Celebration!

It's far, far too long since I last blogged.  I'm sorry about that.  I've been a tad busy celebrating my graduation.  I had a big party last Saturday with sixty friends who I think (and hope) all enjoyed themselves with the help of an old friend of mine who plays the saxophone brilliantly and 'did his stuff' with a couple of his jazz-playing friends.  Oh, and we also also had lovely food done by Cafe Bar One, who managed to cater around all my billions of allergies, and those of my friends with other allergies/intolerances, which include gluten, dairy, egg white, quorn, and a low potassium diet.  Quite some achievement.

I hired the hall of St. Barnabas' and St. Jude's church - Barney and Jude's - which is the sister church to mine.  Barney and Jude's hall was done up earlier this year and has gone from being quite drab and unremarkable to being lovely, welcoming, relaxing, and a great venue for a huge variety of events.  I was looking for somewhere within my/my parents' price range when Barney and Jude's had just had its face-lift.  We went to have a look and it was perfect with tables, sofas, a platform area for the musicians, a bar (usually used for tea and coffee, but less of that and more wine and beer at my party), a variety of lighting options, and all in a decent sized hall at excellent rates.

We'd booked the hall from 4pm so that we would have time to set up and decorate.  At first this seemed like a long time, but actually it was just about right, although we'd had to take our party clothes with us and change in the toilets.  It might've been nice to come home to get ready, but we couldn't work out when we might be able to fit in a trip back here as the drinks and glasses were being delivered to the hall at 6pm, the food at 6.30pm, and the party starting at 7pm.  Before that there were banners to put up, photos to put onto boards and find places for, balloons to blow up, tables to move, light switches to locate (this took longer than you might think!), general decorating with party paraphernalia, and other bits and pieces.  Mum and J did most of it, while I did the 'quieter' things so that I had energy for the party itself.

I had a fantastic time.  I have some wonderful friends, I really do.  I'm so thankful to them for coming and helping me to celebrate and for giving me such a wonderful evening.  I'm reluctant to put up photos of the party on here because I haven't asked those in them if it's okay to do so, but I will leave you this evening with a couple of photos of the band: