Whilst I'm wearing my events hat, here's how to plan the perfect Christmas party....

Here's a little something I wrote, with a little bit of help from the lovely lot at Ramarketing about Christmas Parties!  

How to plan the perfect festive party…

Whether you’ve been put in charge of planning your work Christmas party or have decided to organise a small gathering of your closest family and friends to celebrate the festive season, there are certain things that must be considered in order to execute the perfect party. 

“Location, location, location…”

The most crucial factors when planning your event, Christmas or otherwise, are the location and the venue. If you have an idea of how many guests will be attending and where they will be travelling from this is a fantastic starting point to booking your venue. Things to consider for this are: is there accommodation at the venue i.e. a hotel? Is there parking? Is there a wheelchair lift? Can you sample the menu beforehand? Does it make gluten free Christmas dinners? Is there a vegetarian option? Does everyone want a Christmas dinner or would a Spanish fiesta work better? You really need to cover all bases at the very beginning and try and envisage every possible ‘worst case scenario’ to save anything going wrong at the eleventh hour. You wouldn’t want anyone turning up to find they couldn’t park directly outside and having to walk for miles in the December cold.

Christmas parties are one of the few times where you could have a huge variety of ages and personalities in one room. The key to picking your venue is to make sure everyone would feel comfortable there. For example, the over 60s would probably feel a little out of place in a nightclub or a warehouse rave. So, try and choose somewhere that caters for all of your guests, if you know that there will be that diversity amongst your guests. The most stress-free way to ensure this is to work with the larger venues such as As You Like It in Jesmond or city centre hotels e.g. The Vermont. Most will have function rooms for various sized groups, be accessible for guests of all abilities and will provide themed menus.

Alternatively, if you’re planning a more intimate event, why not pick something really niche to give them the best Christmas experience ever? Something different makes the night far more memorable.

“Tick tock...”

Okay, so unless you’re a professional party planner you’re not likely to be thinking of Christmas parties until the first snowflake arrives. Unfortunately, the best Christmas dates within venues become booked up extremely quickly, so the sooner you can confirm a date the better, but chances are you will need to be flexible to cater for your guests and the availability of the venue. Ideally you should be in talks with your desired venue in September. And don’t panic if the venue you had wanted isn’t available, there will be others.  At AMV we regularly help panicked customers when the appointed “Christmas event planner” simply can’t cope anymore; by the time the event arrives all of the initial stress is forgotten about.

As you can imagine an event, no matter what size, takes (or should take) a lot of time in planning and preparation. If you don’t have the time then delegate to somebody who does or outsource.

“Show me the money…”

Best advice – calculate the very top budget by getting quotes for everything you want then assess in order of importance. Some things will have to be sacrificed (unless money isn’t an issue) but remember within this industry most things are negotiable so spend time talking with suppliers and entertainers to get the best price for what you want, however, take care not to skimp on factors like food, venue and all those special little extras that will make your party a night to remember.

Eat, drink and be merry…

Because Christmas only comes around once a year, adding Christmas themed extras are a must.  An easy and cost-effective way to do this is by focusing on the drinks menu, mulled wine and eggnog are great winter warmers and provide a nice start the event, after that, adding some Christmas themed cocktails to the bar is a good idea. To give the party that real sense of occasion, serve some bubbly. To add that Christmas touch to fizz, place cranberries in the glass before pouring instead of a summer berry such as a strawberry and serve it with fresh mistletoe and a candy cane as a keepsake and conversation starter.

We can’t talk about Christmas and not mention food glorious food. The North East is bustling with fantastic, restaurants and catering companies that serve locally sourced food, most of which will work with you to develop the perfect menu for your guests. As previously mentioned try and get everybody’s dietary requirements early. You should try and cater for everyone’s taste buds and not just serve a bog standard vegetarian lasagne for the veggies. Be creative and most of all ensure it’s delicious for all. You don’t have to serve a traditional turkey dinner with all of the trimmings either, why not send a quick cuisine survey out to your guests prior to the event to see what they would like to eat? You could be surprised by the results and your guests will feel much more integral to the event itself, resulting in them really wanting to come.

“If music be the food of love…”

Music is also very high on the list of priorities – especially at Christmas time, yes, the carols and Christmas classics will make an appearance but you should also mix it up with other popular music as well. A great way to change things up is by booking a live cover band such as the leading North East band Livewire. This adds excitement, spontaneity and will really get your guests in the Christmas spirit, and after all it’s the guests that make a party! Having a dance floor is highly recommended as it makes it clear where the dancing is to happen, leaving those who don’t want to partake in ‘The Macarena’ at a safe distance in the seated dining area.

