Spoonful

Whatsapp….that’s what made it all happen. Would you believe?!

A few months ago my friend Sumaya decided to start a whatsapp group for our Matric class and what a wondrous idea! We’re all in touch again and it has been so magical catching up with friends I schooled with so many moons ago.

One of our friends, Faheema, now lives in Abu Dhabi and another in Australia….and so a reunion was inevitable. Faheema was coming down for Eid….and bang…we had a date for a reunion (Sadly Farzanah from Australia would only be coming to SA in December…. but that just means we have an excuse to meet again!)

17th August 2013…..I warned the hubby, everyone marked off the dates in their diaries, no excuses! Everyone must make it.

I don’t know how but somehow I was the one commissioned to put together some of the decor and the candy bar, I had generous help from some of the gals most notably Moaaza Ismail who really motivated me with the colours etc. and made sure my procrastination did not get the better of me. hahahahaha

We were reminded to keep it simple…..simple and as cheap as possible and pretty. Moa and I really wanted it to be memorable to the blue theme was a must (since it was the colour of our uniforms in school….yes we were called Smurfs at times….lol)

But I just cannot compromise on Candy for a candy bar…so we splurged a bit. And of course some pretty simple confetti that we printed on our home printers and cut. And all the labeling too.

Moaaza also had an amazing idea to give a little gift that the girls would remember and she set about getting some fridge magnets made, wrapped and ready to be gifted to the ladies with our signature labels of the day.

The crockery was sponsored by Zaheda Mohamed, the serviettes by Naadiera Patel, the overlays by Fatima Bibi Gani and the tablecloths by Bahiya Waja…what luck that they all just seemed to match on the day since we didn’t get to see anything before the morning and just hoped for the best when everyone arrived with their respective items. Rehana Shah Bulbulia of Muslimah at Peace organised the hall and met with Moaaza and I early to begin setting up, along with Faheema Adams, Fatima Bibi Gani, Bahiya Waja and Sumayya Manjra.

Moaaza’s magnets inspired me to get the Holstee Manifesto printed onto magnets too which she packaged together with the mirror magnets. I love the Holstee manifesto. It’s so inspiring!

This commission was really close to my heart and it brought so many memories and really made me reminisce about when I first started planning parties…..what a blast! I lost it for a while through the years and I’m so grateful to be back at it again! It’s been so long. The girls were even still talking of the 16th birthday party that I had half a lifetime ago! (YIKES!!)

I loved doing parties…..I love entertaining! I love having people over and having a good time together. It’s a bad social bug I have….I love it <3

I can’t stop reminiscing about all the parties I’ve done over the years….they look so terribly amateurish right now. But I learnt from each one. It helped me grow for the next ones. From many a bridal shower, to pasta parties with my best friend…and our ultimate Halloween party (in  my jahiliyyah days….lol) and more baby showers, bridal showers and mad hatter after-the-baby showers. Feels like it’s gonna be throwback week, forget throwback thursday! I will post a few pics of my previous amateurish party planning when I find them 🙂

back to the matter at hand….meeting with the girls! It felt like we hadn’t skipped a beat. After 16  years we picked up where we left off, we shared our stories of love, of heartbreak, of kids, of difficulties, of joy….we just caught up. There was certainly not enough time in the day.

and our school colours were certainly relived in the candy bar and decor….we even had two cakes commissioned for the day as well as pretty blue cuppies with the school’s logo on the top! What a feast, for the eyes and the tummy! And for lunch….we filled up on sojee, biryani and lasagne. I tried to taste everything but only managed the mince lasagne….OMG…it was insanely delicious!! Yasaar of Photo Optix, who took most of the pictures, cooked the most delicious Mince Lasagne ever! {She made the biryani too, but I didn’t have any space to taste 🙁 coz I had to make sure I left some space for dessert…lol }

And how could we not have a signature Blue Candy Bar…..my favourite part of planning and setting up!

And here are the pretty cuppies and commissioned cakes…the grey and blue cake was made by a dear friend of mine, an incredible cake maker, Farida Carim of The Edible Orchid

the food….did I forget to mention that all Faheema (from Abu Dhabi) really wanted was Akhals?

And two of us had a super special surprise for all the girls. I spoke to one of my classmates, Khadeejah Sujee to see if she could somehow organise for our class teach Mr. Ismail Sujee to arrive and surprise us all. And she managed to pull it off. It took everything inside me not to spoil the surprise. I think everyone had a tear in their eye when he walked in, in his signature cool, calm and quiet way.

and we couldn’t let him leave without a box of choccies

What a wondrous day….I think it’s etched in our memories for a long time to come…..we sat in child-like wonder, reminiscing…catching up….making plans for many more meetups.

And we certainly couldn’t get enough photies…

And when we all finally got ready to wind down and have tea….we moved all the goodies to the table and enjoyed 🙂

 

Thanx girls! See you at the next one! I had a blast!

~ Fehmz ~