By Duncan on 11 December 2007 12:34

Had a good time at my first salsa weekender. Met some new dancers, learnt some actual salsa moves and did more lessons than any of my jive weekenders this year.

And I did my first piece of Reggaeton.

Its a dance to Reggaeton music, popular in central and latin america, with much in common with hip-hop. The actual dance is lively and fast, although the bits we did were more choreographed than leadable.

Somewhere among my stuff I have a CD of Reggaeton music as well.

 

In other news, still no sign of my table football :(

By Duncan on 20 November 2007 16:47

Some of my friends will regard this as among my greatest crimes.

I bought the Spice Girls Greatest Hits! And I'll even listen to it soon.

I've never bought any of their stuff in the past, but they were just becoming popular when I started uni, and I remember talking about them in halls at Birks in Exeter. Hearing them on the radio recently brought back some old memories and I decided it was worth getting their greatest hits for old times sake.

I might put my new Gogol Bordello album in front of it though.

 

By Duncan on 16 November 2007 20:02

Its that time of year again, or nearly. Today I sent out invites for my Yuletide Party, and most (if not all) my weekends up to Yuletide are taken up with various events.

Although I dislike xmas itself, the bits around it I can cope with. Like the drinking and stuff. Although the sales on the couple of days before the big day are probably the highlight.

This year's party should see my table football as the central attraction, combining with eclectic music, dancemats, chocolate bowl and various friends to make a good night. This year I plan on drinking less than some other times. Although Doolies might be involved at some point.

Although I will be most annoyed if my table with little football men hasn't arrived by then .

 

By Duncan on 13 November 2007 18:11

The weekend just gone was Warmwell, a dance event of three nights and two days in a holiday park near Dorchester. Possibly my favourite of the weekenders, it was another mass of live bands, great dances and friends old and new. What makes Warmwell special is the large groups of dance friends which come from Newquay, Kent, Essex and other places, giving the whole place a party atmosphere.

Exeter had its fair share of dancers, around twenty of us in all. From Friday night until Monday morning the weekend was a blur of tacky cabaret, frenetic dances, new shoes, weekender virgins, fancy dress, fry-ups, swing bands and the dance competition (won by someone from Exeter, of course!). I'm still buzzing from the whole weekend now, on Tuesday evening.

My only concern is that this makes my ninth dance weekender of the year, with one left to go. Maybe I'm slightly addicted to dancing?

At least I get to feed the addiction again this weekend,  with dance events in Exeter on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday.

Read More »

By Duncan on 07 November 2007 17:40

Yesterday I did something I've been meaning to do for a while. An important landmark of my life.

I ordered a table football for my ramshackle room laughingly called a "conservatory".

So maybe not a earth-shattering event, but a significant one for guests to my house . Now we won't have to pay 50p a time for a game and hopefully we won't have a slope like our local pub's table. Perhaps I'll add a quiz machine in time too!

I looked at really cheap ones and came to the conclusion that something solid was needed, considering the battering some of my friends are likely to give it. The deciding factor on the model was the four drinks holders on the side!

Hopefully it will arrive in time for my Yuletide party. And won't distract us from our gaming.

By Duncan on 30 October 2007 18:41

Our local quiz machine adds new games occasionally, but they at the moment they don't seem to get any new good ones. Maybe we need to try a new pub and a new machine. This one wins at the moment because its near to my house (and my friend Ewen's), has a pool table and a quiz machine. What it needs for me is some more class games, like Boggle, Risk, Word Wall and that space invaders one.

They even had the audacity to make Word Up (now named Word Soup) disappear for a whole week. I was so outraged I almost (but never managed) wrote an angry email to them demanding its return .

We used to make visits to the Bowling Green too, until they replaced their quiz machine. But they also have a pool table, and a table football...

 

By Duncan on 26 October 2007 11:58

I'm back again, now that I've actually bothered to fix the problem with my Blog, which prevented me from adding new stuff.

Whats changed since last I posted? Not much really.

DotNetNuke have released a new version of their forum, so that should get updated on here in the next couple of days

We've started two different campaigns for our gaming on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Still on facebook scrabble, got a new full-time job, started a new story hour, looked at D&D 4th Edition, been on two dance weekenders and possibly getting a car ,

Til next time!

By Duncan on 07 September 2007 17:15

Facebook gets even better, as I discovered the joys of Scrabble on it today. An old family tradition, Scrabble is played by my mum, both sisters, a great aunt, eight aunts, one uncle and several cousins. Having become rusty, I've found a way to keep playing online.

So if anyone is on facebook, give it a go .

By Duncan on 06 September 2007 11:15

My dabbling in salsa continues, with my dancing a little rusty after a month's break. Bar Venezia down on Exeter Quay is my favourite place to salsa at the moment, with a friendly atmosphere and some great dancers.

Last Friday I went up with my friend Kash to a dance in Barnstaple, a leaving do for a salsa teacher there called Martin. An amazing dancer who recently one 2nd in a national amateur's salsa contest. He actually leaves at the end of September, so we still see him for another month.

We got there a little late, and were expecing a normal freestyle. After a couple of songs, there was a break (at about 10) for a buffet meal, with the queue leading onto the dancefloor. A little unusual to have food so late, but some dancing continued. The night continued, with the songs interrupted by a going-away dance for Martin, belly dancers, an impromptu striptease, a cabaret of Martin and Naomi's winning routine and a raffle [No, I didn't win]. It was quite a surreal night, not helped by the DJ's dodgy...

Read More »

By Duncan on 05 September 2007 11:29

As always when a new university term starts, I'll be running a new roleplaying campaign. But this year I'm running for an experienced group who have been players of mine for years, although some haven't been in a campaign for a while.  My players voted for a more intrigue based campaign, this time around, playing part of a diplomatic embassy as a prelude to an invasion.

On Sunday we got down to character creation, with a good mix of concepts and interesting ideas. Not a combat heavy group, the initial four characters are skilled at Diplomacy and stealth, joined by a fifth on Monday, with one more yet to be made.

Which means I get to the best bit for me, plotting out the campaign arc and how things may happen. Planning encounters, populating the characters of the world, working out interesting events and storylines. Knowing these players, much of what I plan will get turned on its head, but that's the way it should be.

And yes, I will be writing this campaign up as a story hour.

...

Read More »