Special guest appearance of the old Northgations at a 120th Birthday party

Several Old Northgations were dragged kicking and screaming out of retirement on Saturday night to give an ad-hoc one-off special performance to kick off the ceilidh at our musician's joint 120th birthday party! And no, that's not three forty year olds, but two sixty year olds. Still, he managed to play well enough given his age.

The dance itself was remarkably well done, especially when you consider that a number of people in the set hadn't danced at all for at least five years. Ah, it's like falling off a bike, except there were no cuts and bruises. Martin's elbow even managed to survive.

A most bodacious little crawl!

Well, last night's mini-crawl around Weston and Twerton was an unqualified success. Our start in the Dolphin Inn, where we hadn't danced for many years, marked a triumphant return for Ken as our Tommy and, apart from a little old lady manhandling Edwin's bottom in the dance, everything went to plan.

A quick walk to the Old Crown found us an incredibly enthusiastic audience, including one who cleared the tables away for us then gave us both money and beer! We need more like him.

The Golden Fleece in Twerton was next, and was notable for another little old lady, this time one who remembered us dancing there three years ago. It appears that not much else happen in there...

The White Horse was to have been our final pub, but following a beautifully-executed Number Three dance there, we decided to stretch things out further and put in a guest appearance at the session in the Royal Oak. Lovely as usual, and including even more free beer, the Oak did not let us down! Well, except for the Lemon Beer we tried, about which the less said the better.

Bath Weston crawl tonight

The lads are out tonight in Weston and Twerton, starting at 8pm in The Dolphin.

Videos: Other stuff

Mabel Day XI 2010

Institutional Web Management Workshop 2006

Fun with a bike

At something called BathCamp (probably to do with webby people)

Videos: DERT 2011 Oxford

Dance 1: The Royal Blenheim

Dance 2: The Duke's Cut

Dance 3: Freud's

Dance 4: Far From the Madding Crowd

WHERE IS DANCE 5?

The Showcase dance

Two young and too old.

Last night's practice saw two new dancers join our younger side (hello, Stevie and Frank), plus the return of an old favourite after years in rapper-free exile... welcome back Ken!

Young Northgate move to Wednesdays

Young Northgate (and here we admit we need a better name for them: Babygate?) have now bowed to the inevitable and moved their practices to Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, running up to and into the main team practice.

This should ensure better training for them, since the more elderly members are more likely to be available for top notch coaching...

Northgate Weston crawl announced

We've decided it's been too long since we visited Weston, so Wednesday the 23rd of March will see a small crawl around some of the pubs, starting at the Dolphin and perhaps even venturing over the river to Twerton.

Northgate return from Oxford unscathed!

The lads have returned from one of the posher part of the Midlands with all their extremities intact and a creditable set of performances under their belts!

The dance at the King's Arms was particularly strong, and many have commented on the quality of the team this year, which is nice. The Showcase dance was also a success, although Betty's strip show is said to have put many people of their beer. This was, however, better than the birth of Baby Tommy.

As far as the dance itself goes, the sequence leading up to the final lock has been singled out by many people as being very impressive indeed, and our return to using the chorus figure of Princess has also been well received.

Well done all!

All set for DERT!

The lads are now pumped, primed and bristling with gusto as they prepare to make travel ALL THE WAY TO OXFORD! DERT 2011 arrives at last!