Dancing and walking
The weekend before last, we had a day trip to Chichester for a Day of Dance. We'd intended to go by train from Southampton, but then they announced a train strike. Pellinor keeps a car on the mainland, so the choices were, A, drive there and back, with him having No Beer! at a Morris event! :-O B, go with the rest of the side on an epic journey involving several buses and a hovercraft. Or, C, stay over in Chichester. Since Pellinor was due to go LARPing not far from Portsmouth on the Sunday, we went with option C.
Sadly, a few of our team couldn't face the long journey, so we were down to six dancers (the bare minimum) and without our most confident musicians. Moreover, two of the dancers were newbies, with a limited reportoire and very nervous about their first mainland festival, and one was injured and only up to one dance per spot.
However, it turned out to be a lovely day! The way these days work, you're allocated to a variety of spots around the town, but you're always scheduled alongside a couple of other sides, usually different ones at each spot. So it doesn't matter at all if you just do the same few dances over again. So with a bit of contrivance - e.g. adapting a few dances to work for 4, or borrowing people from other sides - we put on a good show.
Pellinor and I also did a "solo" jig - one of the ones we used to dance on the patio in lockdown, when I was learning. I'm not sure why you take your hat off when dancing a jig, but apparently you do. I enjoy the Nutting Girl jig very much indeed. :-)
Pellinor demonstrating a perfect caper. Me, not quite no much. But at least we're both in the air at the same time.
Most importantly, the newbies really enjoyed the day, and it was a huge confidence boost for them. The thing is, it really doesn't matter if people make mistakes, as long as they keep moving. The public don't notice, and the other sides watching probably breathe a sigh of relief; it can be quite intimidating to dance with a perfect side. It was a good confidence boost for me, too, since I'm actually quite new to the team, too, so having ever newer newbies to help has shown me that I actually know more than I think I do.
So it was all very nice. The cider was nice, too. :-)
Then, on Sunday, Pellinor headed off LARPing, detouring briefly to drop me at Portchester Castle, which I'd indentified as a good starting point for my planned walk back to Southampton.
A couple of miles into my walk, he phoned to say that LARPing was cancelled, due to forestry work in their adventure site, but I decided to continue my walk, anyway.
It was all quite hazy, so I took very few pictures, but it was a fairly scenic walk - nothing enormously stand-out, but pleasant. The walk from Portchester to Fareham was particularly scenic, although I came to realise that I was missing a vital accessory possessed by 100% of the other walkers: a dog.
Seen in Fareham. Do they only remove spotty dogs? Do they remove ALL dogs, but only in a partial and unreliable fashion? Are they responding to the glut of dogs evident on the coastal path? Who knows?
Fareham confused me. I entered it past the entrance to Cams Hall, which I was delighted to recognise as the "stately home place on the edge of a town somewhere" where I'd once had a meeting. I've often wondered where that was. There was an impressive viaduct, a mill pond, a LOT of watery inlets, but my main problem turned out to be an urban dual carriageway that I simply could not cross. Every time I reached it, I could see a pavement on the other side, but absolutely no break in the traffic. At one point, I followed an estate road that looked on the map as if it led to a bridge, only to find a solid wall separating it from the main road. With every step, I found myself heading every further east, as if Gosport was a giant magnet that was impossible to escape.
But eventually - and only with about a mile of detour - I managed to cross the road. A little later, confusion was caused by a busy road that entirely failed to appear on the OS map, which showed only unbroken fields. So that was odd. I can only assume it was the road to Fairyland, or something like that.
But eventually I reached the coast, and could pick up the official coastal path again, walking along the shore opposite Osborne, East Cowes and Cowes. There was rather more shingle walking than I'd have liked, but it was all fairly nice. I particularly enjoyed walking up the shore of Southampton Water, having so many times gone past it on the ferry without really paying much attention.
The little pink ferry at Hamble was fun. Waiting for it was even more fun, with some very exuberant dogs boinging around me, one of them very frequently vigorously shaking water all over me. The owner didn't appear to notice, but one of the other dog owners did make a token apology. I could quite honestly say that I didn't mind at all. After a hot walk, it was quite a nice cold shower.
