CFA Banquet

Saturday October 13th was the CFA Annual Banquet, celebrating the fire brigade and how much they rock. I will now precede to tell you all about it.

Well, when I got there, I sat at our table next to my Aunt Susan. Here we are.

I was also sitting next to James.

Also at our table were Stacey, James' friend Orson, and Mark and Nicki, though they were running late and had not yet arrived.

Stacey, as it turns out, had organised the event, so they gave her lots of flowers.

James hosted the night. Here he is, hosting.

When I got there, I found out that they were having a raffle! Raffles are fun. Tickets were 3 for a dollar, but as I had only a 20 and didn't really want to buy 60 tickets, I went to the bar to break it. I returned with a raspberry vodka and 3 fives. I bought 15 tickets and sat down with my drink. And just in time! Because then we all stood up and toasted the Queen, which I thought was pretty fun. Here she is.

I didn't win any prizes after the first round of raffle giveaways, so I bought 15 more tickets. Then we had dinner. I had lamb. It was good. And then they called out more raffle winners and...Kate won! Woo-hoo! Here is my new plant and candle set.

Then James got up to resume hosting duties. He announced that his cousin had come all the way from America to the banquet and that I had made a special request. Apparently, I wanted more than anything to have my picture taken with a bunch of men in uniform. This was, of course, a fabrication on James' part, but the men in their fire uniforms all stood up and we were photographed. We're facing the official photographer, so this picture is just from the side, but hopefully I'll get a copy of the other photo sometime.

After we sat down, some guy wanted to talk to me because I was American. He was kinda annoying, so hopefully he won't read this. But he kept mocking my accent, and not in a good-natured way either. Not really the way to endear a girl. But luckily he went away after a while and I resumed my meal.

Then it was dancing time. I was enjoying talking to Mark and Sue, but then annoying guy came and yanked me out of my chair and said I had to dance with him. I didn't particularly want to dance with him, so I stood next to him while he did some weird air guitar thing. And then he went away. So that was good. But then I decided that as I was up and on the dance floor, I would dance anyway. Various people hijacked my camera and photographed this. So here I am.

The Macarena

I think the next two are from the Nutbush. I don't look like I'm having much fun in the second (though I was), but James more than makes up for this with his enthusiasm.

Myself, Mark, and James on a dance break.

At some point during the night, Mark, Stacey, and Nicki photographed themselves with my camera. Here they are.

Finally, it was time to go home. Mark and Nicki didn't want (or weren't able) to drive, so they came in our car. Except they didn't fit, so we broke the law.

But after we dropped off my Aunt Susan, we all fit. So here are myself, Mark, and Stacey in the back.

Then we went back to James and Stacey's. At about 2am our time, Mark and James decided they had to know, right then, what baseball team my dad went for. And they wouldn't believe me when I said that he really didn't follow the sport. So they decided to call my family. So that was interesting. So, family, I hope this puts that interesting call into the context of the rest of our night.

After that, I went to bed. And that was the night.