Top Tips and Tip Top Twirling!

Instead of cycling on Saturday we had a leisurely cup of tea with some neighbours and got our exercise through dancing at a fundraising salsa night in the evening.

Through doorstep encounters we had discovered that our neighbours had done a London to Paris cycle ride last August. They kindly invited us over for a cup of tea to tell us about their trip and give us some tips. Their experience will have been somewhat different to ours - not only because they did a different route to us, but also because they did it on a tandem! It was fantastic to get some encouragement from them. We discussed everything from tandems and bike set up, through to clothes, what to eat and approaching the trip with the right frame of mind. Despite some real lows, including a cancelled ferry, which meant they didn't travel over to France until midnight on their first day, they were really positive about the whole trip and we can't wait to come back and swap stories with them. Top tips - expect to be tired and grumpy in the evenings, so try to be patient and don't take things personally...and my favourite...chocolate! I will definitely be sticking to that one! Feeling reassured, I came home looking forward to the trip again which was great. But for now, I had to concentrate on the salsa night ahead and hope that some guests would turn up.

Preparations for the salsa night had been relatively easy. We'd booked the venue, got our fab friend Alan to agree to do a salsa lesson and publicised it as much as possible. As we'd not sold tickets in advance, I just had to hope some people would come along. 15 minutes before the class I only had three people and was feeling rather worried the night would be a flop...however, as it got nearer to 8pm and a few minutes after, people kept coming and we had 24 in total. Phew! It was a perfect number for the venue. Relaxing and enjoying a glass of wine as the class got underway, I was delighted to watch the complete beginners who had been really nervous getting stuck in and giving it a go. Everyone did really well and they certainly seemed to be having fun! We had lots of postive comments at the end of the night and people asking if we would do it again, so we might just do that!

We raised £158 from the evening, which was excellent. Thanks to everyone who came along and a big thank you to the City Gate for providing the venue - and most of all thank you to Alan for a tip top salsa class and providing us with a great evening of music and dancing! If you're interested in going along to a salsa class, do visit his website at: www.MisterSalsa.net