New Years 2006 (Dec 31, 2005)

Also covered in "The Times" January 13, 2006, Page 31

A smashing success, decorations & food by Lynn Nelles & Bertha Mortimer (who decorate weddings), music by myself, DJ ran by Mike Johnson, door & my assistant Alex, with help decorating from Kathy Bishop & friend Bob.  We could of used either two more people or two more hours!   But now we really appreciate how much work this was & (I hope), next year will be just as fabulous, except, Bertha wants to dance next year!  We planned for hot food at 9:00, but didn't plan on only one stove to do the job for almost 150 people! 

And so much thanks to the dozen or so people who helped us tear down afterwards.  We HAD to be out by 2:30 and thanks to your generous support we had everything outside by 2:40 and were on the road by 3:15am!   To give you an idea on how much work this was, Lynn & I started shopping for food 8:30am Friday, and finished preparing, with help from Bertha, Kathy & Bob about 6:30 Friday night.   Then Saturday, Bertha & Lynn started decorating preparation at 6:30am, and we started setting up the hall at 2:00pm and were still setting up when people started arriving at 7:00!  I didn't get my tux on till 7:45, and believe it or not only two couples hadn't arrived by 8:30. The music took me about 3 weeks to plan, and at least 1/3 of the songs were requests.  Songs covered 19 different dance styles, time periods from the 50's to current.  Favorites included Guy Mitchell "Singin the Blues", Pink Panther, James Taylor "Mexico, Madonna "Cherish", Olivia Newton-Johns "Sam", Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons", to Michael Buble's "Sway" & Santana's big hit cha cha's & more!

The night started with Pink's cha cha "Let's get this party started".   A little review of disco rock and we had 7 1/2 minutes of fun with Lionel Ritchie's "(We're going to party) All Night Long" tagged on with S-Club-7's song "S Club Party).  Robyn & Don's Swango show dance, and Steve & Elaine's Gold level Slow Waltz were smashing success's.  The "dance contest", where "dance champions" from each table showed us how they could switch from cha cha to waltz several times using Paul McCartney's "Just Another Day" was lots of fun, the samba, mamba & merenge line dances are always a crowd favorite, and Cathy Barrington charmed us with her beautiful voice on three numbers, and her daughter Amie started to "wow" us, but her CD decided it didn't like my CD player.   Too bad, because she sounded fabulous in the practice beforehand.  And "who knew" that the limbo dance (for men won by Trevor Lum) would be such a big hit that the women demanded one also (won by Jacquie Fiddler)!

And, I got to thank properly all the people who inadvertently made this great night possible.  From my friends Jay & Emily who three years ago took me dancing EVERY weekend with all their friends, to Cathy Bishop & Debbie Beatty who are former and current dance partners, Christine Yeoh, Cathy Bishop, & Malgosha whom I've had simply incredible dances with early on in my dance days (samba, rhumba & waltz) Steve Chu & Ted Yeoh for bringing 45 of their friends, Robyn Picard for being who she is, a fabulous dance teacher who loves dance, and gives her students more than 100%, Lynn Nelles & Bertha for planning the incredible decorations without being asked, and Bertha for 2 years & 18 days of being the best friend and dance partner a girlfriend could be!  I don't drive, so without all these people, this event, and my monthly dances would never of happened!   And there are other people who volunteered to help, Verity, Donna, Jaquie, & Robyn.  Now that I know I was over my head I'll accept all volunteers next year!   But I wanted it to be a special evening for all my friends.  And we succeeded so far beyond my wildest initial expectations.

And thanks so much to Trevor Lum www.xsightphotography.net who I'd never met before and volunteered to show up with professional gear and a notebook and take pictures for us!  The picture taking turned out to be really popular, and this is a sampling of 217 pictures he gave me!

New Years 2005 group photo!

Dance floor was fabulous, note the 6 disco balls on the ceiling, 20 tables of decorations, at the very back in the middle the "photo shoot" area, and even with 150 people everyone had lots of room to dance!

Bertha & I doing West Coast Swing

Steve & Elaine Chu showing us Gold level Slow Waltz

Robyn & Don showing us how great Swango can be!

Robyn shows us why she looks so fabulous.   It's because she eats her spinach

Spinach dip!

Robyn leads everyone in merenge line dance

Who knew Robyn's husband Dave could dance?  Who knew!?

Bill & Bev - Leave your cell at home next time Bill!

"What sort of lead was that?"  she says!

I got to hug the ladies - Elaine Chu (& Steven Chu) who did a beautiful slow waltz, and incidentally made me absolutely beautiful curtains for my living room!

And a few guys - special friends Jay Loh (yes the REAL Jay Loh), and behind him his wife Emily

Now check out New Years 2006