Given the number of 5 year old birthday parties I’ve been to in the last month or so, there must have been something in the water back in February ’11. Yesterday saw the second one in a fortnight at the Sapphire Gym in Hemel. First time round, my satnav struggled with the magic roundabout, so I was relieved to be able to actually know where I was going.
This time round, I managed to find the main car park. This time round, I knew where we were going in the main building. This time round, I knew I’d have to follow Ned around in my socks to ensure he didn’t have a catastrophic accident. This time round, one of the staff gave me an odd look and asked,
“Are you sure you’ve got the right party sir? Do you recognise anyone here?“
I looked around, I didn’t recognise anyone specifically but then when we got the invite to the party, that was the first I’d heard of that particular child anyway. However on second glance, the children looked a little bit too old.
“Who’s party are you here for?”
I said it was Dave’s. She disagreed and said this was Zac and Louis’ party. I pulled out my invite and showed it to her, then she gave me directions to the other Sapphire Gym in Hemel.
Whoops.
It turns out I wasn’t the first person to ever do this and I wasn’t even the first to do it for Dave’s party. Still, it wasn’t all bad, one of the other dads had the SkyGo app on his phone and we all watched the first half of the Arsenal Bournemouth game as the kids hurtled around the gym and mostly bounced when they fell off stuff. All in all it turned out to be a success after the early panic, which was all I could really hope for!