Don't steal my thunder

I had my sun hat on, preparing for The Bahamas

When R2 and I got engaged five years ago, we wanted to throw a Tommy Bahama party because we were on our way to Nassau to celebrate the upcoming nuptials, to buy a wedding band in the jewelry laden country, and let's face it, to get out of the bitter cold. We invited our guest to don board shorts, Hawaiian shirts, bikinis, flip flops and anything else that reminded them of the beach. What we didn't bargain for was-42 C weather.

R2 had only landed in Canada in May so it was his first winter, and as far as he was concerned, his last. We had already made a trip to Mexico in December but by the end of January, we were ready to escape again so the trip was booked and a party was organized. Many guests made the party but it wasn't the full house we thought it would be due to the bitter cold. We all made the best of it and toasted to the brave souls that thumbed their nose at Jack Frost.

My plants were waiting for the guests on the roof

Fast forward five years to Singapore and not Saskatchewan. R2 and I decided to host an international party and invite all the people I have met since living here. What I didn't tell him was exactly how many I asked. I assured R2 no matter how many showed, on our garden rooftop, we would find the space.

It may sound like a piece of cake to host a BBQ; we all do it in our home country, but you must remember, we have no car and I had no idea where to buy buns, burgers or a piece of cake, for that matter. We had to remember the non-meat eaters, the non-pork eaters and the non-beef eaters. I scoured the city for chicken and veggie burgers.  Luckily a local friend knew of a bakery that would bake me the white, sweet hamburger buns - all four dozen of them.  There is no Costco or Walmart so if you can only find white flour buns and processed, plastic cheese, so be it. As long as we all got together, it would be fun.

Friends from Singapore and Japan

 I felt quite cocky on the day of the party. I told R2 and Man that our day was going to be perfect with no rain in sight.  The past days, we had buckets of rain, but not a drop fell on party day, Saturday. At 6 p.m. we were going to set out the chairs on the rooftop when Man pointed to the sky and told me in Spanish the sky was very dark.  "Oh no, nothing is going to ruin this party. We have over 40 people coming so the rain isn't invited."

No sooner than I said this, the sky opened up, the lightening streaked through the sky and thunder shook the house. Then the phone started, and the texts and the Facebook messages and the emails asking, "Is the party still on?'  Come on people, this is just a little rain; yeah right.

The rain pounded the house, pelted the windows and bent the trees. The party goers were having difficulties getting taxis, the roads were flooding, and our elevator broke down. Nothing like a five story hike to the top of the complex to get a party started. The people arrived with sweat and rain dripping off their ruined coifs.

I lost control of the party and the greeting of the guest because we opened up another door to our penthouse to try to help the people not capable of walking the flights. R2 was greeting them at the front and I was at the back.  Food appeared out of nowhere, Susan, our helper started to "BBQ" in the kitchen, Man tried to entertain and introduce himself in his Spanglish and we ran to get the guests drinks, if not towels.

R2 was into the Sake with the Japanese ladies

At one point I counted 45 bodies in our condo. We had people from India, Japan, France, Korea, Spain, Canada, USA, England, Scotland, Nigeria, Australia, Philippines, China and Singapore. When the Italians showed up, I sent R2 over to chat them up in a familiar language and make them feel welcome amongst the saturated crowd. Every other language was on their own because frankly, my Gaelic needs a little work.

It was our international student, Man that heard the "Help, help me," wafting from the bathroom. Too bad he wasn't sure what the voice meant. Our condo has heavy wooden doors and thick sliding panels that block off one section of the flat from the next to save on air con.  One of our guests went into the bathroom and shockingly locked the door. What a terrible thing she did.  Imagine, locking the door to a bathroom. This door has been the bane of our existence in the condo and all the guests that visit us are warned about the lock. We already spent money to get a locksmith to un-jimmy the door when we arrived.

Man saved lady in checkered shirt from the loo

All of this action was going on without my knowledge while I pretended I spoke Japanese to assist the non-English speaking Tokyo friends. R2 and Man tried desperately to free our young guest out of the loo. There is no air con in the toilet and I think she was starting to melt.  It was Man's brilliant idea to jump out his bedroom window, in the monsoon, up five stories and leap like Spiderman to the bathroom ledge from a precarious perch.  He then buttered his hips and shimmied through a two foot square window, head first into the shower to jack the door on the other side with a credit card. I asked how a lawyer knew how to pick a lock and he just smiled. That part of English he understood!

After we fed the hungry crowd, poured the drinks and saluted the great turnout, the rains finally stopped. R2 quickly broke off the knob on the bathroom door but we won't mention that to the landlord.  No need to have anyone else lodged in our latrine.

Mexico, Italy, India/Australia/Canada in the house

I was able to usher people to the rooftop and we had space, fresh air and a beautiful Singaporean night. While it is a sweltering heat zone during the day, all the expats and locals live for the nights in Singapore.  The temperature dropped to a cool 24C, there was a breeze blowing from the beach, and for several hours the party continued under the stars, with distant lightening over Indonesia giving us a spectacular light show.

I think most people enjoyed themselves at our first international party. A ton of fun-loving people, a torrential downpour, inside BBQ burgers and powder room drama.  Most people can only dream of hosting such an event.