May15: Weekend at Rosemary's...

So the day finally arrived and after a flurry of posts on the FB bubble Rosemary had finally licked us into some sort of rough shape with an itinerary for the weekend ahead.  'Like herding cats' she described it...

Friday 8 May

A gradual arrival of everyone - easing Rosemary [who knew what to expect] - and probably more importantly her husband Ian [who didn't!!] in gently...

So there we were - Sue, Siobhan, Chris, Janice, Carol, Jeanette (last seen doing her best Mrs Overall impression at the reunion in November) and new-to-the-group (but just as old as the rest of us...) Trisha/Pat Kerr (who had been probably trying to have a quiet change of library books for her mum until spotted by Carol and arm wrestled into joining us!), me (Tallulah/Wendy - usual split personality) and of course the hostess with the mostess Rosemary.

Luckily Rosemary and Ian have a big house so there was plenty of room for Ian to hole himself up out of earshot with the football on the telly and for us to talk, laugh, giggle, reminisce, eat, drink and generally be merry without disturbing him!

We tried our hand at cocktail making....

... and all sat down to enjoy a delicious meal with a brilliant table centre - Rosemary's school beret!...

We then enjoyed a lovely, relaxed evening...

.. and a very funny game of Taboo...

Quote of the evening came from Carol: (trying to explain 'tonsils' without using the word) ... those things that you keep in your throat...

Chris once again tried to get to grips with her selfie stick...

No idea what Siobhan is explaining here... 

So - time for bed!  Most of us bunked down in 'the dorm' above Rosemary's games' room but Chris was escorted somewhere over to the west wing to her own room where she could snore and grind her teeth without disturbing anyone!

And then just as we were all drifting off to sleep a little voice started singing in the dark... 'Tonight I sellotape my gloves toooo yooouu'.... (Carol again - we had been talking earlier about misheard lyrics)...

Saturday 9 May

A delicious full English to set us up for the day...

Then it was time for a brisk walk around Dorney Lake - where the 2012 Olympic rowing and canoeing events were held.  Breezy but bracing!...

And then we went to Cliveden and the sun came out for us...

Carol was careful to keep her speed under the advisory limit... 

Trying to take a selfie proved tricky - we started with 6... then 7... moved on to 8... and eventually managed the full 9!   Rosemary was right about herding cats...

The Chinese gardens were beautiful...

A walk to the centre of the maze proved to be a bit of a trial for some.  Most of us followed the scientific principle of ShivNav which got us there eventually...

So we arrived at the centre and waited for Chris and Rosemary who had started in a different direction.  We had seen them and we had heard them so we knew that they were there somewhere.

They eventually arrived - having been led by a young girl who knew the way!  Very funny...

Time for afternoon tea - beer, tea and scones a la Yorkshire for some...

A walk down to the river...

But of course once you've gone down you have to get back UP!  And the easiest way for most of us was to scramble through a 'no entry' path, shin up some unmade steps and clamber over a gate with no footing on one side...

A last walk through the gardens and then back to base...

Then we got ready for the fancy dress evening...

Siobhan and Carol posed for a few pictures before they went home...

And Rosemary modelled her original school uniform - she is probably the only one of us that is actually the same size and can still get into it...  Well done her!   

She wore it complete with the must-have fashion accessory of the time - bloomers.  I'm sure that we all remember those!...

We managed to eat another lovely meal in the middle of all this...

And we had quite a wig-fest!  Jeanette is modelling the 'Miss Townsend' here - well she was once she managed to put it on the right way!...

I started off in the 'Lyndsey de Paul', had a brief flirtation with the 'Miss Townsend', moved on to the 'Psychedelic Punk'... 

... but I didn't seem to be too happy in the 'Aretha Franklin'!  We all joined in the wig swap...

Rosemary's hair had time to grow as we took so long arguing/debating between each other over the answers on her quiz and trying to remember obscure facts like the product Lorraine Chase advertised or what the PG chimps said - not easy when you're having trouble at times remembering your own name!

This one really suited Chris - just a change of colour for her!

Quote of the evening came from Chris: (commenting on Rosemary's inexhaustible dancing)... she must be on Durex batteries...

And so to bed...

Sunday 10 May

Another lovely breakfast with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (where were you Sally?!...) and the croissants tasted fine...

Then a short walk through lovely woods with more warm weather and sunshine...

Then a bit of light trespassing to get home - under or over the gates - we were getting quite good at this by now...

The crawl or the climb depended on the state and bendability of our knees...

We sat outside in the sunshine and waited for Barbara to arrive...

As the weather was so pleasant we decided to eat outside and Ian took loads of photos for us...

And Barbara finally received her birthday gifts and a little cake - lit and carried out very carefully by Rosemary - only for the candle to be snuffed out by the breeze as she reached the table...

We all wore our special necklaces made from pasta bought back from Siobhan's business trip to Verona. 

She had also attempted to bring back a bottle of limoncello - but that, as they say, is another story!...

As you can tell from the pics - we are all holding our heads up high.  There are two reasons for that - firstly it minimises the number of chins we show and secondly it doesn't highlight our greying roots.

All except for Sue - think we caught her napping - sorry Sue! 

So - our last washing up duties (I was tidying up the balloons)...

 
...and all too soon it was time to pack up and say our goodbyes...


Thank you so much to Rosemary and Ian for sharing your beautiful house with us and for all the hard work you put in to make us feel so welcome...

Such a brilliant weekend with such lovely people!

Last word must go to Rosemary who said 'Thank you all so much for leaving everywhere so clean and tidy - it was nice to go into the bathroom and smell perfume instead of stale male!'

Until the next time...