Strange housewarming
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-07-03 06:40:58 - Graham EllisOn Saturday evening, we were invited around to a house warming party that our new neighbours were holding ... or at least "House Warming" was what we were told. They moved in quite a while ago - before Christmas last year, in fact, and we've hardly seen them around - in fact I met 'her' just the once when I went round to introduce myself the day they moved in, and I met (it turned out to be) him on Friday, when I went down to talk with a load of gophers who were loading wooden packing crates onto a big truck on our driveway.
Well - it's the first housewarming party I've been to where you have to buy your own drinks (all of them, including even the first soft one (oops - I'll nip home and get some cash)) and then there was the raffle (more cash). The lady selling tickets was rather confused when I asked her what the raffle was in aid of, but all started to twig when it turned out to be "Church funds" ... we had really been invited along to help swell the ranks and raise money for the local Catholic Church. And perhaps for damage limitation, having got a marquee that was too big, then having to walk all over us (or rather drive all over us) to have access to their own home / the party venue.
Still, an interesting evening. An aggressive lady on the pig roast who helped remind me how NOT to treat customers. A good time chatting with our other neighbours with who we formed a bit of a clique. That's how it goes at parties, isn't it, and with one brave exception 'the Catholics' did certainly NOT want to mix! And I'm getting much more mellow these days and was just laughing off the folks walking around our garden and picking things. In fact, we can take that as quite a compliment.
A long evening ... we drifted off to sleep very late indeed (or rather in the early hours) once the country singer had wound down and the final guests were headed out.