Melbourne Cup Cruise

Start of our Cruise for Melbourne
Saturday the 1st of November, Rhonda, Angela, Lorraine, Judy, Jenny and myself went for a 6 day cruise to the Melbourne Cup. The weather was not kind the first night we sailed, with 60 knot winds and 4-6 metre swells.

Leaving Sydney Harbour Saturday 1st November
Judy, Angela Myself & Rhonda

Jenny was not feeling the best through the night, lucky the bags were on the stairwells, we noticed there were quite a few people looking a bit pale the next day.

It was so windy, no one was able to go up on the top deck, furniture was tied down and the wind was icy cold, felt like we were going to the South Pole.

Reaching Melbourne on Monday morning the seas were calm and everyone was feeling better, a good day out shopping was on the agenda. Heaps of shops we went through much better than shopping in Nowra. So much to choose from. A great day was had by all. Back onto the ship for our meal & more dancing yippeee

Melbourne Cup day,
P&O cruises organised buses to transport everyone from the cruise ships to the Melbourne Cup, so no worries about trying to find our way through the busy streets of Melbourne

Me & Judy having a great day out with the other girls
, we look pretty cute with our head gear

Winners are grinners, Rhonda, Lorraine, Angela or was it the wine!!!!!!

The day was coming to an end 

What a fantastic day, will definately have to make it again to the Melbourne Cup, not a winner this year   but I now know how to put the bets on, so I might get lucky next year.
Might have to do a week with girls, shopping and checking out the Melbourne Sites in a few years. Another holiday for the calender, that's why the time is going so fast, we are filling it up with different outings. Hawaii next (2016)

On our way back up the east coast was quite a contrast to the trip down, smooth sailing all the way,  that's the way I like it.

Rhonda, Jenny & Judy arriving back in Sydney 

This was a fantastic trip, I would definately recommend this cruise. P&O certainly know how to look after their guests, great food, fabulous entertainment and great friends made this a special trip. A special trip for Jenny as we all helped to celebrate her birthday, Happy Birthday to a good friend. xx

Ulladulla Spotty Social

The girls had a great time at the Ulladulla Milton Bootscooters Spotty social,  learning heaps of new dances as well as carving up the dance floor with the dances they knew.

You all look fabulous in your spotty outfits.

Robyn, Carol, Muriel, Collette & Sister, Ann, Cheryl & Marianne

September Annual Spring Ball

The weekend started off with a meet & greet social on Friday Night, a good roll up with requests, heaps of old dances with a few new dances as well, but the old favourites never seem to die.

Linda Burgess was host for our Saturday afternoon Workshop, teaching 6 dances, with a good mix for different levels of dancing

After every one had left the hall, the committee and helpers went to work to transform the auditorium into a bright and colourful scene to put everyone in the mood for some great dancing

The Saturday night social started at 6.30 with everyone looking bright and cheery in florals and bright colours. This year Dance Instructors were asked to take a bracket of 5 dances each, this gave me the opportunity to socialise with visitors from Lithgow, Sydney, Canberra, Crookwell, Candelo, Townsville, Milton and also our locals.

The entertainment this year was The Shoalhaven Shufflers performing two dances with fancy costumes and looking pretty in those charlston dresses and Simon Pavitt with his fantastic voice singing a medley of Frank Sinatra songs.

This annual event is a fund raising night with a few of our ladies selling raffle tickets through out the year to raise money for our local hospital and also local charities.

Congratulations to Muriel Jones who took out the raffle prize for two nights in Darling Harbour plus $300 spending money, a few of us might be able to gate crash your fun Muriel and join you for this weekend.

I would like to thank everyone for coming along for this special night and hope to see you again next year on the 11th & 12th September 2015

Visit from the Sussex Inlet Girls

Today we had an unexpected surpirse with the girls from Sussex Inlet Line Dancers coming along to our class at Bomaderry to get their fix of line dancing.

Jenny Landsberry their teacher is warming herself in the tropics of far north Queensland while we shiver down here, thank goodness the rain has stopped today we have had enough over the last 4 days.

