In Celebration of the Teen

The teen will turn 19 on Thursday, so last night saw us enjoying the first of many celebrations.  We got together with his best friend from primary school - before he heads back to Uni tomorrow - his parents and sister, an old family friend and another of the teen's pals from secondary school.

The theme was 'Curry & Games' and, as usual, we had a ball.

We'd just recently been given a John Lewis voucher for our anniversary so we splashed out on new china and cutlery.  I think our black and white themed table looks pretty glam.

Our dining table had to get ditched in the garden as it's not big enough for nine guests.

This is our ping pong table glammed up by a damask cloth my Dad acquired as an antique dealer.

I'm ready to party.

Still hating the new hair.

As the current obsession in the Misfit House is 'Breaking Bad'

we ordered a rice paper cake topper from eBay for his chocolate birthday cake.

The 'cooking' reference comes from the series!

He was pretty impressed.

Once the meal was over we started on the games.  The Misfits are well known for the daftness of our parties and, thankfully, our guests are always willing participants.

We started with 'A word from a Song' - this involved single words on a piece of paper, picked from a hat and then we each had to sing a line from a song containing that word.  E.g: LOVE - 'She Loves You' or 'Love, Love me Do.'  The aim of the game is to find as many as possible containing the word.

Then we moved on to 'Paper Art'  - we picked a category such as 'animals' or 'things you find in the kitchen' and we each had to tear a piece of A4 paper into the shape of our chosen object.  We were surprised at how many cats and giraffes we had.  Then we had the lazy man's effort of 'a puddle of milk' for 'found in the kitchen'!

Next was 'Alphabet Story'  - we began at a random point in the alphabet and told a story line by line with each person starting the next line with the next letter of the alphabet. E.g:  Amanda went shopping.  But the shops were closed. 'Can't think what to do,' she said.

The game we played for the longest was 'Keep it going' - the teen would find a well known song on his iPod and we would start to sing along with it.  One example was 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  While we were singing, he would suddenly turn it down so that we were unable to hear it and we had to keep singing to see if we were at the same point on the track when he turned it back on.  Much fun and laughter was had by all, and I have to say we didn't do too badly.

This then led onto 'Joint Bongos' with the teen and his friend taking half a bongo each and bashing out tunes while we danced - quite a lot!

Action shot!

Their hands were moving so fast, they're a blur!

I can't believe that these are the two boys who used to camp on the floor.

Fine young men to be proud of and a joy to spend time with.

And from our boys, I gained a best friend.

(and also a Goddaughter - not pictured)

A sneaky ciggie in the snow, 13 years ago, and we're still going strong.

'You had me at the snow!'

Ugh!

The worst part of a dinner party - the clearing up.

 

Mr Misfit and other menfolk were at the party but we seem to be short on photos - which, when it came to the dancing, is probably just as well!

 

We had a fabulous time and were all feeling a little exhausted this morning.  Now ... on to his actual birthday on Thursday.  But first, sleep.

Wetting Lottie's Head

Last night I was treated to a book launch dinner at our close friends' house.

As one of themes of 'Lottie's Luck' is her dog walking business (hence the foot attire which features on the cover),  I was highly amused to arrive for the evening to see wellie wearers!

Of course the evening had to begin with the teens playing with the dog in the garden.

I was given some beautiful flowers but I looked dreadful in every photo of me holding them so I won't share with you.  Suffice it to say they were pink, yellow and cream roses.

Instead, here I am proudly showing off my book with friends (our husbands were too busy gossiping)

A well deserved glass of wine.

Hubbie and friend

God-daughter engrossed in the new book.

First book she's read in years and she took it off to bed with her!

Me with my boy and my new 'Lottie's Luck' balloon.

The decor was pink and white with bunting, pom-poms and 

toadstool fairylights.

We had thai green curry and this was the remains of the offending

chili which rendered me speechless for ten minutes.

Delicious Eton Mess

(but I opted for the chocolate tart and some very stinky cheese)

Looking very smug!

We had party poppers and champagne blowers.

I always seem to end up decorated with the poppers innards!

It was great to have the teens there - they did disappear to do their own thing but not before we had a game of 'Would I Lie To You?'  What a great bunch of liars we are - we all fell for my friend's story about how she was poked in the face with a Mars bar which appeared from a hedge she was passing!  But rather worryingly, we had hoped that my God daughter's story was a lie but it turned out that it wasn't.  She said she was about five and walking along the road holding Daddy's hand but suddenly she found she was holding an old lady's hand and not Daddy's!  'Daddy' got in a bit of trouble from 'Mummy' for that one last night!

Another 'lie' from my son had us chuckling.  He said he was about seven and in a playground at the park when a swan chased him out, pecking at his bum.  Now, I am infamously known as the most paranoid mother ever to walk this earth so one question from my friend's husband, 'Where was Mummy when this happened?' revealed the lie.  Son answered, 'She was at the coffee shop.'  ''Nope!' Friend's husband answered. 'Not Amanda!  Would never have happened!'

