Enjoying having no responsibilities

It wasn't for long...it was just one week off between the two jobs. But it was GREAT. We started out by having a british style garden party (albeit in our concrete nyc yard) for about 40 friends. No fots of the party itself which was brilliant, but a few of the set-up..

I spent some time finding exactly the right bunting and convincing the very kind suzanne crumley at my work to print and cut it - which she did. Definitely worth it.

We raided the London candy company for as many british sweets and chocolate as we could find - flakes, curly wirlys, dib dabs, chupa chups, murray mints, iced gems and then made loads of marmite, cucumber and cheese and pickle sandwiches.  And lovely mum sent over flags and union jack stuff. We introduced a number of people to Pimms that night. No complaints. Below, our kitchen table, britified.

But it wouldn't be a party without a competition. So Al and I divided our unsuspecting guests into 4 teams (indicated by a playing card with their name on it to be collected on arrival). They weren't here to have fun.

First round - an American from each team was to make a Pimms cup and a blind taste test was done by a panel of brits (1 from each team). Second round - a flavour test for 5 different well-known british crisp flavours and 5 different flavours of American popcorn. Third round - guess the random british royal, and last but not least - democrat or republican (determine political allegiance of 4 U.S. celebs)

But Al and I in our ignorance had spent alot of time planning the games but had no idea just how seriously the games would be taken.  There was nothing short of scary and frankly threatening outcry at what people felt like was substandard scoring. We had to do a re-count the next day.

AMAZING NIGHT.