Weather: we (us and our 6 gazebos) are not deterred!

It's true the weather forecast for Sunday is not great. But I remember the party 3 years ago: I got completely drenched less than two minutes into dragging the road closure signs. It wasn't a little shower. It poured for 10, 15 minutes. I thought, "Oh dear, that doesn't look good". And then it stopped. And then we had sunshine, then 2 hours later, a few drops, and then quite a bit of wind. But we had a great party, and plenty of time to savour our lunch, listen to music, play with the kids.
Besides, we now have a respectable amount of gazebos (and one of them is massive). They are not red, blue or white, but... they are definitely waterproof. We'll cover them in balloons and bunting. So, we'll be fine. Unless we have an actual 6 hour long thunderstorm, let's not worry and let's go for it.

We'll target 1pm for lunch, but if you can't make it until later, it's not a problem.
If you decide at the last minute that you want to join, don't hesitate at all. Last time we were far from filling the entire road. It is a rather huge space, once it is car free.
Please remember to label all your belongings, including the kids scooters or rackets (we got a couple of accidental swaps last time).
Also remember that there are no toilets on site, since everyone lives nearby. You'll need to pop back home.
Any questions, you can call us on the contact number. Or look at the home page, which covers the basics.
We are really looking forward to meeting you all. See you Sunday!

Special Message

Linda just emailed me that on her way back home she bumped into a lady who said she was not sure she should come because she's on her own and doesn't know anyone.
So, special message to all people hesitating for the same reason: do come on Sunday, just bring some food and drink for yourself, and if you are alone, never mind the table and chair, just come and we'll make sure there are extra chairs and all for you. To all of us who can bring extra seating, let's do that: better too much than not enough. And if you are worried because you don't know anyone, well, within 3 minutes, you'll know a dozen people: just go to Linda or me when you arrive, or any of the kids with a "crew" blue T-shirt, and they'll find us for you. You can sit with us to start with, then mingle at your own pace.
The same goes for people who have trouble walking, or can't walk at all. If you want to come, but need some help, just ring us and we'll arrange something. There'll be a bunch of youngster who will happily help (the blue T-shirts. Linda and I will wear the same on the day, to be easier to spot). The number again is: 077 395 07 965. Don't hesitate.

Latest (and last) pre-party meeting

We did forget something tonight: we didn't take a group picture to put on the blog. Sorry about that!
To new faces joined: Anne and Sarah (Chalkpit Lane and Ashcombe Road respectively), along with Laura, Davina, Paddy and Mati.
To keep things short, here is what we discussed/decided:
- We start putting up the bunting on Saturday 2nd at 10am, we meet outside Linda's at 23 Ashcombe Road. We'll try and set up poles for the bunting going across, and set up the bunting parallel to the street. If you want to help, that is great, w'll see you then.
- We'll put a "costs board" up on Sunday: we have keep the expenses to a minimum, are borrowing or being given bits and bobs, Linda and I are happy to not get any money back for the printing, but there's one thing we had to do: take an insurance for the event. So Paddy will circulate on Sunday and if we all chip in a small amount each (five pounds a family or so), we should have enough to cover that and whatever is left will be donated to St Martin's school for kindly letting us use their car park (and borrowing their traffic cones too).
- There'll be a talent/skills board : from babysitting to car mechanic skills, from Italian to tap dancing, it would be lovely to find out more who can do what, so bring your business  cards, or pictures of your art/craft: it'll go on the board, then on the blog.
-There'll be a Golden book or Golden poster for everyone to sign on for memories.
-We are thinking of doing a photo party the following Sunday in the community gardens: Everyone can bring their best pictures/video from the day, and we'll have a projector and big screen. We'll fix a time on Sunday.
I hope I'm not forgetting too much. Thanks to everyone who came tonight, and with all  fingers vigorously crossed for decent weather, we see you on Sunday!
(Saturday for the ones coming to set up the bunting).

Last meet up before Sunday: Wednesday 30th

We'll meet once more on the evening of the 30th in the community garden, for an informal chat.possibly 3 . We have put the road signs out as well as two copies of the official TCA paper. We also put a few "no parking" mini posters, along the road, mostly because this is a road where cyclists leave their cars when they go for a ride, and they'd be in for a surprise if that happened on Sunday!

See you tomorrow at 7pm...

If we don't have fences, how about this?

Just a bit of fun doodling, trying to imagine what would look ok and be safe, plus allow extra parking, since the Council can't provide fencing and signs due to high demand. By the way: we'll get started with the bunting a few days before the party: we'll set up the ones alongside the curbs, not across the road.

