Party on, dude!

The social scene here in our new place continues to go from strength to strength. Having started preparations last weekend for our housewarming party at the end of May, we had a surprise visitor last night while we were sitting quietly watching TV.

It was one of our neighbours calling to invite us across the road to make plans for the street party we're holding in June. Six of us turned up to the meeting, representing 4 houses in our part of the road. This will be the third time the street-party-cum-barbecue has been held and in fact last year's took place on the very day we came to view this house for the first time. As the man of the house took us on a guided tour of the rooms, his wife prepared salmon steaks for the barbecue that afternoon.

It was one of the things that sold the house to us, and it felt very natural to take part in the planning of this year's event. Manchester City Council offers small grants to help towards the cost of getting together with neighbours to foster a sense of community under the banner "Manchester Neighbours' Day" and we'll be applying for one of those. The only rule is that we can't spend grant money on alcohol, but as we're planning to have a bouncy castle for the kids and lots of bbq food and salads that won't be a problem!

The initial planning session went on until 11.30pm amidst much wine drinking and laughter. Our neighbours, as I've mentioned before, are a fantastic bunch. Really warm and friendly, and excellent company. We each came away with some simple actions to get the ball rolling, as well as embryonic plans for a community website (which I'd been independently thinking of doing anyway) to make it easier to pass information around the neighbourhood.