paul and frankie, and a number of others but I don't know their names (sob)

    Jaks was superb fun great floor and fabby music - nearly made it to 7am but had to give up at 6am after I lost Ceejay mid dance (I swear it was a timothy claypole moment when he really did disappear behind me and reappear at the right side 2 feet away!!! (think it was surprise of being led by my ponytail and belt loops that made this special moment happen - LOL) however mid way making my escape home I got stopped and had a fabby dance with an extremely tall lad and it was brilliant even though I'd changed to my trainers (that's how good the floor was - even in rubber soled trainers I was spinning around!

    All in all - great fun and I'm shattered. Would I go again? - most definitely, but not till next year as I'm a busy bee with muggle stuff and other dance commitments.

    Yeah it would be great to have everything sorted to everyones requirements but nothing and no one in this world is perfect. It's the quirky bits that make us all a bit special!


    Big hugs
    Von
    x

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Here's my thoughts!

    I can't really comment too much on any of the rooms other than Jaks (I was too lazy to go to the other rooms, and heard too many complaints about the dancefloor in Reds!) but I think the music was waaaaaay better than Feb Skeggy. That said, I personally didn't have many 'wow I love this song, I must dance to it' moments, which was disappointing. Also, another matter of personal taste that I know many would disagree with - I really wasn't keen on the 80's Soul sets!!! There was about an hour of it at around 2am or 3am on Sunday morning and it just seemed never-ending! Then, again on Sunday afternoon there was MORE of it! Ahhhhh!!!!! I love Sunday afternoon dancing, and that was probably the highlight of my Feb Skeggy, but this time I found the Sunday afternoon music really hit and miss and there just didn't seem to be a flow of music that I wanted to listen to, let alone dance to. There was a distinct lack of continuity in many of the sets! Highlights for me would have to be Dance Demon's set on Friday night, and Tessalicious's sets.

    Also, it was WAY hot in Jaks all weekend. I can't believe that there was only one fan in the corner! The heat of that room hit me in the face every time I walked in! (*Insert sweaty icon*)

    I only did one class - The Shag, taught by Paul and Natasha, which was fun (I took their class a few Southport's ago, so I knew it what to expect!) I wanted to do their other classes, such as Lindy, but they were all so early! Why do the lindy classes always have to be at 10am?! WAH!

    I think the overall problem about Butlins Skegness is that because everyone is so spaced out (my chalet was pretty far again) it is hard to find people during the day. Whereas in Southport people tend to hang out in and around the blues room, there isn't really a main spot where you know you will find dancers socializing (those who are not in classes!). The afternoon dancing seemed to take a long time to get going, as I went in on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons at around 1pm and there was only ever one or two couples dancing. So between the hours of 1-4pm there never really seemed to be a place where you could go, knowing you would find a big group of dancers you could chill out with. That said, I did spend way more time socializing (and drinking!) at this weekender than I normally do....but I think that this was mainly down to the fact that the afternoon dancing in Jaks took a while to get going, and for some reason it just seemed to have kind of a flat atmosphere to me.

    In fact, by Sunday night I got back to my chalet at around 10pm to get showered and changed to go out for the last night of dancing, and *shock horror* I found that I just couldn't be bothered to leave my chalet and trek to the blues room, so I just went to bed instead! This is unheard of for me! I think that partially I just hadn't found the right dancing mood in the blues room, plus I was tired, plus I really hadn't enjoyed the Saturday night (I felt like there were more women than men - was this just me?)

    Obviously Jaks is never going to be like the Southport blues room, but it is so dark and dingy in there, especially in the afternoons, as there are no windows. A couple of us were speculating that perhaps the pub opposite Jaks (The Living Room) could be used as a dance venue, as it has outdoor decking and if the tables and chairs were moved there would be plenty of dance space indoors....just an idea...

