Dance like nobody is watching

While everybody else was doing other things this evening I found myself spending a rare evening with my youngest daughter - just the two of us. I was pretty determined we should spend some time together, rather than fall into the all-too-common rut of her sloping off to her bedroom to chat with friends on her own.

I ordered a pizza from Dominos, and turned the record player on.

While waiting for the pizza to arrive and sharing a can of cold beer we found in the back of the fridge we went on something of a musical journey together - and turned the volume up to 11.

We're never usually allowed to turn music up. There's a saying about mice playing while the cat's away, isn't there? Well these mice figured out how to put Spotify through the record player speakers.

Oh the fun we had.

Can I just say - if you didn't already know - the first track on Elton's new album "The Rose of Laura Nyro" sounds much better turned up to 11 on a decent sound system. I think it hit home with my accomplice too.

The pizza arrived, and I handed over control of the music system to my youthful charge - showing her how to connect to it via Bluetooth. With hindsight, this was probably a mistake.

Within minutes we transitioned from Lady Gaga, Lewis Capaldi, and Jess Glynne to the Witch Doctor, the Macarena, and Cha Cha Slide.

In a fit of idiocy - more to make my daughter laugh than anything - I allowed her to try to teach me the Cha Cha Slide. Oh how we laughed. Proper laughter. Mostly at me, not with me, but I didn't mind. Let's just say I'm never going to be a dancer (and it's a bit late to consider a career change anyway).

Of course I already knew the dances - but she didn't have to know that.

We clowned around for a couple of hours, and had so much fun. It's funny, isn't it - we could have gone to the pub for dinner and pretended we were socialites. Instead we stayed home, ate pizza, played music, danced, and laughed at each other until our sides hurt.

After going our separate ways later in the evening I overheard her talking to her sister on the phone:

"We just had the best time - listening to music, eating pizza, and drinking beer. You should have seen Dad trying to do Cha Cha Slide".

A huge smile crept across my face.

In years gone by, she would have scoffed at any of the music I subjected her to. This evening she listened and enjoyed. I think she's turned the corner from hating things just because they're "something my parents like". This evening she re-discovered Madonna, Wilson Phillips, Shania Twain, Kylie, and more. Sure, she's heard on them on the radio, and around the house - but never turned up to 11. They hit differently at 11.

She watched Madonna's "Cherish" video in absolute silence with half a slice of pizza in her hand - utterly captivated.