.........celebrations continued

 

Saturday 20 March

Today we are having a birthday lunch for Andrew with the remaining 15 members of the family and friends arriving. There is a little bit of a panic this morning, as the house is strictly a ‘no party’ house. In fact, to book it, we had to provide age, gender and occupation of those staying overnight. Imagine the booking agent looking at seven guests over 60 and the rest around 40, all professionals and thinking ‘here’s a dangerous party crowd.’ It didn’t stop them sending Christopher the terms and conditions eight times. So, we moved most of the cars to Jacki’s house in Mornington and the rest in the garage and on the street - but not on the grass verge, oh no, that would be naughty.

Andrew wanted a ‘wine event’ as part of his party – er, I mean event. So, Flashy prepared a Masterclass Wine Blending session for 11 of the guests, presented at 10.30 am. All participants agreed that it was a lot of fun, with a single point separating the winning team from the other two. Tas, Jenny and Alyssa accepted the accolades of all for their win and were presented with an engraved wine glass to remind them of their conquest. Their winning blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache was then blended into two bottles and served with the lunch.

The lunch. When Jacki orders the catering, the tables groan. To give her her due, it was very good food, with 11 dozen oysters to start. Platters of brisket, pulled lamb and hot vegetables followed anti pasti boxes and a dessert flan finished the job. Lady P had made a pavlova in the morning, as this is Andrew’s favourite. The two grand daughters, Lucy and Holly, ‘helped’ and were rewarded with the beaters to lick. Christopher and Flashy were a bit concerned when the crowd sang happy birthday. Sounds like a party to me. Then they sang it again!! People not staying drifted off in the late afternoon and the residents settled down to a few wines. The leftovers were recycled for dinner and there was not much left for Jacki to take home.