Perhaps the fingers were "dancing"?

A couple of Fridays ago saw me up at the crack of dawn so I could get into Manchester to meet friends from The University of Manchester In Stitches group to yarn bomb the Corrie Tour.


The group had been preparing for a couple of months, having been invited by a PR company to decorate the Street.  We'd been asked to do more than we did - but had to be realistic and manage expectations.  But fingers were flying (dancing?) in the days leading up to the yarn bombing morning - finishing squares, making up flowers, and completing the hanging 'basket'.

Some members of the group went down to 'recce' the Street the week before - and received some press attention, from both the Manchester Evening News and the University news desk.

Our next project is a craft stall in November to raise money for the Wood Street Mission and the local Food Bank.  But there may well be distractions along the way - our fame seems to have spread and we're getting invitations to yarn bomb other places!

... or the evening with Elle and the Pocket Belles

I spent the week before Easter in Birmingham at the annual meetings of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (#gauk) - aka the Unitarians.  This is four days spent with 300 or so fellow Unitarians attending business meetings, workshops, seminars and presentations, catching up with people I sometimes see only once a year and meeting new people who I can connect with via social media (and hopefully meet again next year).  I was there representing Rochdale Unitarians.

The evenings are taken up by different opportunities to share in community:

The banner from Rochdale Unitarians.

• an anniversary service, in which representatives from each local congregation and local/national groups parade with our banners - this year to a rather jaunty tune which had me trying to jig along whilst carrying a banner far taller than me! 
• a celebration of our congregations and members, which was led this year by the six new ministers who were welcomed onto the Ministerial Roll at the anniversary service - this included Rev Shammy Webster, who joined Rochdale Unitarians as our minister in October 2014;
• a social evening, which this year featured music from Elle & the Pocket Belles, whose music is "a fusion of vintage swing and modern day pop that is sure to get your toes a-tappin' and arms a-flppin'" - and it sure did!  I was first on the dance floor, followed closely by a couple of friends, and then by many others.  It's amazing to see how this style of music - whether it be true vintage or modern day with a '40s feel - gets people up and dancing.  My feet certainly felt it the following day - but it was a fabulous performance by the Elle & the Pocket Belles and I look forward to being able to see them again somewhere, some day.

Elle & the Pocket Belles.

So not quite dancing the days, away - but definitely last Wednesday evening!

Not dancing, not getting fit - but hoping to change that

I enjoyed the two Lindy Hop improver classes I attended last year - it was good to learn something, and to have the challenge of new steps and new combinations, amongst a bunch of friendly people.  The class that Keith had hoped to run in the new year didn't happen (not enough people/leads signing up).  A new improvers class has just started and I would have been signing up for it ... however, I realised I would miss at least three out of the six classes, so have decided to give this one a miss.  But - the miss is the dancing.

I also signed up for a new exercise class at work, Fitsteps.  It's apparently based around ballroom and Latin American dance steps so sounded just up my street.  But for one reason or another I haven't yet made it to a class.  The first one was cancelled (snow at the end of January), then I forgot my kit (doh!), the following week I had a day off so wasn't in work to go to the class after work, the next week I had to leave early (family illness) and last week I was at the inaugural Pankhurst Lecture addressed by Shami Chakrabarti (an interesting and thought-provoking event).  So I've missed half the series.  I can in theory go to the last four classes - but I'd also planned to start attending the local photography club, which has it's third meeting on the final week of the Fitsteps class (an extra week was added because of the snow).  Shall I go?  Is it worthwhile, given I've missed so many classes?  Will the class be run again?

Watch this space ...

And hopefully see something more positive soon!