Ben's Barbecue Bash

I love a good road trip, so when we got a Facebook invite to Ben's going away barbecue in Bournemouth, we decided to hit the road.  Thanks to Rebekah's employment with Holiday Inn, a very nice cheap hotel was quickly sorted.  Unfortunately Kirsty and Kim weren't able to go with us but at least that meant we only had to take one car.  Also a little fortunate as due to Katy's accident earlier in the week (that's another story) we had a bit of room in the car for her to try and get comfortable.

Once again as we left Lancashire, the weather just kept getting better, and by the time we reached Bournemouth, it was glorious.

There were a lot of people at the barbecue and Ben was clearly having a good time.  The only people I knew were family, and I loved spending time with them.  Jim and Liz had also made the trip down and my big brother Len spent the evening getting very nostalgic for Burnley.  We kept telling him he shouldn't come back and visit because he would just be disappointed, but he's getting old and these kind of things start becoming important to old people don't they?  I'm thinking of going around and taking pictures of all the places he mentioned and sending them to him so he can see just why he shouldn't come back to see them.

Me with big brother Len and daughter number three

There was a whole Jamaican theme to the barbecue with decorations and reggae music.....and a volley ball tournament.  Not sure how Jamaican volley ball is, but Ben and Mark certainly got into the spirit of it. There were enough Hathaways there for us to have a team of our own and Mark tried to get one together, without success.

Ben and Mark enjoying the volleyball

Phil spent the whole night at the barbecue doing his best cheffing, which was much appreciated by everyone.

Head Chef

Two big brothers and my nephew probably talking about something nerdy

Sister in law Mary with her grandson (my great nephew) Oscar

Amelia, Oscar's sister, taking a break from chasing him around the carpet

The sun went down and the lights came on and the flying insects came out.  We were all standing outside chatting and increasingly scratching and flailing our arms around to fend off the insects, and were finally sensible and headed inside away from them after realising we weren't going to win the battle and had better just give up and retreat.

Those Bournemouth mozzies got me good and I now have a poorly infected foot, but it was well worth it.