We left Sam's early and drove up to Allan and Dot's in St Helens. Arrived to find the kitchen and dining room awash with food preparation! Julie, Dot's daughter from Cheltenham, her partner Chris and her daughter Chantelle were already there and we all ended up helping to prepare the buffet for Allan's 60th birthday party that night.
Sam had decided to come up by train later and we arranged to meet her when she arrived; however, the train was late leaving Leamington which resulted in Sam missing her connection at Birmingham. Then, when she finally was able to work out which other train to get, the train in front of it broke down and there was a further delay. We were finally able to meet her nearly an hour late and eventually got to the hall for the party in plenty of time.
The party was a tremendous success and Allan was in his element, greeting his family, loads of workmates and friends and dancing up a storm with various people. The younger members of the family had arranged for some "balloon" people to decorate the hall with white and silver balloons and, up near the DJ were two huge, silver balloons - a 6 and a 0. There were two birthday cakes - a rectangular one with a picture of the bus Allan drives and a square one with a birthday greeting on it. We all sang a rousing "Happy Birthday" whilst Allan cut one of the cakes.
Ron, Sam and I enjoyed meeting members of Dot's extended family we hadn't met before and we all enjoyed a wonderful evening. There were lots of small and medium sized children who had an absolute ball dancing the evening away - most of them were Allan and Dot's great-grandchildren who are all very cute. The bar and music closed at 11.30pm and, after collecting all the unused food (not allowed to leave it in the hall) we returned, exhausted, to Allan and Dot's home.
All in all it was a lovely, happy night and we were so glad to be able to share Allan's special day.
