News
Printed on: 10th October 2024 - 05:51.
Christmas Pot Luck & Raffle
15th December
Due to a cold snap in December, we had a few problems with the heating at the Guide HQ... the heating system has an automatic defrost, that cuts in, to prevent ice build up on the outside unit. However, that leaves the hall cold on the inside, especially when temperatures drop below zero! The picture below is of our dancers, many of whom, refused to take their coats off.
Having only been able to get the room up to 17°C by the time we came to go home, on the previous week... this time, we decided to arrive an hour and a half early, to make sure that the room was warm enough. The picture below shows the Pot Luck table, with a splendid variety of food and desserts.
This picture, shows our dancers, many sporting Christmas Jumpers... but no coats this time!
We held a raffle, to help with club funds and, as usual, there was no shortage of prizes, so nobody went home empty handed, and hopefully our treasurer is happy too! Our ‘Give Care Not Cards’ money this year, was donated to The Donna Louise Trust, a local children's hospice.
By the end of the evening, we had collected £110, including donations for Edward's origami creations. Edward took all of the remaining origami items to his Birmingham origami meeting, and someone kindly donated a further £20. This brought the total to £130, so with Gift Aid, this will have given the hospice £162.50, to help children with life limiting conditions and provide support for their families.
Visitors
4th November
Blue Diamonds, receive various emails... sometimes from other clubs, asking to publicise their events, often from companies advertising goods and services, that are usually nothing to do with square dancing (i.e., spam), and occasionally, enquiries from people interested in coming to one of our club nights, such as this one:
My mom is visiting me here in the UK. She is doing a square dance in Russia and is really interested to see how it is here.
Polly
So, when I received the above email, I of course replied, and said that she was welcome to come with her mom, and that we looked forward to seeing them both.
As promised, on the night, Polly (Polina) came with her mom (Elena), plus Polly's partner (Pavel) and baby (Anna), who was ‘as good as gold’, and stayed for the entire evening.
Elena speaks very little English, however it seems that square dance calls are a universal language, so Elena had no problem following Alan's calling... in fact, she turned out to be an excellent dancer. She danced virtually every tip faultlessly, which is more than can be said for some of the regular dancers!
Suffice to say, an enjoyable evening was had by all... but don't take my word for it, read the following review from Polly, that I received via email the next day:
My mom Elena, is doing a square dance in Russia, in club ‘Sunday Smiling Squares’ in city Pskov (located near Saint Petersburg).
She came to visit us in the UK and was very interested to see square dance here. We had a very warm welcome in the Blue Diamonds.
My mom was kindly invited to dance all dances and she had a great time. We really enjoyed the atmosphere in the club, very relaxed and fun, all the people in the Blue Diamonds were friendly and kind to us.
My mom can't speak English very well, but she still was able to have a little chat and communicate. She said that Alan is very professional and experienced caller and dancers did very well. My mom mentioned that in their club in Russia they also struggle to attract young people to square dance.
Also, it was great to have a tea break with biscuits. Thank you so much everyone, you made us to feel very welcome.
Elena, Polina, Pavel and baby Anna
P.S. Polly also gave us our first ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Google!
Peggy Connor
3rd November
Peggy, a founder member of Blue Diamonds, passed away peacefully, on Monday 10th October, following a short illness.
Her funeral took place on 3rd November and was attended by several members of Blue Diamonds. Peggy specifically requested, that people should dress in bright, cheerful clothes (i.e., to celebrate her life, rather than mourn her passing).
Welcome to Leah & Will Tinsdeall
28th February
Back in April 2019, we were pleased to welcome Leah Clarke to our club night and I quote from the news article... It was really good to have Leah's tuneful singing calls that evening as well as the usual records. Leah also brought a friend along, who is learning Basic and Mainstream, so a fun time was had by all.
Fast forward to 2022, and Leah is back with Will (her friend from 2019), only this time they're married... Not only is it good to have a couple of younger people at the club, it's also handy to have an alternative caller!