None of ye noticed ... but I'll tell ye anyway.

[CelticRambler]

As ye all know, I steadfastly refuse to follow the venerable Kadman's advice that any self-respecting (late?) middle-aged man should be happy to spend the weekend with a good quality spanner, a selection of nuts&bolts, and a fresh pot of Swarfega.

So it was that I made a detour to the Jura mountains last weekend (wobbly camper wheel notwithstanding), to enjoy the company of comely maidens, mädchens and demoiselles at (yet another) continental céilí. An event I've been to before, in a place quite literally at the very edge of the country - that's the venue; I'm standing in Switzerland taking the photo.



More specifically, I'm standing beside "the witch's rock" which may have had a bearing on subsequent events.

Later that evening, there I was at the edge of the dancefloor trying to decide between rehydration or another 10000 steps when a barefoot beauty - tall, straight-backed, jet-black hair, and in a long, elegant black dress - sidles up to me and asks me (in a sexy mezzo voice) to teach her the dance. And the next one. And the one after that too.

As the evening was drawing to a close, I was determined to get one last turn with her, so was keeping an eye on her (and who else she was dancing with ) and praying that the band would announce one particular dance, and they did, when she was only a couple of metres away from me. Yay!

Not so yay. Poof! Just like that, she was gone. Cinderella, for real, except no glass slipper (or any other footware) left behind. I didn't see her again all the rest of the night.

But not gone from inside my head, hence that post that none of you picked up on. And a week later, it's no better - maybe because she revealed just enough about herself that I could google her and find out that she's even more "my kind of woman" than she first appeared. Google-stalking is a Bad Idea.

The worst of it is, we've been stomping the same ground for nine years - nine years! - but never crossed paths before because we live in separate musical worlds. Until she got an urge to switch from music to dance two months ago and we ended up last Saturday in the same shed in the same field on the same night ...

She said she's really interested in coming to my local festival next July ...

I don't think I can wait that long ...

She led me to believe that she'll be at another music-and-dance event next month ...

In middle-of-nowhere, Switzerland ...

It's only a 1500km round trip from here ...

[knownunknown]

As ye all know, I steadfastly refuse to follow the venerable Kadman's advice that any self-respecting (late?) middle-aged man should be happy to spend the weekend with a good quality spanner, a selection of nuts&bolts, and a fresh pot of Swarfega.

So it was that I made a detour to the Jura mountains last weekend (wobbly camper wheel notwithstanding), to enjoy the company of comely maidens, mädchens and demoiselles at (yet another) continental céilí. An event I've been to before, in a place quite literally at the very edge of the country - that's the venue; I'm standing in Switzerland taking the photo.



More specifically, I'm standing beside "the witch's rock" which may have had a bearing on subsequent events.

Later that evening, there I was at the edge of the dancefloor trying to decide between rehydration or another 10000 steps when a barefoot beauty - tall, straight-backed, jet-black hair, and in a long, elegant black dress - sidles up to me and asks me (in a sexy mezzo voice) to teach her the dance. And the next one. And the one after that too.

As the evening was drawing to a close, I was determined to get one last turn with her, so was keeping an eye on her (and who else she was dancing with ) and praying that the band would announce one particular dance, and they did, when she was only a couple of metres away from me. Yay!

Not so yay. Poof! Just like that, she was gone. Cinderella, for real, except no glass slipper (or any other footware) left behind. I didn't see her again all the rest of the night.

But not gone from inside my head, hence that post that none of you picked up on. And a week later, it's no better - maybe because she revealed just enough about herself that I could google her and find out that she's even more "my kind of woman" than she first appeared. Google-stalking is a Bad Idea.

The worst of it is, we've been stomping the same ground for nine years - nine years! - but never crossed paths before because we live in separate musical worlds. Until she got an urge to switch from music to dance two months ago and we ended up last Saturday in the same shed in the same field on the same night ...

She said she's really interested in coming to my local festival next July ...

I don't think I can wait that long ...

She led me to believe that she'll be at another music-and-dance event next month ...

In middle-of-nowhere, Switzerland ...

It's only a 1500km round trip from here ...

