cinderella moment

At least my dress looked nice! So thank you to the lovely ladies at the Ivory Lounge in Chester, and to the Footlights dancewear shop in Liverpool for kitting me out in glittering evening wear and proper dancing shoes.
And thanks to the person who put a heel in my dress at some time during the night and left a little tear in it. Anyone know a good needleman or woman?!
As I've said in today's Echo, my actual dance partner for the night - a friend of a friend who kindly came to my rescue - was a terrific tango dancer, but had never attempted a Viennese waltz before.
We muddled along through a tango-style waltz (I suspect my ineptitude annoyed him but he was too gentlemanly to say) and then I persuaded him into the Viennese variety where my mantra to him was "just keep on turning and no one will notice!"
I think on balance he's going to stick to Argentina not Austria.
One thing though, I think I may well have been bitten by the dancing bug and after 2008 is over I'm going to start going to lessons. The world of the polka and foxtrot will then not be a fleet-footed mystery to me.

I had a chat with Anton Du Beke yesterday afternoon in the corridor outside his dressing room (I wasn't invited in, and one friend who ventured past the door on Saturday night found Anton sans trousers, so it was probably best not!) - alas, afterwards I kicked myself for not at least asking him to take me on a few reverse turns along the hallway.
He and Erin were terrific. The atmosphere on Saturday was electric, but they were easier to watch yesterday afternoon when the Blackpool Tower Ballroom style audience stayed seated throughout their performances meaning you could see their fancy footwork more clearly.
As I said, the great thing about both Saturday and Sunday, but particularly Saturday which had the added bonus of a champagne bar for Dutch courage, was that everyone had a go.
Unlike the chat with Anton, I did sit down with Vasily Petrenko in his rather sparse dressing room after Saturday's ball to get his view on the whole thing.
And I think what most surprised him was the numbers jostling for space on the dancefloor. He said he had been to a few similar balls, presumably in Russia, where people were a bit shy of getting up and doing their stuff.
Yes, well, this is Liverpool and we don't do shrinking violet here!
Still, the Phil are making noises about wanting to do another one so they must have enjoyed it even if they did feel they had a battle on their hands with the hall's acoustics.
I suspect they're not used to having people talking and clattering around while they play - in effect they were just the dance band!
So when I look back on Capital of Culture year, I suspect the Viennese Ball might be up there as one of my very favourite moments.
And maybe if the Phil is favourable, we'll all be back dancing at one next year.