THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

A big big Thank you to all our lovely dancers for joining us on our FIFTH Annual Club weekend break this year!

We had a lovely time down in Folkestone in The Southcliff Hotel on The Leas...despite the horrendous weather conditions!

My weekend started on Friday morning when I awoke to the sound of heavy rain outside my window.......I put the radio on to hear 'there are terrible driving conditions today in West Sussex with trouble on the A27, the M23 and around the Chichester area'

So I turned it off.

Then went upstairs and put the tv on - just in time to see a map of the UK with HUGE arrows pointing right at FOLKESTONE and heard the weather girl say 'there are gales of up to 70 mph heading for the South East coast tonight..'

So I turned that off too!!!

Well I thought, what's the worse that can happen? The coach could be stuck somewhere in a flood - people may not reach the hotel due to fallen trees - mum could be stuck on a train somewhere....and so my thoughts raged right up until I saw the very welcome sight of the Diamond coach pulling into Aldingbourne Social Club bang on time being driven by its very capable driver, Bob!

I boarded the coach with the 'Aldingbourne Crew' which consisted of Linda, Jane, Charley, Jim, Anne and Chris - who promptly all ran to the very back of the coach leaving me all on my own at the front!! (well, until Chris felt sorry for me and came up front to keep me company that is!).

We set off for Beckenham, and I played a 'beat the intro' music quiz much to the upset of Bob who was quite happy to listen to Radio Two instead!

The winners of the intro quiz were Jane's team on the back seat - and the prize of a huge box of Maltesers was claimed instantly by Jane who refused to share! (what an example to set your daughter!! tut tut!)

After a brief stop at Pease Pottage we set off for Beckenham, despite the horrendous travel conditions we felt safe in Bob's hands and we pulled up in Manor Way just five minutes after our expected time - which was a miracle considering what we were up against with the roads!

Lots of happy (slightly wet) faces greeted us in Beckenham and we welcomed aboard the West Wickham dancers.........there was a slight moment of panic when we realised there was no sign of Brenda - but five minutes later she came running along with her suitcase soaked to the skin but smiling anyway!

So leg two of our journey began, the anagram quiz caused a bit of a stir - with someone (no names mentioned) thinking that the anagram for Bob Marley was someone unknown called 'Barley Nob!!!' hehe....I wouldnt mind but the letters arent even the same! For ever more now, Bob Marley will be known as Barley Nob to me.....!

Kellie took several minutes to recover from her fit of giggles and even had to get the tissues out to wipe her eyes.....and usually its Theresa we get these little gems from - but this time - it wasn't her! sorry Theresa for mentioning your name - you know I love you to bits!

We reached Maidstone services in good time - and the heavens had begun to open up good and proper again by now - but the lovely Bob pulled up literally right by the doors and we all ran in and kept nice and dry.....

As we boarded the coach for our final run of motorway the heavens really did open and we drove through torrential rain and high winds - we witnessed a huge lorry swerving all across three lanes in front of us as he narrowly missed a little van in front of him changing lanes without looking! But again, Bob kept us safe and we cracked on with our Big 70's quiz!! Now I have to say the moaning about the football questions was a little unecessary wasn't it? Ive never heard so much whinging just because someone doesnt know anything about football!! and anyway, they werent ALL about football were they!!!? (just some of them!)

The winners of this quiz were Debbie and Isabel! Who we think guessed half their answers - but who cares!

We pulled up outside the Southcliff at five to three which was pretty good going considering the amount of rain and potential problems we faced when we woke up that morning!

Sherrie the assistant manager boarded the coach before anyone could get off and laid down the law!! haha!!! Ive never seen so many scared faces in my life! she was a little scray tho I must admit! but I can only think that she must have some pretty unruly groups in her hotel on occasion and just wanted to make sure you all knew the procedure (well, thats my excuse and Im sticking to it!)

Once inside the hotel we were greeted by lots more smiling faces of our other dancers from all over.......it seems everyone managed to get through the traffic with little trouble after all!!

The weekend was relatively trouble free - well, apart from my sister Sues friend almost bringing the lounge ceiling down with her shower in the room above that is!!

The Texas Tornadoes arrived and joined us for dinner - Pete made friends with my mum and giggled away with her throughout the meal - he offered to take her up in the lift to the ballroom - but mum wasnt aware of this, and thought she was going to her room (wrong lift mum!!!) and so her and Pete had a tour of all of the floors of the other side of the hotel until finally he put her in the ballroom! (only my mum eh?)

The Tornados were in great form and really got the party started for us on Friday night - ably assisted by the lovely Andy playing everyones requests - we also had our raffle and Sensational Seventies Picture Quiz which was won by my siser Sue and her friends - with the runners up being Debbie and Isabel (they were really on a winning streak this weekend!)

We partied on til 1.30 a.m. when the final dancers started flagging Sally and Sue were amongst the last to get off to bed (but there were no surpises there!!!)

Saturday morning saw the first of our dance lessons - and I taught the following dances:

NOTHING'S GONNA BRING ME DOWN - By Ria Vos - this is a 32 count dance, no tags or restarts- to a great song by Paolo Nutini called Pencil Full of Lead......

next up I decided to teach a dance from a few years back called

DO WOP BE DO BE DOO - written to Shang a Lang by the Bay City Rollers - to keep us in with the 70's theme of the weekend - most of the dancers had never learned this dance before and even those that knew it already were very happy to re learn such a great dance!

