It was lovely. There were some 50 people there altogether (friends and neighbours) and the weather was wonderful; we were so lucky there.
There was plenty to eat and drink (well, far too much but that’s another story altogether); music (live and recorded) and lots of warm, friendly and lively conversation. People seemed very interested in each other, enjoying each others company. The atmosphere seemed quite special.
Our friend, Les Levidov played the violin; our other friend Dave Black played the guitar; whilst Naomi sang with Les playing. Victor (our middle son) played the guitar and Victor, Gregory (our youngest son) and I sang a song that Victor composed especially for the event, which he entitled ‘Infinite Expansion’. We also sang some other songs. In fact, Victor compiled a song sheet for it, which included songs such as Ralph McTell’s ‘Streets of London’, which he amusingly called ‘Victor Rikowksi’s Twenty Minute Sing-along Extravaganza!’ One or two others sang along with us.
Now, hopefully we will have another winter/Xmas party, and invite some more people - we discovered that our house is bigger than it seems, once the furniture is pushed back! We wanted this party to be somewhat exclusive though anyway. The idea is that for our next party live music will be higher up on the agenda, with sing-a-longs.
People kept coming and going throughout the whole afternoon and evening. The party started at 3pm and ended at about 1am the next day. There was also a barbeque, which Alexander, our eldest son, took charge of. Here is Alexander with the barbeque.
And here are Alexander and Gregory.
I gave lots of guided tours of the pond, as did Glenn!! I felt like a Tourist Information Guide at one point! People also liked the ornaments and flowers that were strewn around the garden and the hanging baskets. Our next door neighbours little girl fell in the pond – that added a bit of drama to it all, but both her and the pond were alright, thank goodness.
There were over a dozen neighbours there altogether, and we introduced some neighbours to each other. Some were quite amazed and amused to discover that they lived so near to each other, yet did not know each other. Another lady (who lives in a different part of the East End of London) met up with someone that she had not seen for years (one of our neighbours). After leaving us she went over to his house for a while. Two other people (a friend and a neighbour) shared an office together in the past, for quite some while - they had no idea that they would both be at the same party; that was very strange. Two other people found that they frequented the same local community centre and another two really enjoyed sharing a creative spark.
There were also a couple of quite heated political discussions - that added some spice! A couple of people said that they only intended to stay for a little while, but ended up staying for several hours. So, presumably they had a good time!
Several people contacted us afterwards – by email, telephone, facebook, face-to-face, text messages, post (snail-mail) etc, thanking us and saying how much they enjoyed it all. That was very nice. It was the first time we had ever done anything like it – the circumstances have never been right for us before.
The digital photos of the event were kindly taken by Victor - Glenn and I were too busy chatting!
Our life continues to change and evolve. Let’s see what is round the corner next.
28th August 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment