May Ball

Finally I've got round to making a post about this most herculean(!) of nights. I've taken photos, but they were pretty poor - I really could do with a new camera, tho am disinclined to spend much on one; maybe I'll wait, maybe I'll steal someone else's photos (Erika if you're reading this - pleeeeeeeease, You have such amazing photos!)

Jen, Lyd and me got in a little early at 8.45 to get chance to set up (and have a sneaky peek round (and the first smoothie off the table) before the doors opened at 9). We had a nice little marquee thing in the Master's garden and even got our names in the program (I'll attach a picture of that later). The set went strangely at first, no-one watched until the very end, and instead we had to "blast"out our sound to the garden without any amplification. Suffice to say, from what we heard afterwards, it went ok in the end :). It was good fun anyway, and we got special yellow arm bands for being "awesome", as I imagine Lydia would say.

The rest of the night was superb. We danced to The Rumble Strips, who were pretty good (the headline act, The Young Knives weren't great), Lydia's band "Second Hand Kisses" and to some surprisingly enjoyable Electro - think I must just have been in the perfect mood for it - it was really good fun taking up the whole of the cellars thrashing round. There were boat swings, a coconut shy, a noodle bar, a bouncy castle, huge (and I mean HUGE) numbers of innocent smoothies, which kept our blood pure to make up for the champagne, bucks fizz, bullinis (sp?), beer and whatever else there was that I missed. We poked our heads into the casino, and, though it was packed, managed to get a peek at some of Reece's artwork, which was cool.

I love the way the Clare Ball is big enough for you to wander off and see everything, but small enough that you know you are going to bump into your friends pretty soon anyway. Dunno where I'll go next year - perhaps to Clare and a Snow Ball (Selwyn perhaps?), for it will be my "last" (i.e. 4th from last) year.

Tom

(backdated from 30/06/06)

May Ball Photos

Finally, some May Ball photos!

Don't they all look so beautiful!


Jen and Dave, overexposed sadly (overexposed in the photographical meaning of the word I would like to clarify)


Fi! (again Overexposed. My apologies for the poor camera work).


Jen and I. (aha! Overexposure not my fault this time!)


Alex and I, my face looking half plastic...?


The entrance... Old Court Transformed


Pegasus - a (anatomically correct - except for the wings, not sure about those) sculpture in Old Court. I really liked it!


Fi bowls! Can't remember who won. I remember having chocolate fondue at the time though :)


Alex with fondue beneath the green willow. I love this photo.


Andrew's Painting - blurred by my unsteady hand. Proper bo it was too!


Pre-british sea power.


British Sea Power! In Clare!


Me, falling off the bouncy castle.


Laura Plays Batak!


The fellows' garden.


Blurry, but, Matt, Davy, Lydia and Me.


Taking the survivor's Photo


Helterskelter!!!!


Bear Dances (was it Fiona bear... tom's short memory avails him again).


Aw... Ella and the punting hat!


Jen and Tom Punted poshly.


Alex and Fi also punted.

A little pose for y'all.

Hehe. See you later!

Ball Prep.

I have just witnessed the great soul-destroying hell that is shirt ironing... I managed to do the back and front (although it is pleated, which scared me) but the arms left me a quivering wreck on the floor. So, I dragged my sorry carcass over to Alex's who, luckily, is a Goddess and solved it all by doing them in about 5 minutes... wow.