Ballroom Dancing - The World Is Going Crazy!

Now that this American boy with 43 snails on his face has your attention I can move on.

A group of eight of us attended ballroom dancing lessons at The Studio on Taranaki Street. It was a bit intense, but funny. We did a foxtrot, cha cha and some other kind of dance. The thing is that now I know bits of heaps of dances rather than heaps of few dances! On arrival we spotted heaps of die hard dancers moving their backsides like Stefano off Dancing with the Stars. Our class was obviously beginner, but was more intense than other beginner dancing that I had done. I have done ballroom (olde time Southern Styles) dancing heaps before at the mighty Gore Pressie ball which I frequented for nine long years. This was not lost on the teacher George who noticed that I must've done dancing before. I guess I am just a natural mover!

I learned that you hold the women on the left shoulder blade and they squeeze your right bicep and hold tight so that there is actually more distance between you than I am used to. It looks stiff and upright, but it means you are protected in a crowded room. If you used this style in Gore you would be labelled a try hard. I am used to going more for the "cradling" where you are more close and slightly side on. I figure the girl needs to be lead by a strong man!

It is hard to know how many times we will go. There were some real characters there with a mixture of ability. Afterwards there was a guy with something similar to a blue long sausage floatation device from a swimming pool. Except it was keeping his posture in the tight ballroom hold as he danced on his own. Anyway, it was $12 of entertainment.

There have been such crazy things happening in this world that have grabbed my attention.

1) The guy above wanted to get into the Guinness Book of World Records so he got 43 snails put on his face. Surely there must be a less creepy record than that! 36 was the old benchmark.

2) Former England All Rounder Chris Lewis was done for importing drugs and will be in jail for a while. I used to like his style as a cricketer and he had a nice Gray - Nicholls bat that I liked.

3) Staying with cricket, controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar who has double jointed elbows (I remember watching him opening the doors at North Dunedin KFC he looked like a spider) is injured. It sucks to be famous though because he is out with genital warts for a few weeks. Who would want the world to know that?

4) Police are searching for a 252kg 14 year old boy and his Mum in the USA. How ridiculous? They are concerned about his health. You could say they are at large!

5) Finally, I was saddened that Counties Manakau rugby team have been forced to hit up Trade Me in an attempt to gain sponsorship. If Southland were doing the same and I had money I would pay up to get my logo on their shirts. Bidding starts at $100K but it must be embarrassing for the NZRU to see this take place. It is a great idea though!