Party Time

As you may have gathered I have just retired. Well to be accurate I officially retire from 1st Oct so these past 3 weeks I have technically been holiday. So to mark the occasion I decided to invite some of the people that I had worked with over the years to drop in for lunch yesterday. Unfortunately not everyone was able to come but I was able to catch up with quite a few people, some of whom, I had not seen for a number of years. How come I look old and wrinkly but not those who retired some time ago. May be you get younger once the stress of working leaves you- I can live in hope.
Unlike my daughters I am not a brilliant cook, I had lots of suggestions from Sam's blogging friends, but I largely chickened out in case I messed up things not tried and tested before hand. That doesn't mean your efforts have been in vain as I will be trying things out on hubby (Mike) in the future. He is actually a diabetic so I do have to be careful.

I was up at the crack of dawn, well 6am, to start cooking as most things could not be done in advance. Four hours later after making 3 quiches, having a disaster making the filling for 'Gateau Dianne', I won't go into the details but it included opening the fridge and dropping half a pint of orgainc cream over the floor so it was lucky I always buy more than I really need. What I don't know now now is if organic cream is superior as we never got to taste it ( merangues for this dessert were prepared in advance). The end result looked passable and everyone was very complimentary.

Last year, when I was staying with my daughter Beccy (who lives in Dublin), her sister-in-law, Fiona invited us for lunch and one of the salads she prepared was so delicious I decided to give it a try from memory. Basically wild rocket tossed in Balsamic dressing with mozzarella cheese and plums. This was popular.


The organic fruit salad was nice and refreshing and enjoyed by all.

I want to say a big thank you to my 3 friends, Valerie (and her small daughter), Tina and Sue who came and helped with the preparations. I could not have got everything ready in time without them. They chopped fruit and veg, prepared fish, attractively arranged the various platters and helped set the tables. (now why didn't I think to photograph them at work that would have been good).

My friend, Bridget orgainsed the drinks as people arrived, so thank you to Bridget ( and thank you and John for the lovely necklace and bracelet, I shall enjoy wearing them).


I had lots of lovely flowers thank you everyone.






Thank you Mike for the wine, and Margaret for the champagne (my favourite tipple now am going to share it!!. The necklace is very unusual I tried to photograph it but could not do it justice.)

A few random snaps:


Nigel, Sue, Margaret


Debbie, Peter, Bridget



















Don't Sue and Flo look happy both retired recently. Central photo shows Sue, Flo, Me, Kay and Valerie. Dawn other

A big thank you to all who came to celebrate with me and made this a memorable day. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. xx