![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 25th, 2007 10:31 pmTo Tony and Margaret's place in Basingstoke for the reunion barbecue for last year's mayors and chairmen. We arrived joint first, at the same time as David and Rosemary, who'd brought Liz and her husband John with them; the rest weren't far behind. Tony was on hand to greet us all with a glass of champagne. His daughter Fay was in the kitchen helping with preparations, but Margaret kept us waiting about 15 minutes while she titivated herself upstairs.
We had a fantastic turnout: the only absentees were Fred and Margaret from Portsmouth (Maria said she had a feeling they wouldn't be that interested) and poor old Charles from the Isle of Wight who was too ill to travel, but sent a message to say hello and best wishes to everyone (Margaret from Rushmoor revealed to us what few of us had known, that Charles has cancer).
Sue, Jim and Maria were among the first arrivals. I fell on Sue with a massive bear hug, but couldn't do the same for Maria as she was carrying an enormous raspberry pavlova she'd made for the occasion; she puckered up for me to kiss her on the lips instead.
We all spent the opening hour and a half, while we waited for the food, wandering around the garden all comparing summers and reflecting how many of the ex-mayors had found themselves once again snowed under with Council casework since leaving office. When I remarked to Peter from Eastleigh how in Finland I'd visited a Viking village, complete with longship, helmeted warriors and buxom wenches, Peter said you could see all that in York... At one point I popped indoors to the kitchen to talk to Margaret, who said she'd actually been very busy since they left office, with family stuff. She told me how it had been like being in another world during our civic year and then suddenly, on leaving office, it hit you that it was back to reality. I confessed I'd had exactly the same feeling come over me while walking down the High Street the day after our handover; she liked my analogy, that it had been like coming out of the BB House or something.
Tony did us proud at the barbie with very tasty bits of chicken and sausages. He hadn't neglected us real ale connoisseurs either, with bottles of Abbot Ale and London Pride in the fridge alongside the San Miguels. As we were eating, Tony and Margaret's dog, Mabel, sniffed around each of us in turn hoping for a bite.
Me ma had dug up some photos of the others she'd taken over the course of her mayoral year, to present to the people in them today. Maria was well pleased with the one of her and me under a tree in the gardens at Chawton House; she said we looked like an engaged couple, and Sheila from Southampton said I looked like a bridegroom as the white ID badge on my jacket breast looked like a carnation from a distance. That was the cue for Maria to march me over to the end of the garden for us to have our pic taken together again, which prompted Richard from Havant to line up the whole gang for a group photo. When Fay popped into the garden for something or other, some of the ladies tried to persuade her to come into the photo with us, but she wouldn't, so Maria came up with an alternative plan : Fay would take the photo so Richard could be in it! Richard, groaning, accordingly shambled across to join us. When she said 'smile' I said 'haemorrhoids' drawing an approving remark from Pat from Hampshire, who'd introduced it as a smile-word to our group.
Tony told us all to charge our glasses, then asked my mother to propose the toast. She started off with one to Tony and Margaret for being great hosts, which met with universal approval, then announced that a very special lady would be celebrating her birthday tomorrow and asked us all to sing Happy Birthday To You to Sue. While we were singing, Margaret brought out Maria's pavlova, with a candle stuck in it. Sue blew it out and asked if she could keep the pavlova; Margaret said "No, Maria made it for us," but a bit later she served it to all of us as our dessert. In her response speech, Sue revealed that for our next reunion in six months she was going to arrange for us all to go on the London Eye.
People began to drift away then; those of us who stayed had a cup of coffee and a sedate chat in garden chairs.
As soon as we got home, logged on to the Net to find out Hawks had beaten Hayes & Yeading 4-1. Typical that the home game I have to miss is the one where they play like that.
X Factor 4 : SO glad Paris auditioned again and passed! Despite Dannii's misgivings, I'm going to stick out my neck here and predict that she'll pass Boot Camp, thus progressing to stage three. I just hope that if she then goes out at stage three or four, she sees it as an achievement rather than beating herself up. That girl is a special talent. I actually thought Rude Rachel was a good singer, and that it was grossly unfair of Simon to say she had no talent. I completely understand that the judges were turned off by her full-of-herself attitude, and her four-letter tirade did her no credit, but it was her attitude that stopped her going through, not any lack of performing ability. On Xtra Factor, it was disappointing that twice Fearne seemed about to give us a song, but decided against. She was a contestant on Celebrity Fame Academy 1, so she's tickled her tonsils on telly before, so why not now?
ITV4 ARE RE-RUNNING SPITTING IMAGE FROM 1984! YAYYYY!! Just watched the first episode. That show was the highlight of my week when I was a teenager and it's magic seeing it all again. "The President's Brain Is Missing!!"
We had a fantastic turnout: the only absentees were Fred and Margaret from Portsmouth (Maria said she had a feeling they wouldn't be that interested) and poor old Charles from the Isle of Wight who was too ill to travel, but sent a message to say hello and best wishes to everyone (Margaret from Rushmoor revealed to us what few of us had known, that Charles has cancer).
Sue, Jim and Maria were among the first arrivals. I fell on Sue with a massive bear hug, but couldn't do the same for Maria as she was carrying an enormous raspberry pavlova she'd made for the occasion; she puckered up for me to kiss her on the lips instead.
We all spent the opening hour and a half, while we waited for the food, wandering around the garden all comparing summers and reflecting how many of the ex-mayors had found themselves once again snowed under with Council casework since leaving office. When I remarked to Peter from Eastleigh how in Finland I'd visited a Viking village, complete with longship, helmeted warriors and buxom wenches, Peter said you could see all that in York... At one point I popped indoors to the kitchen to talk to Margaret, who said she'd actually been very busy since they left office, with family stuff. She told me how it had been like being in another world during our civic year and then suddenly, on leaving office, it hit you that it was back to reality. I confessed I'd had exactly the same feeling come over me while walking down the High Street the day after our handover; she liked my analogy, that it had been like coming out of the BB House or something.
Tony did us proud at the barbie with very tasty bits of chicken and sausages. He hadn't neglected us real ale connoisseurs either, with bottles of Abbot Ale and London Pride in the fridge alongside the San Miguels. As we were eating, Tony and Margaret's dog, Mabel, sniffed around each of us in turn hoping for a bite.
Me ma had dug up some photos of the others she'd taken over the course of her mayoral year, to present to the people in them today. Maria was well pleased with the one of her and me under a tree in the gardens at Chawton House; she said we looked like an engaged couple, and Sheila from Southampton said I looked like a bridegroom as the white ID badge on my jacket breast looked like a carnation from a distance. That was the cue for Maria to march me over to the end of the garden for us to have our pic taken together again, which prompted Richard from Havant to line up the whole gang for a group photo. When Fay popped into the garden for something or other, some of the ladies tried to persuade her to come into the photo with us, but she wouldn't, so Maria came up with an alternative plan : Fay would take the photo so Richard could be in it! Richard, groaning, accordingly shambled across to join us. When she said 'smile' I said 'haemorrhoids' drawing an approving remark from Pat from Hampshire, who'd introduced it as a smile-word to our group.
Tony told us all to charge our glasses, then asked my mother to propose the toast. She started off with one to Tony and Margaret for being great hosts, which met with universal approval, then announced that a very special lady would be celebrating her birthday tomorrow and asked us all to sing Happy Birthday To You to Sue. While we were singing, Margaret brought out Maria's pavlova, with a candle stuck in it. Sue blew it out and asked if she could keep the pavlova; Margaret said "No, Maria made it for us," but a bit later she served it to all of us as our dessert. In her response speech, Sue revealed that for our next reunion in six months she was going to arrange for us all to go on the London Eye.
People began to drift away then; those of us who stayed had a cup of coffee and a sedate chat in garden chairs.
As soon as we got home, logged on to the Net to find out Hawks had beaten Hayes & Yeading 4-1. Typical that the home game I have to miss is the one where they play like that.
X Factor 4 : SO glad Paris auditioned again and passed! Despite Dannii's misgivings, I'm going to stick out my neck here and predict that she'll pass Boot Camp, thus progressing to stage three. I just hope that if she then goes out at stage three or four, she sees it as an achievement rather than beating herself up. That girl is a special talent. I actually thought Rude Rachel was a good singer, and that it was grossly unfair of Simon to say she had no talent. I completely understand that the judges were turned off by her full-of-herself attitude, and her four-letter tirade did her no credit, but it was her attitude that stopped her going through, not any lack of performing ability. On Xtra Factor, it was disappointing that twice Fearne seemed about to give us a song, but decided against. She was a contestant on Celebrity Fame Academy 1, so she's tickled her tonsils on telly before, so why not now?
ITV4 ARE RE-RUNNING SPITTING IMAGE FROM 1984! YAYYYY!! Just watched the first episode. That show was the highlight of my week when I was a teenager and it's magic seeing it all again. "The President's Brain Is Missing!!"