    The chalet this time was not as nice as in Feb and there was no microwave or TOILET ROLL!!!! Thankfully, (as I was about to nearly pee my pants by the time we arrived to our chalet on Friday) one of my lovely roomies had brought some! My chalet buddies were great, and the journey up was fun - gossiping and listening to great music (I think I might have actually preferred the set lists in the car then at Jaks....) and it was shorter to get to Skeggy than SP, although the roads were really windyyy.

    Overall, I had a good time, and enjoyed hanging out with friends, getting up to mischief and playing on the donkey derby! But I didn't seem to do much dancing (other than on Friday night) because I just couldn't get into the vibe. There was just something missing for me. I booked for September Skeggy in Feb, but given the price of the weekender, and the overall fun for me in terms of dancing, I'm not sure I will be in a hurry to rush back...
    Last edited by Mel_and_tonic; 23rd-June-2009 at 04:58 PM.

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    ps. LemonCake and Little Monkey - YUMMMMMMMM!!! Your cakes were DELICIOUS!!! I was a real greedy guts!!! Given the amount of cake I ate + the lack of dancing, I am really going to have to hit the gym hard this week!!!!!

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Another plus point for me was the lack of fancy dress theme and punter's cabaret. I know that does it for some, but it did mean for me there was more time for dancing

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by rubyred View Post
    Please will someone tell me what the tango classes and milongas were like.Thank you

    Tango. Classes were exactly what you would expect from a good taster AT class at an MJ weekender. Amir made them fun and well pitched to his audience, hope he has convinced more MJ's to take up AT.
    Milonga's were great for me thank you Johnathan, Amr, Amir and Ian. I had some amaizing tanda's especially on saturday night. Only gripe is can the milonga be the same length as all the other sets ie one and a half hours please?

    Good travel time, very short with door to door cheauffer!!
    Shopping with CJ and Mickey M in co-op very very funny!
    Hev and her slut red lipstick hope it worked for you girl!
    Challet girly afternoon on sunday with a gorgeous Lush 'night in for toes' that ment we all managed to dance through the weekend right up to the end....called lush for a good reason......! And Ross making me laugh soo much i was crying!
    Bev and her yoga sessions, you made someone's weekend.......still go that number if you pluck up the courage???
    Victor wandering around with champage and strawberries looking for 'a party' hope she appreciated your efforts! I certainly did!
    John and Wes, my best dance ever with John and a lovely long cuddle whilst chilling and watching the dancers in Reds with Wes!

    Bad Muggles (see other entries)
    Floors, spent saturday afternoon sweet talking the cobbler into repairing my shoes in time for a 4pm AT class!
    Music, felt very similar in style in each room, maybe i missed the 'different sets'?
    Oyster bay, 10 min walk which i actually enjoyed except on saturday in the rain. Maybe a heads up to those allocated to these rooms to allow us to pack appropriate foot wear?
    The gender balance!

    Ugly Susie's contribution to sunday afternoon!

    Overall It was lovely seeing people i don't get to see any where often enough as they live at different ends of the country, but I love AT...........

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Bad, Journey time home over four hours. The WCS room just didn't do it for me, it had no atmosphere

    Really bad, the floors in Arthurs and Reds

    Good, music much improved from last February

    The really good, Dance demons soul set, I was like a pig in sh*t, dancing and singing to my hearts content to lots of new and old favourites

    The really really good, all the fab dances that I had.

    Lastly it was great to see CJ back behind the decks, you either love him or hate him but he does deliver a truly innovative set.

    My highlight was dancing with Snow White to Stair way to heaven.

    Never had a problem with the muggles, the only problem I had was self inflicted, my legs hurt because I danced to much

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    My Review for Skegness is all GOOD i had an awesome weekend from start to finish.

    After a 4 hour drive from bonnie Scotland (318 miles)
    I was Made very Welcome from the JA staff at reception where it took me only 1 minute to receive my chalet pack,

    The Accommodation was a million times better than SP.
    The distance from the Chalet to the Venues was not a problem due to the Bus Service that JA put on after everyone moaned in Feb,

    All three venues i thought was awesome (Especially Jaks & Reds)
    The floors were ok when i danced, never danced in reds much but arthurs & Jaks were fine for me,
    A NEW FLOOR WAS LAID IN REDS after everyone moaned in Feb!

