Dumfries: The Downlow, The 411, The Full Monty

Pronounced dumb-FREEZE, Dumfries meaning either fort or ridge of the thicket, was founded as a Royal Burgh in 1186, according to Wikipedia. It is also the sight of much merriment! A group of friends have been going on an annual weekend away each year for quite a while and this year invited me.

Friday - Americans need never be embarrassed about the Macarena or Electric Slide again!

Allie, Lesley, Paula and I made the 3 hour drive north singing songs and chatting away! We checked into our hotel (the Travelodge, soooo posh!) and met up with other friends for dinner. Afterward we enjoyed some grooving and sing-songs.

What I noticed was that the British have soooo many known dances for different songs. I mean, songs that aren't even named after a dance (a la the US Electric Slide or Macarena songs), there are just dances that bring everyone onto the dance floor doing the same dance together - songs like YMCA (and I don't mean just the making of the letters with arms) and many more. There are also older, traditional songs where you need partners. I had such fun not only dancing but watching everyone having a blast. It was so corny and naff in a way, that it was all the more charming. Here's some top music from the band (I'm smiling while I type this) and we were just warming up!



Here is a slideshow of photos from Friday:

Saturday - Heavy Plant Crossing



Saturday was quite relaxing. We all convened at a coffee shop in the center of Dumfries. While down in shopping area, we found what was a pitiful sight! Because of the crazy and changeable winds, it seemed there were many umbrellas that just weren't up to fight the good fight. We just had to take a photo of it.

Saturday night we all got together for dinner and then as we had done on Friday, we had a little dance on Saturday. But THIS time, after the rockin' band played (a bit facetious am I), there was a sing-along. It's kind of like karaoke except without the help - no words and if the band didn't know the song, you'd have to go a capella and hope they could come in. I tried SOOOOO hard to find my Danny Zuko so I could do the duet Summer Nights from Grease. At one point I thought I had railroaded, I mean convinced, someone to do it with me and even put our names down. Alas, I had misread his non-verbal expreession (turns out he was mortified, and not happy to participate) so maybe next time! A woman named Ellen sang Danny Boy and I was able to video part of it (below) and our reactions (below the below!). She was pretty spectacular and was happy for me to post it on this blog.





You'll see in the slideshow below a few images where we are all waving white hankies around. Well I don't know how the tradition started, but the song itself comes from a musical The White Horse Inn and the song is called "Goodbye". It's something to see - everyone gets out white hankies (cloth and tissue if need be) and waves while singing it. It seemed like a very old song to me, but maybe that's because it was being sung by an elderly Scotsman! Details about the song can be found HERE (and thanks Kerr for sending me the info!)

At one point, everyone was dancing and singing along to a song I didn't recognize and like many songs before this weekend, there seemed to be set choreographed moves to it. Sounded to me like the song was about Being a Gnome "Be a be a be a be a be a gnome, be a gnome, be a gnome," and I was amazed at how everyone knew this song (I figured it was a song about being some weird music gnome, I mean, what do I know?) I kept laughing since it was a children's song or something. While I searched Google for it, it was impossible to find and it turns out the song is named Piano as in "pia pia pia pia no, piano, piano, pia pia pia pia piano..." and I can't seem to find this one either (Piano is just too generic to easily find in Google).


On the way home we once again passed our absolutely favorite road sign EVER - pictured here. The different interpretations of Heavy Plant Crossing kept us amused through the wee hours of the morning (like 2 or 3am). Heavy Plant Crossing - was it a heavy pot? Terra Cotta? Or perhaps it's branches were too weighty or maybe even roots dragged? I liked the idea that the plant was just a Debbie Downer and was forever complaining. Either way, we are STILL laughing at Heavy Plant Crossing (by "we" I mean the four of us who traveled together!

Here's a slideshow of pics from Saturday:

And Sunday we slept in, had a full English breakfast and then headed home, to even more singing! We also decided we needed to pick a song that the group of us could perform were we to go next year!