Friday night was session night down at the "Abby" and saw me experiencing a few firsts. I actually managed to play both of the first two tunes that were started (and, of course, a load more later too) for the first time ever. To enhance this, I don't know the name of the second of these: I must have known this at some point, but on Friday I just played along and was lefte wondering what the tune was. I count this as a (slightly) positive thing! I even managed to start a set while there were still a good few musicians around. Oh, and not so good, I made myself look a bit of a dick by misreading the others during a reel that is often played slowish and then speeded up: I thought that a couple of the others were "kicking off" so upped my tempo only to be left playing far too quickly for a couple of bars. Oops. It was all laughed off afterwards and I don't think half of the people there even noticed.
On Saturday, thanks to a visit from the M-in-L (and the handy babysitting), <3 and I went off to a local ceilidh, which was a hoot. We've been meaning to go to one of these for ages (and I am constantly being badgered by one of the organisers at the pub sessions), so finally we got there. This was a great, informal and very friendly do at a local village hall with reasonable bar prices (and decent beer!) plus a nice format of two set dances in a row, followed by a break, then a couple more dances. The evening was also broken by a display from a local morris side, which provided a good, extended breath-catching opportunity. I'm a real klutz at this sort of stuff, but over the evening a couple of the regular ladies taught me a few of the less-obvious moves, and I think <3 picked up quite a bit too — I'm ashamed to say she danced more than I did this time. We will definitely be going again, though we'll be off at a wedding at the time of the next one.
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