    Jaks did get a bit warm at times BUT WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU GOT AWESOME DJ'S LIKE DANCE DEMON,DR CHILL & JOHN BRETT spinning tunes that kept us all wanting more!
    ( guys your sets were dynamite )

    All the rooms as far as i can remember had massive fans that would blow you off your feet if you stood next to them!

    CAN I JUST SAY A HUGE THANKS TO JIVE ADDICTION I THINK YOU GUYS DONE AN AWESOME JOB AGAIN JUST LIKE ALWAYS!


    Just like Feb Jive Addiction will take on board peoples comments and try rectify them
    HOWEVER you are always going to get people who moan about things regardless how much JA try to fix it.

    YOU WILL ALWAYS GET TEETHING PROBLEMS WITH NEW THINGS
    BUT HAVE FAITH IN THE GUYS THAT'S WORKING SO HARD TO PUT THESE FAB WEEKENDERS ON FOR US......
    and remember all the good weekenders you all had at SP for many years in the past with JA, WELL SKEGNESS WILL BRING YOU THEM AGAIN I'M SURE!!!

    The public being in along with us dancers was not an issue for me, as long as i can do what i'm there for then i don't really care about how many weans are running around outside,
    We mind our own business and they will do to!


  11. #91
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    Cool Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Twirlie Bird and me really enjoyed Skeggy. JakPaul, Bill & Angela were perfect apartment mates. The apartment was quite a trek for us, but as I'm a lazy bast we commuted it and parked down at the venue. Never had a problem parking, so.... no problem

    Reds and Arthurs - As I didn't set foot in them so I can't give an opinion of any merit on these rooms - not that this stops everyone though

    Jaks - The floor was certainly an improvement over Feb. The upper area was a little sticky on Friday night. It was also a little hot in there until Butlins got their $h!t together and sorted out the air conditioning. So Sunday it was just about perfect in there.

    The music was sublime. There were of course a couple of sets that didn't exactly foat my boat. But the music that was being played was all good stuff - just not all my taste. That said, Blueshoes, Tessalicious, DanceDemon and Dr Chill were all outstanding.

    I found the Mariachi set to be a little.... too familiar. Maybe that's because we do try and attend as much Mariachi stuff as possible (because we love it). Understandably the music in general being a bit of a flop in February would have been on most of the DJs minds. That said, I go to Jive Addiction stuff to feel like I have been extended. There are always lots of exceptionally good dancers to play on the floor with, this is partly why (at least in the short term) Cerocport - no matter how fab or cheap Mike makes it - will never quite match a JA Southport.

    We did spend most of our time hanging out with Sara White and the JiveNights gang. Great dancers and soooo much fun! I braved the oestrogen overload and was rewarded by managing to pick up a little bit of 'Lady Dancing'

    In short...... Monday came around WAY too fast even though I did my very best not to sleep and stretch the weekend out as much as possible. I am really suffering from Southport Blues now..... although I suppose the well known condition needs to now be renamed Skeggy Blues

    Happily this Friday we have Blueshoes playing at our Pure Blues night, so my Skeggy Blues should be short lived

  12. #92
    Basically lazy robd's Avatar
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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by Von View Post
    especially to Robert - I came off the dance floor floating (felt like I had been dancing it years!)
    Thank you, I enjoyed our dance very much and it once again confirmed to me that a really satisfying WCS dance can be had using little more than the fundamental patterns.

  13. #93
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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Review.. better late than never.. i think...

    Journey
    Not too bad at all.. about 2 hours from Doncaster. Set off later to miss traffic.

    Accommodation
    Very nice... Far too comfy tho.. spend way too long in the chalet chatting and socialising and chilling out.. however this was really nice to do.. Me being a bit of a loner / independent on weekenders I really enjoyed having chalet mates (thanks Minnie M ) to sit and chill and chat (and compare stories with)...

