Party party party

It's end of year, here, being Northern Hemisphere schedule.

So people are celebrating.

The end of year School Leavers Ball was at the end of May, and Nigel and I went again. (The previous year, Tessa was a newborn, and it had been our first night out since the birth! I remember texting home every half an hour! This time I never checked in!)

Here's us looking all dressed up ready to go.

And some people are having farewell dos, too. One of Nigel's colleagues was thrown a farewell party by the parent of one of her students. Now this hosting family did not do things by halves - it was a theme party - Middle Eastern - and EVERYTHING had to be 'just right'. In order to get the attendees to dress up, they promised a trip to Hong Kong for the best dressed. That was enough motivation for us to get the sewing gear out! Here we are, all ready to go:

We arrived a bit late, after negotiating Manila traffic for about an hour and a half.

But when we got there, it was full on food, drink, decoration, service, even a Tarot Card reader was in operation for the night.

I even got up the guts (with a little help from the wine, maybe?) to join in the belly dancing later in the night...

It was a night and a half, and at the end of the night, imagine our surprise when Nigel was declared best dressed! He won a trip to Hong Kong!

Unfortunately, we really are unable to use it, so we have given the trip to some dear friends, who we know will appreciate it.

But what a night!