I'm not a party man, but ...

The day of the unaccustomed event has come and gone, and things worked better than I feared they might. I have no real way of knowing whether my most nagging worry was justified or not, which was whether the occasion could possibly be worth the effort it took some attendees to get to it, but everybody seemed cheerful enough.

The thing that hit me most as of this morning was that the entire weekend seems to have vanished twice as fast as usual. The time with guests went quickly, as so often happens, but with a busy week last week and then launching straight into preparations, it felt like I was still at high speed as we reached the finishing line of guest arrival time, and couldn't slow down in time to enjoy it as I should have done.

I have learned a few things in the course of it all:

1. There is more space in my living room than I thought, and I could have fitted more chairs in - but probably not more people!

2. Helpful neighbours are a good thing, but having enough cutlery myself would be better.

3. Notwithstanding point one, I would have been glad if a couple of people who are nothing to do with the brethren had been able to come, because I was uncomfortable with the amount of brethren talk at some points. More notice is probably required, as I learned from some other people too.

4. If everybody is at ease enough, they can simply ask if they need something, otherwise ten to a dozen people is too many to keep an eye on their drink levels all at once, and help may be needed.

5. It's a good idea to check the glasses before visitors arrive, as the normally unused ones may be embarrassingly dusty, even in a cupboard.

6. I have touchingly good friends.

I was worried beforehand that I didn't know what to be most worried about, and by mid-afternoon on Saturday was definitely most worried that we still had no food cooked ... but in the event the food was less of a problem than I thought. I hope nobody went home hungry, as there didn't seem to be all that much (definitely not afterwards!), but nobody sat looking sadly at an empty plate, fortunately.

On the whole, I still think I'm not a natural party person, and function best in very small gatherings - I was sad that I didn't get to speak properly to many of the visitors yesterday - but I'm very glad I did this, and am also very grateful for the support. I expect I shall have a little warm glow for a few days.