Irony

It is one of the inescapable truths of blogging that the more there is happening in one's life, the less time or inclination there is to blog about it

I would have expected that, because I'm not having the family Christmas dinner here this year, that perhaps the pre-Christmas run-up might be a little calmer than normal

I should have known better

Lunch at Maldon with friends on Thursday [ for my birthday and to stop me from dwelling on the other implications of the date ] was followed by frantic last minute house cleaning before about forty past and present members of our women's acapella choir 'Chat Warblers' descended upon the premises for our annual Christmas knees-up.

So the next few hours yielded
birthday flowers aplenty

copious amounts of delicious edibles,

good friends,
and some really great singing.

Judging on past years, I expected the girls to start heading off at about 9.30 - 10pm, around the time David was dropped back home after a meal at the pub with Carer Graham, but nope. Everyone was still having far too good a time singing to even contemplate leaving.
Not even the ones with an hour drive ahead of them.
The same ones who needed to get up at 6am to get ready for work!

Instead of Dave heading for bed and Graham going home to a well earned rest, the boys both settled into the rumpus room and listened to the carols, etc emanating from the other end of the house in three & four part harmony.

Fast forward to a little past midnight, and was I fast asleep in my virtuous bed ? kitchen clean and shining ?
Aaah ... that would be a no
I think we'd worked our way round to the Banana Boat Song [ Dayo! Da-a-a-y-o! ] and the Happy Wanderer by this stage:


Castlemaine ladies certainly know how to party [ or should that be par-tay ?]
They did eventually all depart, declinig my offer to roll out the sleeping bags

Friday was reserved for doing the dishes,

taking out the rubbish
finding all the hidden champagne flutes,
and making a tally of the things that people had managed to leave behind:

2 tote bags - one with sheet music and one with a large jar of Italian Nougat [ which may not make it back to its owner. Just sayin'!!]
one large salad bowl
one large casserole w lid
one pair of salad tongs
one large serving spoon
one blue cardigan
a marble cheese board
sticky tape
a packet of safety pins

and a bucket of tomato plants


I think they had a good time
I know I certainly did