Today has been dance-tastic! At least, the afternoon and this evening have been. It’s day two of the Oxford Swing Festival and there were four hours of lessons in the day and then a few hours dancing in the evening. They’re still at it now – and will be announcing the winners of the Jack and Jill competition soon, but it had felt like a long day and I was glad to get back to the B&B at 11:30.

This morning I’d flirted with the idea of going to the Oxford parkrun. Had it been on this side of the city I’d have probably gone. However, the idea of getting up and driving around the town to get to the run, along with missing the cooked breakfast, was too much of a barrier and, well, I lay in bed for another half an hour and instead enjoyed the tasty breakfast.

I’m staying at the Lakeside Guesthouse, which is a wonderful place – certainly judged on their rooms and their breakfast, which is all that counts, isn’t it? And as I mentioned yesterday, it’s a short walk into town. About 300 paces walking from the B&B to the Thames and then you’re basically in the city.

I got my 30 minute walk in after breakfast. Into town, and then looping around the back of the Ashmolean Museum and back into town.

I needed to stock up on some smaller t-shirts. One of the problems with having lost weight is that a lot of old clothes don’t fit any more. In particular I’ve got a lot of old t-shirts that are now basically tents, and they’re not a good look. I can get away with wearing some at the gym, but not when it doing push ups or planks, as they billow about like a tent. For the first time in as long as I can remember I’m wearing medium sized t-shirts and even then, they’re looking slightly baggy. Most of my existing shirts are XL or XXL, so I needed a change.

I got a stash of t-shirts, a reasonable shirt for this evening and a new pair of jeans. All much smaller than I would have bought this time last year. All good.

The lessons were fun. They started at midday with two hours of beginners Lindy Hop, a break and then a planned two hours of Shag. Sadly the shag was cancelled and there was “pre-lindy” and “animal dances” scheduled as an alternative.

The beginners Lindy was very useful. We hadn’t done a triple step / shuffle / whatever in the Ormskirk classes until very recently and so it was good to be taught right at the start. However, there were more leads than followers and so we had to sit out every third or fourth turn. It seemed that they introduced a new move each time I wasn’t with a follower, and so it was super tricky then trying to practice with the next unlucky follower who got me.

One follower in particular made it clear that she thought that I was not good enough. At the end of the turn it was normal to say thanks or to high-five or to at least acknowledge the other person. On the third turn she told me that I couldn’t dance to the rhythm and on subsequent turns she would dance like I had thrown up on her, spin on her heels and walk off at the first opportunity without even acknowledging me. When she first did it, it really knocked me sideways. Luckily I didn’t have a follower immediately afterwards and I could take a moment to reassure myself. Over time I realised that she did this to all the leads who were clearly beginners. Thankfully she was in a minority of one.

After the Lindy, there was an hour off and then we were back for pre-lindy dancing. This was dancing from the 1910-1920’s when it seemed like any random arm and leg flailing could be classed as a legit dance move. Much like most of my dancing since I was 16.

In this case we did three dances – the “turkey trot” which involved mostly hopping on one leg and then the other; the “texas tommy” which was a kick, hop, step and hop; and finally the “peabody” which was basically a walk. I liked the peabody. It seemed almost impossible to mess up – unless you can’t dance to the rhythm. Hmm. So that’s me out.

I do like a bit of ragtime and so this session was very entertaining. It was also good in that there was a real mix of abilities in the room, but no-one knew what they were doing. It was a real leveller. Especially the Texas Tommy which had everyone worn out within about five minutes of trying it.

The second hour was “animal dances”. Again, dances from the pre-lindy swing era, there had been waves of dance crazes and these had included animal based dances. We covered “the kangaroo” – much bouncing up and down; “the squirrel” mostly scampering and looking alarmed and the “grizzly bear” where we stomped around, made growling noises and then attempted to do “turkey trot” style hopping while holding the dance partner in a bear hug. There was much laughing and many wrong steps, and I’m very glad that I did it rather than trying to get the Charleston right or some other move. It was just plain, silly fun and I felt much better for it.

I thought that I had hours between the end of pretending to be a bear and the evening dance, but the two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

The evening dance was great fun. I lasted about two and a half hours before I needed to leave. I danced a bit – mostly with one of the followers from the lessons in the day. We also admired the moves of the more experienced dancers in the room. The dance floor was packed and it really was a thing of beauty to see everyone doing their own thing.

I think I mentioned it yesterday, this weekend has proven to me that I need to get out to the social dances more often. I felt like a teenager not quite knowing what to do. Back then we would keep going out and enjoy it and slowly get better on the dance floor (although all I did was master “dad dancing”). It’s just the same thing, really, I just need to find the time to get out more often.

So the day has been a whirl of different lessons and dances and steps and partners. I’ve also walked a lot, about 12-13km looking at Runkeeper and filling the gaps of other walks. Tomorrow I had scheduled that I was going to run, but after today’s activities I’m going to class the weekend exercise as done. I’ll do a long run early in the week, but tomorrow morning I’ll rest knowing that I’ve been reasonably active today.