You all already know that I've asked Hayley to marry me, and she said yes, thankfully. Imagine if she said no! But she said yes, and I was a happy man. And as she is a woman, her mind went absolutely bonkers, she already thought of white birds, a white horse, her wedding dress etc. That's what the ladies do. Dangerous kind of humans they are. And whilest her brain went mental, so did I! She was talking about an engagement party, and I was unaware of such a thing: never have been to such a party, and I don't know anyone who ever held one. It's must have been an English thing, I think.
We both decided on a date, and we made the magic happen. And when I say magic, I mean Hayley doing all the work. I am quite lazy, and filled with no ideas, I only look at the money, and that's it. She had everything planned, she is a good girlfriend. And future wife to be, don't forget about that. But seeing as I wasn't in the UK, I couldn't organise the party with her, I had to trust her that she did the right thing. And she did. She had chosen the location, which was near to her house, and that ment I could drink a couple of pints. The only thing I was allowed to do (I don't mean it like that), was to get the invitation printed, and obviously designed. I went to my brother-in-law, who is a webdesigner, and he made a wicked invitation. Made a couple of these on photo paper, and sended them all around the UK! My job was done...... for now.
Hayley and I had to do alot. I had to take some Dutch food with me in the car, and for those who were wandering what it was: frikandels, bitterballen, bamiballen etc. Had around 300 snacks, and I delivered it to the house, where it was put in the freezer (I arrived days before the party, couldn't defrost them). I can talk about the most boring thing ever, but I'm not: it's not interesting to tell you how we put the snacks in the freezer.
On the 31st of August, my parents arrived from the Netherlands. After a long journey (I do that every time!) they got to the Premier Inn hotel, and immediately they tried to be English....... by hitting the pub, and staying there until the pub closed. We joined them later, and had a nice meal (seeing as it was my birthday). It was nice to see my mum and dad in the country I am going to live in. Felt weird, but in a good way.
The day emerged, and we were both a bit stressed. Hayley's barber was late, her uncle Martin was late, his daugther Caroline was too sick, so she couldn't come...... what a day it was. We decided to go to the location around 4:30 and decorate it. But all of a sudden, a few family members turned up at Hayley's house, and we weren't ready for that. We didn't knew what to do..... take them with us already, or just leave them there, and we would leave gran behind, so she could keep them company? We decided to leave gran there was the best thing to do, and we took off.
I decided to let Hayley walk around without her dress on, seeing as we would return to the house to pick up gran. No, she didn't walk around naked, don't be silly. We got to the venue, and immediatly encountered a problem: we needed more people to decorate the location! It was just the three of us, and we were rushing our arses off. I was carrying the tables, Hayley did the decoration, and mum blew up the balloons. Unorganised, but still managable. We worked hard, and forgot the time. After we had put the table and everthing ready(ish), we went home to pick up gran. Hayley got dressed and lovely make up on, and uncle Martin arrived. After causing mayhem in the house, we left, and arrived a few minutes after 6..... and we encountered a large group of people, waiting outside the venue.... waiting for US. OMG, I shat a brick. I am shy, always, and nothing can help me. I just embraced my fear, and shook hands, and we all went in. I went straight into the kitchen, to prepare the food (my family brought some Dutch pies with them, and someone had to cut them in slices). The caterer was nice, he left the food on the tables, he did a nice job. He did it when we were at the house, creating mayhem. Here, look:
We got in, and we all wandered around. Sadly, the drinking facility wasn't open yet, we had to wait until 7.... bummer, no one told us. All of a sudden I realised... we have got the snacks, but no chippy pan! How can we prepare them? Shit, we had to leave, and go home and pick it up. I decided it was best that Hayley stayed, so me and Hayley's mum went. Once's we got the object, straight back, and enjoy the party.... f**k no, no mayonnaise or ketchup!!! I rushed to the Asda, which was around the corner. Whilst running to Asda, my mum, father, sister and brother-in-law drove onto the parking facility of the venue.... everything is going horribly wrong!
When I got back, people were waiting for me. I was the one with the money, and we had to pay in advance, but because I rushed off with all the money, the person behind the bar thought that everybody paid for themselves, which wasn't the case. F**k, everything is going wrong. I got stressed out, and everybody could see that. I do apologise, I didn't mean it. But someone had to be stressed. And it was me.
Once the whole thing started (the DJ took forever to set his stuff up), the party started. People started chatting to each other, and started eating. We didn't want the food to be wasted, so we encouraged people to eat as much as they wanted. The DJ played so many shitty tunes, we had enough time to eat, seeing as no one wanted to dance.
So many of our friends and family came around, we were pleased. Some faces were new to me, and I will probably forget them.... I do apologise. My memory is so rubbish, I try my best, but fail. I do remember a few names, but mostly faces. Maybe we should have used name-stickers.......
The party went as planned. I was risky, and asked the DJ to put a slow-dance record on. I went to my wife-to-be, asked her to dance with me, and we did. You don't believe me? We can dance!
After the song ended, we joined our families again. Sadly, the DJ didn't encourage people to start dancing, so a few girls went onto the dancefloor, and did some dancing to cheesy 90s music. Meh, not my thing. I'm a raver, can't you see? (he didn't even play rave music!!!!!). The DJ was alright, but not a party DJ.
My sister kept asking "who is he calling?" He used a red 'phone' as his headphone, which he didn't even needed, his mixing skills were shit.
I was being bold, and I went up to him, and asked for "Madness - Baggy Trousers", and the most unbelievable thing happend: Hayley danced with her uncle Martin. As I was told, he's not the dancer. Again, if you are reading this and having doubts:
People came and went. It was sad a few people couldn't stay that long, but at least they came! We had a brilliant time. Just look at these picture's.... people did enjoy themselves!
Once we started cleaning up the hall, the DJ got a bit annoying, he was absolutely wasted. He was walking to the bar at least 4 times, to get half a liter of beer. We had this table next to the stage with our cakes on it (who were made by lovely people, and we were just too afraid to cut them into pieces, we wanted it to be in one piece until eternity), and the DJ's set-up was next to it. Uncle Martin had to put all the chairs on the stage, and probably one wire got stuck, and mr DJ man got so annoyed, he chucked a few chair onto the floor, just inches away from our cakes. We all got annoyed, and hurried up.....
We had so much to take home, so I decided to drive twice: first with gran, mum and Hayley, and the second time with uncle. We did that, we talked to the owner of the property, and she gave us the okay, the venue was clean and organised again. Back at the house we needed to put all the food in a tiny fridge, and we managed... sort off.
In the living room we opened our presents and cards. And we do loved them all. All our friends and family were there. From the bottom of my heart (and Hayley's) we would like to thank everybody who came. You are wicked! Thank you for everything, you mean the world to us! For those who didn't made it, you have missed a wicked party. One people still talk about!
