Bon Journal

Progressive party till dawn

The idea of a progressive party came about when my neighbours Dave and Jola dropped by. It was to be a combination of New Year's Eve and my going away party, though I still had excuses why I wasn't ready to fully "go away."

A progressive party is one which is held in different locations, such as a different course of a meal or a different stage in the party line-up.

We started in Dave and Jola's house for the starters prepared by my friends Andy and Victoria and a vegetarian dinner prepared by Dave and Jola. I threw in a Malaysian Chinese dish - bakuteh - for the carnivores. After two hours, we moved next door to Amanda's house for pudding. She had concocted a fruit salad and flan. Simple but delicious nevertheless. I made a mental note that I need to get the recipe for the flan.

At 11 pm the party moved to my house. Dave and Jola had prepared sparklers for everyone to light at midnight. I was rushing around making sure that everyone had a glass of champagne by midnight.

What is a party without interaction? Engaging in conversation is good, but playing music is better.

After new year toasts, we sang "Cry Me a River" - Amanda's request from the Purple Piano Party. We had researched and prepared several modern Christmas songs, not all of which were known to our ears. Luckily, at least one person knew each song. We started with the well-known ones that were simple to sing to.

Lennon and Ono's Happy Christmas --- and so this is Christmas....

Wham's "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. The very next day, you gave it away. This year ...."

Made famous by the recent movie "Love Actually" - Love is all around: "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes."

Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is Yyyyou

The Wizzard's I Wish It Was Christmas Everyday

Interwoven between the songs were recitations of poems by two living poets in London - Joe Kelley and Ursula Troche.

When we ran out of Christmas songs, we started singing ABBA. When we ran out of ABBA, we sang other oldies. When we ran out of oldies, we started dancing.

And we danced till 5 am.

31 December 2003 Wednesday

Home concerts at analyticalQ

Photos credits:
Jeremy Quartey-Papafio