Wilma's Party

Chris, reading from his latest book - unfortunately the shot is a little too dark.

The shadow (Wally), Carmen and myself at the jewellery table before the show.

A nice view of some of the people who came to the party.

Me, reading from some of my published works.

Jennifer, reading from her published poems on cats, as well as an exerpt from her published story on snowflakes.

Jeff, reading from some of his published works.

A small corner of my display. Two of the childen there bought the teddy bears which I made the clothes for. They played with them all afternoon! The children present were really good and all dressed up for the occasion!

Our favourite Mexican dancer Carmen. performed! She is a real trooper and dances so very well. The guests just loved her and one even asked if she was scheduled to dance one more time!

Quite a compliment to her!

Ed Woods, reading from his new published book.

Asma, myself and Alyia.

Some of the Whitehern Gals who attended my party.
It is most unfortunate that the picture I took of the first reader, Eleanore did not turn out. She is both a poet and a photographer and her poetry was well received by the assembled guests.

Several people took pictures as well and Kevin made a DVD of the whole party and particularly of the Talent Show.

Further to this thought, Kevin brought the DVD over this morning and we watched it together while we munched on party goodies which were left over.

He did a real good job and it is a marvelous memory to have!

I worked all morning and up till 1 p.m. bringing things down to the party room. Fortunately I have several bags on wheels and this helped a lot.

Jennifer and Kevin came around one and I was so glad that they did, as the time was flying by and there still was a great deal of things to do!

Mohammad also brought his fresh falafels and makings for a salad early as well. I showed him how to make the punch and he carried on with that duty for the rest of the party, as it needed to be refilled several times.

Some of the guests came early and we were not quite ready due to an electrical problem in the kitchen. None of them worked! Difficult to make coffee without electricity! I called the emergency line but the superintendents did not know how to fix it either. We then tried to make the coffee on another plug within the room and it was working. Bless Ed, when he came he knew exactly what to do and fixed it. As it turned out, hardly anybody took coffee anyway as they all seemed to like the punch.

The superintendents had set up the phone in the party room just for the day as they trusted me. It seems when the phone was left there before, people would come in and use it to call long distance.

Jennifer manned the phone line, letting people in as they arrived.

When all the guests had arrived (about 35), food was served buffet style, then at a little before 3, the talent show started.

Everybody did very well and their work seemed to have been appreciated by the assembled people. I think the highlight of it was Carmen's Mexican dancing. It was amazing!

Such energy!

After the talent show, most people left. The two Jennifers, Kevin, Carmen and Wally, and Andrew and I stayed behind to clean up.

I would say that the party was a success.

I was so pleased to forward a cheque in the amount of $60.00 to Christian Horizons for their programme which helps small business people in third world countries start their own business.

All in all, a worthwhile endeavour.

I asked for honest opinions of what could have been improved from some people who came and got some valuable suggestions for the next time I throw a large party.

Among the suggestions was to either cut the amount of people performing or limit their time to five minutes each.

I doubt that people would want to perform just for five minutes, but perhaps a nice compromise of ten minutes each would please everybody.

This party was a learning experience for me and all in all, I was quite satisfied.