After class we headed off to Nowra Stocklands to have a cuppa and lunch and we bumped into Roz and Stan all the way from Canberra (maybe they came to our warmer climate) who are celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary.

Good to see you both have a great time at all the other line dance classes that you are attending over the next couple of days see you in a few weeks.

Milton Xmas In July

At the end of July, a group of us went to Ulladulla for another great fund raising social with the Milton Bootscooters, always a great program and plenty of easy dances done to some of the harder dance music with split floor.

Thanks to all that came along to make it a fun day, with lots of laughs and beautiful Raffle prizes, the first prize went to Mercia who won a beautiful hand made quilt and Penny also winning a prize.

As usual the Milton group always put on a great supper, lucky we get to dance more to get rid of some of the calories.

Helen Reeson from Milton is running another social this time at Milton Masonic Hall on Saturday 25th October at 1pm-5pm, cost is $15
Wish I could be there but I have somewhere else to go that weekend, but I am sure some of our ladies and gents will go this social.

Canberra Xmas in July

This year was the National Capital Boot Scooters 20th Birthday celebrations, what a fantastic weekend it was great to catch up with our friends from Canberra, Milton, Sydney and Illawarra.

Judy, Muriel and myself stayed with Jenny & Phil Bates with plenty of heating and electric blankets, which we were very grateful for as it did get to -4 degrees on the Saturday night, we arrived Friday about 2.30pm to a very wintery day although sunny it was lucky we were in the car with heating.

Starting off with the Friday Night Social. This was requests only so quite a variety of different dances on display, gives me plenty of choices to do for my classes.

Saturday morning Judy, Muriel and myself went for a bit of sightseeing and shopping, found lots of bargains, it is so easy to get in & out of parking areas in the big shopping areas so well spaced out and all in the one area.

Saturday afternoon the party starts about 2pm till 5.30pm with a wonderful celebration cake. I was asked to take a bracket of dances, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, as was other instructors, this was a set program with quite a few easy dances and a few hard ones thrown in, this social was well attended and lots of fun.

The afternoon social finished, then we had our meal which was a roast dinner & dessert, absolutely delicious.

At 7pm the night social started, this was held much the same as the afternoon social, with different instructors taking a bracket of dances. These dances were a lot harder but all looked great with beautiful music. Also another celebration cake, glad we danced alot to take off those extra kilos.

A big thanks to Jenny & Phil for allowing us to stay in their home, thanks to Julie, Ben, Petra & Jenny for putting on a fabulous weekend of dancing and to all the Canberra folk who made us feel very welcome, your club is thriving and fun hope you all have many years of dancing fun. See you soon at another social.

Chicago Stage Show

After a hectic month in June, we now have a fairly busy July with a couple of line dance socials and a stage show at the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre.

On the 5th July a large group of 28 line dancers and rock & roll group went out for tea to Fusions smorgasboard at the Ex Servo's club in Nowra, then off to see the stage show "Chicago" brilliant show plenty of dancing & singing.

Jacii (my neice) and Debbie from the duo group called "D'Ban Jac" were in the show, Jacii in the Cell Block Tango and Debbie playing the Jail Keeper all looking fabulous.

A fantastic night out, thanks to everyone who came along.

Mooloolaba Holiday June

Apart from having Val stay with us for our 8 day holiday at the Seaview Resort we also attended 2 line dance socials, the first with Debbie Dallas Line dancers with a golden oldies marathon from 1pm to 11pm, the second with Runaround Sioux Line Dancers with Sue & Leon Butcher on our last night, another night of golden oldies with a 3 hour dance session.

8 ladies from our group travelled to Mooloolaba for 8 glorious days, having breakfast every morning on the balcony over looking the ocean which was like glass every morning.

Our first day we went to Brisbane for our line dance Marathon run by Debbie Dallas and Leanne, Madison and Jessie joined us for lunch at the Wynnum RSL Club. A Fantastic afternoon and evening of dancing and a great roast dinner.

