Party

Above: The front of the party invite designed by Scooter. He's a very talented little brother! Every detail was painstakingly done from scratch.

Cassie (and Ant's) Engagement Party

It was one of those affairs where they brought around platters of food, each one with a new delicacy on it. I like that. Particular favourites with myself and Ryan were the devils on horseback (prunes in bacon) and some dip with coriander in it. Many times I was too slow and the platter passed me on by, but I altered my style and started actually following the platter around. That's tactics.

We got to meet Cassie's wee brother, Scooter. He complimented me on the my use of type-face in my blog. I was most flattered. He followed that by saying he'd used Cassie's mock-up of what she wanted him to make her party invites like as an example of 'what-not-to-do' in one of his lectures on typography stuff. Funny! Cass was most offended. Apparently it's not the 'done thing' to use five different typefaces on an invite. Who knew?

The party really got cranking once Cass put on her 'Best of the 80s' CD. Ryan was a one-man dance show. He got his groove on with moves such as 'the skier' and 'the giraffe'.

There were some classic lines....

Anthony: My mother is NOT a MILF!

Cassie: (hassling Francis about some pizza shop guy......)
Kate: You can't talk, Cass. I got one word for you - carnie!

It was a nice touch that the only speech of the night was Anthony getting everyone's attention so that we could sing happy birthday to Angela. Ken had spoiled the cake-surprise by coming over to our group and loudly saying in his 'whisper' voice that there was a cake and he suspected someone at the party was having a birthday (right in front of Ange). I tried to shush him, at which point Francis added, 'No, there's definitely a cake - I've seen it too.' Ange squirmed.

Above: The pile of towels me and Ange got as our present for Cass and Ant. Big fluffy ones in her requested 'mauve' and associated colours. Having helped Cassie tidy her room a couple of years back (which was a full two day project) I understood her need for matching linen. In addition to her hoard of 7 different duvet covers, she had a mishmash of dozens of different towels. She has now been instructed to search and destroy. No more crappy odd towels, you hear me!

There was a table full of presents. Me and Ange managed to buy the most biggest present - that was quite satisfying. It was a pile of towels. We actually had to put ours on top of lots of other presents so that they would all fit on the table. It was unavoidable - honest. Me and Francis (the other bridesmaid) tried to fulfill our present-opening and recording duty, but Cass would have none of that. She said we're going to have to save it all for the wedding day. Pity!

We made do with picking up and shaking each present and having a good guess at what was in each one. We suspect there are several platters, a vase, some wine glasses and a picture frame (among other things). We coerced Anthony into opening one of them while Cassie wasn't looking. His trickery was not appreciated and we got a good telling off from her.

I had almost a whole box of chocolate covered coffee beans. That's a good pick-me-up! I almost bounced a small child off the trampoline.

Many thanks to Joan (Ant's mum) who I think did a lot of preparation stuff before and on the night. She is becoming Cass's surrogate north island mummy. Aww! The garden was a myriad of twinkling fairy lights and the gazebo was impressive (after having taken 3 hours to put up and having almost caused the end of what was a beautiful relationship between Cass and Ant). That's what happens when you lose the instructions.....

I loved the bit where Cassie loudly came over to the group we were chatting in and said, 'Ange and Kate - there's a single man over there!' (evidently the only one at the party). The single man then proceeded to come over to us and try to strike up conversations. He seemed particularly fond of standing right beside me. I suspect there was match-making afoot. Unfortunately for him, the idea of dating Anthony's prodigee seems somewhat strange to me......... It would upset the hierarchy of things.

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That'll do.

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I am up to page 103 in the book Sam lent me in December last year. 1/4 of the way through. I'm a slow reader. I'm up to 'F' (each chapter is a different letter of the alphabet).

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PS - I think I may have just spelt Francis's name wrong (is it Frances?) all through that. I get confused because my Mum's maiden name was Francis. But in retrospect I think when it's a girl's name you spell it with the E....... But I can't be bothered going back and changing it. Sorry!