Dancing and Singing in Rain
Absolutely pouring rain as I drove down to the Victoria Arms in Old Marston yesterday evening. Arrived at the pub to find a lot of dejected and faintly worried looking morris dancers stood in the porch all miserably watching the sky. Still, feeling quite cheerful myself, I went in to get a drink. Then someone told me about the afternoon's e-mail panic about musicians for the evening which I somehow blissfully managed to miss. This resulted in me having about 15 minutes' panic until Fi showed up, followed by Matt. In hindsight, very, very glad i didn't know until I got there. Would still have gone because if you say you will then you do, but my driving might have been a bit entertaining...
The rain eased up to a light drizzle and we decided to dance. Armaleggan kicked things off and decided to dance IN the puddle in the carpark which, as far as the band was concerned, was fine until they started dancing up towards us which got a bit wet. It only drizzled during a couple of our dances and lovely people held brollys over us. At least they tried to. Apparently it's a bit difficult to hold umbrellas over a band that's alternately doing the Shadow's box step and twirling on the spot. But they get points for trying.
Considering both musicians and dancers were missing our key members last night (ie, the ones that call the dances and actually know the tunes) we did surprisingly well. I managed far more of the tunes than usual and was actually quite proud of myself.
The session afterwards was good fun too. Not many tunes but a fair few songs (including an absolutely hilarious version of 'The Fields of Athenray' from Shep, with actions!) and it struck me that we actually have some really good singers in Armaleggan.
For some reason, my eyes started streaming during the middle of the session and have continued to do so this morning and, since I've made no changes to my make-up and had no problems before, I have no idea why. It's stopped now so the drive home should be a little easier but it shall stay a mystery for the time being.
Got my stewarding rota from Sidmouth yesterday. I'm going to be at the Belford (and will probably have to do a couple of extra shifts to make up the full 35 hours) and the shifts seem OK although they will no doubt clash horribly with whatever workshops I want to go to. Ah well, so it goes, I'm getting the week and camping for free so can't complain.
Very tired today for some reason (can't think why) and just want to go home, curl up and sleep but suspect I should at least make a token effort at practicing the melodeon tunes for the weekend...