Carden Park

Another first for the Moody Food Ceili Band, this time to Carden Park in Cheshire for a Vertu Car Dealer Conference – the scrappage scheme obviously worked. We had a long wait from setting up to the first dance but the staff looked looked after us well with food and drink – pasta for the veggies and cottage pie for everyone else. The dance hall had a eerie indigo hue but it didn't stop everyone having a bit of a bop.

Collin finally came clean about the origins of the dance Nova Scotia which he had always claimed to have written whilst flying over Canada but, as Sue noticed last week, it is in fact the same as Sylvia's traditional simple longways set. Never believe anything Collin says.

And for those of you who did, here are Collin's dances for your Moody Food Dance Card.

The Cock o' the North / 100 pipers
The Snowball
Doxie Marches
Thady U Ganda
Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie
Nova Scotia
Clopton Bridge
The Gay Gordons
Waltz Shebag an Shemor / Give Me Your Hand
Cumberland Square Eight
Circassian Circle

A beautiful bright moon shrouded in clouds to guide us home.

The Ashes, Rosie and Robbie

Congratulations to Rosie and Robbie on their wedding at The Ashes.

We like playing here – the stone buildings of the old farm set on the side of the hill above the lake make for a very tranquil setting. The evening had a very Scottish flavour with kilts and bagpipes and as usual it was the little ones who kept dancing the whole night through whilst the adults were dropping like flies – where do they find the energy?

After Rosie and Robbie's first dance to Sharon Corr's It's Not a Dream, the company danced the night away to the Moody Food Ceili Band. Here's Sylvia's dances for your Dance Card:

Rosie and Robbie's first dance
Glasgow Gallop
Goatland Square Eight
Clopton Bridge
Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie
Flying Scot
Waltz Midnight on the Water / Waltz Vienna
Barndance
Simple Longways Set
The Siege of Delhi / The Earl's Chair
The Snowball
The Humours of Scariff / Some Say the Devil is Dead
Strip the Willow
Waltz Shebag an Shemor / Give me your Hand
The Gay Gordons
Circassian Circle

Here's a couple of photos of the inside of the barn taken by Mike. You can see some more fine pictures of Rosie and Robbie at JMK photography.

Genetix Gymnasium, Leek

Happy Birthday Chris! Remember, it's been scientifically proved that the more birthdays you have the longer you live.

As we set off from Stoke we could see in the distance a hot air balloon floating over Leek – good to know that there's at least one form of air transport not affected by volcanic dust. We often see see balloons on the  way to a gig and for us the first sighting of the year is like hearing the first cuckoo of spring –  summer is surely on its way.

Around ninety people came to celebrate Chris's fiftieth birthday and just about everybody seemed to be sporting the very popular Daisy Duke look to dance to Collin and the Moody Food Ceili Band.

During the interval we were fed with a hog roast, admired the golfing birthday cake with the legend 'Don't Ask' – so we didn't, and were entertained by a David Brent style dance routine from Chris's work colleagues.

Sorry the photos all went a bit Pete Tong – we'll get around to reading the manual one day – but in case you can't see through the digital haze, this is what you danced.

The Cock o' the North / 100 Pipers
The Snowball
Doxie Marches
Thady U Ganda
The Siege of Delhi / The Earl's Chair
Nova Scotia
Boston Tea Party
Old Swan Gallop
Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie
Foula Reel
Cumberland Square Eight
Circassian Circle

Caverswall Castle, Laura and Leo

Congratulations to Laura and Leo on their wedding at Caverswall Castle. What wonderful friends you have to come all the way from America to share the day with you. This was our first time at Caverswall and whilst the room was a little smaller than we are used to  it suited the assembly and there was no difficulty in filling the dance floor throughout the night.

During the interval we roamed around the castle and admired the fireplace with its tiles, the wooden  panelling and wacky tapestries, potted the black on the full-size snooker table and rummaged through the books in the library.

Outside in the garden, amidst the chains of fairy lights, we watched as Chinese lanterns were released  to bring good luck to one and all. They looked very pretty, rising slowly into the night sky until the wind caught them and they drifted ever higher out of sight (even though one did get caught in a tree – everyone denied responsibility for that one).

Back inside the dancing continued even wilder than before with one of the dancers cavorting with a helmet 'borrowed' from one of the household suits of armour  to protect his head from the lights on the low ceiling. Unfortunately this image, a ceili first, has been lost to posterity as Mike, who took these pictures,  was at the time making up the numbers dancing. Has anyone got a picture of this?

Later we overheard another one of the guests say that  she had always wanted  to go to a dance from a Jane Austen novel. I don't think Jane ever danced whilst wearing a metal bonnet but the elegant room, the posh frocks (daps excepted), the screams of laughter and the wild romping through the figures did remind me of a scene from Kilvert's Diary. You can read it here.

Anyway, I'm sure Jane  always had a full dance card so here's a list of Sylvia's dances for you to fill in your own:

The Cock o' the North / 100 Pipers
The Snowball
Goatland Square Eight
Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie
Clopton Bridge
Old Swan Gallop
The Siege of Delhi / The Earl's Chair
Circle Mixer
Strip the Willow
Midnight on the Water / Waltz Vienna
Waterloo Dance
Shebag and Shemor / Give me your Hand
Polka Off

And finally, can anyone explain  Sylvia's cryptic comment made after after the spontaneous display of dancing during Ragtime Annie: `What a wonderful display of conkers'. I have no idea. Whilst you're all pondering that here are some pictures inside the castle.