GWR Wartime in the Cotswolds

what a superb weekend - this was our second return visit to GWR and kindly invited by Donna and Mark. We started off with an afternoon Tea Dance which always goes down very well and also helped even further with the presence of the fantastic Lola Lamour - She sure is one heck of a class act and certainly knows how to work the audience and get them going and laughing and enjoying themselves.

The weather wasn't the best and in fact was a tad chilly over the whole weekend and a slight drizzle meant it drew the folks into the big marquee which was all to the better.

The Kalamazoo Danceband kicked off in fine form with a brilliant rendition of Count Basie's One o clock jump which always gets folks straight out of the starting blocks and followed by what i think is

an excellent Glenn Miller number called Ciribiribin.

There were some excellent dance lessons by Rob and Sarah from the dance school 'All about swing' and other dancers including those from Strictly Jitterbug were also in attendance which was great to see - the joint was jumping.

Then the marquee was shut up as we then exchanged our dress code and style to that of Kal's Katsready for the evening big swing dance. That dance floor remained rammed through the entire evening and not a single song was wanting for more dancers which was brilliant to see.

The dance finished at 11pm and so off to bed and this is were it all starts to get interesting purely from a logistics point of view in that I sorted my 2 man pop up tent which was put up on the dance floor in the big marquee, so that was me sorted and also had the luxury of having a small fan heater gently warming my tent all through the night. Sleep really well; i know poor hoppy woke up in his tent in the field around 3am freezing cold and Ben ended up sleeping in his car and woke at around 3am as well to turn on his car engine to warm himself up.

Morning brought more clouds and fine drizzle, but the punters came marching in as yesterday and filled the event once again, taking time to go and sit in the Spitfire or climb on the tanks etc.

Then it was out turn again to get back onstage for another fine afternoon tea dance and more Glenn Miller style music together with renditions from Lola Lamour ensuring everyone was in full fun mode.

Some of us took part in the dance tuition again which was good fun and then it was pack up and head back out home again.

All in all a fantastic weekend with some lovely folks yet again and more importantly for us is re booked again next year as well as securing the both weekends events at SVR - all good fun