65, not out!

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It was John C’s 65th Birthday last Monday – a perfect excuse for a belated neighbourly get-together tonight!

We picked up Paul & Karen and arrived just before 6.30. Everyone else was already there by the time we arrived – and we were all soon in a party mood! 👍😁

Yes, pretty much a full house round at Trish’s, with our usual friendly collective of neighbours, starring Paul & Karen, David & Rosi, Tom & Julie together with Richard & Mandy joining us (who we haven’t seen for quite a few years!).

Trish has a real knack of being able to cater for lots of people without issue, and tonight didn’t disappoint! (It never does!). She had prepared the Starter – Smoked Salmon and the Mains – Chicken in Red Wine with enough vegetables for the whole of the county! Delicious!!

And with Ann sorting out the Desserts, tempting us with TWO kinds of pies, it was all very yummy!! 😋😋- Lemon Meringue plus Chocolate & Toffee Banoffee (Damn! Forgot to get a photo of the Banoffee!)

…and Rosie had brought along a mini-birthday cake collection!

In between the Main and Dessert, we turned our attention to the Quiz (which is fast becoming a staple at these events!). This time, I wrote it, based around John’s year of birth…

…creating a five-round-four-questions-per-round-multi-choice challenge and arranging our friends in teams of two. With each group armed with a novelty buzzer and the rules clearly spelt out at the start by Mrs P, what could possibly go wrong!?!?

Well, apart from the fact that some of the buzzers couldn’t be heard above the (ahem!) ‘enthusiasm’ of the groups and the concept of ‘don’t answer until you’ve heard ALL the options’ not being fully grasped, it all went down very well. In fact, the somewhat chaotic nature of what followed made it an even more memorable event! University Challenge this WASN’T but what a laugh! 😁😁

Anyone who thinks it’s the ‘taking part’ NOT the ‘winning’ should see us lot competing with each other 😂🤣. I think we might need to adopt the ‘red card’ system (plus VAR) next time to avoid a riot!! 😁. Copy of the quiz is HERE.

Scores on the doors…

Trish & Richard	25
Julie & David	30
Rosie & King John	25
Paul & Mandy	40
Tom & Karen	20

With the Quiz completed, if we hadn’t had enough food, we tempted our tummies once last time with not one, but two, large cheeseboards thanks to Julie and Mandy. So, not a great time for my phone to die just as I was about to take a photo of the ‘cheese mountain’! 😟😟

We all had a great time, but at just after midnight, we called it a night (our partying days until the wee small hours are, I think, well and truly over!). We said our goodbyes and headed home and were tucked-up in bed just before 1am. Thanks Trish, you did a FANTASTIC job in pulling the event together!! 😘😘