Abandon house!

Left, right and centre - top pic, we have the wedding in progress; 'kitchen' is in the foreground. Middle pic is party 2 - and right outside our front door is the chuka-chuka-chuka generator!

Weather-wise, the last couple of months have been mostly wonderful. Global warming which buried Europe under snow and shut down a hunk of eastern USA has also blessed us with wonderfully cooler temperatures. It makes such a difference, not living in a private, sweaty bath day after day.

However - and there is a however - this is also wedding season, housewarming season and generally 'let's roll out the tent on the street and have a party' season. There are plenty of businesses here that do just that - raise up a tent outside the hirer's house (they do it in sections, so it can be 5 metres long; it can be 45 metres long), fill the tent with chairs and tables; then raise up a second tent that operates as kitchen central. No street-party is complete without a generator and a sound system that is amped to shake the moon.

On Wednesday we saw that a double-blessing was coming our way. We were sandwiched in, with parties happening left and right - and generator outside the front door. I think there was a wedding to the left and a business-blessing party to the right. That was a serious party - a good 30 metres of tent there. I had to walk my little spider scooter through the middle of that gathering to get to work, as that's just not good form to do in a wedding tent!

Thursday started bright and early - 4.46am to be reasonably exact. Party 1 sound sytem kicked in with a yodelling monk. The amplifier was set at a modest 110 decibels. A couple of minutes later and Party 2 fired up their system. Party 1 still had plenty of knob-wind on their decibel dial. The competition was on. Sue was less than delighted.

We survived that night ok. Parties must not be hurried. Friday night, and the speakers were getting tested for maximum bass output. Sue had this hunted, haunted look in her eyes, like a lady not to be messed with. We abandoned house - off to friends who live just far enough away to be safe. Ahh, the serenity!