Proud of my British optimism .... and cake (of course)

Sometimes decision making is harder than other times, especially when so many people can be affected by one decision. And sometimes, you don't want to have to make that decision because its always so much more fun to blame someone else, but then if it works out, retake back the credit as a joint effort.

Well in this case the decision was based on our wonderful British weather at the weekend.

As Office Manager for BigMachines, one of my 300 jobs is to organise events, and the big event of the year is the big family summer "DO". This year, summer managed to escape us and we booked our event for last Sunday 15th September, and we booked (when I say we I am totally talking purely about myself) the fabulous corporate BBQ section of Frimley Lodge Park (you should visit), together with gas BBQ, field and .... well I suppose a lot of free space for children to run wild.

At one point there was a potential 50 people turning up to this, and although I was checking the weather forecast daily for a month, and it was looking fine and dandy, at the back of my mind I was thinking, do we have a plan B, and would James allow me to invite everyone back to ours.... don't even GO there!!

So there was no plan B (not talking about the band, they are still around as far as i'm aware but they weren't part of my BigMachines event) until I got a text on Saturday morning asking for it.  It was starting to rain, I was still being optimistic, then I checked the weather forecast again... Oh.

Right, onto plan B, there is a harvester restaurant behind this field, so i called them, and asked what their reaction would be to 50 people turning up to their restaurant? Their reaction was "well we can't fit you all at tables!", so I suggested hijacking the bar area and ordering food, and we are talking £100's worth here (and a free salad bar please). Two phone calls later, I established that its a small Harvester but not usually busy so if we did turn up we could probably take over the bar but unofficially and I couldn't reserve anything.

So I called the Park Ranger (I love that job title) and told him that we would probably cancel. He wasn't too fussed and we decided to make a final decision by 10am Sunday morning.
By Saturday evening I'd finally got hold of some senior BigMachiners for their opinion and was feeling great about the Harvester and cancelling the field. They had agreed, it was all their decision now (if it didn't go so well)

And then Sunday came and with it sunshine and blue skies!! Why oh why Mr Weatherman do you have to do this to me? I checked the forecast. Actually I checked about 7 different ones. its good to know they are almost all the same, so there can be some calculations with getting the weather right (on the day at least) and they all said NO RAIN UNTIL 4PM. We were meeting from 1pm.  to BBQ or to Harvester? That is the really big question. It was all down to me, I had to call Mr Park Ranger before 10. I hadn't bought any food yet and had to take my eldest to a birthday party.

There's a lot to be said for the phrase "Sod it, let's do it" which I do believe is a very British phrase and one that might not translate as well as others. but I said it, and I dropped the rest of the family off at the party and zoomed to Waitrose to buy 60 burgers, 60 sausages, too many bread items and a lot of sweets, crisps, drinks and one small bag of salad. Happy with my final own made decision I drove out of Waitrose.... and it started raining. Oh My GOD!

I told myself it wasn't rain and I believed myself for a while and then it stopped.

Suffice to say the BBQ went ahead. It rained for a little bit at one point, but the hard core Sales team were too determined to win their game of catching the rugby ball, and the rest of us were sheltered under the trees eating. The rest of the time, it was FANTASTIC! 10 children running around like loonies, wearing T-shirts 20 times too big for them and exhausting themselves between bouts of pouring sweets and party rings down their throats.
The adults enjoyed numerous burgers and Sausages, crisps and drinks, and I even had a salad garnish on mine (I was the only one mind you), and of course there was CAKE. Two cakes in fact. Birthdays for John and Brad in the office. They seemed to go down well (again :))

Admittedly, it did start to get a little colder (I thought lips were turning blue from the icing of the redbull cakes, but apparently they weren't) so we packed up at 5pm and headed off. As the engines were turned on in the cars the heavens opened and it poured and poured and poured. But it waited! The weather fairy was definitely watching over us that day, and I suppose my message would be - Be British, Sod it and go for it! It will probably turn out fine in the end!