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Flight of Yuri Gagarin

Boys will be boys - even grown men... Dr Fred and his stargazer pal built a rocket, using extremely suspect measurements from eye, guessing heights of ceilings and working out from fire door sizes.... they managed miraculously to make it just small enough to fit in the middle of the Girsby and Over Dinsdale Village Hall to be the 'space'tacular  centerpiece of this years Yuri party!!

We have held a party every April 12th now for quite a few years - the date that Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space - there are parties held all over the world every year - not so many in the UK and we were defo the only one in Teesdale.  We have varied the venue from having smaller bashes at home, parties in friends barns, for a couple of years we did more public events in a bar in Newcastle and this year it was the village hall- set in the middle of nowhere with a camping field right next door - excellent venue! The day coincides with Dr Freds birthday which means even more excuse for a party!!!

Its also the excuse for DJ Yuri Cosmos to play his 27 hour soundtrack of space music although this year we had guest appearances from DJ Horace Zontal and a couple of his pals.  It took all afternoon to set the scene with rocket launching and putting up the 100 metres or so of Yuri bunting I made, hanging the flags and making the cavernous hall look inviting.. There were a couple of dodgy moments when we thought the rocket was too tall and then realised we had spelled BOCTOK wrong - our Russian not being quite up to par...


but by the early evening we were set for lift off - (there is worrying talk of actually trying to launch a rocket next year) but for this year it all just looked very splendid.  As the night wore on fueled by chillie and jacket spuds - good old fashioned Russian Space food - alcohol was consumed and the tunes got better and louder - a couple of space men appeared - but I think there were more aliens then expected!!


We danced the night away - I had to recharge my flashing dancing shoes at least once

 - I finally fell into bed at about 4.30 and people were still dancing - but I'm a pensioner and just cant pull an all nighter anymore - it was a good night but its taking me the whole weekend to recover!

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