Eurovision Party & Go Ape!

Picture of Jackie dressed in a Spanish dancer's costume
Jackie in Spanish mood
Picture of Juliette and Maxine in Turkish costume
Juliette and Maxine go Turkish
Picture of Geoff and Lesley in classic French onion seller's costumes
Geoff and Lesley know their onions
Picture of the rope bridge on the Go Ape! coursePicture of an even more precarious rope bridge
Go Ape!

After my sponsored gym session it was straight home to prepare for my Eurovision Party. Early arrivals had the opportunity to have a dip in the hot tub. Gemma and Nicola (Ginette's girls) loved the bubbles and are now pestering their Mum for a hot tub of their own. [You should have put one on your wedding list, Ginette and Ed!!] We also ordered home delivery of extra large pizzas - not once but twice. I think we confused the delivery guy by phoning from different mobiles and different people answering the door each time! The only disaster of the evening involved red wine on cream carpet. Oops! A quick dash to Tesco for some carpet stain remover more or less solved the problem.

The prize for the partygoer travelling the furthest goes to Liz Hicks who came over from Germany. As one guest commented "That's a long way to travel to watch crap telly". Many people made an effort to dress in the national costume of a Eurovision Song Contest competitor and we had representatives from Germany, Austria, Spain, Russia, France, UK and Turkey - including accessories such as castanets and strings of onions! We ran a sweepstake at £1 per entry with the winner taking £24. I drew Ukraine who were favourite and did actually win. It wasn't a fix, honestly! It paid for the buffet and some soft drinks I'd provided so I don't feel too guilty!

Guests moved around between the TV and Wogan's witty commentary in the lounge, the food and drink in the kitchen, and the fresh air in the garden. Ed fiddled around with the digi-box so we could even read the lyrics and translations on screen. Though I think we would have been better off not knowing some of them! We, of course, made our own comments too. Later in the evening my neighbour turned up armed with profiteroles and summer fruit pudding with cream for us all to share. Yummy! She is constantly amazed at the variety of Mensa friends I have, where they all come from and the costumes we concoct. By the end of the night she was inviting us all to her BBQ. Maybe we should start advertising ourselves as "rent a party crowd"!?

Thanks to everyone who came and partied. Maybe we should do it all again next year? And maybe even in Ukraine who will be hosting the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest!?

The following morning most people left quite early which gave me chance to put the house back in order before going for lunch with Iain and Paul then meeting Ben and Maria at the Go Ape adventure site in Sherwood Forest. Only five of us dared to take up the challenge of an aerial assault course; four having dropped out even before the event. I wasn't sure swinging through the trees would be my kind of activity but must admit I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Good company, good weather and good fun.

After being fitted with our safety harnesses and having a brief talk and trial at clipping and unclipping ourselves onto the safety wires we were led out to the course. There were five sections. The first involved a rope ladder, tightrope walk and zip slide. This was scary at first but nothing in comparison to what was still to come! Each obstacle was rated for difficulty with the hardest route having an easier option for the chickens! For the next 2 1/2 hours we traversed wooden bridges, trapeze swings, poles, cargo nets and more high up in the tree canopy. We all agreed the jump on an elastic cable from a wooden platform into a cargo net was the worst bit. Well, the others did. I took the easier route so I could take the photos at the other end! The best bit was the final zip slide. Not because that was the end of the course, but because it was the longest, highest and fastest zip slide and by that time we'd got the hang of landing on our feet rather than our bums and sliding down 'hands free' rather than clinging on for dear life!

Thanks to Iain, Paul, Ben and Maria for joining me on a fantastic afternoon out in the forest. What a pity the ice-cream van had gone home by the time we finished. We'd built up a thirst after all that activity. Watch out for a Go Ape event on the 2006 Annual Gathering programme.....

Maxine Bates