Today was the celebration of Claz and Gaz’s 25th wedding anniversary – it doesn’t seem possible that friends of ours have been married that long. I still think of myself as being ‘on the right side of twenty five’ and still feel like a scared and confused teenager most of the time.

We took a trip to Melton Mowbray for this event and were promised the ‘biggest bouncy castle in the world’ – when there wasn’t a turret or a drawbridge in sight we felt really cheated!!! Anyway, as you can see, this was one occasion when the fun was strictly ‘adults only’ and with this number of people on there I was way too intimidated to have a go myself so I shot photos of others enjoying the fun.

In this shot, from left to right, are Mike’s arm (DMs best buddy), his wife, West at the back, the young girl in the blue footless tights (where did she get them from???) I don’t know, Colin, Charlie in mid-leap, Steve (Charlie’s husband and Mike’s brother in the white shirt), Mel (whose dress was a £4 ebay bargain especially for this 80s themed party) and another person who I didn’t meet.

The light was quite poor so shutter speeds of around a 30th give the nice blurry action feel to the shot.

Later in the evening, when all the sensible people were in the marquee dancing to Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Soft Cell and the like, I sneaked back outside on my own and had a go on the castle with no-one else around. It was great, like discovering your inner child, a wonderful, exhilarating feeling that was so good I really did forget all about work for approximately half an hour. The sickening feeling soon returned though.

When I went back inside, all flushed and with my heart racing – it’s surprisingly good exercise, DM asked where I’d been and when I told him he came out with me for another go. I can honestly say that the time we were bouncing around on that thing, just the two of us was absolutely brilliant. I loved it. Eventually a few more people arrived and joined us and we slipped back into the marquee to watch the revellers dancing.

Very late on, Claz was out on the castle with a crowd of her new friends and we joined them again. What a hoot.

I’m told we will ‘know it tomorrow’ but so far I’m not aching at all.

Anyway, the party was fabulous as Claire’s parties always are. She is a lady who knows about attention to detail – everything is planned immaculately down to the last thing. Perfect.

Of course the other thing about her parties is that DM and I finally got together at one of her parties five years ago….not their 20th party (which was the day my ex finally left here and I was in no fit state for flirting with DM or anyone else) but their legendary fireworks party in late October. So, we have a lot to thank her for.

Last year, my working life was such a complete opposite of this year's tale, as indeed was the previous year!