Week 22 - Garden Party, Ali's leaving Party

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22/6/2012

The well-known ‘Garden Party’ was on tonight just out of Verviers, and not too far from my road. Myself, Riley, and Chris all met at Elizas for pre-drinks, and some last minute signing of books and cards because this was going to be one of the last times we’d see each other. We walked there, and like typical Belge Soirees, there were drink tickets you had to buy in order to be able to drink, and a DJ. It was awesome seeing my friends from SFX there, and once it wrapped up at around 2, it was all pretty much finished, and the DJ’s kinda ran out of decent music…

23/6/2012

Today was the going away party for Ali, a surprise party that the family had been planning for a few weeks now. All the things was bought and hidden around the house. All the beer was downstairs and all the things for the essential onion soup (the Belgians way of being able to drink the way they do, and still be manageable), and today while Ali was in town with her friend, all of the family helped out to set up the massive tents outside, find a beer fridge, a sound system, and to build a box for the donations people give at going away parties. So after a few attempts at putting up the tent, we finally got it the right way around, and set up all the things for tonight. Then as people started arriving, we started drinking and playing a bit of music to await Ali arriving. When she did, out came the camera, and many photos of everyone was taken. People gave Ali small pictures of good memories they’d had with her, and a little message for a big book for Ali to read on the plane.

We played a few drinking games with the family, and then came the time when I wanted to play a few songs to Ali before she left. So while I was a little through “Apologize”, people came in and listened. They asked me to play “Somebody that I used to know”, so that came out next. Everyone sang along, and afterwards out came the delicious soup, and we put on a bit of chilling music, while we sat and ate. With many more Jupilers sitting in the fridge, we got right back to drinking and celebrating, and put on a bit of Hardstyle for all the parents to enjoy. It was a great part though, and she got around 800 euro from donations from people to go towards a laptop for her.

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