I collected a transit-style van from Europcar in Clapham Road at ten o’clock this morning so that my colleague Jane Austin and I could load and deliver the party items required for the MU Summer Party to the Windmill pub on Clapham Common. These included a life-size cardboard cutout of Donald Trump (for satire purposes), numerous balloons, a tombola and a considerable number of prizes.
It had been decided to change the annual get-together from being a pre-Christmas celebration to a summer event, as this made the travelling much easier for the MU teams based in Scotland and the north of England. Too often the Glasgow team, in particular, had been unable to fly south during December due to adverse weather conditions.
I had hired Lee Wickens who arrived shortly after us, so that we had a top-class PA and engineer on hand. We set the room up alongside the venue’s helpful staff and awaited our work colleagues from around the UK’s regional offices. I had taken on the task collating the playlist of nine hours of material suggested by my MU colleagues! This was more than we needed in the end, as although the event ran from around half past twelve until half past eight, we had to dismantle the PA at half past five as agreed with the manager. We had all moved from the hall inside onto the sun-bathed patio area by then anyway.
A most pleasant Friday afternoon.
