The marathon party

Up at a much more reasonable 10am. Today is Zachary F's birthday party at Bransbury Park community centre, which is where Pops had her fancy dress party some years ago. Coincidentally, Zachary's party is also fancy dress/Halloween outfits, so I will wear the Skeleton costume again. It occurs to me that, like many other complicated costumes worn by millions of other people of my height, it's probably not washable because of all the luminous paint on the plastic stuck-on bones and things. So do you just wear it a few times and hope you've grown out of it before it starts to smell? Is there a secret non-destructive washing method that only magic mummies know?

The party was billed as a 3-hour event. There were 2 other skeletons, some superheroes, a pair of Harry Potters, and about 11 princesses. First we blew up those long balloons that screet when you let them go and I had a big swordfight with Zachary. My snakeskin sword was very popular, everyone wanted a go so that's why it got bent in the middle when 3 people were pulling it in different directions. I did spend quite some time chasing Kate-Lynn with my large weapon, not sure what's going on there. And later someone else chopped me in the willy with it, I was brave and didn't cry.

Then the party games started. In the dance contest the resident DJ played oopa-woppa gangnam style 5 times, will we ever tire of that splendid tune. I have developed an interpretative feet-on-fire Irish jig style of dancing with the odd bit of skeleto-robotics thrown in for good measure. Harvey and I share the belief that in a dance contest, the quicker you dance, the more points you will receive, so we leapt about like we were coming up on 750 mikes of the right stuff.

I won the pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin competition and my prize was a balsa wood F15 fighter jet construction kit. After musical statues, bobbing for apples, musical bumps, food, technotechno rave music, cake and much more, it was time to go home. I got my fighter jet out, made some of it, realised I'd put some bits on backwards, deconstructed it and broke the main tab that holds everything together. That's why I burst into tears, because I'd worked really hard for that prize and I killed it.