May 16: Big Birthday Bash

Friday 29 April - Monday 2 May 2016

Friday 29 April

As we all had/have our 60th birthdays in the academic year of September 2015 to August 2016 we decided that we would throw a party for ourselves!...

The first bank holiday weekend in May was chosen and we started planning for our Big Birthday Bash.

As it was a milestone birthday we decided to go POSH and we found the perfect venue - a beautiful house called Hazel Brow in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Gorgeous house in a beautiful setting so we were very happy.

The views were amazing - even from the second floor loo! 

The first job for those who had arrived early was to allocate the bedrooms (very important after 'bed-gate'!) Polo shirts embroidered by Siobhan with the school crest and 'Class of 67' were placed on the beds - the name tags sewn into the back of the collar indicated who was sleeping where!

Tagged party bags were put out on the side for people to drop their presents into, balloons were blown up and banners were hung - then we were ready to go!

We realised at this point that the teabags, coffee and milk had not yet arrived - so we opened a bottle of wine.

And so it began!...

 Several more people arrived and preparations started for the evening meal.

After the meal we had a silly game of 'left, right - pass the parcel' - which Linda won - and then Sally read us a story entitled 'The Ladybird book of school reunions' - both very funny.

And we finished at the table with a rousing rendition of Julie Andrews' version of 'Favourite things' - with the words very appropriate to us all...

We even had our own Retford County High School 'Class of 67' birthday cake made by a friend of Siobhan's.  Complete with class photo, piles of books, school satchel, black and red school scarf and the school badge crest!

Then it was time for the first dip in the hot tub. Chris (hot tub monitor) had listened and nodded solemnly while the man installing it had said that he had to tell her no drink or drugs in the hot tub (why on earth would we want to take our arthritis, heart, knee, hip etc tablets out there?) - but even she looked a bit askance at him when he added - and don't go in if you are pregnant!...

The hot tub was situated very conveniently just outside from a small utility room and a wet room so getting in and out was no bother at all.  And even more conveniently there was a fridge in there which soon became known as our fizz fridge.

So some of us piled into the luke warm water (too eager to wait for it to heat up properly) with our plastic glasses of fizz - while the sensible ones sat inside and ignored us.

It was lovely to sit there in the dark looking up at the stars and chat with friends.  We burst into an unplanned and lengthy rendition of 'American Pie' as we reminisced about learning the words at school - luckily there were no houses nearby but we probably traumatised sheep for miles around...

A lovely end to the evening but no photos as no one had thought to bring a camera - and we weren't getting out again!

Saturday 30 April

Some of us were up early and had a play with Dawn's funny face cards...

Sally arrived in time for breakfast and I went back to Retford for a wedding.

The weather was fine and sunny so most of the gang then went out for a walk...

Carol (feeling better so had travelled back with me) and I arrived back late evening after a circuitous route in glorious scenery and sunshine (but without cheese biscuits and petrol) to find everyone still seated round the table and chatting.

We decided to adjourn to the sitting room and open our presents.  How wonderfully inventive everyone had been to find something under a £2 per person budget!

Such kind, thoughtful and useful presents with nothing duplicated.  

Huge thank you to everyone.















We did a 'Barbaramus' spell before unwrapping our gifts from her as she wasn't able to be with us.

Then it was back to the hot tub for more fizz and fun under the stars - though it was all too much for Janice...

Sunday 1 May

OUR BIRTHDAY!  Happy birthday to us.

Another leisurely start to the day but with everyone in their school 'uniform' of black trousers and white polo shirt with school crest - and school beret for Rosemary.

Very smart too!

After being able to work t'big camera with the remote to start with we then twiddled some knobs (fatal!) and lost all the settings.

So Siobhan twiddled it some more until she found the 10 second delay and we were off!...

We (the royal we - Siobhan) tried a few practice shots while we were waiting for Diana to appear (elf n safety monitor - she was probably doing checks somewhere...)

We then had to try a few more shots to actually get Siobhan in the picture - and we were off again...

We then decided to go for a serious school photo shot. 

'Serious faces' said Siobhan as she ran back in for the countdown to the shot.

'Dead kittens' said Carol helpfully...





It all went downhill from there...

So there we all are - the Class of 67...

Thank you so much Siobhan for the polo shirts - such a good idea and they looked absolutely brilliant!

Thank you also for putting our names in the back of our collars - very thoughtful so that we know where to look when we can't remember our names...