Prep Meeting on 23rd May

From left to right: Mati, Linda, Constance, Laura, Sharon, Davina at tonight's meeting 23rd May

As you can see, and apart from my younger son Raph zapping around with his footbal, it was a women only meeting tonight (and no highjacking at all this time, promise). Lots of topics got discussed, bunting got measured (Mati shrewdly acquired olympic amount of it while stocks last-ed). As during the previous two meetings, the exhilaration of getting to know one another almost eclipsed the preparation aspect of things. Aren't we a strange species: living a few feet apart, and whenever we meet at last, kicking ourselves for not doing so before. There is a special feel to having-lived-so-close-all-this-time-and-not-knowing-it. Anthropologist should look into it, really.
So, on the un-written agenda we had:
- do we wear name tag stickers or not? Decision: we'll make stickers and markers available, and all people present will wear one, and then, people are free to wear one or not.
- how do we show the road is closed on the day, since, due to high demand, no road signs are available, unless we hire them for a price. Solution: we'll say it with cars: Linda will park hers on the east side, me on the west side, and we'll have "road closed" written on a sheet secured to the car. Plus the official memo from the council will be featured in laminated pouch at either end from next week on (that's the law).
- we now have four teenagers and 2 grownups who are keen to wear a t-shirt that says "crew" on it (and actually do some useful work on the day, that goes without saying). But thanks to Alex and Jools, we will have a bit of a surprise about the T-shirts. Come and find out on the day! (be aware it won't be on the cost list though, each person is buying their T-shirt, we are having them made at "love your logo" in Dorking).
- we have an official photographer for the day, Maia. She is very young, but very very talented. She did took this photo (above), she's got a knack for getting people to look good. So she'll be taking pictures of every single participant on the 3rd, to create a vast wall of smiles, printing the best shots on the spot.
- we are now sure that a secondary party can take place after 6pm for those who don't quite feel ready to go home. We'll clear up the road and re-open it, then we can carry on in the community garden (where we were tonight). Weather behaving, obviously.
- for decorating and getting the bunting up, please be there at 11am on the 3rd. We have a few ladders, no need to drag yours around, but it's a lot of bunting to hook up!
- there'll be a wish board: we talked tonight about some of us wanting to do choir, some blues, some tap dance. Well, just in case there is six of a kind and renting the school hall becomes an option, we'll write it all down.
-be ready, there will be guest books, posters, group photos...and figuring out a mini who's-who-where (in a nice flexible way). Don't feel obliged of course, but if you are indeed coming on the day, then you'll probably enjoy being part of the memories. Don't be shy.
My sincere apologies for the rough style of this post, I just didn't have time to make it shorter.
The conclusion of tonight was: everybody who turned up is pretty exhilarated. So that's a good sign, isn't it? (weather gods, this comment was meant for you)(pretty please).
All the best, see you next week.
Constance

If you want to help out...

We got a call yesterday from a lady on Ashcombe road who will be joining on the 3rd and can provide an extra four seats and oval table, as well as a 3x3m marquee on the day.
This is great. If you have that kind of garden furniture or games and are willing to bring them, you can:
email Linda (ashcombe2012@gmail.com), call me (Constance: 07739507965), turn up on wednesday 7pm in the community garden (see Contact page) or write a comment to this post, although you may need a gmail address to do so.
It looks like we now have about a dozen "extra" seats already accounted for, so it will make things immensely easier for the eldest of our neighbours: they don't need to bring their own.
If you want to help out with the decoration: give us an idea of what you will be bringing and either leave it with us or come early on sunday to set it all up.
If you want to help elderly neighbours out, again, let us know, and come early on the day so that you can carry things for them or help them along.

Meeting up, Wednesday 16th

                                       (Linda, Ian, James and Paddy at the prep drinks tonight)

Had we mentioned before that the meetings wouldn't be formal?
We literally "bumped" into most of the participants today, when we were taking pictures on the road, like Ian from 3a, Paddy, from n5 (both on the photo). they were not planning to come to the the meeting, to be fair, we sort of highjacked them, but it turned out to be a lovely meeting! good knowledge and input for the party, particularly about cables and electrical matters, and helping with finding places to place poles/posts for the bunting, among other things.
Not featuring on the photo are Bern (Chalpit Terrace),  and Maia, who had left by then, and Jools (Chalpkit Terrace as well). Bern will help with sound matters, which means that between Paddy, Bern and myself we may now be able to put a music stage together, cables from here, speakers from there, etc.  Don't worry, it won't be too loud. But if it is windy, it will be a good alternative to not hearing anything at all! Mind you, we are not sure at all we'll have all we need in time.
As for Jools, he and my elder son Alex are the first two of a "crew" of young local residents who will help, a little bit like "roadies", to make things happen: help people if they are struggling with taking their table/chairs to the road, help decorate, help clean up afterward, keep an eye on things. This is good news. If you want to hop on board, get in touch (mobile number on contact page).
Thanks to all those who joined tonight. It was so exhilarating that we thought we should meet up like that in the community gardens regardless, on a regular basis. It was so simple: bring your own glass and drink, the rest just follows (I have about 15 chairs. beyond that, well, hopefully it will be warm enough next week to sit on the lawn!).
Bear with us about the blog itself, we are not exactly webmasters (and i'm an intergalactically bad typist), but we're exploring what "blogger" can offer to make this web address the easiest information portal we can. Finding out about the "pages" option (home, blog, photos, main menu) was like a breakthrough last week!
We have just put our leaflets/posters online here for you to email them on or print them if you like.
We wrote a message about moving the cars away from the road on the 3rd, and will distribute it soon, let's say, a week before the event. (you can find it on the "road closure" page).
Last but not least: it was suggested that all the decoration gets put on between 11 and 12 on the day, and a photo is taken every 5 seconds to make a stop motion video of the street mutating into a party zone. Sounds like a great idea. get in touch if you want to help with it. (mostly by timing when the bunting goes up!)
All the best,
See you next week.
Contance

Next Informal meeting tonight 16th May: it won't be hard work.

