Fake tan and banging

We have just returned from the morning session at a(nother) local feile. This mornings competition was under 7's team dances, this afternoon the real heavy stuff starts with the under 7's individual jigs and reels. (Yes, I have to go back!)

These feiles are whole day events - parents come and bring their picnics with them. I live handy, and anyway, I needed to escape the cut-throat atmosphere of Irish Dancing competitions, so we came home. When I go back in just under an hours time I will be taking a pair of ear defenders. Dancing is done to live music, usually in the form of an electric piano. This morning there was also a fiddle.

It could have been lovely. It wasn't. When the woman on keyboard hit the first chord, the mum beside me and I literally jumped out of our skins. Unperterbed at the discomfort she was causing to ears throughout the auditoium, the lady kept banging away merrily on her keyboard.

When she did, eventually, tone it down, we took a renewed fit of the giggles because it appeared that the fiddle player was playing a completely different tune to the one being bashed out on the keyboard.

Add to this all the coaching and bitching that goes on by over-enthusiastic mums and you will see how it's not my absolute favourite way to spend a Saturday. These kids are 6 years old, yet some have been curled, crimped and polished to within an inch of their young lives. The ultimate was when we spotted the child with the fake tan. She looked like an Oompa Loompa that had just been tangoed. Amazingly, whilst my friend and I are on our third bout of the giggles, those behind us are cursing themselves for not having thought of the idea themselves!

I'm not cut out for this feile lark. Having said that ... off I go... Feile part two beckons ...