And so through the Royal Victoria Country Park - absolutely packed with people - with its impressive red brick tower, the only remains of a Victorian hospital. (I would have photographed it, but I'd put my camera away in my rucksack, since it was making my back hurt, and couldn't be bothered to get it out.) Then past Netley Castle (impressive and Gothic), along the coast of the eastern suburbs of Southampton, over the Itchen Bridge and home.
Sadly, a few of our team couldn't face the long journey, so we were down to six dancers (the bare minimum) and without our most confident musicians. Moreover, two of the dancers were newbies, with a limited reportoire and very nervous about their first mainland festival, and one was injured and only up to one dance per spot.
However, it turned out to be a lovely day! The way these days work, you're allocated to a variety of spots around the town, but you're always scheduled alongside a couple of other sides, usually different ones at each spot. So it doesn't matter at all if you just do the same few dances over again. So with a bit of contrivance - e.g. adapting a few dances to work for 4, or borrowing people from other sides - we put on a good show.
Pellinor and I also did a "solo" jig - one of the ones we used to dance on the patio in lockdown, when I was learning. I'm not sure why you take your hat off when dancing a jig, but apparently you do. I enjoy the Nutting Girl jig very much indeed. :-)
Pellinor demonstrating a perfect caper. Me, not quite no much. But at least we're both in the air at the same time.
Most importantly, the newbies really enjoyed the day, and it was a huge confidence boost for them. The thing is, it really doesn't matter if people make mistakes, as long as they keep moving. The public don't notice, and the other sides watching probably breathe a sigh of relief; it can be quite intimidating to dance with a perfect side. It was a good confidence boost for me, too, since I'm actually quite new to the team, too, so having ever newer newbies to help has shown me that I actually know more than I think I do.
So it was all very nice. The cider was nice, too. :-)
Then, on Sunday, Pellinor headed off LARPing, detouring briefly to drop me at Portchester Castle, which I'd indentified as a good starting point for my planned walk back to Southampton.
A couple of miles into my walk, he phoned to say that LARPing was cancelled, due to forestry work in their adventure site, but I decided to continue my walk, anyway.
It was all quite hazy, so I took very few pictures, but it was a fairly scenic walk - nothing enormously stand-out, but pleasant. The walk from Portchester to Fareham was particularly scenic, although I came to realise that I was missing a vital accessory possessed by 100% of the other walkers: a dog.
Seen in Fareham. Do they only remove spotty dogs? Do they remove ALL dogs, but only in a partial and unreliable fashion? Are they responding to the glut of dogs evident on the coastal path? Who knows?
Fareham confused me. I entered it past the entrance to Cams Hall, which I was delighted to recognise as the "stately home place on the edge of a town somewhere" where I'd once had a meeting. I've often wondered where that was. There was an impressive viaduct, a mill pond, a LOT of watery inlets, but my main problem turned out to be an urban dual carriageway that I simply could not cross. Every time I reached it, I could see a pavement on the other side, but absolutely no break in the traffic. At one point, I followed an estate road that looked on the map as if it led to a bridge, only to find a solid wall separating it from the main road. With every step, I found myself heading every further east, as if Gosport was a giant magnet that was impossible to escape.
But eventually - and only with about a mile of detour - I managed to cross the road. A little later, confusion was caused by a busy road that entirely failed to appear on the OS map, which showed only unbroken fields. So that was odd. I can only assume it was the road to Fairyland, or something like that.
But eventually I reached the coast, and could pick up the official coastal path again, walking along the shore opposite Osborne, East Cowes and Cowes. There was rather more shingle walking than I'd have liked, but it was all fairly nice. I particularly enjoyed walking up the shore of Southampton Water, having so many times gone past it on the ferry without really paying much attention.
The little pink ferry at Hamble was fun. Waiting for it was even more fun, with some very exuberant dogs boinging around me, one of them very frequently vigorously shaking water all over me. The owner didn't appear to notice, but one of the other dog owners did make a token apology. I could quite honestly say that I didn't mind at all. After a hot walk, it was quite a nice cold shower.
And so through the Royal Victoria Country Park - absolutely packed with people - with its impressive red brick tower, the only remains of a Victorian hospital. (I would have photographed it, but I'd put my camera away in my rucksack, since it was making my back hurt, and couldn't be bothered to get it out.) Then past Netley Castle (impressive and Gothic), along the coast of the eastern suburbs of Southampton, over the Itchen Bridge and home.