    Classes
    Actually did a lot more classes than I normally would on a weekender.. partially due to my own thirst for knowledge for new things I guess..

    Did the Jazz class on Sat morning and loved it. Now I just need to learn how to coordinate my hands with my legs... hmmm...
    Also did James Line Dance class.. hilarious as always.
    Did Street Dance too with Jenny and James.. Fab lesson.. was very nervous as (again I have no coordination) but class was accessible to all and very much fun, esp. liked the boys v's girls at the end!
    Wanted to do Nightclub 2 Step but missed start of class and when I walked in noticed that lots more ladies than guys and I was just too tired to be stood out!

    Dancing
    Danced in Jaks a lot on Friday night. Had a fab time but was way too tired from work and journey etc to stay out late.

    Saturday day - had some fab freestyle dances inbetween classes in Jaks

    Saturday night - got hideously drunk... (sorry to anyone who I told the truth to way too much..oops..) Just figured after having a bit of a down period at Southport that I needed a boost .. unfortunately or fortunately one drink ended up being half a bottle of vodka later.. I had a fab night... chatted lot.. spent night in Reds til it shut and then onto Jaks for lots of cuddles and embarrassing moments (sorry Rob D.... Did u enjoy your trip to the toilet ????)

    Sunday day - have to mention LOVED CJ's Mariachi set.. Missed the start of it due to not waking up til 1.15 after copious amounts of alcohol the night before but really glad I dragged myself out of my pit to go to this set. IMO the music went a bit off for a while after this so I wandered to shop and for a muggle walkaround...

    Sunday night - didnt come out til late.. couldn't get into atmosphere in any room... started off okay but then had a blip.. went into Reds and had some fun dances with Fletch and Co and then back to Jaks.

    Floors
    Wasn't keen on floor in Arthurs for MJ .. fine for classes but I found when MJ-ing with my friend Chris my heel caught between tiles and we invented a new "oh sh1t I'm falling.. hope Chris catches me" slidy move!
    Floor in Jaks I found ace all weekend - no problems with it at all.
    Floor in Reds - Better than February but again, when tiles got warm I guess, the edges raised up and had to be careful not to catch heel on them. Didn't spoil my enjoyment of dancing though I have to say.. just became a talking point (i.e. I didn't really go flying cos I am a crap dancer.. it was the floor.... honest guffnor.....)

    Bad points
    Accommodation being spread out like it was.. Again like many others I was in Starfish as opposed to the other end of camp (Ocean) but I guess like Southport.. it isn't easy to know where people are i.e. at Southport on the walk to the venue the pentagon grassed area made it easy to call in on friends etc.

    Muggles - Yeah a bad point.. Didnt get woken by kids but did get a few strange looks and felt quite intimidated walking to venue alone at like midnight when the drunk muggles were coming back to their chalets... then again I can see it from their view... Suppose they had nowhere to go when Reds shut for us to go into it....

    Missed dancing with lots of people and didn't even see other forumites who were supposedly there!

    Er... can't think of anything else for now...

    Really struggled confidence wise again this weekend... I found Skegness a lot less intimidating than I found the recent Southport... this could be due to multiple reasons tho.. Felt like I knew more people at Skegness but I know lots at Southport.. I dunno.. Skegness just seemed to have a friendlier atmosphere IMO. (Although on the Friday night the atmosphere seemed flat.. guessing this was a combination of everyone arriving late and being tired after work etc etc...)

    Did have some amazing dances despite my lack of confidence. Special thanks to Passion Harem for one of my best dances of the weekend to "stairway", to Raph for dancing with me before I went to bed, Stokie for dancing with me Sat night even after I professed to him that I was drunk and actually found him quite scary and to many others.. I can't name everyone...

    Haven't yet booked for September.. not sure where my life is heading at the moment.. I am sensing that my life is changing a lot of late.... maybe I will be there.. maybe I won't... Will leave it for now and see what happens

    (Sugar .. long review.....)....


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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Going by how tired I am and how much my body aches, I had a fun weekend.

