Where Did the Week Go

March 13

Busy week at home and work leads to me neglecting my diary again. Work busy as arrival of new number plates triggers car buying and viewing frenzy and I make a lot of coffee. Job made slightly harder by failed mystery shop which managers appear to have on 5 second mental loop as that is the frequency with which they come over to check we have greeted customers as they come through the door. Reflect on the difficulty of discreetly letting customers look round on their own and having greeted them and offered coffee within 3 minutes and snarl internally quite a lot.

Fabulous relief found in two long awaited events. The first is the Burlesque Dance Class that Dear Friend Rachel talks me into (or rather encourages me to put my money where my mouth is!) Rachel and I therefore join a group of 12 women to be taught Burlesque by the awesome Jo King who taught the Tease Maids and has worked with Immodesty Blaize.

Make the mistake of sharing my destination with the salesmen at work and am treated to a chorus of "Private Dancer, Dancer for Money" with much booty shaking (theors not mine)as I leave work.

It is lovely to catch up with Rachel and we sit on a step outside the dance class sipping wine and eating nuts and olives in a sort of posh hobo drinks party and gossip like mad.

We are a mixed group at class - the only unvarying common factor seems to be fabulousness and it is blissful to be in a roomful of women who share my interests. Rachel of course is a natural and I am disconcerted to find that after years of being told by men that I am too exaggerated, that in fact I am not exaggerated enough for Burlesque and resolve to wear more lippy next week. (Obviously magic dancing lippy). I do however practise The Walk at work and find that more of the garage technicians talk to me than usual.

From class it is a short hop and a skip (or shimmy and shake) to Thursday night when we pick up my Dear Friend Inge from Denmark for a weekend of champagne drinking, film watching, tiramisu eating, fur wearing and more gossip. Husband To Be (HTB) kindly makes himself scarce and we watch Tom Hanks in The Terminal, Shirley Valentine and An Affair to Remember. I weep copiously at the end and Inge laughs and we realise nothing much has changed in 16 years.

The weekend goes too quickly and I find myself back at work and preparing for Week 2 of Burlesque in no time at all.