I came back from Oxford this afternoon. A quick update on the dancing. I went to the second lot of beginners classes – two hours in the afternoon where we covered the Lindy circle (/turn?) and some basic Charleston.

I was very very happy to be going over the swing out and turn again, and to do it with a different instructor, because it just didn’t make any sense when I was learning it in Ormskirk. I won’t say that I’ve cracked it (I haven’t) but at least I now understand what I’m supposed to be doing. I think it’s because the underlying philosophy of the instructors seems different. In Oxford it was all about getting it right so that both lead and follower have a good dance. Consequently, today there was more instruction about how to lead, what the follower expects and the “frame”.

As there were more leads than followers, Helen – one of the instructors – would join in with those of us learning. When we were doing the Charleston she had her eyes closed to see if she could tell what we were trying to lead. It wasn’t easy the first time she did it with me, it was like dancing with a rag doll, but I sort of got the idea.

Anyway, it was interesting and at no point did I have to pretend to be a kangaroo, a squirrel or a grizzly bear.

However, my legs feel like I’ve had a long workout at the gym today – the upper legs in particular feel like I’ve been holding a squat position for hours – which I probably was.

On leaving, I asked about the Oxford Lindy Exchange which is happening in June. It’s going to be a weekend of social dancing, picnics and tours of the city. Absolutely no workshops (because, I was told, you don’t do them at a Lindy Exchange). Ah well, it clashes with Glastonbury, so that’s a non-starter.

The other news of the day is that Lily got her offer of a place at Burscough Priory school. This has felt like a big deal.

The traditional secondary school for children moving on from St Anne’s is St Bede’s, which is just over the road. My guess is that almost all of Lily’s school friends will be going there. However, I wasn’t that happy with the presentations about the school by the headmaster, nor was I happy with the way that sciences were described and taught. I’m sure that St Bede’s is a brilliant school, but it just didn’t appeal and between the first presentation we had last year and the second this year, I had come to the conclusion that we needed to look elsewhere.

Burscough Priory seems like a wonderful school. The headmaster seems excellent, the pupils were well behaved and they had a sensible approach to science. i.e. they taught Physics, Chemistry and Biology as separate subjects – which St Bede’s does not. Had Lily not been accepted into Burscough, she would have gone to Ormskirk School, which is a big new build school near the centre of town. Again, another good school, but seems awfully big.

I was advised that by putting Burscough as our first choice, we were effectively ruling out St Bede’s as they would only accept those who put them as first choice. It’s all down to over-subscription, I was told. So in practice it was Burscough or Ormskirk – either way, it was going to be a whole new world for Lily.

I was also told that no pupils from St Anne’s had ever gone on to Burscough… Yikes! So definitely all-new friends.

She seems pleased about it. A bit apprehensive, but she also said that she’d be apprehensive of a move to St Bede’s too. I’m still a bit anxious about it, and I hope that it goes alright. We’ve also been told that realistically the choice of secondary school makes very little difference. The argument was that they’re all as bad as each other, so stop worrying; but you can’t help but want to do the right thing… I really hope that we’ve done the right thing!

Now we have uniforms and bus passes to arrange – oh yes, she’ll be getting the bus to school, which will be an adventure.

In other exercise related news, I’m counting the many hours of dancing over the weekend as my weekend exercise. Like it or not, that button in Lift gets pressed. I drove over to the lessons this morning because I had to check out of the B&B. Instead, I walked into the city pottered about a bit and then stopped runkeeper at 30 minutes when I was outside a games shop. They sold a book called “how to beat your dad at chess” which looked awesome, but then I flicked through it and it looked very dry. Not the kind of thing to be bringing back for the children. In any case, I’ve been reading “The end of power” where he writes about how the power of the chess world has been turned upside down because of the availability of analytical programs that students of the games can use. A chess book is so very 1990’s.