The Friday E-Mail - Leaver's Ball Special

Well, it’s finally been another week. The last week in May but the first week in June. Funny how the world keepings rolling ever onwards.

The major E.U. Constitution votes came into play, with France voting a resounding ‘non’ before Holland followed with an even stronger ‘nee’ vote than in France. Surely it can’t come back from these two major blows, and so, the European ‘Superstate’ is pretty much finished. Ahh well, we’ll have to keep the trade restrictions on America going, constitution or no constitution. If they’re taking action against Airbus, we can do much the same against Boeing!

Moving on though, and as the month changed over, so did the weather, as at the end of May we were recording record temperatures until we hit June and the rain has yet to stop! What went wrong?!

Perhaps the highlight of the year so far came on Tuesday night. After so much planning, forward thinking and preparation by the organisers and for the effort put into outfits, our last big social night at school finally arrived. The Leaver’s Ball 2005 at the prestigious Last Drop Village was indeed a night to remember for us all, as it was the farewell to so many of our friends of the past two, seven, or more years.

Greeted at the door with a glass of wine after being dropped off by our brilliant taxi-man in his convertible Merc, we strolled in to the well dressed room, a smallish dance floor surrounded by big round tables with balloons, sweets and butter a-plenty. There was something about the atmosphere, eve if the room was essentially empty at first, spelling out that it was going to be a great night. With the arrival of more and more people, including the 4-piece of Chris, James, Rick and Scott to complete the group it steadily got louder and the room was finally alive. With no alcohol kicking just yet, it was more a collection of groups than one whole ‘Class of 2005’ (Whoever made that sign needs to learn what country they’re in!) Anyway, things were picking up, and with a reasonably priced bar for once, the drinks were flowing in style and making everyone more talkative as the camera bulbs began to flash.

The buffet, as organised as they could make I, was exquisite, with such a range of hot and tasty food as never seen before. The beef, the chicken curry, the whole salmon, it was all good. And shortly followed by profiteroles and chocolate sauce, it doesn’t get much better than that, really.

With such an array of beautiful people, all dressed up in dinner suits of flowing dresses, the night for me became all about dancing, and with as many people as possible. Even better if they had a red dress so as to match my bow tie! Even though I couldn’t quite talk Lee onto the dance floor, I managed to succeed with everyone else, including Scotty, James, Stu and many others. Quite why I danced all night, despite not being able to dance for toffee still alludes me, and I really had to concentrate during The Macarena, as I’d managed to be on the corner of the dance floor, so I had no one to watch and copy for half the time! I gave up when Saturday Night came on though, that one I didn’t know at all, so I took solace at the bar, accompanied by my beautiful friend of the moment, Sophia.

The time flew by, and soon the odd person or two began to leave bound for home, a bed, or for a better place to drink! The end had to arrive though, but as it did, so too did a huge batch of colour first year photographs on a table in the entrance hall. I have Richard to thank for mine, but I did manage to collect Kyle’s for him, even if he didn’t make it.

With the end though, all the lights came on and it wasn’t long at all before the chairs and tables began to be packed away by the good staff. In no hurry to leave at all, despite person after person telling me my Mum has arrived to pick us up, or Chris trying the get me outside for his long desired group photo, I was simply dashing round hugging everyone I knew, just to say goodbye and good luck. Around the room, there were a few tears here and there, but most were happy, despite being sad that the end had come. Eventually I appeared outside, still hugging people, shouting over the car park to others, not really wanting to leave just yet, but I jumped in for the photo, gave my last hugs and headed for home.

It was gone 4a.m. before I got any real sleep, and I wasn’t up until 12 either, but what a night it was. All I could say on the way home was ‘that was a great night’, and all I can say now is ‘that was a great night’. We’ve all collected some great memories from that night, which will be with us for a little time yet. I’m still living the high, and e-mailing my photos out to ever more people.

Well, I apologise for the length, but, I could go on and on and on for much longer than this. I’ll close with my little quote though, because it suits the time so very well. I used it in my toast over the food, only to be ratted out by the all-knowing Mr Clarke who spotted who I was quoting. It still works the same though.

“This is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end. This is merely the end of the beginning, for the rest is very much left to come!”

Bye bye for now

Paul



The Group - We've had a blast!