Catching up (1)

My retirement was put on hold until my leave ends, and so was my birthday. The 17th of Feb was the day of the Annual Valentines meal at our Church. It is organised as a fund raising event for the Wives Group project charity. This year, the project is the Children of Choma which is for children in Choma in Zambia who have been orphaned or are disadvantaged because of the AIDS epidemic. It was chosen from last years speakers at the group. It had a great start as the speakers were Rev. Ken and his wife Val. Ken, who is now retired, was our minister quite a few years back and started his ministry in Zambia.

Barbara, my wife, was involved and so was I. Last year, my 60th birthday, we went away for a weekend much to everyone’s disgust! This year, we were asked early and I didn’t even have the possibility that I might be away at sea to fall back on. Still, the event is always a hoot; it’s just the preparation that get to me.

So, the first thing I did on my birthday was chop a couple of kilos of green beans for the meal before going up to the Church. I had arranged a lesson on the multimedia system with Stephen, the son of David the minister. It’s pretty simple but I wanted to be sure. I was given some photos on a disk showing Rev. Ken and Val’s last visit to Zambia. So I helped get all the tables in the hall and then retired to the desk and transferred the photos to PowerPoint and got stuff ready for the evening.

As there was lots of the Wives Group there in the morning, the rooms were soon prepared and we were able to leave just after 1pm. No rest for yours truly as I was making a fruit salad for the sweet trolley. Our dottir walked round for a visit and I took her home just before 5pm. We then loaded the car and collected the veggie dish from Audrey next door and up we went.

I got the slides running and the music playing then went to prepare for the fray. The meal is very well supported even though many of the members at the Church are involved in the preparation etc. We had 82 covers between 6.30 and 8.30. It was all a bit frenetic at first with two large groups. However we managed. Keith, Brian, Ro and I were waiters with Margaret and Val as the sweet trolley hosts and Anne and Barbara D. resetting and helping with the clearing. The kitchen staff performed miracles ably lead by Brenda, Jennie and Jean with Bob on vegetables! Really there are too many people to mention. The one who deserves special mention though is Sue who comes every year and decorates the rooms. The transformation is unbelievable.

The last diners were cleared by 9.40 and we were able to clear the tables then have a bite to eat ourselves. The Plumbers Mates (Bob, Brian, Keith and I) were planning an interlude across at the pub when Barbara came through bearing a cake and I was treated to the assembled helpers and a few diners singing “Happy Birthday” Thankfully there weren’t 61 candles as I had trouble blowing out the 6 there were! That over, were able to beat a retreat to the pub where we meet every Thursday for the quiz.

A couple of pints later we went back to finish off with the clearing up. Most things had been disassembled and we just had to put things away and load up cars. We did pretty well really and were able to leave just after midnight. A splendid evening and I understand the project benefited by the princely sum of £585.