The day of Debbie's Birthday Party after a morning of working on the Eaton’s copy for FOCUS with Derek and Anne-Marie as Daniel and Angela also visited. The swimming pool was ramped up to 83degF, we set up the new tennis net on the lawn and then hosted around 45 guests for Debbie roller skating at the Ernulf Centre before us having booked the indoor swimming pool for three hours. Then a birthday tea for Debbie with a huge and pretty Birthday Cake after which she took time opening the 45 presents!
Today was dominated by the arrangements for Debbie's Birthday party but it started in the normal way with me getting up before breakfast and tending the fish, doves and pool in the absence of Bill at the weekend. I took time out to give the swimming pool a good vacuum clean as it was due to be in some use this weekend. Daniel and Angela arrived yesterday and were threatening to use it with friends this weekend and Debbie was also due to have two separate house-guests. I'd got the pool up to 83degF which I thought was a bit excessive, but the family were pleased. The main problem was the continuous rain of May blossom from the hawthorn tree overhanging it, but this is a short-term factor which should soon be at an end. It has been a good year for this blossom, however, but the weather continues chilly and dry with this persistent north wind that has dominated things for the last couple of months.
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This morning, Sandie Giles came over with Anne-Marie to key in the Eaton’s copy for FOCUS and stayed a while and then Derek joined us and we ended up typing out the updated and enlarged copy and getting it round to all of our active members and councillors so as to get their comments prior to further editing. Daniel was here and so was Angela and later he went off to talk electronics or "boys business" with his friends and she helped me erect our new lawn-tennis net on the games lawn, before settling down to revise for her exams. This net and posts is a great success, being very professional and practicable for the game now that Debbie is taking this level of interest. I got Amy and Amira to come over with their tennis rackets to christen the net and we played with Angela as well and had some fun. Debbie joined in when she came home. After lunch, we moved into our final preparations for Debbie's birthday party and then drove down to the St Neots Recreation Centre (Ernulf centre the locals call it) to set things up. The format was for Debbie to greet her 45 guests outside the new sports hall and then there were facilities laid on for them to be loaned roller skates if they did not have their own before enjoying an hour's skating.
Then we led them out to Daniel's car to be dispensed drinks by him and Angela before going into the inside swimming pool which we had booked for three hours. They had two hours swimming and then we served a birthday tea of sandwiches, crisps, chocolate biscuits and, of course, a huge and pretty Birthday Cake for Debbie. They all sang the traditional birthday song and Deborah blew out the candles. The party was a success, even if the actual attendance only bore a passing resemblance to the list of invitation acceptances! Once they had all gone in mid-evening, we brought Debbie and her guest, Kim, back to The Hayling View and she opened each of about 45 presents which took until about 11.00pm at night to complete! To bed quite tired but pleased with the days' arrangements during which Debbie made at least a reasonable effort to keep her former best friend Helen content.