Addicts of satellite tv's "Street Wars" may find their prejudices about this Fair Town of Kent destroyed. Then again, they may be confirmed.
Little Egypt likes to ring the changes and to celebrate the Squire's
"All New Dance Programme for 2008" we broke with
tradition and went to Rochester on the Sunday of the May Bank Holiday weekend.
The rather snazzy transport from Florida Coaches picked us up at the Black Lion at 8 a.m., and by the time we reached our final pickup at
Ballingdon Bridge we had 46 people aboard - almost a full turnout.
Even Trevor dusted off his kit to come out of semi-retirement for the big trip.
We all wondered how the day would compare with our usual Saturday experience.
On arrival in Rochester we headed straight for the Gordon Hotel Beer Festival to be greeted with tragic news, the Nelson's Blood had sold out!
However lots of other fine ales were still available and we were soon supping and dancing our first set.
It seemed there were fewer sides at the various stands but there were plenty of appreciative visitors to cheer us on. Before we knew what was
happening the clock showed 2 p.m., time for lunch - for some - at Elizabeth's restaurant.
The Squire read a list of rules, most important of which was that we were to be on our best behaviour.
He referred to an EMail from "Manuel",
the head honcho at the restaurant, who commented that the previous year some of the speeches had been on the noisy side, especially the one by
"the man with the funny hair and squeaky voice".
We must have got away with it this year because no-one was thrown out.
The food was fantastic.
For our final stand of the day we'd arranged to meet up with Westrefelda.
A spirited "Fires of August" was followed by our "new" dance, "Gypsy Roundhouse".
It wasn't bad, considering we'd only practiced it twice, but it wasn't good either.