Next was a new dance by Rob Fowler called...

CASANOVA COWBOY - written to Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood....a really cool 32 counter that fits the music very well - a big hit with eveyone!

An inpromptu request from some quarters resulted in me teaching..

HOT TOMALAS!!!!! A huge number of dancers had never done this dance before and loved it!

Finally I taught

TIME TO PLAY - By Peter and Alison - 32 counts - ultra funky - one for the higher intermediates because of its speed and tricky timing......this one was loved by our younger dancers in particular!!

Saturday afternoon was free to do as you wished.....I chose to do nothing and have a rest before decorating the hall for tonights 70's themed party....but some people decided to go shopping.......which was fine up until about 3 oclock when the biggest storm hit Folkestone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We watched from our bedroom window as several people dressed as drowned rats came running back up the street to the hotel for refuge!!! Yvonne and Ann were completely soaked to the sking and as Yvonne said 'I was wet right up to the top of my tousers!!!' - and there was me thinking it was a Tena lady moment....!!! haha

The storm raged on for a good couple of hours, during which Jenny, Tom and Amy arrived! It was so windy Amy actually couldnt walk through the alley way and they had to take the long route round to the front entrance!!

Kellie, Andy and I decorated the hall for the evenings party - and got it looking as tacky as we possibly could - old fashioned balloons, crepe paper, plastic bowls with sweets and quality street in, were all I could remember from parties in the 70's!!! so that was what we gave you!

Saturday nights meal was a traditional Christmas dinner - and we had beautifully decorated tables and presents given to us by the hotel - I had a lovely little Christmas mug with a Snowman in it! Thank you Southcliff for such a lovely suprise!

The party on Saturday night started with people arriving dressed in their 70's gear - The Selsey Girls looked amazing in their wigs and Sue and Sally were Anafird and Agnetha from ABBA - you looked pretty amazing girls! I loved Ann's pink wig too - and Yvonne - I didnt even recognise you when you walked in! you must do long black hair more often, it really suited you!

Liz looked lovely in her little white and blue number - Mick was the only male Bay City Roller Fan I have ever seen, Lisa went for the other end of the 70's and came as a rebel!! (what else would you expect!!?) Kellie looked fab in her Afro (I thought Jamie Afro had arrived when she walked in!) - but I have to say was out afro-ed a tad by Emmas HUGE red one when she arrived later in the evening with little Caity in her lovely 70's clothes!

The winners of our Fancy dress parade were Christine and Suzannah - who had come dressed as The Carpenters......Christine looked so funny as Richard Carpenter...and even adopted the American accent......you should be on the stage Christine!! Our second prize went to Amy for her ABBA outfit - the long blonde curls looked amazing! Little Caity won third prize for being so cute, and Mick won a special prize for his Bay City Rollers outfit......in the form of a Simon Cowell Calendar - I hope you keep that safe young Mick!!

The Aldingbourne crew looked fab in their outfits - with Charley adding extra sparkle to the proceedings in her lovely outfit.

Sarah and her mum Carolyn were fellow Bay City Roller fans!! HURRAY!!! in all there were four of us!! Ahh I knew the band would still have a following somewhere!!!

A huge thank you to all of you that dressed up for the occasion !! it is lovely when so many people make the effort to join in the fun by making costumes and really adds to the atmosphere of the evening!

Our entertainer for Saturday night was the gorgeous Tim McKay - who wowed the girls with his voice and good looks, and his sense of humour too - we particularly loved the partner dance - with Andy calling out how many partners ahead we needed to change to, it was an hysterical challenge and something I wont forget in a long while!!

Thank you Tim for being so good natured and joining in the fun with us!

We partied on until 2 a.m. on Saturday night with the last ones out of the ballroom being Emma and Caity who had only arrived at 8 p.m. as we waved goodbye to Emma in the lift to her room she was still saying 'BUT I'VE ONLY JUST ARRIVED!' haha

Sunday morning saw the last of our dance sessions - I reviewed all of the previous days dances, and added in two new ones...

THINK I'M FALLING - By Justine Brown - to Think Im falling in Love by Harrison County - this is a lovely little 32 count easy dance that has the potential to stick around for a long while....fingers crossed for you Justine!

and the final teach was..

TOPSY TURVY - By Sandra Speck - a 64 count improver level dance written to Upside Down by Paloma Faith - a good fun dance - with nothing complicated in it...which makes it an instant floor filler!

Before we knew it it was time to say our thank you's and goodbyes - these weekends are always over far too quickly!!

We must once again thank Kellie and Linda for all their hard work throughout the year, and I want to thank Viv for taking so many photos - (I havent seen them yet but cant wait!).

I also want to thank everyone that came up and said nice things about us, we were very touched by your comments, and hope to see you all again on our next trip, which could be much sooner than you expected!!

We have the opportunity to go to Bideford in February....this is still in its early stages of planning - but if you would like to join us - please do contact me by email on julieandthekatz@msn.com or by phone on 07799741288

the hotel is called The Derwent House Hotel and its beautiful!!! I think its time we went for a little luxury and stayed for an extra night too!!

We should be able to offer three nights including travel to Devon and back for around £150.00 each....watch this space for more details....!!

Thank you all once again for coming to Folkestone - and Ill see you in class very soon..

Take care everyone!

Julie xxx
p.s. thank you so so much for your lovely gifts - Andy is particularly thrilled with his £9!!! haha!!