We didn’t mean to have a second leaving party. Oh no. Quite the reverse. In fact some of us (who can say who?) may have woken up that morning like bears with sore heads, vowing never agin to cease from our existence of solitary tranquility. We paused from meditative contemplation only to examine the fridge, secure in the knowledge that all the evil alcohol had been purged from our lives through the previous night’s party.

Or maybe not. We have incredibly generous friends it seems, and our humble efforts to diminish the accumulated hard liquor supply of the past three years had been rather squashed by the influx of new arrivals. Still we thought, no need to be hasty. Perhaps we could just invite a few, select friends round to eat the last of the leftover pizza and drink a glass of wine.

Just the one glass mind….

And so they came, our wonderful friends; first came Jon & Tek; we watched Jeeves and Wooster and shared a glass of wine. Matthew and Michelle followed; a second episode, a second glass of wine. Then came Tim and Jess, fresh from dinner with friends. Well, that unlooked for pleasure must be celebrated … champagne seemed to fit the bill. Next up, Stellah and Cordelia, upping the fabulous stakes with their wonderful outfits – to which we matched bellinis. Last came Giusy, bringing (as always) the party – and two huge helium balloons. The first we flung into the night, weighted to perfect buoyancy by the slightly unusual, but rather effective, ballast of a carefully nibbled slice of pizza.

What could top a pizza balloon? What more could anyone wish for…?

Well, to our minds it seemed quite simple. A wish balloon of course. What lovelier than to cast our wishes onto the summer night sky to find who they may … maybe if we were really lucky landing with the unfortunate recipient of the pizza balloon…

What a WONDERFUL night 🙂