Grey.

It's been an overcast, grey day and not too cold. I ran out of time to go and work outside as I had to prepare things for school tomorrow and sort out stuff for a visit to the Post Office after work tomorrow. Not a very eventful day.

Last night we had a really good time.There were about 50 of us which was just the right number for the football club's event room. There were already Christmas decorations up and a tree so it looked festive. The tables were covered with plain paper and by the sight of coloured felt pens on each table we knew we were in for some fun. It was announced that there were to be prizes for the most festive designs. My creative juices dried up and the best I could do on my section was Santa in a gig being pulled through the air by a couple of grey mice wearing Santa hats. My gig design was helped by the fact that I had a good view through to the dance floor where a continuous slide and video show of all the events the club had been to was being projected onto one wall. The first prize went to the youngsters on the table next to us. Just a bit of fun. 

The food was very good, veg or meat lasagna or beef curry which we helped ourselves to.  There were mince pies and cakes for desert which I resisted right until the end when I had a home made meringue with clotted cream.

There was a proper disco set up with lights etc but instead of the DJ sitting at a console or lap top he was simply walking around the room controlling everything from his i-pad. For a while the dance floor was sparsely populated, just the youngsters jumping up and down but later when the youngsters had mostly gone home it turned into a real party. Most people knew each other so instead of dancing in pairs or small groups we formed a large circle with everyone bopping away in their own style. Sometimes people would do a little 'turn' in the centre and at one point we were skipping around with linked arms and changing partners to some heavy rock! And then we ended up doing the conga to a ska tune. I haven't seen Peter join in with the dancing for a long time but he was there and even did his version of Thriller. (His knee is a bit puffy today.) We got home at about 1.00. What a pair of old ravers.

Once again there was that feeling of living in a small community even though Barnstaple is quite a big town. There was that web of connections again. We have known one couple there since their boys and ours went to the same tiny village school. Especially as their youngest, Doug who was last night's DJ, is the same age as Romas with his birthday 1 day later. Another gig rower there has been friends with Peter for a long time and I taught his daughter, who now rows with the junior crew. A couple of tables down from us were a family with 2 younger children one of whom is in one of my year 2 classes. He gave me a shy wave as he walked past our table. And finally I realised that another of the junior crew is the brother of a lad who I taught when he first came to school. Both parents are doctors and when I had collected Peter from the hospital on Thursday I had seen Mum's name up on the list of doctors for that unit.

It's Advent and the countdown begins. We shall be having a quiet Christmas with friends visiting afterwards but I still look forward to that special day. I've given up my eating any chocolate until Christmas so that I can look forward to indulging on the day. Also I'm getting near to the end of my diet and a final boost to get rid of those last few pounds wouldn't hurt I won't be tempted to dip into the tins of chocolates and biscuits that no doubt will start appearing in the staffroom. (Evenings out don't count.) Instead I made myself some apple leather today so that I can still have an evening treat.