Together in Annecy 2009.
Since then, we have found other new incredibly good friends as well as some from the past that have come back into our lives. We do enjoy seeing Helen and Andrew, whenever possible. So, our lives are still very interesting and we still manage to have plenty of fun, despite Covid-19 that continues to impose too much social distancing.
Salsa Dancing
I have only just realised that I neglected to write about our love of salsa dancing. Trudy and I enjoyed dancing together from the first days we met, but I never considered myself to be a good dancer, as when I was younger to learn new dances had proved quite difficult for me. I really seemed to have two left feet! So, years later, after the Albany Club was taken over and changed, and we had stopped playing squash and our children were older, Trudy told me she had heard about Salsa classes and wanted to go so much, that she said if I did not want to go, she would go on her own!
Trudy went to sign up and enrol without me, and I decided I had better go and have a look. A sample class began, and I had a go, it turned out to be good fun, I loved the music, and although it was quite a challenge for me, I was hooked! So, we both joined, and after a while we discovered 'Latin Motion' who gave lessons and then some time to practise with really great music. These were run by Mauricio Reyes and Zain, and they made learning a lot of fun, I could not believe how many different ways they devised to spin a partner and the footwork was complicated at times.
The method of teaching was to gradually teach one routine by breaking it down into short parts, each part was demonstrated and then we all tried to copy it, usually we had to repeat it a number of times, but each time we had a different partner, and only after everyone could do it correctly, were we shown the next part. This was great as we all got to know everyone in the class. What was not so great, was the embarrassment when with a new partner, one got something wrong - this happened a lot with me in the early days. Especially, after having reached the last part, when we were asked to put it all together, I often found I could not remember everything! Trudy was much quicker at learning it all, I believe she had quite an advantage having studied ballet for many years before.
Thank goodness after persevering over a considerable number of lessons, I eventually began to feel at ease and was able to enjoy it even more. We met some interesting people from all walks of life and thoroughly enjoyed those evenings. We both loved it and we remained active members for many years till we emigrated.