This is today’s weird thought. This morning, I decided to have a go at Zumba on the wii for the first time in at least 12 months. I was awful at it. Even my four-year-old commented on how my legs weren’t doing the same thing as the person on the TV. The thought I had later while in the usual place was: why am I still so rubbish at Zumba?

That's me on the left

That’s me on the left

Every Monday I go to a Zumba class, and I love it. I’ve been going every Monday for nearly three years now. I have hardly missed a class in all that time, using being over 200 miles away or being too ill to move as the only two excuses not to go. Yet I still can’t get my legs and arms to do the things they are supposed to do. Why is that? Is there a kink in the link between my brain and limbs?

Every week my brain watches Ali at the front and thinks ‘left leg there, right leg up, left arm down, right arm around head’ but my legs and arms just won’t do as they are told. Why do some people find it easy to coordinate all limbs together? I can’t do it. In fact if I try too hard I find I can’t do it even more. I collide with people, I hit people with my flailing arms, and I often find myself so lost in thought that I can’t remember what I’m supposed to be doing so end up jumping up and down in an improvised jig while everyone else carries on in synchronized harmony. Just as I feel as if I’ve nailed it, I get it wrong.

Where my best ideas come from

Where my best ideas come from

I also have problems remembering steps week-by-week. However many times we do a routine, I can’t quite remember it all. There are tracks that we’ve been dancing to for a few weeks at Zumba and I still have to stand in full view of Ali at the front or the  three very good Zumbaites who stand to the right and just in front of me. I admire the skill of these three people. I, on the other hand, resemble a drunken flamingo.

That's me at Zumba

That’s me at Zumba

I know that in reality none of this matters. The main thing is that I am enjoying it and benefiting from it in terms of physical (and mental) health. That I know is true on all counts. I absolutely love it.