When I revealed that I had once had a wee in one of the guests' gardens when he was out, they all said I was lying. It was, in fact ... the truth!  Bear with and I'll tell you why before you judge me.  Said friend lives in a huge house in the middle of the country and we were on our way to his son's wedding reception which involved passing the house.  We'd been stuck in traffic for ages and I was desperate - no pubs, no secluded bushes anywhere.  Now I know this friend often leaves his front door unlocked so we pulled into his driveway in hope.  Locked!  I was near to tears now, so I sneaked to the side of the house and weed in his bushes, accompanied by his very confused cat.  The friend said he will never look at the yellow patch of grass in the same way again.

So, 'Lottie's Luck' was launched in style with good friends, fine wine, yummy food and bucket loads of laughter.  I can't wait til December for the next one.

My new novel can be found at Amazon UK and Amazon.com - only £1.97 for Kindle - or in paperback at Lulu.

'Stilettos & Stubble' is Officially Launched!

‘Stilettos & Stubble', my new romcom novel was officially launched on Saturday and we set it off on its literary journey in style.

THE CAST

Me - well I kind of had to be there.

Hubbie - he always insists on an invite!

  

Three close friends who have supported me in so many ways in my writing career - the lovely lady in the photos is my sounding board, proof-reader and general partner in oh-so-many crimes.

Wearing tiaras in an unusual fashion.

 THE PRODUCTION

Our kitchen/dining area needed to be transformed into ‘The Gossamer Glove’ - feathers, sparkles, lights and PINK provided the theme.

 Feather boas where resurrected from drawers and put to good use as a chandelier and welcome archway.

My customised drink mats - I made them by covering with personalised wrapping paper bought from eBay.

 My totally camp centre-piece made from flowers from Poundland and sparkling lights from Asda.

(à la Misfit!)

  The overall look - complete with tiara name card holders, champagne bubbles and handbags of chocs.

  

THE MUSIC

My lovely son finally downloaded my chosen playlist - some of which can be heard here.

THE MENU

Continuing with the pink theme, we started with champagne and frozen fruits (booze courtesy of my lovely Twitter friend, Jackie).

(This is where the photos stopped for a while - we were too hungry! But the food went as follows.)

Cream of roasted red pepper and tomato soup with PINK bread!

Salmon (PINK) fillets with tomatoes, parmesan and dill.  Dauphinoise potatoes, green beans and asparagus.  With PINK garlic dressing.

PINK champagne and mixed berry jelly and PINK cupcakes.

 I was so proud of my Danny la Rue cake topper - he was gorge!

Cheese and biscuits - no PINK, sadly.

THE GAMES

During my food serving time, I provided a picture quiz to keep people occupied- ‘Name that Gay’ - self explanatory really!  Fifteen celebs with their eyes blacked out waiting for my guests to identify them.  Boy George was a tricky one as he was sans hat (and hair!) - I do like to offer a challenge.

After the main course we moved on to, ‘Pin the Di*k on the Drag.’  We gave each of our guests an A3 sheet of paper with Danny la Rue's head (!) pasted at the top.  They all had to draw a naked (but sexless) drag queen in a suitable pose ready to have a penis attached IF they were chosen as the winner.

Cue my 17 year old son to appear from his virtual world of computer games to do the judging.  No, he didn’t think it odd - he’s grown up in this madhouse and knows what we’re capable of.

The drag chosen, we stuck it to the fridge door and off we went, penis and blu-tac in hand, ready to fire!  As you can see, results were unexpected (or expected if you have a filthy mind!).

 The finished drags

 I'm aiming with my penis.

 A bad shot!

This very simple game provided much laughter for five very silly adults.

After our dessert, it was a game for just the men-folk.  Well, I couldn’t host a drag themed event and have them looking so ‘normal’ could I?  Mean?  Me?  Yes!  So we moved on to ‘Pass my Package’.

Again, a variation on the children’s game, I handed them a parcel and the music started up.  Each time it stopped, they would unwrap to find … a scarf, a pair of earrings, a hat … until eventually they were all dressed and ready to hit the stage of any drag club.  Much cheating and slow motion/chucking followed until the final opening revealed a pair of gossamer gloves - very appropriate, don’t you think?

Sadly, these are the photos!!!

 

And for some strange reason (but we are talking my friends!) the very attractive black flower worn by one of my ‘drags’ suddenly took on a life of his own as 'Colin the Ferocious Fascinator' - sipping the champagne bubble blowers, having a smoke, wearing a tiara and providing us with a running commentary of the evening. It’s never normal in The Misfit House!

Our final game was ‘Dear Aunt Tittie’ - in much the same way as ‘Consequences’, each person had to write a drag queen’s dilemma to an agony aunt and then pass their concealed problem to the next person for the response.  The one that provided the most giggles went like this:

Dear Aunt Tittie

When I wear a bikini, I’m not sure where to put ‘it’.

I’ve tried sticking it to the left and to the right but nothing works.

If you were me, would you try the front or the back?

Sincerely,

Troubled!

THE RESPONSE

Dear Reader

Lubricate well, lean forward and touch your toes and I’m sure the situation will improve.

Best,

Aunt Tittie.

And that was the launch for my latest novel.  I had a great time - with a bit of singing and dancing thrown in, it was the perfect way to toast my book.  Hope you’ve enjoyed my pictures and, if you haven’t yet, why not grab a copy of ‘Stilettos & Stubble’ and see what all the fuss is about.  Available at Amazon and Lulu.