On August 1, 2000, I moved into 15 Rannoch Road, London with three other guys from work: Snookums, Alex, and Nick. Once we were settled we only had one thing on our minds… PARTY! It took us about two months to finally have the damn thing, and you have the results here before you. We deliberated over an appropriate “theme” for months, and ultimately we settled on a compromise: “Fancy Dress, Deviant and Diverse.” We felt that left a lot of room for our friends to improvise. As you can see, they didn’t let us down.

But first, here we are in all our pre-party glory. From left to right, that’s me (as the Prom Queen Gone Bad), Snookums (as the Transvestite Priest), Alex (in pink wig and drag), Nick (in blonde wig and drag), and Nick’s girlfriend Amy (as a Satanic Hoochie-Mama). In front is Amy’s friend, whose name I cannot presently remember. She’s a Satanic Hoochie-Mama too. (Note: I was the only one who didn’t have to rent my costume. *grin*)

Here you can see our kitchen starting to fill up with guests. We’d prepared the living room to be the center of activity (cardboard and tarps over the carpet, furniture removed, etc.) but for some reason everybody preferred to convene in the kitchen. As you can see, some people took the costume business more seriously than others.

My jello shots are truly legendary. Here Ian samples from the smorgasboard of vodka-filled delights. (Cultural sidenote: in England these are called “vodka jellies.”) Hmmm, perhaps the fact that all the food and drink were in the kitchen contributed to our guests’ desire to set up camp there. (Another cultural sidenote: as young Ian is only 19 years of age, he’d be unable to imbibe alcohol in the United States. Which is stupid, because he held his liquor better than a lot of party-goers older than him.)

Here’s a better shot of Alex’s cocktail dress. Isn’t that rick-rack cute? Don’t worry; he’s wearing shorts under that mini-skirt. He’s also got long pink sparkly eyelashes, courtesy of Amy.

The guests, in case you’re wondering, are a mix of people we work with and friends of Alex and Nick. (Rodd and I hadn’t been in the country long enough to have friends outside of work.) For some reason there were a lot of French people there too. I have no idea where they came from. *grin*

This is our backyard, where we tried unsuccessfully to corral the smokers. From left to right, that’s Jerome, Ciaran, a random German girl, and Mark. Mark had one of the best costumes, I thought. He showed up in a knit stocking cap with a clock tied around his neck. Me: “Are you Flava Flav?” Him: “YES!” I think I was the only one who got that. Evidently someone else is wearing his clock at this point in the evening.

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