Notes from a small garden: July 2005

The morning after. Guess which one has the hangover.

the diners gather

Garden Party

Brendan said:
I'd like a birthday party.
Mum said:
That's nice dear.
What sort of party?
And Brendan said:
Well....
I thought of having
A dinner party
A garden party
A proper sit down scrubbed up party.
If dad could do his famous fish pie
Or salmon thing?
With a few friends
About twenty I think…
With a magic theme
and a bonfire!
and melted chocolate to dip marshmallows
and bananas and things
I want everybody to learn a magic trick and show it to their neighbours
and we can go down at midnight and buy Harry Potter
if we're still up
Ha Ha
and walking
And could you make twenty fabric magic bags with secret compartments?
and we'd better put up the gazebo in case it rains
in fact we'd better borrow another gazebo...
and we'll put the tables on the grass arranged in a star.
I'm sure we've got enough tables
We'll just take the one from dad's office. He won't mind will he?
It's only got the printer, the phone, the paper stack and half the computer.
Not like he needs it.
And could you frame all my paintings and hang them up before Friday so people can see them?
We need twenty sundae dishes
and at least three dozen glasses
and there's not enough plates
I've counted.
Something to make punch in...
There's this great recipe I got off the internet
Three pints of double cream
Lights! Lots of them
fairy lights hanging in the gazebos.
Have you seen my magic wand?
And all the chairs
how many chairs do we have?
A bottle of Baileys
Two bottles of Baileys
More chairs!
Actually, could you make that twenty four magic bags?
lots of crushed ice
Do we have a cauldron?
and white linen tablecloths would be nice
and napkins
and candles.
Five limes
Five lemons
A dozen oranges
Two bottles of white rum
Four square yards of black felt
and three yards of blue polycotton
and a dozen plastic frogs
and five bottles of burgandy
Lets put the settee on the deck!
and by the way probably about nine people will want to stay overnight. I've said we can put them up, that's alright isn't it?
to make sangria of course
If we had an extension lead we could run the food processor outside.
For the crushed ice.
Did I mention the rum?
Party poppers!
You said we had loads of party poppers.
Oh, those party poppers..
John wants to go home at 1am would you mind giving him a lift?
And I think we should make up all the beds beforehand because people will be tired...
You didn't want those two bottles of Baileys in the back room did you?

mum?

mum?

How are the magic bags getting on?

More fiendish success

I did 3 fiendish in 3 days! Now I'm stuck on a difficult.

30 years on

Just back from a fun weekend in Birmingham catching up with some of the Lancaster crowd. About a dozen of us got together for a carvery meal and a canal tour and then more joined in later in the evening. We sat out in the garden, swapping pictures past and present and passing round souvenirs.
This is our third reunion. Our meetings are like punctuation marks in life: 10 years on, 25, 30. We wonder why we didn't manage in between 10 and 25 but the answer's obvious - our lives were too full bringing up children, building careers, busy in church....All of us have stories to tell.
Great to see you all guys.

A few of the class of 75...our day out in Birmingham

aaaaaargh! The wisteria's coming in! Quick shut the window!

too late! It's got me!

The days after

Clare has more or less said in her blog exactly my feelings both about the Olympics and the bombings. I wasn't in favour of the olympics at first, but 'mrs average' changed her mind (my strange power continues) and I was absolutely delighted. Phil has already investigated how to be a volunteer! Then the bombings yesterday. I heard from my NVQ students when mobiles started ringing but insisted on carrying on with the class with much the same words.
Today we had already bought tickets for the Britain exhibition at the Tate and I was determined to go if we had to start early and walk it!
Well we went. We got as far as STratford on the overground then were told Liverpool st was closed for another alert so we got on the Jubilee Line. This was halted briefly because of another alert at Waterloo but then no problem. All the way to Westminster and then on foot.
London I have to report was back open for business. In less than 24 hours most of the transport network was up and running, the tourists (bless em) were back on the street and the only difference was the incredible number of police about, all in body armour and many carrying submachine guns. However these only provided a more interesting backdrop for photos! One of the nicest glimpses I saw was a small group of tourists sitting on the car bomb barriers that are now all round parliament, eating ice creams!
I was very disappointed tonight to hear that Leo's school had cancelled a proposed trip to the Portrait gallery because of the 'danger'. I feel it almost as a military duty to carry on our lives regardless. There's so little we can really do except stand and defy the evil. And in the end terror only wins if you let it inside.

maybe it's becos I'm a Lunduner...

with apologies to 'Dad's Army'

Who do you think you are kidding Al-Qaeda ?
If you think we're on the run,
Hitler and the IRA had just your same old game.
So knock us down and watch us get back up to fight again.
Cus who do you think you are kidding Al-Qaeda ?
If you think old London's done?
Mr. Brown goes off to town
On the 8:24
regardless of the bombs and threats
Life goes on as before
So watch out Al-QaedaYou have met your match in us.
If you think you can push us We're afraid you've missed the bus.
so who do you think you are kidding Al-Qaeeeeeeeeeda?
If you think old London's done

fiendish success

I just did the sudoku fiendish!

......Prospero's cave. Here Miranda ( definitely not simpering maiden in this production - more commando bushwoman) tries to get a story out of Prospero