Moondance

Current work: new book
Listening to: Van Morrison/Michael Bublé
Reading: Louise Allen, Ravished by the Rake (enjoying - the Indian setting is interesting, too)

We did a bit of research, last night – i.e. we went for our first ballroom dancing lesson (one of the new books I’m working on is the dance book, so this sort of counts as work). I'm a big fan of Strictly (for the dancing, not the dresses), and DH promised me before Christmas that we’d learn to dance this year. However, he's had a major case of cold feet since New Year. Cue much uxorial nagging this week, and much discussion, and we decided that, instead of going to the class that’s five minutes down the road from us, we’d go to the class run by the teacher I really liked on the phone and who said it was a class for total beginners.

And learning to dance is DIFFICULT! You have to be co-ordinated (DH and I both struggle a little bit there), so I have utter respect for the celebs you see on Strictly who struggle to do the dances. The idea of having to learn the steps and then do a routine in front of an audience, on your own… Nope. I doubt I could do it even with a pro as a partner. But we managed to learn the steps for the “social foxtrot” (i.e. how to move round a room to a song). The music she played was great. Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’ – which I sneaked into Breakfast at Giovanni’s – and then Michael Bublé’s ‘Under the Sea’. So, ahem, we have the music at home to practice. (Or will do when I next raid DH's iTunes account - and he owes me because he asked me to buy Sherlock.) DH admitted that the teacher was nice and the class ‘wasn’t bad’ (this is high praise in DH-speak), and the helpers were also lovely. So hopefully we’ll go again next week. It was really good to have some time just for us, too.



The picture? That’s from the school run this morning, just before the sun rose – actually, it's on the hill outside daughter's school. I couldn’t resist the drama of the clouds. Here in Norfolk, the skies are amazing. After this, as the sun rose, everything turned silver-gilt and very, very bright.