The Naked Bloggers 2011: Celebrations

I knew Mads 50^th birthday party was going to be a good one because I knew about all of the preparations but it turned out to be one of the best parties I'd been too. In true Mads style, totally OTT but executed perfectly and she carried it off beautifully. Angela and her staff had done wonders with the restaurant and Mads magical touches, the balloons, the cakes, the flowers and the red carpet all made the stage for a great night. We arrived early at half five to help out with any last minute preparations but in fact everything was pretty much done so we headed to the bar. The food is always good at Robinsons but these time Darren surpassed himself. With Mads & Steve footing the bill I expected a set menu but on the night we had a choice of 4 starters, mains & desserts. With the appetizer the inbetween palate cleansers, the coffee and petit fours and birthday cake and pink champagne there were 8 courses in total. After dinner and speeches were all over, Maddy presented us with a Anthurium plant for our wedding anniversary and she also gave one to thank Angela for all her hard work.

It really was a fantastic night as you can tell from the photographs and Phil was on good form. This doesn't happen much these days and its nice to see him let his hair down for a change. Angela's daughter Lola has singing lessons and performed a solo for everyone which was very brave really because it wasn't planned and she is only 9 years old, bless her. Mads booked a live singer that played at Sarah & Ed's wedding and he was brilliant. When he finished, Paul, the DJ started with the disco and I think everybody got up to dance at some stage during the evening, even Phil! And yes I was up there in the beginning and there at the very end. What am I like! In the end we got a lift home with DJ Paul & his wife Jill after he'd finished packing up his equipment. We got in at 3 am and it was quite fun and games getting Phil's shoes off and getting him up the stairs to bed. Unfortunately we woke Harriet up in the process. Sorry Harriet!

As anticipated, we were both suffering with hangovers and sleep deprivation on Saturday morning. It would have been good to have stayed in bed but there was no chance because Phil had an appointment with a mortgage broker at half eleven. I'm afraid the diet went out of the window and we had to start the day with bacon and egg rolls, always the best cure for a hangover. On Saturday afternoon I cleaned the house & mowed the lawn because we had a house viewing and Phil went over to Northampton to give G some driving practice. Saturday night was telly and an extremely early night.

It was our 3^rd wedding anniversary on Saturday but although we exchanged cards we'd already decided to celebrate on Sunday instead. We went to the gym in the morning and then early afternoon walked to the Ship Ashore for lunch. Both of us had the roast which was really nice but the service was slow which was surprising given that there weren't many others dining. It was such a beautiful afternoon; we had intended to walk to the centre and catch a movie but there were a couple of bits of pressing paperwork jobs to be done so we walked home instead. We finished the day by whizzing over to Winslow to drop a letter off at Sally's our solicitor. I could have done this today but Phil insisted on doing it yesterday. Sunday evening was telly, papers and another early-to-bed night. Its nice to party and stay up all night occasionally but when you get to our age it takes 3 days to get over it. Getting older is very sad.