The Golden Age

So here is the thing…

For the past few weeks, I have been a bit consumed! I have been busy organising a little gathering at our place… one which marks a reasonably significant milestone in my life. My fiftieth birthday. The Big 5-0.

Now I know some people like to keep this kind of BIG ROUND NUMBER on the down-low. Not yours truly.  I decided to sing it from the rooftops! (Well not literally because as my husband will hasten to tell you, I cannot sing. Not even a tiny bit. Like nails down a blackboard apparently. Enthusiasm is no substitute for skill, in his opinion. Heh.)

So, much as I did for my 40th birthday, I decided to invite some of my favourite people here, to celebrate with a few of my favourite things… food things, wine things, music things, fairy light things!

There were almost 60 adults and 30 children – and a little under half of those slept over (in our house, Quarters or camping in our houseyard!)

Once again, the tennis court was chosen for the venue (and many prayers sent up for a few hours of clear weather – something I normally don’t worry in the slightest about!) and a HUGE long table set up for grown-ups (and two big round ones for the special littler people!).

Because we live a reasonable distance from all things CATERED, I decided to follow another of my party tricks from my last big celebrations here, and I designed a menu which could be mostly pre-prepared, then handed out ‘tasks’ of a section of a recipe (multiplied in size to meet the bigger numbers) to guests who had RSVP’d, to bring along in leiu of presents.

I tried not to make the ‘ingredient preparation’ too tricky (one guest who shall remain nameless has never recovered from being asked to provide home-made aioli ten years ago!)

For instance, I included Terriyaki Ricepaper Rolls in my 50th menu – and divided the prep tasks between three guests.  Nobody actually knew what was on the menu until the ‘reveal’ after they all sat down.

Here is the menu in full… with each ingredient named for the person who provided it…

(Please ignore the deliberate mistake – two third courses there to make it not sound QUITE so epic!).

So the idea was that my older nieces and nephews would plate up and serve each course (which was warm in bain maries, cold in eskies, or finished off on the barbeque beside tables set up on our patio) while Jack, Violet and the younger cousins (and friends kids who wanted to help out) were our ‘wait staff’ delivering the food to the table…

It was amazing and I wish I had more photos of the actual food – as they are unearthed I will share them here.

The lovely thing was everyone got right into the spirit of it – a little ‘My Kitchen Rules’ action with the plating up, and lots of challenging of palates out at the table where chopsticks were handed out with the raw fish (scrumptious sashimi straight from the fish markets).  I do believe one guest mistook the wasabi for avocado, but a full recovery was made and no ambulances were called.

This was the action as the guests were seated in their places (with diamonte-styled placecards complete with full menu on the back).

I adore this photo… lights, bokeh, wine, friends… you can almost hear the laughter and the low roar of conversations.

One special thing I did (which worked SO beautifully a decade ago) was to move everyone along several places in between each course… it means that while you have familiar people to the left and right, you meet ‘new’ people every course, with fresh faces and conversation.

I had guests from right throughout my life – those I had known since childhood, to school friends, to those I have met in the various places I have lived and those only chanced upon over the past few years.  City peeps, bush mates, family, friends… An eclectic bunch, for sure!

I even had some virtual guests chime in – including two of my ex-workmates from down south, and two buds sending messages from America (Debby, from Life’s Funny Like That and my ever-effervescent mate TJ – whose clip I will include here when I work out how to upload 2 GB of video!)

And after all the courses had finished, the conversation continued well into the wee hours…

A few of my ‘stayers’ (as they say in racing circles!)…

The view as I came back after a ‘refreshment’ break (aka ‘wee walk’)… the weather was utterly perfect.  A mild March night, with a few clouds to keep it balmy without insects.

A more few candid pics to give you the flavor of the evening…

The most glorious bunch of flowers – a gift from a naughty guest!

Menu in situ… complete with food splatters!

Me and my mate Jules… 38 years since we met at boarding school. We had a lot to catch up on…

…with our other schoolmate Jac. A pretty special pair to me…

From right – my aunt (and friend) Bron, my longtime girlfriend Michelle, and newish mate Lisa.  At about 2am.

Excellent effort ladies…

Bron again with some of the boys – Boyd, Lach (our ex-Jackaroo) and my baby brother GB.

This is Rick – he decided that in order to ‘keep up’ with his energetic wife he needed cheese. LOTS of blue cheese…

Alice (Rick’s wife), Jac and I were the last to fold – at 4am. Four days later and I am still recovering… not so much from the wine (I have gotten wily in my old age and paced myself quite well) but oh, that lack of sleep!

Apparently I wasn’t the only one suffering…

This was pre-breakfast Sunday morning.  Not sure what my husband and Lachy were up to.  A whole ‘nother story I suspect!

So there it is. A night. A big night. A special night.

A golden night.

🙂