In late July, we went to Scotland! The main reason was the Spoonful, of course, my favourite blues dance event in the world. But Liam and I had a social pass rather than a class pass so we also got some good touristing in.
On Thursday night when we arrived, we went for dinner with our lovely Finnish friends Arja and Nina, who we shared an airbnb with.
Leith is so lovely.
I didn't dance much on Thursday or Friday (and didn't take any photos at all those nights). It took all my time and energy to walk around and hug people and say "this is so surreal?" and "how has it been five years?" and "everyone is still here!" and other clichés. Things I was feeling: What is blues? What is blues dancing? How do I do this? What is my body? How do I move it?
And also, the weight of literally everything that has happened since last Spoonful, in the summer of 2018. Everything has happened since then and looking back, a lot of it has been pretty rough. I'm tired from it and this weekend I was, for some reason, really feeling the weight.
Friday daytime sightseeing! Liam and I went into Edinburgh to have ...
... lunch with the delightful Anna, Ryan and Kate.
Saturday daytime sightseeing! We went to see a boat!
The Royal Yacht Britannia, more specifically.
Liam found lots of little details to be fascinated about, but for me the most fun was to see how all the staff lived below deck.
No acutally, the best bit was scones with cream and jam, and a hot chocolate with Bailey's in the café. :)
And the post office on the boat! Cute!
Anna, posing with her audioguide :)
In the evening we walked down to the water ...
... to have dinner at the Roseleaf ...
... with this lovely gang, Nina, Arja and Dagmar.
And then we went dancing and I had such a GREAT night. Love and laughter and dancing until four in the morning.
I did the prelims for the mix and match and ended up as the alternative, which was perfect for me at this time. I feel so rusty in my dancing and wouldn't have been able to bring my best in the finals - but I still got some recognition, a confirmation that the judges noticed my dancing - being the alternate really is the sweet spot of comps. :)
And it meant I got to watch all these brilliant dancers and their fabulous blues faces in the finals (I didn't have my flash with me and took these just for fun, so apologies for shitty quality):
And then I danced to Ali Affleck and her band for the rest of the night, and the most delightful line of dance formed and I loved everything about that whole night.
Barrett Strong | Money (That's What I Want)
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