Farewell party

We held our farewell (and 50th birthday) party yesterday. We were having such a good time that we didn't take any pictures, but we had 50 or so family and friends to a lunch and afternoon party in our hot garden. Everyone brought a contribution to a shared meal and we had plastic plates and cutlery, so at the end of the day we just chucked the rubbish in the bin, moved a few bits of furniture around and went to bed! (Well, almost).

Thank you so much to all of you who came and brought delicious food, yourselves and your beautiful children. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Extra-special thanks to:

• My parents for arriving first, socialising bravely with everyone and taking away our valuables, and to my mother for volunteering to fetch and carry Guy all over East Anglia
  
• My sister Lucilla, her husband Mark and my brother Paul for a fabulous iPod nano pre-loaded with 805 songs, engraved "Camilla at 50 - bon voyage", and with a sea-coloured iSkin...
• ... and to Paul for cleaning my camera!
  
• Sam and Stuart for the bubbly and for being so very understanding when their little daughter Grace cut her foot on glass somewhere in our garden
• Barny and Mary for the fascinating wooden construction which we hope to enjoy somewhere far from here
• Piers and Dominique for the necklace and for fish care
  
• Alex and David for all your help, support, and care of teenagers and plants
• Steve and Toni for the bubbly, and Toni for looking after Grace's foot
• The McManuses for the invaluable reference work
• Sam, Ben and Guy for all their hard work in making the party a success
  
• ...and to all of you again for being wonderful (sob)

I suppose this means we really have to go - although Sam has been muttering darkly about sailing to Wivenhoe and spending four months in the Colchester Post House hotel...