Prior to the band’s performance and perhaps in-between their sets, it’s always good to provide your guests with an alternative form of entertainment. By doing this you can break the ice between any guests who may not know each other, it creates a new talking point and also adds to the experience of your party. Entertainment that works at this kind of event includes magicians, caricaturists, dancers, stilt walkers, photo booths, and aerial performers.  There is a huge amount of weird and wonderful performers who can keep the mood on a high and make the experience for your guests even more memorable.

Frankie says…

After putting in all the work of planning your perfect Christmas party, the most important thing to do is for you to relax and enjoy yourself. If you’re not having fun, then your guests probably aren’t either. The best way to ensure your enjoyment is to plan, plan, plan, if every ‘I’ has been dotted and every ‘T’ crossed, this should make for a stress-free evening. If you don’t have time to plan everything yourself, what with buying Christmas presents, party outfits and your award-winning turkey, then it could be worth speaking to a professional.

Because it's Christmas, here's some pictures of a couple of Christmas dogs.  Everyone loves a dressed up doggy (I promise you we all love dogs at AMV, and they're both very happy dogs who do love a bit of dressing up)!

www.amvlivemusic.com www.amvlivevenues.com

Pain, fear and other random issues...

First of all I feel I need to say I really don't mean to offend anyone, these are all my personal thoughts on my situation.....I'm scared man, I've had my head cut open several times.  It's a total pain in the you know what, and it really really annoys me.  So, that's probably why in real life (and most probably in my blog) I can be somewhat (incredibly) blunt sometimes, honesty is the best policy dudes.  Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm not...plod plod plod.....and there is absolutely positively nothing wrong with plodding.

I'm back tracking again, I felt the need to let you all know a couple of things.  I know I may make light of the situation I am in, I perhaps dull it down an awful lot too but the fact of this story is each day I wake up with good vision in my one eye, a headache that's just a dull ache I think myself incredibly lucky.  Some people don't and just can't get this.  Those people are the ones who say '....but anyone can get hit by a bus tomorrow'......my response to those people.....at least it'll be a surprise.  That's the key thing here.  Let that be a warning to you.  Never say that to me.....I know that a couple of you will absolutely say this to me in the next week.  Not mentioning any names.

The problem I have is that if my shunt blocks, meaning the fluid isn't draining away from my brain then you're in a coma within 24 hours (if you're lucky).  Sometimes it's less, sometime's a little longer.  I have to also mention here that this is my experience of Hydrocephalus.  It does appear differently in other people.  The symptoms of needing more surgery include a bad headache, vomiting, poor vision and confusion.  So thinking about all of this, if I go to sleep with a particularly bad head there will always be that worry that in the morning I won't wake up and the next time I do wake up it'll be in hospital.  It's always a worry but not something I can let myself dwell over.  It's hard to understand, I get that but there aren't many things similar to this feeling.....that scary thought of more surgery is always somewhere in my head, it's there to keep me on form I think but it's also a particularly negative part of my world.  Tough though, go to get on with it!

 So, moving on.  We're getting to side effects (shout out to Miss Archer here, without whom I would never know if it was effects or affects)....headaches.....aaaah the world of headaches!!  There's always someone with a headache isn't there?!  Well I shall tell you this, you've not had a bad headache unless you've had brain surgery.  This may sound harsh but honestly take some deep breaths and tell yourself, it's not brain surgery!  Headaches are just part of the everyday excitement now, you get used to it.  The most annoying thing about taking pain killers every day for headaches is when some other person either whinges about taking pills because 'they aren't natural' or because they've taken 4 already that week and they'll 'rattle' when they're old.  Number 1, if anyone will rattle, it's most likely going to be me, I think absolutely nothing of taking 8 pain killers a day (you should all remember this kind of thing)!  Number 2 if you're not willing to take pain killers then you're probably not in that much pain.  Number 3, why do these people think medications were invented??  Skip off to La La Land people!   There will always be someone taking far more medication than two paracetamol or your prescription drugs of choice, trust me.  

Please don't take this blog post as an 'I am far more ill than you' post, although in some ways it is.  I mean I know so many of you with great health.  However, I am also well aware that there are far more people more ill than me, I catch up on forums and support groups once a month or so and so many people with similar problems to myself are unable to work at all.  I am incredibly lucky I can push (and it is a push, if only I were rich I'd hire someone to shove me out of bed in a morning) myself to work part time.  There are also hundreds and hundreds of different illnesses that leave people in so much pain each day, my dad is one of these people.  I am simply giving you my impression of my illness and how I push through......here's a pic of me 'pushing through'!

