The first thing I saw this morning
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes this morning
was exactly this, without any intervention from me:
I simply had to go get my camera and get back into bed to take the picture.
The next thing I saw
Ok, after I got up and looked at my phone, was this:
Who that then?
This is my teddy-bear, PuNcK.
Denise met him at Heathrow when she was stranded there, by a ground-crew strike, on her way to Herrang last summer. He guarded my foam mattress in the school at Herrang and came back with me to London.
The SMS was from the Swing Demon herself, having a good time at the Urban Bar. The full message was:
OH MY GOD!!! Its been such a great Urban Swing. You would be SO proud!!! We’re doing well - and u’re a fab inspiration! Everybody sends their love. xxxM
This made me very happy! I’m looking forward to reading some reviews and maybe seeing some pictures. For those of you who don’t know, Urban Swing is an occasional dance event at the Urban Bar in East London that I, together with Fede, started up in the winter of 2001 when it was too cold to dance outside. I don’t think it was called Urban Swing until January 2002. In February 2003 it was a key event at the first London Lindy Exchange and, of course, I will never forget the one that was my leaving party.
You might remember PuNcK making a guest appearance at Urban Swing last year.
He stowed away in my hand-lugguage on the way to Kenya;
(I took this picture just a few minutes after arriving in my house in Tala on 14th Feb 2004)
and has spent most of the time since then hiding under my mosquito net.
Perhaps I should have dispatched him to take care of the third thing I saw this morning: a rat in the air-brick above my kitchen door.
tygger Says:
yay! You got my message! Yes, it WAS a great night … i see you’ve used this blog to plug as many urban swing events as possible! Lucy and martin took some fab photos and hopefully they’ll be up on the site soon. Fede wasn’t there though - strange not having EITHER of you guys around. Anyways, I’ll hopefully get round to updating my blog with a review - and we’re all still on a high and are looking forward to the 100club tonight (orange’s b’day tomorrow so everyone coming out…).
As for PuNcK - is that who i think it is smootching next to himat urban swing??!!??
You should do more of these photo stories …. I like ……
April 19th, 2004 at 3:32 pmLydia Says:
Have you got my letter yet?? Is the rat dead? HAve you taught your students any more dances? I am out of the loop on your blog because I got the wrong end of the stick about the SMS thing and thought that accessing your blog was expensive. VERY dim! :blush:
April 19th, 2004 at 5:23 pmFede feeling guilty Says:
Weather: cloudy
Food: jacket with cheese (smelly!)
yes indeed, mark, looks like we’re not there and things go well!
only joking, i feel awful for not going but a rainy day, an impending cold and a swollen foot (been like this two weeks, hurts, no reason for it..) made me stay at home, doing some work…
shame. Im useless.
fex
April 20th, 2004 at 4:52 pmMark Says:
Looks like Urban Swing went well in spite of us, Fede! (kidding)
I always said that the party was within that crowd. We’ve had such fantastic parties there, remember the one with Bill Borgida? We didn’t do anything to make it happen except make it happen. They did the rest. And they can make it happen too. (does any of this make any sense?)
I’m hoping it lasts till I’m next in London so I can just pitch up at one and shake my ass.
Don’t see where any of this makes you useless. I bet you have other projects now, no?
L, no sign of your letter yet, maybe the customs officer is passiung it round his office. :O
April 21st, 2004 at 11:33 am