Scene and heard

In the week leading up to the party, I obsessed, as we do in my family, about food. What do I need to buy? Where do I need to buy it? What about serving dishes? All the while, I was spending ages on the phone with Susan, Rosemary and several others. Three lunch dates and an evening drink filled my days. Each night, I got to bed later than I should have and spent about 2 hours laying awake - I was exhausted! On Wednesday night, I woke up with one word in my head: Coleslaw! I hadn’t made any for years, but couldn’t get it out of my head! What do I need to buy? I went through the ingredients. Should I buy a grater or Food Processor? When would I do it, as there was so much else to do? I started wishing I was thinking about women! Who the hell thinks about coleslaw for 2 hours!!! At least I slept on Thursday night!!

And so to party day. Rosemary had baked a birthday cake - her signature Carrot Cake - and helped prepare some food. Susan sent balloons. I marinated 17 ½ lbs of chicken wings, made my wing sauce, made 2 types of Pico de Gallo and my coleslaw, peeled 10 lbs of potatoes and cut them into nice fat English Chips and then relaxed, as people started arriving before 5pm and Sean took over the kitchen. Until midnight, people came and went. There were never more than 10 here at a time, so it was nice and cosy.

After an hour and a half of clean-up, I went to bed. Could have slept a week, but the phone rang at 10. My Mum gave me my Dad’s old Star of David and chain – very special. I cooked a full English breakfast for 3 and took Rosemary back to the train station in the late afternoon (and missed her train because the express subway went local – it did go express on the way back!). Also took birthday calls from England and California. But I did manage to relax a lot also. What a weekend! What a week!! Pleased I don’t turn 50 every week!!