TheBanyanTree: A party

[PJMoney]

After all the trouble, strife and sadness that has been going on lately it
was great to have a lovely time last night.   I really can't remember when
I've enjoyed myself more at a function.  

Maybe that's because it was our own.  Individual family members, variously,
planned it, booked the venue, designed the invitations, arranged for the
decorations, decided on the menu, sorted out the seating plan, chose the
music, created the slide show and prepared the speeches.

When we lived down south our lives were such that we really had no friends.
There were people we knew as professional colleagues or maybe, better, as
"The Competition".  We'd see these folk at drug company dinners, continuing
education seminars and the like.  But they weren't friends.

Here our lives have been very different.  Here we have been employees rather
than employers.  Here most people are blow-ins, far from their own families.
So friendships are much more important, easier to create and easier to
sustain.  The very importance of friendships makes people more forgiving of
being neglected for a while when you have family stuff to do.

Since we have been here we have made so many friends that we had to decide
on how many to invite based on our ability to pay for it all.  We settled on
catering for seventy.  Sixty-eight turned up.  

Each table had a centrepiece of balloons anchored with a weight sporting a
spray of long silvery fronds.  Little silver stars were sprinkled along the
length of each tablecloth.  The seat backs were decorated with silver
sashes.   

Seano got the music going just before 6.30pm and then people started
arriving.  Some brought gifts even though the invitation expressly said, "No
gifts please".  They got their drinks from the bar and got talking to each
other animatedly, just as I'd hoped they would.  Then the finger food
arrived and after everyone was seated, and partially sated, Sean gave his
speech and put on the slide show.

Paul and I didn't know what he'd put in it because he refused to let us know
beforehand.  There were photos of Paul and I - as babies, as children, as
young adults and of each of us in our graduation regalia.  There were photos
of our honeymoon, of own children, of family gatherings.  It finished with
photos of our wedding, which was the reason for the party.

It was our 25th anniversary, to the day.  Having missed out on parties for
my 21st, 30th, 40th and 50th birthdays I was determined that we would have a
party to celebrate our 25th anniversary.

After we'd all eaten the main course (a buffet - beef rendang, green chicken
curry, barramundi, pork with plum sauce, chow koi teoh, combination Chinese
vegetables and, of course, steamed rice) Paulo got up and made a lovely
sentimental speech about how happy he was to have had me for his bride.
Some of the women present even got teary.  

Then he and I had a go at a waltz to make up for the fact that there was no
dancing at our wedding, the reception having been held in my Mum and Dad's
back yard where the only hard surface was a concrete driveway.  And then,
thankfully, others joined us in shuffling about on the dance floor.  More
and more people got up and, finally, lots got up to try doing the Madison to
the music of "Nut Bush City Limits".  We played that twice.  It was a lot of
fun.  Then, it being a Tuesday night, they started going home. 

Nobody got drunk or argumentative.  There was lots of conversation going on
at all the tables.  People were enjoying each other's company and enjoying
themselves.  It was a great night.  I'll remember it until I lose the
capacity to remember.  Lovely.

Janice