parties, parties everywhere, and more than a drop to drink

Well, what a fortnight that has been. The weather may have been bloody awful, but the party-quotient made up for it! My celebrations organised by splendid friends was, quite frankly, legendary. I was given instructions to pack an overnight bag and meet outside a certain country pub at 9.30 am, and await further instructions! Was I excited? Was I ever!

I was met by Becky who then led me a few miles away to an outdoor activities centre called Avalanche Adventure. I still had no idea what I was doing, or even who was doing it with me, as there was such a long list of potential activities. In the end there were 8 of us, signing our lives away on a disclaimer to go HOVERCRAFT DRIVING!!!!! It's clean, it's relatively safe and is the best 1.5 hours of fun I've possibly ever had. Trying to manoeuvre a rear drive air-bed with a whacking great fan on the back AND ABSOLUTELY NO BRAKES around marker flags and over a pond. Brilliant.

This was followed by lunch at the local and a couple of pints. Then the designated drivers picked their teams and we were sent off on a navigational scatter. The task, find as many of the following in 1.5 hours:

• 4 geocaches (25 points each)
• 10 telephone boxes (between 5 and 10 points each)
• solve 6 riddles and find the corresponding place (25 points each)
• achieve 10 silly things
• acquire 10 silly things

There wasn't time to do even half of them so planning and strategy was required, something that after the adrenaline and beer we were surprisingly lacking! In the end the 2 teams were separated by a mere 2 points. We lost. I'm not bitter.

I was then presented with a remarkable cake made by my friends and a wonderful gift: a steampunk box containing a wax seal stamp and a document detailing a weekend away at a steampunk event in Lincoln to which they had bought me a ticket and booked a B&B for 2 nights. I am sooooo spoilt.

To round the day off we all headed in to Leicester for a slap-up meal at The Case and then off to my favourite pub, The Red Tent. I finally made it to bed, happy, tired and just a little bit tipsy at around 4.30am!

The following evening I headed to Bury St Edmunds with my eldest to spend the week with my parents. The weather kept us indoors for the most part but it was very relaxing and good to spend unhurried time together.

The weekend just gone was yet another party. A friend I haven't seen for maybe 7 or 8 years invited me to his birthday party. I may have only known him and one other (albeit vaguely) but a better group of strangers I have yet to meet. There were silly games, copious amounts of cake, the odd glass of shandy (whisky, cava, beer, wine, Pimms ...) more silly games including "the Rolling Game" and "I've never" which is a drinking game I shall never again play whilst drinking whisky, or I shall simply have to lie and pretend I really have never done those things ... ah who am I kidding!

So now it's back to reality. I have a craft fair in 12 days, and a large amount of making to do. So off to the workroom I go ...