El Sapo

(The Toad)

Just practising my Spanish - off to Andalucia for a couple of weeks. Slightly anxious about being out of reach of my regular salsa fix up in the mountains, but last night was a great way of topping up my salsa batteries. Seems like the Toad is really taking off again: loads of people there and it was still going strong when I left at 12.45, rather than winding down at midnight which had been doing. (Means that Fridays in work are going to be even less productive than usual when I get back!)

Really good to see some people who hadn't been there for a while, particularly Anna (emerging from months of PhD-imposed purdah and dancing like she'd never been away) and Lee. Enough people for a nice fast rueda later on. Hope we might have the nucleus of a decent la rueda group if Jordy and Sofia are going to join in regularly as well.

The Wharf

God, the Wharf was hot last night! Being a pub rather than a club they have those primitive things called windows rather than air-conditioning. And I'm afraid the quality of my dancing deteriorates when I start overheating. Had several enjoyable dances, though.

It's always a nice way to round off the weekend: good music and a friendly atmosphere. Last night there was the added entertainment of watching Natalie lead men. No surprise that she's good at it, having seen her leading a very drunk ******** at the Caramelo Son gig (see 21 June post) with more success than me...

Toad

The Toad was busy last night: surprising as O'Neills was quiet on Monday. Kate took the advanced class for a change and it was great: steadily built up with plenty of repetition and detail and some cool moves. I do rate Andy's teaching but it was nice to learn some different stuff. The moves seemed a bit more suited to us mere mortals than some of the stuff Andy does. The only problem was the usual one of not enough space.

Too many men and too hot, which meant that free dancing wasn't great: Charlotte was away and the other Kate wasn't there. Tammi was, but without shoes, which may be why not many of the surplus men joined in her birthday dance and it was left to Kate and Natalie to show the bystanders how leading should be done!

But Tall Kay is always fun to dance with (Paul said she was good and he's right - I'm not sure that she realises how good she is) and I ended the evening nicely by dancing with Kate. One of these days I'll actually have a dance with her when I'm feeling on form...