I always thought you had an OH…. … in which case… saucy

[CelticRambler]

I do ... did ... sort of still do, but not really. The-woman-formerly-known-as-MrsCR took herself off a number of years ago, and won't be coming back as a current MrsCR; but having weathered the almighty storm she created by the timing and manner of her departure, we've remained (become again) good friends and she still sets the standard which other women have to live up to.

[isha]

Go to the festival next month for the love of God, and don't spend the winter wondering. Be straightforward and get your answer as soon as possible so that either way you can move on, either with or without her. Be prepared to be cheerful whatever happens. She may simply have been enjoying the dance and your company with no further intentions, or she very well may be amenable to more. But don't waste time, we are all nearly dead and I mean that in the most philosophical of ways.

[Apelles]

Yeah, go for it CR. I hope you and Zora get together and 'get it on'.

[CelticRambler]

But don't waste time, we are all nearly dead and I mean that in the most philosophical of ways.

That's what my adopted French godmother (a mad, penniless artist herself) said last week. And she knows how much I really need to get a new front door put in place before Winter (first build your door)!

[Deleted]

ah good man!

[isha]

Mad penniless artist - to whom are you referring? Yourself or me. The last two I admit to, but the madness?... wisdom I call it, not madness, old buck.

[CelticRambler]

Oh, definitely me! But my friend is just that: a mad, penniless artist. I once witnessed her scrape the paint off a canvas because she couldn't afford to buy a new one. She'd turned down an offer of 200€ for the painting at an exhibition a couple of weeks before because she felt it was worth 400€

Mind you, I'll have cleared out my Swiss bank account after this trip ... or at least the Revolut version of same. Good job these Bohemian types are low maintenance. Supposedly.

In the meantime, kadman will be reassured to know I'm off out now to buy a kilo of plasterboard screws, and I've asked Amazon to add some long-shaft sockets to my toolbox for use next week.

[Leg End Reject]

You old romantic, CR!

Faint heart never won fair (or raven-haired) lady. You're going to have to engineer for your paths to cross again, some covert Google stalking should allow you to be in the same room again.

[CelticRambler]

In the hope that SNCF's incompetence is not, in fact, a Divine Intervention telling me I'm wasting my time trekking all the way to the Swiss countryside for the far-from-definite possibility that one particular individual might turn up in the place at the same time, and that a second encounter might be as sparky as the first ... my picnic lunch is almost made, my packing is almost done, my dinner is almost cooked (with sufficient leftovers to come home to on Monday night), and I'm about to say goodnight and "have a good weekend" to the kittens.

That just leaves you lot. Here's something to remember me by - a (rather crappy) video of the when and where it all began last month, which - if you pay close attention - includes about half a second of yours truly swinging with another woman.

[Del.Monte]

Looks great craic but I'm not able to let my hair down like that without a very large amount of drink by which time I'm incapable of dancing or anything else.

[Diamonds of Frost]

Oh, definitely me! But my friend is just that: a mad, penniless artist. I once witnessed her scrape the paint off a canvas because she couldn't afford to buy a new one. She'd turned down an offer of 200€ for the painting at an exhibition a couple of weeks before because she felt it was worth 400€

Mind you, I'll have cleared out my Swiss bank account after this trip ... or at least the Revolut version of same. Good job these Bohemian types are low maintenance. Supposedly.

In the meantime, kadman will be reassured to know I'm off out now to buy a kilo of plasterboard screws, and I've asked Amazon to add some long-shaft sockets to my toolbox for use next week.

Are you the black hair and beard or the bald head or the man bun?

[CelticRambler]

Yeah, all of the above (depending on how the light catches me)!

Looks great craic but I'm not able to let my hair down like that without a very large amount of drink by which time I'm incapable of dancing or anything else.

No-one would object to you working your way through the large amount of drink at the bar and enjoying the craic at a distance.

[kadman]

Sounds like the ramblings of a dirty old man hopped out of his head on swiss magic mushrooms. I heard they can do that to you

Go for it, whats the worst that can happen. Either you end up in a passionate embrace on the dance floor.

Or you get banged up abroad for stalking across numerous european borders, after some young wan.

Either way we get to laugh at yer antics over a large bowl of popcorn

Go for it

[kadman]

Sure you might well end up as a legend yet

[CelticRambler]

Sure you might well end up as a legend yet

Well ...




