After the park run David had to go and collect his new glasses and then he went off to Preston Park where he was playing with his brass band. Meanwhile my Dad kindly ran the boys and I up to the hospital so that I didn't have to worry about trying to park and he looked after Nat while I took Seb for his MRI scan.
We had quite a wait before being taken through for the scan and the radiographer took Seb into the scan room and explained what would happen. I obviously had to wait outside but even from where I was sitting the noise from the scanner was quite something. It sounded like a very loud washing machine that was about to explode. The scan took about 20 minutes per knee so I felt quite sorry for poor Seb having to lie still all that time. Afterwards he said he had found it quite hard to keep still and that his legs kept twitching.
The lady operating the MRI wouldn't tell me what it had showed so we now have to wait another five weeks until we go back to see the consultant.
Got home and we shifted the garden furniture out to the front of the house and started the final preparations for our street party.
We were worried it might rain so our Neighbours had errected a gazebo in their garden and we did the same in our drive just so that there was somewhere to shelter if it did start to drizzle (something we were thankful for by the end of the night!)
I made up some Pimms and lemonade and various neighbours started bringing over chairs, meat, salads, nibbles and drinks.
We had asked everyone to wear the colours of the Union Jack (Red, White and Blue) Our neighbour Bob donned a fantastic blue hat so I remembered I had a red hat at the top of my wardrobe from a wedding I went to a few years ago. I dug it out and put it on. It looked a bit ridiculous with my jeans but I have never minded looking a little bit silly.
Anyway Bob turned on the music and gradually people started to arrive and join us for a drink. It was really lovely to meet some neighbours we had never met before and I everyone that turned up seemed really nice and friendly. We hadn't gone too crazy and had not invited the whole street as we were worried we wouldn't have enough food and drink to go around. That was a stupid fear as I always over-cater and I hadn't counted on my neighbours contributing food as well! In reality we could have asked the whole street and some of the other roads on our Royal Estate (so called because all the roads are named after members of the Royal family past and present or things connected to them like Sandringham Drive etc).
Our neighbour Andy had offered to do the BBQ which was great because we are not that experienced at cooking on a BBQ and also it meant we didn't have the hassle of having to clean the BBQ today.
The food was all delicious and everyone seemed to be enjoying the occassion of getting to know each other. We got quite a lot of attention from any passing motorists and the bus driver gave us a wave as he drove past.
I had persuaded Bob to help me carry my Chiminea out from my garden into the driveway. Unfortunately he was wearing beige trousers and being a girl he didn't ask me to help him carry it so he got a little bit mucky. Having finally decided on a suitable location I asked David to bring some wood out and he told me that we had already burned it all! Bob was none too impressed with me! Thankfully one of our new acquaintances came to the rescue and went back to their house to fetch a bag of wood from their wood burner store.
Unfortunately the Great British weather lived up to its name and it wasn't long before it started to drizzle. We all assembled under the two gazebos and carried on drinking and chatting.
I then dished out the strawberries and ice-cream which went down a treat.
Later in the evening, the couples with young children headed off home. Our next door neighbours from the other side then arrived home from their holiday in Majorca and were very bemused to find half the street in our driveway. They also came out to join us for a drink.Unfortunately by this point we were enjoying ourselves so much we completely forgot to take any more photos!
Before long the rain started coming down quite hard and we had to squeeze together under the two shelters. I had said I was happy for everyone to come inside our house but the neighbours were all determined that we were going to brave the weather and stay outside. We had a few lanterns with candles and it was a good atmosphere. After a few ghost stories I went to fetch the champagne and glasses and put a fountain Sparkler on the cake. I lit the fountain sparkler and as I carried the cake out, David played God Save the Queen on his Cornet much to everyones delight. We all toasted the Queen with our glasses of Champagne.
The cake was a big hit and there was nothing left of it by the time everyone had had a slice but that was fine by me as we won't be around to eat any left-overs. After that I made tea and coffee and we all huddled together thankful for the warmth from our mugs. By this point the rain was torrential and everything was getting absolutely drenched.
All in all it was a really good night. One set of neighbours commented that they have lived in our road for 27 years and they had never known anything like this happen before so I think people did appreciate the event.
It was quite hard work, but really worth it, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I hope that we will see much more of all the new neighbours we have now met. My neighbour Vanessa and I did start talking about all the other occasions we could celebrate this year . . . the Olympics, Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas . . we'll see!!
The stragglers gave us a hand bringing the furniture back into the house so it could dry off in our conservatory overnight. One poor bloke was helping to dismantle the gazebo and apparently got quite a shock when a gush of pooled cold rain water landed on his head ran down his back.
We have quite a trail of muddy footprints all through the house so the floors now need a good scrub.
After all the adrenaline of the day I didn't sleep well last night and Nat was awake at 6.30am this morning so I got up and started to clear away some of the clutter from yesterday.
I had to leave for Church at 9am as I was leading part of the Children's work at church this morning. It was quite a busy morning and I had to set up most of the room by myself as one of my team couldn't make it because her son has chicken pox. Another team member is heavily pregant and another cannot lift for medical reasons. Was feeling quite shattered and that was before the children turned up. It was a good morning though and after clearing everything away again I came home to carry on clearing up.
After a spot of lunch David and I carried on packing for our trip down to Cornwall. This evening we had dinner at my mum and Dads so at least i didn't have to worry about cooking. We are nearly set and ready to go. Hopefully we will get away reasonably early tomorrow as it is a six hour drive and that's without all the stops we will inevitably have to make!!
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