    I was one of the lucky 9 on the Boogie Bus from Scotland and thanks to my travelling companions who made a long journey fly by. Thanks especially to Wuzzle, Von and Andy for driving.

    I had crazy chalet mates who helped the weekend go with a laugh, I can’t decide if it is my dancing or the laughing that made my sides ache so much.

    The music had really improved since Feb and I did plenty of dancing, although did feel a bit intimidated in the Milonga, so didn’t dance much there. Although the floors had been changed since Feb, the one in Arthurs was difficult to Tango on, and I found the one in Red very sticky, but as I spent most of my time in Jaks, where the floor was great, I was happy. The only downside to Jaks, was the heat, it hit you as soon as you entered the room, a few extra fans would be great.

    Tried Reds after the cabaret and found it way too busy with a large number of woman standing round the dance floor.

    Had some amazing dances over the weekend and thanks to everyone who danced with me I enjoyed every dance.

    Special thanks to the man that led me in the Cha Cha Cha, I enjoyed our dance and will try and learn the dance for next time we meet.

    Special thanks to Lemoncake for making me a delicious birthday cake and to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday.

  15. #95
    Senior Member Minnie M's Avatar
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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Journey
    Going there took over 5hours - but I had good company (Warren) although the first stop for drinkies etc was in Cambridge (after 2 and a half hours) - Going back the Sat Nav got us lost but Warren got us back on track and even then only took less than 5 hours.

    Accomodation
    Was brilliant - loved it - and the company even better (thanks Caz & Jean)

    Music
    So much better than last time, loved Tess & Blueshoes in Jaks and Greg played the best WCS set in Arthurs I have ever heard. Of course Dance Demon was superb, he never lets me down. Didn't hear much of the music in Reds. Didn't like Reds, it wasn't for me - too big and modern and didn't like the stairs - shame as I love Jon Bretts music (wish he had played more in Jaks)

    Dance Rooms
    Stayed most of the time in Jaks, loved it in there and the music was good most of the time - I stayed the top end of the room and the floor was fast and great.

    I didn't get on with Arthurs' floor - not sure if it was my shoes (they got wet) or the floor but was very disappointing.



    Front Room
    Loved this, very social, spent lots of time in here chatting and drinking

    Dancing
    Had a fab time, met some new forumites, CRM, Danny & AussieJ (thanks for the dances they were fab) and Villemo. Was upset the floor let me down in Arthurs as there was some great dancing going on there.

    Classes
    Didn't do any, too busy yapping and drinking in the Front Room - however watched a couple.

    The US pros were fantastic, great teachers and very warm and socialable. James Mc was amazing such energy and fun - didn't see anyone else

    Conclusion
    It would have been nice if we were all in the same 'village' eg: Starfish, I miss not having dancing buddies around me, plus Muggles & Dancers don't share the same sleeping patterns, thank you John & Wes for answering my request for a ground floor appartment (my back is still playing up)

    Thank you John & Wes for listening and thank you for a great weekend
    Last edited by Minnie M; 25th-June-2009 at 06:00 AM.


    --ooOoo--
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    Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)

    Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
    That date is recognized as her official birthday.

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by HelenB View Post
    Re the wristbands, please, please, please can we not have the hard scratchy ones. I've got a lovely scratch mark on my arm that looks like I went on a totally different type of weekender...
    I don't think this is an issue if they are worn the right way round, for the leaders, the button should be worn on the outside of the wrist, so no scratches or catching your partners hair. (Sarah Van Drake did mention this in Feb.) I also round the edges off after cutting the end off.

    Greg

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by Sheepman View Post
    I don't think this is an issue if they are worn the right way round, for the leaders, the button should be worn on the outside of the wrist, so no scratches or catching your partners hair. (Sarah Van Drake did mention this in Feb.) I also round the edges off after cutting the end off.

    Greg
    And having the folded over bit with the edge facing up your arm (ie with writing facing you) seems to be best. I measured where I wanted to fit mine and rounded off the edge before I attached it, that way the cut edge was actually under the flap completely.