She was there ...





And then she wasn't ...




But she did tell me straight off that she'd only be there for the first evening, and made a point of coming to find me to say goodbye, and reassure me that she still has my number.

Working on being that legend, kadman!

[CelticRambler]

So anyway: in the cold light of the (third) morning after the night before ...

... yep, she's just as Czecxy as she was last month. Or maybe moreso.

Arriving at the venue early and lending a hand with the final preparations, I had a chance to scan the list of ticket-holders. Her name wasn't on it, so I went into the dance hall with a degree of disappointment. Then the first dance was announced, a collective one performed in long twisting lines (Breton hanter dro, if anyone's interested) and suddenly there she was: out of reach on the far side of another line of dancers, but as soon as she saw me, she flashed me that same smile as before.

I'm still trying to interpret the signals, but hopefull that we're in "definitely maybe" territory. And it's not the mushrooms, @kadman (magic or otherwise). Over the course of the evening, I only had to make eyes at her across the room and she came running.

Also, I'm in the clear as regards the google stalking (oooof! ) With just a little bit of careful prompting, she happily disclosed pretty much everything I'd gleaned from the traces I found on the internet. Not her age, however. Though I wouldn't describe her as a "young wan" - and when she's got her serious face on, in the videos I've seen, she looks quite "old" - in the half-light of the dancefloor and hyped up on endorphins, she looks almost teenage.

It'll take another day's small-talking to find out, but I reckon she mixes with a lot of students and young adults (does she teach as well as perform?) and absorbs their youthful energy ... kinda like I do. There are also hints of an irreverent mischievousness, of the kind to which my mother would say "ah listen, d'you not think you should act your age?" and which I find very attractive in an otherwise serious professional person ...

Voilà : the mission was an unmitigated failure - she's still very much "in my head" and with no chance of doing anything more about it till early in the New Year. For the remainder of the festival, I had to content myself with a great fandango workshop with Izaskun Iturri (the Basque country's answer to Jean Butler), and to round off Sunday with a sublime Valse d'Amélie with Léa, formerly of the Zürich ballet.

Now it's back to trudging through wind and rain to spend quality time with my interminable renovation project.

[kadman]

She looks old in the light
Keep her in the fekking dark so. Good god man have you lost the run of yerself. Speaking of run......Run Forrest, Run

CR you just had a luck escape. There are a few hints in yer story, old wan, in the light, and mischievous antics. I'd say she is trying to hook up with you, for your rickety old camper, not rickety old CR

[CelticRambler]

Listen, K - at this stage in my life, I'll take any kind of a hook-up I can get ... and shure the camper'll be a lot less rickety once the mechanic puts the wheels back on.

[isha]

Early New year!!! This is far too long away for my liking.

[CelticRambler]

Early New year!!! This is far too long away for my liking.

Me too ... but her agenda between now and then is packed with Advent and Christmas concerts. Occupational hazard when you dabble with the likes of Handel and Vivaldi.

[Leg End Reject]

Me too ... but her agenda between now and then is packed with Advent and Christmas concerts. Occupational hazard when you dabble with the likes of Handel and Vivaldi.

She has your number ... for the love of God please tell us you have hers?

Time to make your intentions known, she seems keen so you need to progress things now.

[CelticRambler]

She has your number ... for the love of God please tell us you have hers?

Time to make your intentions known, she seems keen so you need to progress things now.

I can't tell you that ...

I had hoped to take advantage of the down time between workshops and dances on the Saturday and Sunday to get to know her better and chat about "stuff" other than music and dance ... but that didn't happen. C'est la vie, alas.

There's no real prospect of making any kind of progress for the next couple of months. She will be really busy in the evenings and weekends (I'm quite familiar with the performing artist routine) and I'm not going to kill myself getting up at 5am to travel 650km for a coffee when I really, really do need to spend time on my house.

However, I will now actively seek several weeks' work over that-away for the winter months, with a view to being in a position to ask her out on an old-fashioned date at short notice the next time we meet. And besides, she made the first move last month, so I'm sure she wouldn't be shy about getting in touch, if I'm in her thoughts even half as much as she's in mine.

[Leg End Reject]