We saw a whale which was very close to the shore, but we later found out it was a young whale which was sick, very sad, after it dies they tow it out to sea.

We travelled south again this time to go to Movie World, we were truly blessed with the weather not to hot 22 degrees very pleasant. Sonja Leanne & myself took the rides while the othere girls did a bit of baby sitting, we had to queue for the rides for about 15 mins for a 3 minute ride, I would hate to see what its like in summer with the crowds.

After Movie World we headed next door to the Outback Spectacular, always a show worth going to see, lots of laughs and spectacular equestrian show.

Margaret Judy & myself went to Noosa for a bit of retail therapy, then headed to Sippy Downs to see our friends Richard & Lena, so good to see you again guys, you both look well and very happy to be living in such a beautiful area, although we would like to see you back down here again. Very sadly missed by your line dancing family. 

                                          

On our last night in beautiful Mooloolaba we danced our feet off again at Sue & Leon Butcher's social, the dancers there made us feel very welcome and were extremely friendly, thanks for a great night of golden oldies and friendship. We may be up that way again another time and will definately look you up.

Val it was wonderful to see you again after such a long time, we miss you and wish you all the best for your future. We will always keep in touch with you and hopefully see you again in the near future, it gives us an excuse to come up to Qld to see you again. Bye for now xxxx

June

Another Nursing Home Demo this time at Berry Bupa Nursing Home. We had a about 13 join us and for the first time Geoff & Kerry joined in with the demo, after the demo we went to Bomaderry Bowling club and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows, again thank you for giving up your time to help entertain the elderly.

There are no socials this month, so we can have a weekend or two to relax before we take a trip to sunny Mooloolaba in Queensland. We are soooo looking forward to having this holiday for 8 days in a high rise overlooking the beach, hope the weather is good.

We intend to do a couple of theme parks Movie World and The Outback and just relax for the other days. Looking forward to catching up with our friend Val who now lives in Maryborough. Can't wait not long now.

Grandchildren Down for Mother's Day

May we had our daughter Leanne and Grandchildren Maddy & Jessie down for 3 weeks all the way from Brisbane. They last visited us in February, this year has flown by so fast.

Maddy has a great personality, at 2years 4months she is very independant and knows what she wants and gets very upset when that doesn't happen. She eats & drinks everything I have, she even comes into the toilet, shower and helps to hang out the washing and helps bring it in.

I did apoligize to my classes as I haven't been able to learn any new dances this month, so I only taught older dances because I couldn't concentrate with Maddison around my legs.

Jessie is a beautiful boy 6 months old, lay him on the floor and he falls asleep no problems, hardly cries unless he his hungry and always has a smile for you, what a precious boy.

We had a lovely Mother's Day together with 4 generations having a day out, 90 year old Great Grandmother, myself, Leanne & Maddy. Very special day.

Unfortunately the family had to go back to Queensland at the end of May, Maddy was missing her dad by now and was very excited to see him at the airport.

May Madness

Dinner & Show at the St Georges Basin Country Club

Brian Cadd and Glenn Shorrock were on at the St Georges Basin Country Club on the 2nd May, what a brilliant show, they sound just like they did back when I was a teenager, Brian is now 73, Glenn is 71, about 16 of our group of dancers went along for a night out at the restaurant then the show, thanks for coming along to make a fun night everyone.

Kiama Walk

Jenny Landsberry, Geoff, Muriel, Judy and myself went for a walk along the shore line of South Kiama to Gerringong, this is a 6 kilometre walk, up and down large hills on grassy paddocks, we managed to do 3 kilometres then had to walk back, again perfect weather.

Geoff decided to walk all the way to Gerringong, when we all arrived there we decided to have lunch over looking the spectacular view of Werri Beach. A great day was had by all and another good soak in the bath tub to help those aching muscles.

Line Dancing Demo's

This year there has been lots of demo's for Nursing Homes and Adult Centres. We have had a number of dancers giving up their time to give a bit of pleasure to the elderly.

The East Nowra Adult Centre invited us to entertain, we had the elderly clapping and toe tapping the whole time, thanks to all the ladies that came along.

