Shake shake, shimmy shimmy

I'm always interested in new experiences.

Monday's new experience was belly dancing. Well it was definitely an experience.

I have discovered that one can be any size to do belly dancing, useful in environs of Basildon (as my Mum used to say "the sights you see when you haven't got a gun").

One can also wear whatever one likes to do belly dancing (again useful in this particular geographic area).

And finally one can be any age.

The ladies who were clearly most expert were the largest, the oldest and the ones wearing the most Turkish attire or least attire if considering the most exposed flesh.

Clothing-wise the teacher was wearing a long flowing skirt with jingly jangly bits, a bra top, again with jingly jangly bits, long flowing black hair and bare feet.

Some of the class were obviously trying to emulate this look but unfortunately many lacked her figure which detracted somewhat from the effect.

There were some who went for the 'just popped in from the pub' look, sporting jeans and a token scarf on the hips.

And then there were the newbies: us. We wore gym gear with bare feet.

Footwear was interesting. Many went without, but there were some sandal wearers, sock wearers and slipper sock wearers (my personal favourite).

As for the actual dancing...well. I'm not very good.

There was one step where you stepped backwards and raised your ribs and then stepped back another step dropping your ribs (boobs) twice and then on the next step backwards do two hip wiggles. The whole rib thing seemed very strange.

There were lots of hip wiggling bits and I know I'll ache loads tomorrow as a result. Then there were the shimmies that wobbled the top half. The shimmies were for the experts but we had to try them.

So will I go back next week? Probably.

Will I get my wobbly bits out? Er, no.