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    What a fantastic weekend! Thanks to everyone for the lovely dances. Highlights for me were the size of Jaks, sunday music, escpecially cj's, steve J and Blueshoes, and giggling with bev and nic till i cried. Lows were the music on saturday night, i just couldnt get into it, being hit in the nose and the floors being so bad in arthurs and reds that i tried them both once and didnt go near them again. Not too impressed with dents in the soles of my shoes!
    I found this one of the friendliest weekenders with a lot less of the hot shotyness and cliques of previous ones. Thanks everyone who made it so good and see you in sept x

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    Cool Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    Quote Originally Posted by Lynn View Post
    And having the folded over bit with the edge facing up your arm (ie with writing facing you) seems to be best. I measured where I wanted to fit mine and rounded off the edge before I attached it, that way the cut edge was actually under the flap completely.
    Or hide the whole thing under a soft sports wrist band

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    Re: Eclipse Skegness June 2009 - The Aftermath

    My belated review, as I got a bit crook on the journey back to Glasgow (post-weekender blues, lack of sleep etc.), and was not clear-headed enough to fire up the laptop and post a review. But am somewhat recovered now, so here I am.

    Preface: this is my 2nd JA ECLIPSE Skegness weekender after the February one. A lot of people have already talked about the journey times, accommodation, venue floors, muggles, etc. so I'll try to be brief and not repeat verbatim what they said (Ha!).


    Accommodation
    I was at Oyster Bay, Flamingo Court - one of the most faraway chalet locations there are in relation to the dance venues, so it was slightly wearying to trudge back to the chalet at 6-7am in the morning after massive amounts of social dancing. I was vaguely aware of the shuttle bus service but I think it stops operating well before I finally quit dancing in the wee hours, so I never got to make use of it.

    The chalet accomodation itself was fine, the facilities, kitchen utils, etc. were fine, they provided a better ambience for chalet parties and general chilling out with friends. As others have said, its definitely better than Pontins' @ Southport (I've only known Pontins' Budget Level chalets!), but given the higher ticket price, this higher standard is probably to be expected.


    Classes & Cabarets
    Classes
    I did fewer classes than I did at Feb Skegness or even the recent Ceroc Southport ones I attended. But I found them all good, especially the WCS ones with Christopher & Katrina - very good teaching style that had a good mix of humour and instructive teaching.

    My only real niggles about the classes are: 1) Julie Gunn's 'Musicality and Style' class directly clashed with Christopher & Katrina's Whip Theory class on Sat afternoon - I REALLY wanted to do both!!!

    I felt too hot and tired (probably dehydrated) after 3-4 consecutive classes - or woke up too late to do the 10AM classes; so I didn't do any more than the WCS and Smooth Jive classes from roughly 12.30PM - 4PM. In hindsight I probably should've given some other classes a go, e.g. the Street Dance and Line Dance classes I heard from several people seemed like good fun.

    Cabarets
    There was no team cabaret at the start unlike February's, so it was straight to Christopher and Katrina - wow, that was great to watch, a freestyle performance that got the crowd going! Then IIRC, it was Amir Giles' two sets of Tango dances (1950s style, and then a more modernised Tango), and the Balboa(?) performance of Paul & Natasha. I admired watching their performances because both couples were technically excellent to watch - but on a personal level they didn't really do much for me in terms of pure enjoyment and 'gasp-out-loud' factor (then again that's because I'm not into Tango or Balboa).

    Then Christopher & Katrina came back for their second performance, a Classic routine. What an ENTRANCE that was! - Katrina's outfit was simply gorgeous, she looked fabulous and HOT to trot! And the routine was AMAZING to watch - and she had a broken toe throughout the weekend! Words can't really justify what the me and the other attendees all saw, but it was worth the admission price to watch that routine. There were lots more 'WHOO-HOO' and similar hollers during the breaks, freezes, and other complex moves that Christopher & Katrina pulled off - and of course the biggest round of applause came at the end. All of this made for a fitting response to a FANTASTIC performance!


