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Alan's 18th Birthday BBQ. Nobody said it would be windy!!

Well I was prepared for clouds, cool temperatures, even a shower of rain.....but not the wind that was howling round the garden when I got up this morning!

First hint was not hearing my lovely wind chimes as ironically, the wild wind had sent its component parts to every corner of the garden! No worries, it'll die down I reckoned. And at least it's not giving the clouds a chance to hang around and rain on us (I was proved wrong on that later!)

Ed very kindly let us borrow his lovely gazebo. It was up for all of 20 minutes before the wind totally wrecked it.

The caterers arrived, minus two trestle tables they were meant to bring for serving the BBQ food on (thankfully the rest of the buffet was being served inside on the dining room table) so Ele and Kenny had a mad scramble getting our old kitchen table (huge and very heavy) from the games room and carrying it all round the outside of the house to the back garden so the chef could use it instead.

Then they couldn't get the BBQ to light (luckily I only found out about that later!) but Kenny to the rescue and he got it lit. This was after he'd cracked his forehead on the corner of the fridge door and split it open! Oh yes, it was all going swimmingly!

Luckily we all have a sense of humour! :-)))

Inspite of the mishaps, at the end of the day, we all had a brilliant time. :))

Apart from the wind blowing the crisps out of the serving dishes on the garden tables and the rain coming on! :D

As everyone arrived, Alan took up residence in the summerhouse Gin Palace, allowing special guests to join him there (mainly the girls) As more and more people arrived, it got a bit overwhelming for him and a little tear was shed but back in his room, with a little time to compose himself, he was fine.

It was so lovely to see and catch up with old friends and everyone was in the mood to celebrate. Carole brought her golden retriever pup Lily and we all fell in love. I want one!

Alan's best pal Andrew (in the photo) was in brilliant form and had us all in stitches. What a boy! I could write a book with his one-liners.

An absolutely fantastic, joyous, fun and crazy day! :D

Once the majority of people had gone, we were left with the usual suspects who are always last to leave (you now who you are ;-) as well as a few who were staying over.

Thankfully, most of the food was eaten but there was a lovely cheese and fruit platter left so we enjoyed that for supper.

Alan went to bed tired and very, very happy. I lingered a little longer saying goodnight, stealing an extra kiss and cuddle as I told him no matter what age is or how big he is, he will always be kiss and cuddle size to me. :-))

Over the course of today and the rest of the weekend, I've hardly taken any photos (my nephew Andrew took the photos today) I may come to regret not making more of an effort to capture a very special weekend but I feel sometimes it's more important to live the experience rather than photograph it. :)