You lucky besom! (Bye bye Mary).

So, finally, it was the 'Do'. 

There were 20 of us, for a hot and cold buffet in the Sally (Salutation Hotel to you) in Perth.  We invited the other recently retired staff, and it was such fun to have all of our familiar and much-missed ladies together again.  Felt like a staff meeting from 2 or 3 years ago.  So much to talk about, mostly grandchildren!

We themed our night, '20 Shades of Grey', (since Mary has lovely silver hair, and has recently also become a Granny) and played a game of our own devising ('we' being The Organising Committee: Jetta, Jemma, Julie and me). 

We used an App to transform photographs of staff members from their normal age to OAP's, changing their hair colour to grey in all cases. Then we made the attendees work in pairs to identify their colleagues, with the winning team carrying off a booty bag of goodies which included furry handcuffs!

It was very funny, and totally rigged so that Mary won the prize.  Goodness knows what she and her solicitor husband are going to do with furry handcuffs!

Then I did a 'This is Your Life' feature, using pictures from department night's out and some which Mary's husband had smuggled in to me. 

The buffet was fabulous, I went back for 3 platefuls!  Well, they were only teaplates, and I hadn't eaten anything since my yoghurt at 8am.  After all the games and the food, we gave her the gifts, and she loved them.

And that's it now.  She toddled off with her flowers, balloons, presents and cards.  We cleaned up the room, paid the bill, hugged each other and said we'd all meet again in a year when the next person goes. 

I do miss Rhona, Linda A, Frances C, Sue, Carol B, Kate Mac, Jeanette, nd now Mary.  It was a really good night, and felt like old times.