Socials are an integral part of our line dance organisation. They provide an opportunity for our dancers to test out their knowledge and skills, check out their options to stretch themselves in a higher level, and meet other members of our community from different regional areas.
Following the survey run last social, we will be continuing with the same format as last year, with an afternoon tea break at around 3pm, so bring a small plate to share, and your own coffee cup if you want the free tea and coffee we provide.
The program is made up from requests from those attending. There have been an increase in the new members of our community attending the socials, which is wonderful. We have adjusted the programme to accommodate this with an increased number of easy level dances on the program.
The first social date for this year is:

Subsequent dates will be arranged once I get settled in our new address and catch up on line dance organisational stuff.
The Address is: West Croydon and Kilkenny RSL, 19 Rosetta St, West Croydon.
Dancing starts at 1.30pm and concludes at 5pm at a cost of $15 (cash only). The program is run by request, and everyone gets a request form when they enter, to nominate 5 dances they would like to do. We try to ensure that you get at least one of those, but we only do about 5 level 6+ dances during the session, so don't just ask for really hard ones (or lots of unusual ones), or you could miss out altogether.
We have decided not to offer meals beforehand this year, as they were not being well supported and it was not economical for the caterers. Instead, we will return to the format we were using long before Covid-19, with a break about half way through, where we share a combined afternoon tea for 20 minutes. Please bring a small plate of food to share with your fellow dancers. Also bring a coffee cup if you wish to take advantage of the free tea and coffee provided. We will have minimal fridge space, and a pie warmer, but no oven, so please don’t bring food that needs cooking or defrosting. We feel this is a better way to assist people to mix and chat. Doors will open 30 minutes before the starting time.

Our holiday plans for this past Xmas were changed from the original plan. We intended to go to Melbourne for Xmas with the grand kids, followed by a week in Fiji as a chill down with the family after a torrid year.
You may recall that our first social last year was a special celebration for 4 visitors from the USA. They enjoyed the experience so much, that one of them contacted us late last year, and invited us to reciprocate and visit them. You may also know that we have frequently talked about eventually retiring in a few years time and travelling the USA in a RV/Caravan for 18 months, to experience the real vibe of my birthplace (I was born in Chicago). Liz and I had talked about doing a short reconnoiter trip to check out the viability of such a major disruption to our lives.
So we decided, in amongst our current chaos, to change our plans, and instead of Melbourne for Christmas, go to the USA instead. Our travel agent got us a great deal on an RV (as it is low season), and we arranged the flights around the Fiji plans already in place.
Having a kidney stone at the same time was not part of the plan however, but it decided to pass 1 hour before our flight left.
We had six objectives as part of the trip:

We had just over 4 weeks to accomplish this, and have lots of fun, and saw lots of things along the way (we drove 5300 miles in total).
Apart from the white Xmas (we had the white in Jackson Wyoming, and the Xmas in Albuquerque, and later visiting Mount Rushmore), we achieved all our goals.
Then we finished with the original plan of a week in Fiji with the grand kids. Has to be the most expensive place in the world that we have come across, but we got to spend quality time with the family that we see so infrequently, so worth it.
I'll let you know more (if there is interest) in other newsletters.