Engagement Party
Chris & I went to Christine's & Matt took us to the restaurant in his car. When re arrived, Mum & Andrew were already there & we went & say with them at the 'waiting area'. I use the term 'waiting area' because I can't think of any other word to describe it! There are sofas & comfortable chairs, with foot stools & coffee tables, & we had drinks (be it glasses of wine or otherwise) & vegetable crisps. Before long, we asked to be shown to our table.
Chris & I were ushered ahead by the others, & I just figured it was because they were being nice because the meal was about us, but as we were taken around a corner & neared our reserved table, I saw a big helium balloon on the table – heart shaped with the words "Congratulations On Your Engagement" on it! Then, as I sat down, I noticed there were little scrolls at each place setting. On closer inspection of the scrolls, I realised that they had been especially made for this meal! On them was written;
Celebration Dinner at Bartellas to mark the engagement of Christopher Hodgson & Chilli Nicholson, 6th August 2009.
It had a choice of starters, main & dessert from a set menu. We all took ages to order because we were talking too much! And Andrew had ordered a bottle of champagne to go around.
After finally reaching a decision, Andrew went off to the loo, & a minute later Matt went too. Mum, Christine, Chris & I were left chatting away. Suddenly, Mum said something that I didn't really find funny but could interoperate as being amusing, but Christine really giggled, and then Mum started too as well. Some shared joke maybe? Anyway, a few minutes later, Andrew & Matt returned. Only Matt was carrying the biggest bunch of flowers ever! He presented them to us as an engagement gift from him & his Mum. The reason why Christine & Mum had been laughing was because Matt was at the top of the stairs (luckly the stairs were behind Chris & I so we didn't see) & he was about to come down, but Christine wanted him to wait for Andrew so the two of them could come down together & had waved madly at him not to come down, while Chris & I weren't actually looking!
Then Andrew passed Mum a purple shiny bag, who then gave it to me. Inside was a silver plated photo frame with 'Chris & Chilli' engraved at the top & 'Engagement 6.8.09' at the bottom. There's a story behind the balloon as well. While I was in town today, so were Mum & Andrew, & when I went to meet up with Andrew, I was on the phone. While on the phone, Mum was actually with Andrew at the time - with the balloon. So when I told Andrew I was opposite Woolworths & he repeated "Woolworths?" Mum panicked & ran! She knew how close Woolworths was (the fact that I could see Andrew when I realised he must have been really close while the crossing signal was beeping just shows how close it is!). So when I arrived to meet Andrew and mother wasn't around, I asked where she was and Andrew said "oh, she's going to meet up with me later..." 'fair enough' I thought! She had just ran for it because she didn't want me to see the helium balloon!
Then our meals started coming. I had Mediterranean king prawns, cockles, peppered mackerel & smoked halibut. Chris & Matt shared a spicy platter, which included chicken wings, spare ribs, potato wedges and jalapenos wrapped in bacon filled with cream cheese! Chris managed to eat one of the jalapenos, but Matt refused his – can't say I blame him! My started was really nice though.
For main, I had 'slowly cooked shank of lamb, minted mash & its own juice' while Chris settled with a sirloin steak, along with his brother. Christine had the same as me, while Mum went for the beef & kidney pie – I can't remember what Andrew had, but there was a side order of dough balls going around. After stuffing ourselves on our food, we had to choose our desserts. Chris asked for Mango after some thought, but I simply couldn't decide. In the end, Andrew said to the waiter "surprise her", which seemed rather exciting, so I went with it. Let them decide what to give me for dessert! The brought out everyones' dessert then finally gave Chris & me ours. It was on one big plate and was basically an assiette of desserts! The first thing you noticed though were the hearts. There were two red hearts made of jelly surrounded by little desserts, such as cheesecake (my favourite) crème brûlée, ice cream, coulis, mousse & summer pudding. It had all been planned by Mum & Christine, with a little help from Andrew. The whole evening – the menus, the balloon, the gifts & now the dessert. Lovely.
It was so nice sharing this special time with our close family. It was lovely having both parent figures there too – like a proper family.
