A swingin' 27th birthday!

Well, here goes - this is my first blog post that I am writing as a 27 year old...

I celebrated my birthday on Sunday, taking to Regents Park for a big swing dance picnic. The weather was beauuuuutiful, and lots of people turned up to dance al fresco. Most of my friends who came along were not dancers, but I think it was still enjoyable for them, being outside in the sunshine, chatting and watching the other dancers...with lots of champers and cake on hand!






I had an absolute blast spending the day with my lovely friends and my wonderful mum. There was a great atmosphere, and there were lots more people in attendance than at the July swing dance picnic.


I even got serenaded by the crowd, led by John, a most charming 83 year old dancer who played along on the ukelele. Then we had a bit of a birthday jam, and I tried not to look too clumsy shuffling about wearing shoes that were slightly inappropriate for dancing on grass...I would say that it was a little embarrassing, but frankly, it wasn't - I love being the centre of attention like that!








Having seen photos of my birthday jam since the picnic though, the one noticeable thing is....my bum looked massive!!!! Yikes, I need to get one of those three-way mirrors!


Although I didn't partake in the dance lesson held earlier on in the afternoon, it looked like everyone was really enjoying themselves! Paul Crook and Natasha Hall (my balboa teachers) taught a collegiate shag class, and it was super fun seeing everyone hopping around all over the place.






As with the last picnic, there was another ukelele sing-a-long, which I loved, and also a quiz (which I was not very good at).




I got another rendition of 'Happy Birthday' before blowing out the candles on my lemon and poppyseed cake. I guess when you get to 27 you start losing a little puff (is this how it starts?), because I managed to blow all except for one of them out in one go. I'm sure I was able to blow them all out last year....








All in all, this was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon, and indeed a fabby way to spend a birthday! We ended up leaving the park at around 8.30pm, and I went home, happy but exhausted.

Roll on the September swing dance picnic!

Swing dance picnic!

This past warm and sunny Sunday was the perfect day for a swing dance picnic in Regent's Park, so armed with a blanket, a bottle of cider and two boxes of strawberries, I headed over to the park to dance the day away next to the boating lake.


Coincidentally a few of my non-dancer girlfriends were also going on a picnic in Regent's Park that afternoon, and so we all met up, which was great because I got my girly gossip fix, as well as my dance fix!


There was a good turn out, and as well as dancing, we were all treated to a ukelele sing-a-long to Sweet Georgia Brown which was super fun!




After the sounds of uke, everyone took part in a riddle word quiz before learning a group folk dance, both of which were a little confusing at first...but we got the hang of it in the end, and had a lot of laughs along the way!

I love al fresco dancing, and it's wonderful that it stays light until around 10pm, so you don't feel like you are hanging around a park at night like a teenager who isn't old enough to go to an actual club...




Whilst it is a little tricky cutting some rug when you're on grass, the area that we were using was kind of dry and flattened which made it a bit easier. It did however, mean that a lot of dusty, dry soil was floating about, which made my feet sooooooo dirty!


I finally left the park at around 7.30pm so that I could get home in time to catch the end of the World Cup final. Numbers had dwindled by this point, as a lot of people went to watch the match, or for whatever other reasons, but there were still quite a few people, who, I heard, kept on dancing until around 9pm.


I decided that as it was such a nice evening I would walk a part of the way home. In the end though, a combination of a) wanting to take the opportunity to burn some extra calories and b) just missing my bus by seconds, meant that I decided to walk all the way home from the park. It took me around 1 hour and 25 minutes and it was really pleasant, but I did end up with a HUGE blister on my heel (despite wearing my comfy, granny-style orthopaedic sandals), which made it painful trying to walk the next day...

The swing dance picnic is taking place in Regent's Park one Sunday a month over the summer (I wish it was twice a month!) and weather permitting, I will definitely be back next month!