Arriving in Jolly Ol' England

My first full day in jolly ol’ England was a Saturday which was also a friend of Sid and Sonia’s 30th birthday. Claire was having a costume party, or as they say here, a “fancy dress” party in a private room in a pub in Ash Vale, a nearby community to Aldershot. The theme was “What did you want to be when you grow up?”. My options were a professional hockey player (tough to get hockey gear over here), an astronaut (could be done) or a doctor...we went with the doctor. Thanks to their friend Carolyn who is studying to be a vet, I had a stethoscope, scrubs and a lab coat. I was able to fashion one of those old school headlamps with my Petzel and Sid drew up a nice name tag for me (I was Dr. Feelgood from the Bleeding Hearts Hospital). Sonia was Snow White, with the complete complement of the seven dwarves. Sid was Iron Man and he turned out to be one of many super heroes at the party which included Spiderman (Simon), Batman (Anthony), a Teenage Mutant Turtle and Banana Man (Claire’s boyfriend Dave). Can’t say I’d heard of Banana Man before but he was well known to this crowd. Inspector Gadget also showed up but I’m not sure if I’d put him in the superhero category, but it was a wicked costume...err, fancy dress. Another fave was the 6’7 Care Bear, Cheer Bear. One had to go into the main area of the pub to order a drink and I imagine the regular patrons were having a giggle here and there. The birthday girl Claire was a princess, which was fitting with her spectacular fairy princess cake that Sonia and Sid had laboured over for hours over the days preceding the party. All in all, a fantastic do and Claire, you must be a special person to have your friends go to this length to celebrate your 30th!

Working on the cake:


Primping:


Ready for the party:


Iron Man and Snow White:


The superheroes:


I discovered these two talking about each others outfits in the loo:


The 6'7 Cheer Care Bear:


Even John Lennon showed up:


The Birthday Girl Claire: