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Shadow: the Star family's - more specifically, Ellie's - beautiful husky!
I really did get a great shot with this photo! |
Whilst Mollie was at work, I spent quite a bit of time with Ellie (Mollie's sister, who's "proper" name is Helena), Kathleen (Mollie's mum), and Nathan Lane (Ellie's best friend, and a close friend of the Star family) in the garden, enjoying the weather, but being pestered by storm flies - they knew what was coming! This trip was always going to be huge for me - and, arguably, for Mollie and I's relationship - because I was going to be meeting the majority of her friends and family whilst at the party, and I wanted to make a good impression, even though I'm a fairly shy, reserved character, making this trip a very scary one for somebody like me! I just hoped that people would see I'm a nice guy, as I'm not always sure I give off the best first impression, due to my quietness maybe portraying me as being boring. If you get to know me, go past my quiet exterior, there you'll find there's a lovely, caring, fun guy, who can talk about almost any subject. The first people I would have to meet would be Eden Frost and Kane Sadler, as they were also travelling to Clacton the day before, like me. They had come from Dagenham, the Star family's old stomping ground, and Eden is a very long-term friend to the Star family, and like family to them, with Kane being her boyfriend. Eden and Kane got some food from the fish and chip shop where Mollie works, The Village Chippy, and joined us in the garden with their food. I think this was the first sign that I needn't have worried about meeting all the new people I was going to be meeting, as both Eden and Kane are sweet, compassionate, wonderful people, and this is true of
everybody who chatted with me - no matter how short or long - during the time I was in Clacton. I went and tidied myself up and awaited Mollie's return. It was so lovely to see her again and give her a massive cuddle, and she came home with my dinner: spam fritter and chips from her chip shop. Before I could have my dinner, the storm came in (I had witnessed a storm the day before whilst in Reading, so it must've travelled with me to Clacton!) and was blowing a whole load of garden furniture around, so everybody had to rush out to the garden to sort things out - the bad weather was never going to be allowed to ruin the party, though! Maybe I am painting this picture with rose-tinted specs, from the disillusioned view you sometimes get whilst on holiday - as that's what trips to Clacton are kinda like for me - but these chips (along with the spam fritter, battered sausage, and beefburger I had from her chip shop during my stay) taste better than anything I've ever had from any takeaway in Reading, being soft, delicious and moreish; I can't wait to go back for more! After a very late dinner, Mollie and I went up to bed, knowing that tomorrow was a big day for the both of us.
Saturday, July the 19th arrived, the day where I'd be seeing, maybe, 70+ new people - to put it into perspective, the only people at the party I would know, are: the Star family (as in, Mollie, Ellie, Kathleen and Larry), Nathan, and Eden and Kane, who I had met the day before, but everybody else was new to me. I woke up pretty late on the Saturday, and, well, most days whilst at Mollie's house (hell, I wake up late wherever I am!) because of how we often stay up at night chatting and snuggling, which is nothing short of perfection; we know we shouldn't stay up so late, but it's hard not to when so often we're usually quite far apart (I know I can't, and won't, keep Mollie awake on university nights!). There was some repairing and re-setting up to do after the previous night's storm, including rebuilding the gazebo - where the DJ was - and putting garden furniture back out, which everybody helped with. Everybody went off to get scrubbed up for the party: I stuck on Mollie and I's favourite band, My Chemical Romance - their greatest hits CD - to keep me relaxed whilst I got done for one of the scariest nights of my life! Mollie spent a bit of time with me, but then went off to get her hair and make-up done by Ellie, Eden, and Eloise Parker (Eden's sister). I kept seeing more and more people arrive out of Mollie's bedroom window, and then, wow... I got my first look at Mollie's phenomenal hair and make-up - seriously, you did a marvellous job, ladies - as she came back into her bedroom, and, I swear to God, I'd never seen her looking more beautiful; I was an incredibly lucky guy, but, truthfully, I always see myself as lucky to have a girl as unbelievable as Mollie, and I'll never forget it! Mollie gave me a kiss and soon headed downstairs, as she was the birthday girl and numerous people were here to see her - and Larry Star, I hasten to add, as the party was also to celebrate his 50th birthday, and for Mollie leaving for the University of Kent, in Canterbury, in September - leaving me to finish off getting done, and muster up the courage to come downstairs to the party. After a little while of being upstairs, Nathan Lane and Abby Joyce came up to check on me - both real sweet people, the latter I had never met before - and I said I'd come down in a few minutes, but I knew I was waiting for one thing. Mollie came upstairs soon after - not actually to see me, but to get one of those multi-plug adaptor thingys - and I got to come downstairs with her, holding her hand, which is what I had always wanted, even though she didn't realise that. Although, she did actually text me to see if I was okay, but I didn't get the text until hours later because of the terrible signal I get in Clacton!
