The senior moment may have passed. What's left in its wake is "Drops of Brandy". There's a bit of a tradition in eastern Australia when playing for Strip the Willow, that the band plays mostly 9/8 jigs for most of the couples but plays Athol Highlanders (in A, thank you) a couple ot times through to finish. It gives a great lift to the dancers.

Declan's comment on sessions seems spot on to me. At the National (every Easter, these days always in Canberra) there are lots of places where you can sit and play and you'll almost always be joined by those of like mind. There is also a Session Bar (a room about 30m wide and 100m long, pinched in the middle by a bar) which will usually have a few different sessions going on at almost any time of day/night. After about 4pm it could have anything up to 15 sessions going in it without apparent problems. There's always an Irish session going on in a little nook at the far end from the main entrance that can fit only about a dozen comfortably but they seem to like it that way. Inside the entrance I've seen some quite large sessions last for some hours, with everything from bush waltzes to arcane Geordie tunes more or less following each other.

It's a while since I felt welcome in Canberra's Irish sessions so I don't know whether they welcome beginners who can't play the latest wunderkind reel at breakneck speed. The big sessions near the entrance are always welcoming of all comers and a wide variety of Irish tunes get played. There is a 'slow session' every morning at one end of the session bar, specifically for beginners and a few heavies make a point of attending and taking a back seat to help the beginners along.