music
many party games involve music. and the choice of music is very important at a party. we got the party going with Lou Reed’s Transformer. once the masses arrived i upped the funk with Supa Funky Vol 1
for the games we had a Boney M compilation. the kids loved it. and so did we.
blutack the tail on the donkey
pin the tail on the donkey is a classic game. this year we decided against hammer and nails, and used blu-tack to stick the tail on. esther managed to stick the tail on our coat rack rather than the donkey, which was quite impressive as it’s on a different wall.
official archivist
our friends tony and tanya helped at the party along with jane’s mum so there was a good ratio of kids to growned-ups. tony agreed to be the official moving images archivist. i remained still-image archivist and as far as possible maintained artistic control over the proceedings.
tony wasn’t that bothered about our furniture as can be seen here (he’s standing on the arm of a chair). it turned out he wasn’t too bothered about the carpet either as later he chucked a cup of tea on it.
we’ve yet to see if his footage was any good so i don’t know whether to thank him yet or not.
UPDATE: we watched it and it was quite amazing. especially the top of the pops 360 degrees rotation bits during the musical games.
cake decorating
cake decorating was another activity at the party which everyone enjoyed. some of the designs were amazing:
(click cakes for bigger version)
twister
esther is now at the age where the game twister is of interest. so is tony. he played it lots, even on his own with me doing the spinning.
i wasn’t particulary comfortable with this arrangement. and neither was he. especially when his daughter jumped on his back.
(notice kezia going against the tide on the picture on the right. she’s wearing a red t-shirt and shorts)
t-shirt painting
t-shirt painting was a party activity, supervised by jane’s mum.
honor went for it with bright colours:
catherine decided on an elephant print which she named Cat:
After painting they were hung up and left to dry in our garage:
mysterious
part of the party fun was searching for monsters. they were hidden all over the place. this one looked particularly good.
party update 15:56 chaos
just popped up to get something for the party and it’s so much quieter up here than down stairs ! lots of pictures coming soon …
party food
one hour and counting. the food is all nicely prepared and wrapped …
ice skating
esther had a party this morning for 2 hours so i took kezia to the cafe at a nearby ice rink. kezia was most impressed, so maybe next time we’ll actually go on the ice.
painting practice
it’s esther’s birthday party today so jane’s been busy doing everything. i’ve helped by keeping myself and the girls out of the way.
after breakfast we had face painting practice. kezia went for the rabbit look.
i missed the cake :-(
those who know i rushed out of work early to get home for the birthday cake singing and blowing will be disappointed to know that i missed it (and so was i).
it’s esther’s party day tomorrow so hopefully i’ll get another chance then.
more alcohol for commuters
it’s been a great day for free alcohol. first there were cocktails in tesco and then free baileys at paddington station.
they’ve been giving away free baileys at paddington since wednesday evening. it’s another part of the government’s alcohol for commuters scheme i think
warning – tipsy shoppers
the revamped tesco’s next to my office has obviously spent its advertising money on alcohol and giving free cocktails to shoppers. i went shopping with John as a kind of social lunchtime event.
it’s quite big and quite strong (tescos) and lots of people are merrily wandering around grinning whilst shopping.
one woman in the next aisle was busy shouting “criSPS, criSPS, ooh, doesn’t the SPS bit of criSPS sound funny, criSPS, criSPS”.
the local street alcoholics were enjoying it too, although you could tell they would rather drink straight from the bottle instead of these nice dainty cocktail glasses. the serving staff were less impressed by their drinking enthusiasm.
out of stock
all of these things are out of stock
here is jim
here is jim in a bow tie. when i started working here i used to sit next to jim, but now he’s in a different building. it’s nice to see him over here and i thought you’d like to see him too.
more treasure
i spotted this little gold coin just along from where i found the jewel . it looks like a little roman coin. perhaps the wet weather washed it up from some underground long lost Roman settlement below the streets of london.
