Steve Perry's 50th Birthday Party

On August the 9th 2003 it was Steve Perry's 50th birthday, Steve& Jane, his wife are quite new to hillhampton (3 years'ish?) and live in the farm house with their two children, but they have already established themselves as fairly near the tops when it comes to party's. Steve's 50th was no exception.

The party was held in their garden/garage, with a disco, pig roast, bar,bouncy castle and all the trimmings. There were tables laid out on the lawn with floral decorations and the weather was gorgeous. The evening could not have been better. It came complete with the ususal embarasing speech from Steve's best friend. We found out a lot about Steve that we were previously unaware, he was a potholer, a cyclist and pretty much all round good guy. We were all impressed with his wife's present to him helping him in his current passion. Would all local wife's please take note and with a little effort I'm sure this level of present could become standard within the village (hint, hint)

Hillhampton neighbours were out in force, we occupied two tables and caught up with all the local gossip, there were some new faces in the circle with names that for the life of me I can,t remember, (did I mention the bar was free??) but it was good to meet them, please send me a mail if you are reading this & I'll let the world know who you are.

We also met a lot of other interesting people from Steves past and his family, who have probably been to his parties before but we have never met. We have now seen another side to him. There was a picture gallery with photos of Steve's past right back to his childhood days (surely musem pieces now?).

Steve's wife Jane deseerves a paragraph to herself, not just because of the present but all the effort she must have put into organising the party. Jane is a lovely person and an excellent neighbour. Thanks for the invite (I've got to be nice, the blackberries in her field are almost ready to pick and they make excellent wine. She caught me scrumping once and I thought I was going to be in serious trouble, but thats another story for another day).

The DJ on the disco played suitable tunes all night, ie old ones and we all had a dance (shuffle?), the pig roast was excellent, the puddings were too good. It's been a while since we had a get together, we all go away saying we must do it more often and after an evening like this I know why. What a way to spend a summer evening.

I didn't take my camera so I have no photos to share, if anyone reading this has photos, if you mail them to me I'll look at getting them published. If anyone has a picture of Peter's wife Carol strugglling to get of the bouncy castle we'll pay for them, Carol had never been on a bouncy castle before and was talked into having a go, appaently it was ok until the children joined in and she couldn't get off. Carol, you did it again the tears were running down my face.

Thanks again for a wonderful evening and many happy returns.

Steve Now the whole world knows your age!!