Aussie Day Party 2012

 
 SO WE MISSED AUSTRALIA DAY IN WETHERBY,  but we did enjoy it in Jersey if you look at the next blog entry below.   But as you can see we had planned a great date for it.  Saturday the 28th was the Wetherby Aussie Day this year and it was a cold but sunny day. We have been most proud to have every year selected a fine weather day for our Aussie days and this year was the best.  We had between 20 and 30 folk turn up of which there were equal numbers of locals, Gail's work friends and some of my friends from Leeds Savages.  Regrettably because some of our good  friends from past years have returned to Australia there were not many Aussies and even fewer photo taking friends (Karen, Kylie and Jon were most missed) so the selection of snaps this year comes from Gail's and my best efforts to remember to take pictures.

The theme this year was BYOG&N and MYOP .  Bring Your Own Grog&Nibbles and Make Your Own Pizza.
Thinking there may be few nibbles bought along Gail laid out some cheese.  We had previously spent a day prepping the Pizza toppings.  Of which there were ample.  We had the party start time of noon and as no-one had shown up by 1pm Gail started in on the cheese.  

 It wasn't that long before the house filled up, the music kicked in and the first takers of the pizza fest stepped up to the table.  Amy Trish and Cora  were first in and there were three choices of base, tomato, roast capsicum or pesto then a bewildering choice of meats, vegetable or seafood.

Oh, and Vics again bought along one of her cake creations in theme ,
 Look at this will you,
There are Kangaroo, Wallaby, Platypus and Koala roasting marshmallows and drinking grog, a cockatoo on the fence, a snake or two, a campfire, real fire see later, and of course a pizza with the mandatory dropped slice.  Brilliant and again, thanks Vics.

 The pizzas went down a treat Gail and I worked the ovens and made sure everyone remembered to collect their own pizza.  Sort of distracted us from photo taking until the fireworks which I hosted and tried again to control.  No one died, no one took photos but there was one incident where one multi -shot cannon thing sort of misfired and scattered the crowd..... one singed overcoat, one holed stocking, one party goer escaping down the stairs and quite a few expletives, most exciting, but as I said no deaths again ..... so.....success....!!.

And then we came inside to light the candles on the cake and share it around.  How cool is that ?
Some folk left and others stayed. 

The music went on as did the chatting.

As did the drinking.

Until 10pm.

 10pm was when Gail and I had sort of agreed to launch some night lanterns. 
Gail found these on  'tinternet and they were fantastic fun.  
The night was cold and still so just perfect for these things.  You light a fuel cell suspended beneath the paper canopy, it heats the air inside and the whole thing floats off into the breeze.   Most , most beautiful and those who remained all got to light one up and launch it off. 
These photos Gail took do not really do the event justice. Not that they are not great photos.....

The last one was launched and rose for ages floating into the heavens and to wherever out of sight...... when those remaining folk returned into the warmth of the house, the chat and the drinks and nibbles, and the cheese, always cheese.

And eventually everyone left the party
and then I had to push the last few off into bed.....
at about 3:30am ,

despite the fact there was still cake left.

The next morning, well, early afternoon, we knocked up some leftover pizza and finished off the pavlova Gail had made and settled down into a rather calm discussion and catch up before a short drive to Leeds to catch the train back to London for the last two guests

The clean up took almost no time, in fact most of it is still waiting to be done..... Well I'm deciding what to do about the carpet......vacuum first I suppose then evaluate.

As far as Wetherby Aussie Days go the fourth one was up there with the best of them.  

Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day, and night, and morning.