Party time at the Voerster's🐖🍽🍺🍸🥃🍾🍾

 It was a slow start for me this morning as I was a wee bit jaded after sitting up with Bjorn the night before, and by the time I got up he and his friend from across the road Andre were quite well advanced with preparing porky the pig for the nights hog roast, but the job wasn't complete and an extra pair of hands came in useful for getting the beast correctly mounted on its roasting spit....its an interesting experience preparing a pig as the first thing you do in the morning,  but I don't mind getting my hands dirty...so to speak, not that the pig was dirty at all but just a large lump of raw animal. After a bit of persuasion with a 3lb hammer and some spanners all the bits of metalwork were properly inserted and clamping the beast on position. Us Scot's are not used to seeing an animal prepared like this and in fact rarely see a complete animal of any kind before it's butchered and into nice little packages, so this was interesting for the boys too...they need to know where their meat comes from. So...at around 10:30 the pig was loaded onto the large roasting spit, the motor was fitted that would rotate the spit and slowly Mr or Mrs piggy began to cook. Bjorn had been told it would take about 8 hours for the animal to cook and that would be perfect timing for their guests arriving at 6:30pm. 

After clearing up and chatting for a while it was breakfast time and of course a superb spread of food was on offer. Ina and Bjorn would not accept any offer of help and every time we offered to do something the reply was..."sit down and relax...your on your holidays"☺️. We did what we could but everything was well under control. 

We had really hoped to go for a walk today down into the woods where the dogs are taken for their walks but it was in the mid 30's....and the only thing possible in that temperature was to find a bit of shade and sit in it...though the best spots always seemed to be taken by Fiene, Mila and Emma.......Callum and Logan loved splashing around for hours in the garden pool, it was really cool in there and I must admit that after taking a dip for a while myself I really felt much better. Tempting as it was to crack open an afternoon beer we resisted as we knew it was going to be a long night of alcohol and food. We blethered and relaxed and checked out all the vegetables, herbs and flowers that are growing in the garden, this is a passion of Bjorn and Ina's and their garden is full of tasty things to eat and gorgeous flowers in full bloom. Bjorn also has a large brick smoke house structure that he is building and we had a good look around that as he explained what each part of it would be used for. Smoking salmon and meats is what Bjorn loves to do and soon the structure will be finished and put into use...he is doing a grand job building it...his bricklaying skills look good to me👏. One face of the structure which is going to house oak logs for the smokehouse was perfect for locating the beer chiller and pump...Happy days!!

Strangely today for some reason when boiling the kettle in the van....we tripped the electric hook up and garage....we reset it in the garage and didn't think too much more about it. We did not know if it was us who had tripped it or if it was just because Bjorn also had a refrigerated trailer running from the supply as well. All seemed well, and the kettle boiled. 

Friends and family of Bjorn and Ina's started to arrive at about 6:30....it was time to get the beers cracked open, the pig had been roasting for many hours and smelled and tasted (we had to pinch a few bits just to make it was right😀) delicious...soon it would be time for carving.

 Everyone introduced themselves to us and made us feel really at home. We are unable to speak German so it was really nice that almost everyone here was able to speak at least a little English, some much more than a little. This party was Ina and Bjorns way of thanking all their friends and family who have helped them over the last few years transforming their new house into the amazing home it is today....so aswell as brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces some of Bjorn and Ina's best friends were here, many of whom were skilled tradespeople in their own specific field, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, roofers and glaziers....everyone who had helped out was here. 

The big pig was duly carved and along with lots of other deliciously tasty food the night was and truly under way. All I will say is that this was one of the best gatherings I have been at in a long time....friendly people who were all willing to chat in our language, superb food and copious amounts of beer, tequila and other spirits. We could want for nothing else at a party. Callum and Logan and some of the other children were in the house playing on the Nintendo...it had been a long day for them, we all wanted to drink beer and stay up late so a little gaming wasn't much to ask.

After midnight a few people started to head home but the night was young for a lot of us. Even Callum, Logan and Joyce managed to see well beyond the usual 3am bedtime. Joyce had been sitting chatting to the ladies who all made her feel very much part of the group and the tequila was very much in demand at that table. Us boys got in about the whisky for a while and the light was coming up by the time the diehards threw in the towel and headed to bed. Some people had arrived on pushbike so there must have been some wobbly cyclists heading home that early morning!! 

This has been a brilliant day and we are so privileged to have been a part of it. Thankyou!!.