A Day To Remember

I had a great time at the weekend. Ben and I had the idea of getting together with friends and family and collectively throwing a massive garden party and that’s just what we did!

The party was held at Judy and Dimitris’ house. Well, to be more precise it was held at the back of their house in a field that their garden backs onto. They’re friends with the farmer who owns the land and he was happy to let them use it for free.

Dave and Elizabeth borrowed an enormous marquee from Elizabeth’s father. He had bought it for the wedding reception of Elizabeth’s older sister a few years earlier and said that he would be happy if Elizabeth could get some use out of it. And it’s a good thing that we had it as it rained non-stop for the duration of the party.

Ed contributed by bringing along his band mates and playing live music at the party. He’s played lead guitar in local pub bands for quite a few years now and the band went down really well at the party, playing lots of crowd pleasers like Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and Queen’s ‘Tie Your Mother Down’.

Ben and I provided a lovely spread of food and drink. We also asked guests to bring some edible goodies to the party, which they did aplenty! In fact, there wasn’t enough room on the tables for all of the yummy guest contributions and some of them had to go in the house. (I can feel the pounds piling on just thinking about it!)

Lots of family and friends turned up to the party, including my aunty Elsie who I hadn’t seen for over ten years! She lives in Scotland close to Inverness and Ed brought her down for the party as a special surprise. It was great seeing her again and catching up on family news. I have such a big family that it’s easy to lose track of what everybody's up to.

The party was a lot of fun from start to finish (despite not being able to have a barbecue because of the rain). We kicked the party off proper with a kids’ disco, which everybody seemed to enjoy. It was so funny watching my little niece Dina doing her toddler dancing. She was actually pretty good at it. And she looked adorable in the new outfit that Ben and I bought her for her birthday – a Tutto Piccolo white dress with red flowers, some ankle high red socks with frills and bows and a pair of red bow hair clips. 

 We then played lots of party games, like dunking for apples, musical chairs and pass the parcel. And we finished the day with Ed’s live music, followed by some highly embarrassing Karaoke. (I think the lowlight of this was Uncle Jim’s lager fuelled, topless rendition of Rod Stewart’s ‘If You Think I’m Sexy’!) Anyway, we all had a lot of fun. It was a real day to remember!