Life with the 99th Garrison

The 99th Garrison at the Chester Music Hall for Will's 8th Birthday Party in aid of Dreamflight.

You may remember from one of my previous posts that the 99th attended a Ball at Chester Race Course in aid of Christies Cancer Trust and that at the Ball there was an auction which included the opportunity to bid for the 99th's services.  The lady who won that auction wanted us to attend her son's [Will] eighth birthday party which was in November, 2012.  Sadly the 99th was already busy with other pre-booked events in November so we weren't able to attend his party that month but what we did do was to have Will attend our troop at the Trafford Centre Christmas Lights Switch on and we made him an honorary member of the 99th with the intention that Will would have another Birthday early in 2013 where the 99th would be able to attend.  Well, that was last night, at the Chester Music Hall.

We were to be in costume for 6:00pm.  I was undecided about whether to do Memah Roothes or Biker Scout.  Will, and his sister Daisy had seen me as Memah Roothes at the Trafford Centre troop and I didn't want to disappoint them if they were expecting to see her again.  So, I loaded the car with both costumes and set off just after 2:00pm arriving at the venue about 4:15pm.  I was so early though that it was still locked but I didn't have wait too long before Will's mum arrived, then the buffet food and then the lady to open the venue!  I spoke to Will's mum about which costume Will would like me to wear and she confirmed my suspicion that it should be Memah.

I then got changed into Memah and was ready in time. On Daisy's insistence, she and her mum came to visit me as I was getting ready as she was so excited.  We were joined at this event by Chris, Wayne, Gary, Alan, Paul, Mel, Jim, Simo, Mike and Vicki.   It was the first troop with the 99th for Chris and Vicki and it was lovely to meet them.  Vicki and Gary made excellent crew. 

Now this event was a childrens birthday party and that meant about 30 very excitable children, all in fancy dress [including alot in Star Wars costumes] who couldn't wait to see us.  Paul had agreed that we would do the "Star Wars experience" show for them and this went down a treat.

We came out to the see the children first of all about 6:00pm and stayed out for about 15 mins for photos and general mingling before going for a short break. We were then back out for a Q&A session which turned into the children asking us to do various things which included stromtroopers singing, doing the splits and waltzing to romantic music and of course, we were asked to do Gangum Style! Hilarious!!!

We then had a by now much needed break again, before going back to allow the children to show us their light sabre skills and to show how a Stromtrooper is dressed which included putting Will in some armour and helmet, back to front of course, very simple but very funny!   They could also have face paintings done by Mel. The children loved it.  Paul then dressed one of the children as a Jawa as well. -- again simple but they loved it.  The children then had a chance to all wear a Stromtrooper helmet and have their photo taken.

This took us to 8:00pm at which time it was time to de-kit and head off home on my two hour drive.

Huge thanks to Chris, Wayne, Gary, Alan, Paul, Mel, Jim, Simo and Vicki.  An excellent first event for me with the 99th for 2013..... oh.... and a donation of £500 will be made to Dreamflight by Will's parents... a ginormous loving Thank you to them!!