After our photo shoot one or two of the more intrepid walkers (actually just two I think - Sue and Dawn) were gathered together by Jeanette (map monitor) for a short ramble in the drizzle.  The sensible ones stayed in and cleaned up the kitchen in readiness for our BIG BIRTHDAY MEAL WITH NO WASHING UP later.

Siobhan and I set the table (again in readiness for the BBMwNWU!) and shut the door and curtains to stop any snooping.

 By the time Sandie and Jane arrived to cook for us we were getting totally giddy!
























We quickly whizzed up a BBB bucket of cocktail and popped some nibbles on plates... and then it was time to pick a tiara (or tarara as it became known - not sure why...) and get the posh frock on!

As we waited for our meal we sipped our delicious BBB cocktail and daintily munched aperitifs - dressed in our tararas and finery.  We can do POSH when we want to!

We chatted and mingled and Sue wobbled around trying to walk in heels...

Then it was time to eat.

And time to let them all to the dining room to find their place setting and see the beautifully arranged table which was totally set off by the magnificent surroundings of the room and gorgeous view through the window.

Jane seemed very impressed that we had all remembered what we had ordered - until we all waved our little menus at her!

The meal was absolutely delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.  So a HUGE thank you to Sandie and Jane for that - and of course for all the clearing away and washing up afterwards.

We missed Barbara who should have been celebrating with us - so we raised our glasses and drank a toast to her - and to all our other school friends who were not able to be there.

And Barbara will still get a bag of goodies when Siobhan is next on business in her area...

We all passed phones and cameras around the table throughout the meal so we had quite a random selection of photos...

We drank port and ate chocolate truffles - and Rosemary slid off her chair and under the table!... 

A fabulous afternoon with fantastic food and wonderful company!

We managed to stagger through to the lounge for tea, coffee, port and more chocolates...

We flopped onto the settees and that was us for a while - chilled, relaxed and full of delicious food - until some of us got second wind and headed once again for the hot tub where we nobly managed to drink a little more fizz and take some photos - having finally remembered to take out a camera to capture the beautiful views...

RCHS calendar girls!

Once we were feeling a bit more energetic we practised our synchronised swimming - don't think that we would win any prizes!

You may have noticed Ella hovering in the background in some of the pictures.  She was Siobhan's idea - our little plastic friend who was going to sit at the table with us to represent all our absent friends and take our numbers from unlucky 13 to 14.

But we kept forgetting about her - and actually left her out in the rain overnight by mistake so her lovely red hair ended up on the drying rack with the rest of the cossies...

She came into her own though when she modelled the beautiful roll top bath.  Not sure if we look quite so glam with dishevelled hair and wonky tararas!  And despite appearances we did all have our cossies on!...

Disclaimer:

Perhaps it would be prudent at this point to add a quick word for those of you who are reading this with mounting trepidation about joining us on future trips...  

None of the antics we get up to are compulsory - quite a few are unplanned and spontaneous and (amazingly!) none of them are drink fuelled - we can't even use that excuse as we seem to drink little and often - with lots of food and cups of tea in between.  

Our drug of choice is adrenaline and sheer exuberance at being together and acting (in a limited way knees, hearts, hips, bunions etc permitting) like our teenage selves from all those years ago...

We are sort of rock and roll... and slippers...

We tried to play games in the evening but we had peaked...

We tried to stay up late - well we tried to get past 10 pm at least.  Some managed it, some didn't.

But what a fabulous day.  We had done glam and glitz.  We had laughed until we cried.  We had chatted non stop.  We had eaten and drank until we could eat and drink no more.  We had remembered our absent friends and reminisced about our school, our friends and our teachers.  

... And we had started to plan the next trip!...

For some this was the last of our  60th birthday celebrations.  For others it was the start with their own special day still to come.

But for us all it was a very - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!...

Monday 2 May

Another special breakfast today - Sally (scrambled egg monitor) cooked up a storm with her yummy smoked salmon scrambled eggs.

It's becoming a bit of a tradition now that Sally has to cook these every time we are away somewhere.

So - we ate our last breakfast all together and those who were leaving started to sort out and pack.

We decided that we needed to clear our bottle mountain which had been growing steadily over three nights...

Sally and Jeanette took most of them home to dispose of them in their own recycling banks.

We part cleared out the fridges - making sure that there was plenty left for those who were staying.  When we say we part cleared out the fridges we mean that we ate again...

So that was our weekend and it was time for us all to head back to reality, families and homes (and dirty washing!) up and down the country. 

But what a brilliant weekend and once again so many lovely memories with great friends!

Thank you everyone - and may we all enjoy many more!... x