Satisfaction

Tuesday (27 January) was the second day of the Chinese New Year. For those not familiar with Chinese customs, normally the first few days of the lunar new year (assuming they are also public holidays) are filled up with visits to homes of relatives or friends, etc. Because of this I was not optimistic about the attendance at the regular milonga at Xen Bar. In the end, close to 30 people, including a couple of overseas visitors, showed up – more than twice of what I was expecting!

As the crowd was well balanced gender-wise, and since I was feeling rather lethargic because I did not get a good rest the previous night (or perhaps due to the glasses of wine I had…), I had a rare chance to be able to sit back, chat and watch people enjoy themselves for much of the night. I have to admit that it was quite refreshing to be able to sit on the sideline rather than being in the thick of action as it were.

In fact, it was quite an “interesting” contrast to see the energy on the dance floor compared to how laid back I felt… 🙂 Usually you would see everyone out of their seats (except for yours truly…) on the floor for 2-3 tandas in a row, followed by a short lull of a few songs when they take a break, and the same pattern was repeated. While observing the phenomenon on the dance floor, it occurred to me that this might be how a chef would feel when he saw the dishes he had meticulously prepared were thoroughly enjoyed by the satisfied guests!?

While it is still early days for this particular milonga (this being the third for the year since I took over as the guest DJ), it is encouraging that to date the attendance has been averaging in the high 20’s, even if we were to exclude the one-off theme milongas. I hope that a regular following will eventually be established so that people will have the opportunity to enjoy a good selection of Golden Age Tango music in the middle of the typical working week. After all, if I am going to continue to volunteer my time freely as a DJ, there is really no better reward than to see many satisfied faces at the end of each milonga.