Party

I managed to forget my sore throat after the second glass of wine. There were around 30 guests, at least eight of which were small children and all were as good as gold. My friend Gill's dog, Serena, was a darling, apart from winding her lead around everything, so we kept getting our ankles garroted. The weather did us proud, the food Alan prepared - three different curries, three different flavours of chicken drumsticks, and my salad, and five chocolate cakes - all slid down very well.

He got some fantastic cards, some of which plumbed the depths of vile humour (including mine which involved two flies and some, er, dung) and a jolly good time was had by all. We were hoping to go to a local music gig afterwards - TV Smith with Leigh Heggarty - but were so knackered that we'd fallen into bed by half past ten. (Thinks: what happened to the good old days of partying tilll 5 am and losing your contact lenses amongst all the empty bottles and fag ends? Oh, just remembered; I was twenty-something then!)