Friday 19^th October

We were very fortunate, in our travels through Vanuatu and the Solomons, to happen upon many festivals and parties.  Not to mention the huge Quatorze Juillet celebrations in Noumea, with horses, bikes, tanks, helicopters, fireworks, speeches, the works!  I wrote about all of the feasts and celebrations at the time on this blog so I won’t repeat myself but I have realised that one thing they had in common was – everybody went!  The whole village would turn up to celebrate the yam harvest, or Mothers Day, or Independence Day.  (There were lots of Independence Days around the islands.  I am not sure that the people on the more remote islands had any idea what they were independent from but…never mind!  Opportunity for fun!  Everyone joined in!)

Back here in Australia it is harder to galvanise people into joining in and having fun communally.  I feel so sorry for people who put in a huge effort to organise a club event, with a band, sausages, beer, the works, only to have a trickle of people through the doors. 

Last year when we were in Townsville my niece Sharon was very excited because she was in charge of organising a Christmas party for her colleagues.  She found a great place on Magnetic Island where they do some sort of pantomime, or murder mystery activity – can’t quite remember but it did sound like great fun.  She booked for the twenty five people who said YES LET’S, WHAT FUN, when she first suggested it.  They were going to catch the ferry together, go to the performance, have dinner, party on, stay the night.  Magnetic Island is lovely, and a very good place for a party.  What was not to like???  But…when it came time to finalise the booking and get deposits, how many people still wanted to come and have FUN FUN FUN???  Eight.  Miserable!

Ann-Marie says people are very prone to non-attendance in Darwin, where she lived for many years.  I told her the sad story of my old friend Penny, an uber-hospitable woman who is sadly missed in Hobart.  Oh the lunches, the dinners, the feasts!  She moved to Darwin when she was in her fifties and made quite a big new circle of friends, as you do, in these far flung towns.  Christmas was coming up and everyone was complaining and repining – so far from home, friends, family, what were they all to do?  Penny immediately got an Action Plan going and invited about twenty people for a Christmas Day meal.  A fabulous feast!  She ordered a whole Atlantic salmon from Tasmania and prepared her usual beautiful groaning table.  The day came…and went…with poor Penny, her salmon, her mountains of delicious food uneaten because not one single person turned up.  (Ann-Marie said, sadly, that she was not at all surprised to hear this.)