Fancy dress

Am I dreaming it, or did I not write another blog for you after eating out at The Oyster Bar? I was sure I had written something since then! OK! Well, if that's the case I must remedy it!

I went to a fancy dress party for a friend's birthday last weekend! The theme was "A film" or "a genre"! Now I'm not a big film goer. In fact I can't even remember the last time I went to the cinema, but sometimes I watch a film or two on the television, and very occasionally hire a DVD, So what to go as? I looked through the list of DVDs we hire out at the store, but nothing really jumped out and hit me - The Bee Movie? The Incredible Hulk? (No, that's being cruel to myself!) I'm not exactly a Girl with a Pearl Earring (though I know someone who is), more like.... Ladies in Lavender! I found myself a rather nice lavender coloured top and jacket - one of these all in one ones - and although the colour was said to be bluebell, I thought it was more like lavender! There was a pashmina in the same colour with silver threads through it, so I got that too. In a charity shop I found a string of glass beads in the same shade, and in another charity shop along the road I managed to unearth a floppy straw hat to which I attached a purply grey fabric rose on a clip! I had hoped to be able to find a pair of wide floppy linen trousers - are they called Palazzo pants? - but in the end when they were impossible to find in a charity shop, I just wore a pair of baggy greyish trousers with the rest of the ensemble! - and didn't I forget I had a few stems of dried lavender flowers hanging in the hall that could have decorated my hat too!!!!

Turning up at the party Julia our hostess in sari, and fake tan welcomed me in. I'm not sure if she guessed my film or not. Hers was a genre rather than a film - sari, India, films, BOLLYWOOD! Of course!

Cath was the Girl with the Pearl Earring. She looked fabulous!

Chrissie's was more difficult to work out. She was dressed as a hunter - complete with crocheted beard - and carried a soft toy animal that I thought was a kangaroo - Australia? No! It turned out to be a bambi toy she was carrying - any guesses? Shall I wait to the end to tell you, and you can have a think in the meantime? Yeah! Why not?

Ian was The Man in Black, in black suit and dark glasses.

Joanna, dressed in checked shirt, jeans with cowboy-style fringed jacket, stetson, and cowboy-type boots, carried a tin of pasta - long thin string pasta? She had to be a spaghetti western! A guy I didn't know had a frying pan on a string round his neck, On the bottom of the pan was a pattern like a maze - ? Pan's Labyrinth!!! Groan! - and a woman I didn't know was St Trinian's.

There was a Pirate of the Carribean (Joan just looked the part of Captain Jack Sparrow), a rather subtle Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that involved a long-ish necklace with some cryptic clues about truly scrumptious and a couple of firecrackers attached, Lawrence of Arabia with the headgear if not the flowing white robe....... what else? Oh, I can't remember! Oh yes, Julia's son and his partner were there for a while just dressed as normal. "What film am I?" he asked me. "You'll all have to leave first though!" Thinks! (Thinks I'm not going to get this!) Ah! Inspiration! Home Alone? "So what am I?" asked Tina. "You have to be Home Alone 2!" I got them! Anyway it was a lot of fun, and the wine and beer flowed sweetly, though as I was working early the next morning I had to be like Cinderella and get home before the last stroke of midnight - and that was only going to allow me about 5 hours sleep! So only a small glass of wine and an even smaller one of champagne to toast Julia's birthday, and that was my lot!

So have you thought about Chrissie in her hunter gear with the toy bambi? She was The Deerhunter - and I just remembered Alison's! How could I forget?

Her "costume" was actually just this glove!

Cool Hand Luke! (Cool hand! Look!) Clever, eh?

Talk again soon.