We are meeting in the community garden tonight from 7 to 8pm. To find us, go to the corner of Ashcombe and Ranmore roads. You'll see a square patch of lawn tucked away behind the hedges, with a few tallish fruit trees on it. We'll be there. If the weather turns bad, come and knock on 19Fraser gdns door (right behind the community patch on the ashcombe side) : we'll meet in my kitchen. As we already said, we are trying to keep everything very simple. The important thing is to meet to get to know one another, since we all live a couple of minutes apart. We didnt regret it in 2009. Rather, we were kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner! The preparation is more about what games people can bring, who wants to perform music, who like to do face painting, who can lend a badminton net, etc. So, maybe see you there. Constance

For your amusement

For your amusement, here is a picture of Linda ( unvoluntarily hiding under theblue and yellow umbrella) and me (red and white) when on the very first evening we went knocking on doors and got pretty much soaked (flyers included) in the process. My son was part of the expedition and took this picture with a mobile phone. Linda is holding the paper saying how pleased the Queen is to hear about so many street parties (we got one message especially for our party, we'll scan it and publish it on this blog soon). Fingers crossed for less rain, we have quite a few houses left to visit in the next few days!

                             

First preparation meeting on 9th May

As promised we held an informal meeting tonight. Linda and I weren't sure if anyone would turn up at all, but, good surprise (considering how utterly damp it is out there), two people came, Mati from Fraser Gardens and Hannah from Ashcombe Road. We had the meeting in my kitchen, after wimping out from the garden marquee. Next tiem i'll take a picture of us, for fun.

Mati got quite a bit of bunting from the Factory Shop, so we have a few hundred feet headstart. Any additional bunting will be welcome, of course.
We will be asking residents of 1 to 23Ashcombe Road if it is ok to stick a thin high stick or post of some kind by their fence, to allow the lovely little union jack bunting thingies to hover nicely from south to north sides all the way down the road. If you want to help on that front, post a comment, email us or ring us (see "contact").

Second decision: we will be putting a small flyer on the windscreen of cars parked on Ashcombe road to tell them the road will be closed on the 3rd and it would make a world of difference if they can park away from the road closure perimeter (St Martin's school have kindly accepted to let residents use their front car park on the day). Also, it would make it a lot easier for residents to come and go on that day.

Third decision: we are keeping it as simple as we can. the way each of us can help is:
-being autonomous in bringing their food, drink, furniture as much as possible, and marking or labelling their belonging (we still have an unclaimed mug from 3 years ago!)
-helping out with the decoration : either decorating their fence or access if it is visible from the party area, or getting in touch to contribute or lend bunting, balloons, etc. Please get in touch.
- helping out by bringing play gear that they like: badminton set, table tennis set, basktet ball, giant chess, etc. If you are bringing something, please let us know, so we can arrange the best spots (shuttle cock will not break a glass, but a basket ball will!)
- helping neighbours with their own stuff if they have difficulties bringing chairs, tables, etc. If you think you or your neighbour would have difficulties of that kind, let us know, and if you want to volunteer to help them, same thing, get in touch.

See you next Wednesday 7pm, if you'd like to join us on mext meeting.
Constance

What we can do to make it great

At the moment, it's just Linda and me organising. And the concept is pretty simple:
1. we get the permission from the Council to close our portion of Ashcombe Rd. to traffic on the 3rd.
2. We circulate the information so that everyone who wants to join knows what, where and when.
3. We cross many fingers for decent weather.
4. On the day, we drag the Council road signs out, like this one:

Shortly after, the kids come out on their scooters, bikes and miniature tractors and start reclaiming the now huge car free road, which really is one of the nicest things to watch: the street is completely different, it's vast and safe. Beware, cars will look weirdly huge and metally for a few days after that.
Then the grownups suss out the layout and  gradually get their tables, chairs, parasols, food, relatives, friends out on the road.
And then everyone gets to chill, chat, eat.
That's it really.

So that is the basic layout.
But of course it will be more fun with some live music, some games for the kids (and the grownups, why not), some decorations (bunting, ballons), wirth some cakes, face painting, etc.
Last time we had: face painting, live music (and jamming), and Rock'nRoll dancing, plus table tennis, chalk drawings on the road, and some basketball.

So if you want to:
help, have decorations, can make decorations, have ideas for the party, have skills to use at the party, have a ping pong table, a badminton set, if you can play an instrument (but will only play if other people are playing), if you want to dance... then get in touch. Better even: join us on the prep drinks on:
Wednesday 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30rd from 7 to 8pm in the community garden at the corner of Ashcombe and Ranmore Road. Just bring your own drinks, and your ideas.
If it is raining, I'll be hosting in my garden (there's a marquee), at 19 Fraser Gardens, right next to the community patch.