Yvie Burnett: Let the prep begin for a garden birthday party

I’ve got a big birthday this year but I’m not very good at having parties.

I think it comes from a long-standing memory of having a summer birthday when everyone was away on holiday and couldn’t come.

Or maybe just an insecurity of “why would they want to come?”

Is anyone else like that when it comes to parties? Maybe I’m a bit strange that way.

I’ve had a couple of big bashes, one memorable one in London and one very glitzy party in LA but usually we don’t bother.

However, for some reason this year, I just decided to go for it and have a garden party at home.

A garden party can be great, depending on what the weather does.

Well, if your birthday is in August and you have a nice garden, what can go wrong?

Haha, lots can go wrong of course, starting with the weather. Where has the summer weather gone? Is it going to come back?

Exactly a year ago my best friends from uni came to stay and we were right in the middle of that heatwave.

Rain or shine

It was too hot to be outside during the day but we sat outside every night until midnight and it was such a wonderful few days.

It’s in God’s hands isn’t it when you choose a particular date in the calendar for a party or a wedding which involves being outdoors?

Torrential rain would be awful but an intense heatwave wouldn’t work either.

Anyway it’s not for another few weeks yet so it will be a while before we get an accurate weather forecast.

Whatever the weather

I’m getting on with the plans though and just assuming we will work it out whatever the weather throws at us.

My theme is pink, flowery, garden-party, afternoon tea, Pimms, rosé wine, fizz and instead of paying for caterers or a venue I’m buying a few things for the garden which we can hopefully reuse over and over.

My first bargain purchase was a bundle of white tablecloths and I’m going to get some jam jars and little vases and put fresh flowers from the garden all along the middle of the tables.

By tables I mean every table we own, even grotty old ones from the garage because with a posh white tablecloth and pretty dishes, no one will know.

The transformative power of a white tablecloth over any kind of table.

My plan B if the weather is rubbish, is to beg, borrow or steal any marquee and gazebo type thing we can lay our hands on from everyone we know!

Anyway, I will keep you posted on the preparations as we have a few weeks to go yet and if any of you are good at outdoor entertaining, I’d love your party planning tips.

Thankfully Emily is coming home to prepare with me a few days before.

As you know, stuff like that isn’t really Gordon’s forte although he will muck in and do the jobs he is instructed to do.

Here is an example of his “inspired” party planning idea: “We could put out the outside cushions onto the garden furniture,” he said.

Haha, I rest my case! I will leave him to mow the lawn and serve the drinks.

In other news, I’ve had so many lovely letters from readers recently.

Peigi, Dorothy, Sorrell, Peter, Alistair, Susan and Sally special thanks to you for your long “newsy” letters and all the other people who keep sending me messages, tweets or emails. It’s always appreciated.

I love hearing about your lives and your families. I spend so much time telling you what my family and I are doing, it’s nice to have an insight into who some of you are.

Exams at work

This week Gordon is doing his yearly training at BA. It’s something that is obviously really important in a company where safety is so important.

However, we can all become a bit complacent in the job we do. It would perhaps be a good idea in many jobs for us all to be reminded of things we may have forgotten or have been doing badly.

How many of us would sail through yearly exams at work? For me, I never forget how to teach people to sing but if I had an exam on how to keep up with all the technology used now in the recording studio, I’m not so sure I would score very highly.