Funkiest party

Goodness! what mayhem in this country of ours, but even in these very troubled times it is still possible to have the best fun ever for the least cost and this occurred on my 50th birthday.

Our venue was our new office which is absolutely perfect for parties, in fact the house is more like an art gallery than a place of work. Des Bekker at rather short notice, arrived with his long playing records and record player and set himself up in the corner as the resident DJ. While Des blew the dust off his record albums, I dashed down to the Mutare Club for the snacks which were produced in record time and I transported them in the back of an open Landrover using our last drop of fuel. Once I removed the leaves and debris which they were coated with due to their open air exposure, they were almost perfect, except for the microwaved samoosas. These took on the texture of hard cement and took you by surprise as you bit into them. They must have damaged a lot of peoples teeth, judging by the amount of half eaten samoosas found all over the house.

Mrs.Galinakas's bottle store provided the drinks on credit (You take back what you haven't drunk, in this case nothing ). Mrs. Galinakas didn't even ask for a deposit and provided the glasses free of charge. How nice is that!! Unfortunately with the shortage of beer we had to buy bombers that is two beers in one big bottle for those of you who are wondering what a bomber is. This unfortunately proved fatal for Pat as he can't remember a great deal of the party, it appeared most of the beer drinkers suffered a memory lapse. Lyn Evans and Bronnie arrived and soon settled down to the huge task of Gluwein making, a special talent of Lynne's not yet universally recognized.

Bottles of local red wine were swiftly decanted into an enormous aluminum pot and warmed on a gas burner. The brew was mixed with sugar and as you know there is a severe shortage of this essential ingredient but luckily for us, enough was found. The coup de grace was obviously the cinnamon. Although you had to wave away the smoke fumes and your eyes smarted, the tentative first sip wasn't too bad and it wasn't too long before life took on a very rosy prospective and we forgot that we lived in a country that had fallen into the abyss.

As Des and Sal pumped up the music we hit the dance floor. Credence Clearwater's Proud Mary resonated over Mutare and we all went completely mad. We were soon competing with each other as to who had the funkiest dance moves. Headmistresses, lawyers, agronomists, farmers, housewives, sons and daughters rocked the night away. Just as we were mastering limbo dancing under a wooden curtain rail the inevitable happened and the lights went out. Mutare's load shedding closed the party, but just as well if our hangovers were anything to go by!

Mandy Retzlaff
Bvumba
Zimbabwe