A big success

Let me begin by explaining that I am not at this point, referring to my books (as much as I long for the day that this will, in fact, be the case.) As it is, at the moment I don't think that there is much danger of me knocking JK off her perch. No, the Big Success referred to in the title is in fact the charity evening that we organised in memory of Dad. As per usual for me, not a lot went according to plan. We had spent months planning and as the evening drew near, tensions were running high as my sisters and I could not agree on certain aspects of the evening. Should we wear tee shirts with the hospice logo? How should the raffle with nearly 60 prizes be organised? Should we have a seat plan as advertised? Should one of the acts be included? And on it went. One act I had been thrilled to book couldn't make it. I had given him the wrong date, deep sigh. (Thank goodness I checked!) A lovely young singer did not own her own equipment so we didn't know if she could perform. And we're we going to sell enough tickets after a slow start. Were we charging too much? Or enough? How much food should we order for the buffet? We couldn't find a dj for the disco....The stress of it all!

On the day we decorated the room and it looked amazing. Great start. Then people began to arrive and we had sold over 150 tickets. Most of our family and friends were there and we were thrilled and amazed at their support. I made a speech. We had music. A dance act cancelled as they were double booked. There was food, we had a raffle, but ran out of raffle tickets half way through and had to run around trying to get more from the venue. The singer was delayed, but set up later. My son was the amazing compère, there was a dressing up corner, we organised gift bags for the ladies and activity packs for the children. There was dancing. There was alcohol. And the room was filled with love and fun.

With the support of a national bank agreeing to add to the total, we raised over £6500.

And just for the record, I am STILL editing and STILL finding mistakes in Albie. I know this has to stop now so I  am on the final read through and then it's going for publication. I'm off to Cyprus next weekend so I have set myself the deadline of completing this by the end of my holiday then it's going straight off on my return. I've been at it for months and I need to let go. Fingers crossed. Procrastinate no more. I'll keep you posted
 Xx