Coastal Waters Nursing Home is always asking us to entertain the elderly, this time we had a couple of beginners Geoff & Kathy Beesley joining our group, Geoff's mum Isabella is a resident at the nursing home and she was delighted to see him dancing and showcasing his new moves, well done Geoff & Kathy

Birthday Bash and Trip to Sydney

On the 26th April, we organised a Birthday Bash for Rob (husband) and Muriel with our good friends coming along to celebrate their special day. Rob certainly had a few unusual presents and Muriel had wine, chocolates and jewellery.

We had a huge cake decorated with chocolate & strawberry's (yumm yumm) which was so delicious,  and a great job done on the BBQ thanks Rob alway well cooked.

On the 29th April, Sonja, Muriel and myself took a trip to Sydney for a day shopping and walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the first time in my life.

The month before I enjoyed a lovely birthday present from Leanne & Mark & Rob to climb the bridge which was spectacular.

Sonja, Muriel & Me

We had the most perfect weather for our day trip, we must have scaled many steps around the rocks area and walked around the streets of Sydney until we found a few shops, but we did run out of time to see everything, so we will have to make another trip a bit later in the year. Sounds good to me.

We left home about 6 in the morning and arrived back home about 9.30pm, we were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back home, a good soak in the bath helped the aching muscles.

Can't wait to do it all again, I had a ball, thanks girls.

Great shot on the Pilon of Sydney Harbour Bridge looking over the Opera House

Bomaderry Social 12th April

What a great afternoon of dancing with everyone wearing Black & White with plenty of bling, lots of dances with a great mix of old & new, easy & hard. 
Bomaderry Community Hall would have to be one of the best dance floors in the Shoalhaven Area.
Thanks to everyone that attended the social from Sussex Inlet, Milton, Dapto & Sydney also a few from the Southern Highlands area. 

Lorraine, Muriel, Judy, Angela, Rhonda & Rob 

Kathy & Janet

Robyn & Friend from Dapto

Maureen, Faye & Jenny from Sussex Inlet

Everyone concentrating on their moves

Berry Demo

On the 15th April, a group of our ladies from Sanctuary Point, Bomaderry and Sussex Inlet classes went to Berry Sports & Recreation Centre to do a line dance demo for Canteen (Kids with Cancer). The teenagers were on a five day camp to have a change from the life they have with family or hospitals that deal with cancer.

Happy People

The teenagers also took part in learning a few line dances, that they did very well. The theme as you can see was "Wild West", we were also asked to do Nutbush City Limits which was a bit of fun, some like to do their own style of dancing but that was ok because they were having fun.

All the teenagers that took part in learning a few dances.

Thank you to all the ladies that gave up their time to come along & make it an extra special night with all the kids.

The girls gave up their time for this demo.

Homebush 2014

Once again we are off to Homebush Social, always a great time and raising money for Ronald McDonald House for a special fund raiser.

Rose & Gina enjoying the break 

 The program was a good mix of old and new dances, with split floors for majority of the dances. So no one sits down unless the old legs say enough is enough (but we don't listen to them do we) We rest the next day.

Lola & Maureen relaxing while they can.

Few of our beginners have come along for the first time and were blown away by the amount of line dancers, 800 in total all in one place. They challenged themselves by trying out new dances they had never seen before. Well done guys not many people will try that, I'm impressed.

Geoff, Brenda, Geoff, Kathy at the Homebush Social for the first time
except for Brenda who goes every year.

We all had such a good time, with myself winning a prize in the raffle. We will look forward to next year's social

Waiting for the bus, Brenda, Laurel, Sonja, Collette

Coastal Waters Nursing Home Demo

The Shoalhaven Country Line Dancers did a demo at Coastal Waters Nursing Home

We had all the ladies & men clapping and singing along to some old favourite songs

I'm sure this gives a lot of pleasure to these people, they usually come to us at the end and tell us how much they enjoyed it. 

Thanks girls for volunteering your time for that Saturday morning.