Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

The time of year has come around for one of Dunk's rather infamous parties. I had the pleasure of going to the last one which was themed on the Circus. Now a flat mate at the villa I had good fortune of being involved in the preparation for the one we had last weekend.

I had always fancied having a toga party but to give it a people wider range of options we decided on "Rome" as a theme. Rupert let his creative juices flow and came with an excellent invite:


And with the power of Facebook we had soon sent out over 200 invites. This was a great tool for organizing an event as it easily tracks the RSVPs, lit et us build more hype with further photshopped romanesque pictures and as we got closer to the event we even put up some teaser video trailers which provided us all with endless entertainment.

One of the main reasons people make a big effort with their costumes is that typically 90%+ of people will also be dressed up and the villa will be sympathetically decorated. There was no exception this time and with 175 yards of material, some genius inspiration and a couple of late nights with everyone pitching in we made a mini "Rome" for the night. Here is the entrance:




Upon walking through the garage it really set the mood and it was continued throughout the garden with billowing deep red and white fabric surrounding the bar, walls and trees of the garden.

Though for me, the party mood was set off with a couple of special extras we got for the night. For a start we had our own Chicken Shwarma man for the evening who was cooking up delicious savory kebabs which the mostly inebriated crowd ate with gusto. It was a good job we all ate at least one as they seemed to be made with garlic and the covered in jus d'garlic - but they were very tasty.

Moving into the villa the famous "ball pool" made a re-appearance that led to the mother of all ball fights later that night. It was hard not to laugh as several Centurion's downed their swords in favor of primary colored plastic balls as their weapons of choice.

Just to make sure we really pushed the bar for this party - we clubbed together and acquired a laser show and smoke machine and for one night only had a dance floor to rival any of the mega clubs in Dubai. Well at least in terms of crazy dancing.

As usual - the costumes were just teriffic. Here are the house mates - both past and present:



Here I am enjoying myself:



I was so impressed with all the ladies - they looked so elegant in their ancient dresses:



It was a stellar night in every sense of the word. I think the kebab man gave everyone some extra energy and the party went on until 5am. I have a feeling it was a legendary party but I am all a bit hazy after about 11pm. One thing I did learn - was that wearing multi-colored stripy underwear is not a great idea with a very see through roman emperor outfit. A brilliant night - we have all ready started planning the follow on next year. Stay tuned for "Rock"