A Tale of Two Parties

Posted on 2012/06/24 11:04:11 (June 2012).

[Saturday 23rd June 2012]
In recent years I seem to get invited to barely a handful of parties in the space of a year. So it was mildly irksome that two of them ended up being on the same day. Kyle and Hannah's joint birthday party in West Dulwich, and Michelle's birthday in East Malling.

Determined to try and have my (birthday) cake and eat it I was keen to make an appearance at both. Kyle's was starting a bit earlier in the day so this was just about manageable.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon writing the blog entries for our trip to Venice - and got a bit carried away with this, probably spending about 6 hours over it.

Chie was originally going to come to both parties, but was feeling a bit under the weather - a mix of hayfever and a cold - and thought probably standing in a drizzly field or garden on a not particularly summery evening in June might not be the best idea. So I ventured out by myself at 3pm.

As I was leaving, I realised I ought to take some kind of drink as an offering, and felt in the mood for cider. Availability of interesting cider in London is a challenge at the best of times, and in particular I couldn't think of anywhere between Pimlico and Victoria where I might be able to buy it. To my surprise, in what felt almost like a biblical event, a spontaneous street fair had sprung up between our flat and the tube station. I'd never seen them hold anything like this here before, apparently it was the first time they've tried it. Initially I walked through somewhat obliviously, but then noticed it incorporated a few farmers market type stalls, and, lo and behold, Millwhites Cider had a stall there. Not just any old cider stall, a stall selling one of my absolute favourite ciders. So I bought two kegs of that and proceeded happily on my way.

The first party - Kyle and Hannah's birthday - was in West Dulwich. I arrived just before 4pm. I contributed one of the kegs of cider to the proceedings which seemed to be very well received indeed - lots of people tried it and liked it. There had been a few spots of rain as I was on the way, but for the time I was actually there it remained dry, but really didn't feel particularly summery. Kyle had set up a gazebo over the barbecue so it wasn't much of an issue anyway.

Left there just before 7pm and headed back to West Dulwich station, to get the train from there down to East Malling in Kent for Michelle's party. I realised en route I'd might a bit of a mistake, and got my Easts and West confused - the train I was on would be stopping at West Malling, but not East Malling, although fortunately I was able to get a taxi from West Malling the rest of the way.

I arrived at Michelle's party around 8:15, which again was being held in a cricket pavilion (and on the big field outside) like the one we'd been to a couple of years back. Given that this was very firmly out in the country, there were some quizzical looks at my herringbone jacket and pocket square.

I realised the last train from East Malling was just before 11, so I was going to have to leave about 10:30 - so I'd end up only being here for a bit over two hours. A bit silly really considering I'd spent longer than that getting there and back! Still, I felt it was important to put in an appearance.

On the train on the way back to London a bunch of rather well heeled types got on - they were obviously on their way back from a party as well, and were in very high spirits. When they discovered that someone in the next carriage had a guitar they persuaded him to play some songs for them, and were dancing on the train the rest of the way back to London. It was rather bizarre, but I suppose it made the journey a lot more entertaining than it otherwise would have been.

In France we drink cider with pancakes. Normandy, renowned for its apples, produces good quality cider (cidre artisanal).

Posted by Sheri at 2012/06/28 10:16:34.

Sheri - you're still here!

Posted by John at 2012/07/16 22:45:56.

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