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PLEASE - Send me all the fotos you might have taken during the party so that I can put them here! - Send me your username and your name if you attended the party so that I can make a list of all who were there!
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HC Latin Birthday Grilling Party in Helsinki on June 9, 2007 NOTE: I am trying to collect all usernames of the people who were at the party! If you were there, send me your username!! On a beautiful summer day I invited HC members and my latin friends for a grillin' and chillin' and swingin' party to my home in Helsinki! :) Here's the Party Report: How it all started... On Thursday, June 7, my friend Armando from Equador called me and invited me to his small birthday party on Saturday. I was still in Mikkeli finishing my last course and I had not planned to come to Helsinki for Saturday. However, as I did not have anything important to do in Mikkeli, I decided to confirm that I am coming. Later that Thursday night, I thought what I could give him as a present. Then I got the idea: A PARTY :D Yes, I got the idea to organize a party FOR ARMANDO and give it to him as a present - including the guests! I thought that, due to the expected fantastic weather (30 degrees during the day, still over 20 degrees at night), it would be a nice idea to take advantage of our big garden and invite much more people in order to have MORE fun! I asked Armando if that would be fine for him, if he could - of course - bring all his guests, as well. He said yes! :) So, I started drafting an invitation, which later was sent out to all HC members of the Uusimaa region (Helsinki and surroundings) and to many other friends of mine. For your information, here is the invitation, which was sent out (by Simon) to 2825 Hospitality Club members:
Soon after the invitation was sent out, I began receiving messages from people who wanted to join the party. In total, I gave the address out to 55 people!!! (It was highly surprising to get so many people willing to come within just 24 hours! Usually you always have to send out the invitation at least a week beforehand in order to get some people coming. I guess, there was high demand for chillers and swingers to do some grilling on a beautiful day...) In addition to the approximately 15 guests from Armando, this was going to be a blast! How it was... The first guests arrived at 4.50pm when I had not even yet brought all the garden chairs from the attic down into the garden. The party started really quietly. For the first hour or so, we were just sitting in the garden enjoying the fantastic weather and talking to the few guests who had already arrived. At the same time, I was still doing some preparations, such as blowing some balloons and heating the grill. As the hours passed by, more and more people arrived at the party. When I put on the latin salsa (or reggaeton) music (inside very loud so that we could here it in the garden), the atmosphere took off and everybody was having a lot of fun! Armando had come already relatively early but he had to pick up some more friends a few times, so the party was at its best when finally all guests AND Armando were present! We were, after all, not as many as I expected; but having approximately 30-40 people from MANY different countries around the world was simply awesome! (Here's a list of all countries that were represented in the party: Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Namibia, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, and USA. Please let me know if I forgot one.) We honestly were having SO much fun!!! It was great to get to know people from all over the world, to have fun together, to grill some food, to sit in the warm garden and enjoy the evening together! However, there was still more to come! At one point, I asked everybody to come once for a moment into our living room. I held a very short speech, wished everybody once more welcome, and raised Armando into the center of attention. We sang together Happy Birthday under the accompaniment of our dear pianist Matthew from New Zealand! Afterwards, he played some more little pieces for us, which we applauded very much. Inspired by the ambiance, our dear Sara from the US showed us her excellent violin skills! It was really lovely to hear her playing and to improvise with her on the piano! :) As the evening continued to advance, people continued to eat (sausages, cakes from Armando's lovely girlfriend Tiina, icecream, meet, strawberries, chips, etc), drink (well... yeah), dance (HOT latin music, although the dancing part was rather small due to the people being in the garden), and to have fun. But hang on, isn't there missing something? Yes, did you notice the P.S. in the invitation? The sauna!! :) BIG announcement: The sauna is hot! People began to welcome the idea of going to the sauna in the cellar of our house. It was very refreshing to relax in the heat in order to continue afterwards the partying in the garden. There was a constant stream of people going in and out of the sauna. And it was not uncommon to see some people with little clothes in the garden... ;) I had completely lost the sense of time after 7pm. From time to time, some individuals said goodbye but the party continued until very late in the night, or shall I say in the morning. I finally got the bed at 6.30am - after a lot of parties, saunas, massages, drinks, sausages, and dances! However, this does not mean that all guests had left by that time. I invited the best party animals to sleep a few hours in one of our guest rooms. (For me, the few hours was cut into several chunks of sleep...) It was so lovely to drink some coffee, to receive some reiki, and to give hugs to the few persons who kept the WONDERFUL atmosphere going while the sun was again shining bright on Sunday... The day after... After the last guest had left on Sunday afternoon (in spite of my convincing to stay still a bit longer), I went to sleep for a few hours. :D I guess it was no surprise. :) However, it was a big surprise for me to see that the whole house and garden was rather clean!! It was really not a big job to get all the trash out, to put the chairs back in order, and to remove the grill from the garden. My mother arrived from her trip on Sunday evening. She was very suspicious but she did NOT complain that something was not ok!!! =) I took that as a very big compliment. It seemed that I had been able to comply with the cleanliness requirements of my mother!! Well, she found some underwear and asked me where it comes from... Oops! :D (Not to have here any misunderstandings, she had given me the permission for a little party while she was absent.) To conclude, I must say that the party was absolutely fantastic! Considering the fact that my effort to "plan", "organize", "prepare", or to "think through" the party was absolutely minimal (approaching zero), I can only encourage people to do the same!! Go ahead and have an HC grillin' and chillin' party!! =) Finally, I would like to thank all the ones who came! The party was so great because of YOU!!! Now, please do the following, if you read this:
Again, thank you, all of you! Yours, Tilman P.S. Una vez mas: Feliz Cumple Años para Armando!! =) |
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