    Forumite Meets
    Yet again I probably missed dozens of forumites whom I failed to put 'faces to their names' despite my intent to meet and greet. On the bright side, with the help of fletch, Villemo and a few others at Jaks, I did finally get to meet - and dance with - a number of lovely and friendly forumite ladies

    Little Monkey, Caz, Lynn, Double Trouble, Minnie M, Dutchginger, and not least Tessalicious - thank you all for the lovely dances and for being friendly towards me! (Double Trouble's initial mistaken identity notwithstanding hee hee). I think I may have danced with several more forumites whose names escape me atm(!) - thanks for the dances as well, great fun!!

    I got introduced to a few other forum guys as well (Wuzzle and a couple of other blokes). And although I didn't get to catch up with every single forumite/dancer over the weekend, it was great to have caught up with those that I did :- jive-vee, HelenB, fletch, emmylou25, Koshka, cms, Dizzy, Freudian Hips and others.

    Thank you all for the dances, its certainly a pleasure dancing with each of you again!


    Dancing and Music at the Venues
    I think I spent more time dancing at Jaks than at Reds compared to February Skegness. The floors were a bit of a change, the Reds floor was hard to do many spins on, some bits were a bit sticky and my heel caught a few times. The heat was still fairly high, it felt like the place needed more fans.

    Jaks was rather warm when I first got there on Friday night/Sat early morning - got sweaty even more quickly than when I was at Reds. Definitely needed more fans, which I think happened on Sat and Sun.

    Arthurs the coolest venue of the three (temperature wise) - probably due to less dancers that populated the room at any one time compared to Reds and Jaks. The Reds' old floor from Feburary seemed to have been used here, but the tile edges were still uneven in a lot of places, causing heel catches. Apart from that it was good, but I ended up watching the WCSers a fair bit, still in awe of the level of WCS freestyle dancing on view!

    The music on the most part was pretty good - the only things I was a bit annoyed at was where there were several times where the songs seem to abruptly cut over to the next song before the proper ending of the song?! I swear me and my dance partner were about to wind up into a nice finishing set of moves in sync with the resolution of the song - then the song changeover occurred, rather jarringly!


    Other Comments
    I only had one negative incident involving non-dancers, I was walking back to my chalet after an afternoon workshop, and was deep in thought thinking about moves whilst walking on the designated walking path. And some punky kid on a BMX bike came hooning down and sped towards me, circling past me at the last second before I had a chance to react, but I distinctly heard the kid swearing at me as he sped off - as if I had the temerity of walking on a public walkway and be in the way of his bike riding(!). Grrrr...

    I had the most amazing luck having attended not one but two wildly entertaining parties co-hosted by DJ Piddy, Filthy Monkey and co. at their chalets. Especially the second one - because as I was chilling out with them, in walked Viktor, Christopher & Katrina! It was such a hilarious chalet party setting - Christopher & Katrina are such a FUN couple to hang out with in a social setting, letting their hair down a bit hanging out with us - the jokes and one-liners were being fired thick and fast. HappyB and Filthy Monkey can attest to that, they were there!! *RANDOM SALMON!*

    I'm still yet to upload a video that shows the sort of shenanigans that were being witnessed at the chalet party


    Overall Thoughts
    I had a pretty good weekender overall. I do agree with and sympathise with a number of the points already mentioned by others (flooring, mingling with non-dancers, chalet-to-venue distance, temperature control/aircon inside venue, etc.).

    But at the end of the day, I think for me its about the dancers who attend that make or break a weekender, particularly in terms of catching up with the people I've met from previous events and dancers I've met for the first time. And on that note, I have had a brilliant time of socialising, partying, and dancing!


    Looking towards Skegness in September
    As I'm now more than ever trying to get into WCS as much as I reasonably can, I am wanting to go to Skegness in September - Jordan and Tatiana is the big drawcard for me!

    If anyone needs a guy to make up a gender-balanced chalet booking (I dunno if its already too late for the discount?), then I'm interested!

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