Last night we went to a friends 40th birthday party at a night club in Milton Keynes.

It was a fantastic night and really good to catch up with some friends we don't see often enough.

As the evening went on, Fran had a couple of cocktails and we headed over to the dance floor.

It was a refreshing and welcome surprise to see that a majority of the people dancing were boys / men.

My vague memories of night club dance floors generally involved me and my mate Asa giving it stacks and pretty much being the only males there.

Most of the blokes would be at the bar or the more adventurous ones would be doing the 2 step at the outskirts of the dance arena hoping to pull.

We were always bang in the centre.

Most of my other male friends are happy to throw down some serious moves on the dance floor too but often there would be no others.

What I lack in dance ability, I certainly make up for in enthusiasm.  Thankfully, Asa always had some moves so it brought up my standards.

Last night the roles were reversed.

The young guys were on the dance floor giving it large and the young girls were dancing the 2 step nervously around the outside trying to look pretty, more afraid of not looking good than actually enjoying themselves.

The ones that did start to enjoy themselves didn't truly get in to it because they had to stop every 45 seconds to take a selfie or group shot (an email's coming about this sort of behaviour).

The guys were having a proper good time, they were certainly following the advice of dance like nobody is watching.

It was a little sad to see, the young girls so worried about their image that they didn't look like they were actually enjoying themselves.

Obviously, the group of girls we were with were old school and had a proper dance and night out.

I think some of the girls dancing had some sensitivities to there washing powder because they kept scratching their bum and hips up against some of the guys on the dance floor or the side of benches next to the dance floor.

I realised I am getting old again, when I complained about the music to Fran.

We did stay out respectably late though but I felt tired and actually took my own advice when I woke up feeling a little bunged up and didn't go out on my bike.

I took the day off from training to have some recovery time, I still felt tired for most of the day after having one late night, I'm a little disappointed in that.

It was a fantastic night and highlighted once again that I need to take some more time away from work and spend it with my friends.

Darren 'ready for bed' Checkley

P.S. It was alright today - my students all performed brilliantly at their grading and took a step closer to achieving their black belt goal.