So what else, I am always happy to give alternative therapies and what not a go too.  I go through huge amounts of Tiger Balm.  Here's a tip for you, put layers and layers on the stuff on your forehead if you've a headache, it'll burn and the burn is much easier to take than the headache.  Not everyone can handle the burn, please use with caution, start with a little bit if you want to try it, then you'll get hardcore like me.  It's similar thinking to a Tens machine.  Diverting the pain to something else.  I must say I've tried a Tens machine in the past, the only thing it did was give me a pain in the side and a bigger headache.  I imagine them to be like those electric shock suits you can get, hilarious to watch but just gives you a new pain and possible whiplash off being 'shocked'!  

What else, what else??  Hmm...we've been through my eye shebang.  That's ok now, much better being blind in one eye apart from the bashing in to things on my left, the inability to judge steps and the sometimes soreness and weeping (as in leaking not crying).  Did you know this though........you can't catch with one eye!!!  FACT!  Off you go, find a friend, shut one eye and get them to throw something at you.  You'll most likely find yourself standing like a toddler with your arms out straight looking rather odd.  Let me know how you get on.....

Sleeping, many of you will say, Nina is always asleep!!  I am not though!!  The difference is that I don't have a deep sleep.  To get you to sleep at night, the brain releases a hormone named Melatonin.  Melatonin is the opposite of Seratonin, so Seratonin is what wakes you up in the morning, makes you pull yourself together and feel alive.  Melatonin is what tells you when to sleep, so this will/should be around 10/11pm in the evening!  Again, just to note, I am not medically trained, I have a GCSE in Biology (thanks Mrs W) but that's as far as I got.  This is my understanding from the past 16 years of hospitals, consultants, surgeons etc.  Due to damage to my brain during initial surgery my brain no longer produces this.  Now, whilst you can get a Melatonin pill it my opinion (again, do I need to keep saying this?  It is my blog??) it just doesn't work the same, I spent years taking it and not really getting anywhere.  So for many years now, I have been free from proper DEEP sleep.  On the odd occasion I get one but most of the time it takes me hours to drop off.

Funny old thing the brain.  I haven't told you all this either, now this is quite interesting!  So, I have a very bad memory, I remember weird stuff, nothing sensible.  Have to write down the sensible stuff!  So anyway, on the day I was finally admitted to hospital, I'd been vomiting for months and so had eaten very little but that day I'd managed a spoonful of Coco Pops and half a Philadelphia Cheese and Pineapple sandwich.  To this day I have never again eaten Coco Pops and as for Pineapples.  Well me and Pineapples have big issues.  Their very existence insults me!  I honestly can't tell you how much they disgust me!

My memory is another difficult part of my life, it seems to work like this....I seem to remember important events in my life, I remember random things about nice things we've done or experienced, I remember my name and my friends and numbers too.  What I don't remember are things I have no interest in, random hospital appointments and meetings.  Obviously we could discuss the parts of the brain that relate to these areas of memory but again this isn't a medical blog and it's probably not that exciting.

Each time I have surgery, my worry is that I will come out the same.  The thought of being unable to communicate or not live the life to which I am accustomed is the worst thing.  After my first surgery which was very long and scary, I had to get walking as soon as possible, it's hard, for some reason you seem to not be able to get everything working together, I have some not so great memories of physiotherapists!  They're all great and I am forever thankful but my goodness did I hate you all.  I will never forget being marched up and down stairs in the General Hospital only days after surgery.  There's also a worry that I will come out less intelligent, that's a scary thought for me.  In the early days I always felt I had to test my knowledge with a crossword or something!

The moral of this story is that brain surgery gets easier but the pain never goes and in all honesty, I'm not sure I have ever said this but each time I think I do lose a part of me.  It's incredibly frustrating and draining and quite often I find myself thinking 'what the hell am I doing?'.  I mean that with regards to continuing with GCSE's then A-Levels and then a degree without a year out.  This is probably where the mental thing comes in, I mean it's pretty mental, I would never advise it, you will hit a wall.  I don't regret it though.

I eventually did have a year out after my degree and more surgery.  Just the one though!  I felt like if I stopped, I would stop for ever and that just wouldn't of worked for me.

I've found this film useful in recent years, it shows what's what with Hydro.  It's good to share things like this, hopefully it can help raise awareness and allow everyone to have a better understanding of Hydro.

So, off I skip......I hope you'll join me in the next post!  I want to divert and share an article I'd written about Christmas Parties and then we can get back to life and it's limitations.  There are absolutely limitations in my life but it's ok.  I am always happy to stand up and shout about what I can't do as so many people seem to drown in this 'anything is possible' statement.  I think statements like that can totally destroy you, it's the last thing I want to hear!