Only for party people.

  Last night's festivities were above and beyond. Firstly there were loads more people than we expected. There had been a good number of RSVPs and we assumed there would be other arrivals who hadn't bothered to let us know, but the number that showed up last night was a real surprise, over sixty.

  And in a way it wasn't a surprise. We only really had a sense of numbers today, which means that all the extra mouths didn't cause a problem. In fact, there was a hospitable amount of food left over so the buffet never looked bare; no one scraping the dregs from the bottom of any bowls to fill their plate.

  Then there was the atmosphere. Plenty of excitement on arrival from the enthusiastic guests who trickled in over the first hour. Then the chilled ceremony with candles and chanting. The idea of sitting around for an hour with candles and incense doesn't float my boat enough, so I pushed on in the kitchen and absorbed the vibes from the side line. It turned out I wasn't alone. First a few of the kids started chatting, asking their parents questions and finally just wondering off to play with their toys.

  Next were the fidgety adults who started to appear in the kitchen wanting to know if there was anything they could do to help, i.e., could they be given an excuse to get out of chanting. Before long the kitchen was pretty full so I had lots of company as I heated the various dishes in anticipation of the transition from spiritual to ravenous. Sure enough, after the last Ohhhhmmmmmm, everyone suddenly remembered how hungry they were and it was action stations.

  Many helpful hands ferried food to the buffet and the third stage of the evening commenced, the eating and partying phase. Some folk returned to the floor to chat and eat; some sat at the long table with their plates of food while others flitted, nibbled and nattered. Then there was the group I occupied. The end of the ceremony meant the start of the drinking, (though some people may have got a tiny head start), and as this seemed like as good an idea as any, a few of us took care of our thirst with a little Moscow mule, (Vodka, Ginger beer, lime). I'm going out of my way to mention this aspect of the evening in detail because of the last ingredient, ice. We noticed that the ice that had been bought was designed specially for occasions like this. I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before but I'll definitely be demanding it in the future. Why would anyone settle for anything less?

There's ice, and there's...

Kirk out

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