House warmed

On Sunday afternoon we had our housewarming party. The first proper party in the house and our first ever garden party, and the weather held out which was marvellous. The theme was Georgian, the title on the invite was Vanity Fairground, and our idea had been to have a lot of themed games in the garden in case people got bored. They didn't, but people took advantage of the photo cutouts (above you see Paul and Anita therein), though nobody played with the Pin The Tail On The Bronte prop, which will have to have another use sometime.

Let's see if I can remember everyone who was there. There were the neighbours: Rachel from next door right, Kate from next door left, Tom & Nam from number 12, and Mark and Nina from number 8. From Chepstow there was Kerrie & Nigel (Thurgar), and from just down the road in Monmouth, Noni & Andy, with whom we've been reunited after I met Andy at an event last year (Noni was in the Sitcom Trials nearly 20 years ago). From Bristol there was Vince & Alex, Tilly & James, and Polly & Chris. 

From the Clevedon contingent, via Portishead, were Rachel & David. The furthest travelled was Tracey, who we met at the Talking Pictures Christmas party, and John (sadly Adam Roche, and Steve our party staple, weren't able to make it), who'd come from Kent and was making a weekend of it. Nearly as far in distance, and further in time since we'd last seen them, were Rob & Jayne, from Birmingham, who we've not seen for years and who it was great to see again. Likewise Sara Menage, who we've not seen since she moved down to Penzance before lockdown, good to see her back. 

But winners of the long-time-no-see award went to Anita, who Heather hadn't seen for nearly 40 years, since Exeter. I have, of course, seen her at Ludlow Fringe in recent years, and to which I'll be returning this coming weekend.

Given that we also had a good few people who would have been there but couldn't (Steve, Felicity & Tom, Darren Hoskins, Ally & Mike, Adam Roche, Hugh & Rachel) it was a splendid turnout and could have been our biggest party in living memory (certainly since the 90s, when I think we had a bit of an open-door all-back-to-ours attitude). I'll collect up the photos in a book at the end of the year. In the meantime, here's just a few.