Dear friends,

One last mass e-mailing from me, and we’ll see if Outlook manages to turn this one into a load of old nonsense as well! Then I’ll shut up. Possibly for another ten years…

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to my party on Saturday. It took me all of yesterday (Sunday), after dinner out, to recover from it, and it took until Sunday night to finish opening the incredible amount of cards and presents that I have had. (Then, after midnight, I found one more bag of presents, so it took even longer!) As I said yesterday on my blog, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of cards and presents I have received, not just at the party, but in person and in the post beforehand as well. When I decided to have a party, getting presents was the last thing on my mind; I just wanted an opportunity to get as many friends together as possible, and I think I succeeded in that, even though lots of you were also away or busy, which is quite understandable. The presents were an unexpected bonus and they have been amazing! Thank you all for your imagination and ingenuity! Now for the embarrassing bit. I never expected to get so many presents at the party, and although I started opening them, I was soon torn between opening them and greeting people, and had to give up on the presents. We tried to keep the cards with the presents, but there are three or four which have become detached, so I don’t know for sure who they’re from. I don’t want to appear ungrateful, but maybe I should say a great big general thank you now, and if you want to tell me which one was yours… I can’t think of any other way to do it and I apologise for the confusion. Even without this slight hiccup, I may not have had time to thank everybody individually anyway, as I now have three days left before flying to Athens on Friday, and have to be at work for the next two of them, so I am running out of time. (I had to do holiday shopping today and have bought myself a new camera, so that took some time.)

Thank you also to those who let me know that they couldn’t come to the party. It’s amazing how far some people went, just to avoid it: Malta, Maldives, Malaysia…possibly some other places beginning with ‘MAL’, and even Leeds! You were all missed, so I thought you might like to see the first photo of the night, which is why I’ve sent this to everyone. It’s on my blog now, at http://chig.blogspot.com (Thanks to Jonathan.) With any luck, before I fly to Athens on Friday, I’ll post some more photos, so keep looking!

Finally, I’d like to say a really big thank you, here in public, to my sister, for taking up the challenge of a mad idea that I had while driving home a few weeks ago, and providing the entertainment. (When [she] was at college in York, she made a music video as Kim Wilde, singing Kids In America. When I suddenly had this idea, while listening to the radio in the car, to ask her to sing at my party, Steve Wright played Kids In America about a minute later, and I knew it was fate!) I know I’m biased, but I think my ears are fully functioning and she seemed amazing to me. I’m just sorry the lighting was so poor, and sorry about the bloke who got up and ruined the second song. :-) I was one very proud brother when she was on stage.

So, back to reality – until Athens on Friday and a week of Eurovision preparations, rehearsals and parties. I’ll see lots of you out there, and the rest when I get back. Remember, if you’re having a Eurovision party this year, school uniforms are the way to go, to support our Daz!

Thank you all again. I’m proud to have you all as friends, especially as the manager of Patrick Kavanagh’s said to me on Sunday that the barman had reported back to him that “everyone was very friendly, which is what counts really”, so he was very pleased, and so was I. Cheers!

Hugs to all,
Chig