Chapeltown ASC family fun night a success
Legal notice: times are shown for indication only and may vary according to the amount of alcohol consumed and the names have not been changed to avoid protecting the guilty.
14.00: Chris (below left) and ChrisTINE start setting up; despite fiddling with his aerials, standing on a box and leaning to one side, Chris realises he’s not going to get a signal on either his laptop or TV and misses, possibly the best England performance since we wupped the Germans….but “he’s not bitter!”
19.30: Everyone settles in as the kids, high on e-numbers provided through the goody bags they’ve been given, and without the usual distractions of TV, DVD, PS/2, MP3 etc resort to… wait for it… playing together outside, larking about, climbing walls, running around, getting mucky, etc – OUTSIDE! – amazing!!
Meanwhile seats are chosen with, as Sheffield Wednesday fans clearly used to major collapses, the Crossland family (below left) bravely choosing a table under the ceiling which recently broke away.
19.40: The evening kicks off a little later than expected, partly due to the checks required to ensure the floor can hold all the booze (and 2 bags of peanuts) we’ve brought, and partly as Graham has had to fetch some of the kids back from the local (although, according to Graham, it’s 2 buses, a taxi, and a 10 minute walk away) park.
19:45: The
kids quiz gets underway and after puzzling most of the parents with some of the
questions, and a game of “can you repeat the question” which seems
aimed at seeing how many times the kids can get
20.10: Karaoke kicks off with Chris “Karaoke” Fearn leading the way. Before he’s even half way down his first black current juice, Ivans (above left) been nominated to sing with Emily. Unfortunately, due to artistic differences and poor song selection by their agents (Rose and Charlotte) Emily shocks the pop world and resigns as co-singer 3 or 4 lines in, but Ivan soldiers on with his unique singing style.
20.40: and it’s time for the adult quiz with our own quiz master (or should that be mistress) Annette (above middle). After 22 wide-ranging questions, papers are swapped and the answers read out – with one or two (well just one from Graham!) debates over the answers, the team of Graham (who’s currently awaiting a reply from President Bush over his request for a recount on the number of US States), June, Joanne (above right), Janet (above right) and Kevin, crush the opposition with a resounding victory. The usual prize giving ceremony with fireworks and photos is left aside on this occasion as Annette points to the 24 cans of beer and says “you’ll have to get them yourselves coz I can’t lift them” (something about the quiz maters/mistress union and, demarcation, and it’s more than my quiz jobs worth to lift beer!).
21.15: The Karaoke resumes. This time it’s the younger kids turn and, after Hannah Fearn (above left) shows her dad how to sing, a spontaneous act brings smiles to everyone’s faces, and tears to one or two eyes, as several of the others steel the spot light - Carl Parker (above right) steps up to sing his song and within seconds, one by one, he’s joined by virtually all his friends who all sing along with him – brilliant, moving and amazing to see – a standing ovation rightly follows!
21.45: It’s time for Bingo as Tina “legs eleven” Swinburn (above left) does the calling, aided by a bingo machine brought in by June and Graham (who clearly spend most evenings playing bingo at home). After what seems like 2 numbers are called, some one’s already got a line and the usual checks are done before the cash is handed over (at which point Ivan turns a strange colour). Thousands more numbers are read out and everyone seems to have got every number somewhere on their sheet, before Thomas Winterbottom’s Grandma (above 2ndt) and Annette (checked by Tom “far too brown to be real” Barlow), calls house. The first prize has to be split although Thomas’s Grandma may have settled for just getting her picture on the world-wide-web.
22.00: The final Karaoke session starts and, proving it’s hard to keep a good man down, Ivan’s back up entertaining us as only he can, whilst Rose and Charlotte (above left) prove singings not just for Ivan.
22.15:
There’s a break in the singing to draw the raffle and, as the
Winterbottoms win twice in a row, Bob can only look on wondering how he managed
to buy the tickets before and after EVERY winning number. In a peek of rage (accompanied
by a “tut”) Bob screws his tickets up only to realise there’s
another ticket drawn and quickly unfolds them to reveal - like
22.30: In the final, final Karaoke session, Bradley Swinburn (above left), watched by his new Groupies (above middle) does an impressive job of singing Shayne Ward’s “No Promises”.
23.00: Chris switches to a bit of disco as we start to pack-up. Janet improvises a dustpan out of a paper plate, whilst Bob and Annette ponder how many hours they’re going to spend feeding bottles and cans into the little holes in the recycling banks after volunteering to take the empties home where, unfortunately, they don’t have a recycle collection! Meantime, ChrisTINE (Mrs) refuses to give up dancing and Chris (Mr) considers putting “Tainted Love” on repeat play and picking her up in the morning (I did get an email off ChrisTINE at an impressive 8.30am the following morning clearly stating she was “not drunk, just merry” – the expression “The lady duth protest too much” quickly sprang to mind!).
Overall, a great evening for parents and kids alike – many thanks must go to ChrisTINE, Chris (especially for his “master of ceremonies”, come DJ work on the evening), Tina and Annette for organising it all.
Story by Kevin Canetti