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| Mollie and I at the Star party to celebrate Mollie's 19th birthday, Larry's 50th birthday, and Mollie leaving for university in September. Mollie looked so incredible, but, of course, I always think she looks beautiful! I actually got a lot of compliments for my LEGO Star Wars T-shirt during this trip, and some for the Ralph Lauren Wimbledon jacket! Photo credit: Kane Sadler (thanks, mate, we both have always loved this photo so much!). |
Mollie had saved me a seat with all her close friends that were at the party, so I sat down there, nervously, and she kindly went and got me a pear cider: my alcoholic drink of choice, she knows me so well! The incredibly lovely Jay Honeywood (one of Mollie's close friends - although, honestly, I now hope Mollie's friends see me as a friend, too, as I know that's how I look at them) introduced himself to me almost immediately, which was nice, and Larry's mum came over and said "hello" - also giving me a kiss on the cheek - which was sweet of her. I sat there slowly sipping on my drink - not that I'm a quick drinker even at the best of times - but it wasn't long before people were chatting with me. Sarah Johnson started chatting to me about football - one of my loves in life, which she knew because we had been Facebook friends for a couple of months already, thanks to her kindly adding me around the time I got into a relationship with Mollie - and we had a fun discussion about the best Premier League strikers ever: I said Alan Shearer before I had said Thierry Henry, which, jokingly, didn't go down too well with an Arsenal fan, although she's obviously biased thinking Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp are the best (hehe!)! I then started chatting with Glyn Moore and Jay about all different types of music, our favourite bands, and so forth, and it was really refreshing to hear Jay - who likes music ranging from classical to heavy metal - say that if he hears a song and likes it, then he really doesn't care what genre it's in, and I know that's a philosophy that Mollie and I agree with because of how we like everything from pop to metal, old or new. I also had chats with a couple more of Mollie's friends, Fiona Chatten and Cheryl Johnson, with topics including Sherlock (the brilliant TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman), The Beatles, and Nintendo games; it turned out that Mollie's friends like a lot of the same things as me, so there was plenty to chat about, and they really are a caring, fun and amazing group of people! So many of Mollie's family (way too many to name - sorry!) kindly introduced themselves, some briefly, some for longer, and I can only apologise to anybody that I didn't really talk to during the night, but hopefully there'll be times to correct that in the future. I didn't eat or drink too much, to be honest, due to nerves and whatnot, but I did have a lovely couple of pear ciders, and a Disaronno and coke from Mollie's secret stash (with her permission, of course)! It was about midnight before I had something to eat, but I did eventually enjoy a couple of hot dogs and burgers. I want to say a massive thank you to Kane and Larry for being on barbecue duty, the DJ, the whole of the Star family for putting in an insane amount of effort in order to host an unforgettable party, and everybody who came and enjoyed themselves regardless of the weather!
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| Horses in a field at the end of the Star family's back garden. On the day after the party, a load of us were feeding them apples, hence they had come over to say "hello"! |
I left for home on Wednesday night, and Wednesday was one incredibly fantastic day, but more on that in a bit. I'm not going to lie, I really didn't do that much between Sunday and Tuesday, spending it all either in the garden or house, but it was still lovely. You see, even things like watching new episodes of Family Guy seems perfect when you're doing it with somebody you're in love with, and, in our case, somebody you don't see a huge amount. Be it watching TV, listening to music together, or enjoying each other's company in any other way, shape or form, it is truly bliss, and I wouldn't change it for the world; Mollie has truly become a best friend. Whilst I was still at the Star house, I was drinking leftover alcohol quite a bit, which was awesome, and we even had another barbecue on the Sunday: the lamb burger was phenomenal! On the Sunday was when I got the pictures of Shadow (the dog) and the horses.
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| Mollie and I's shadows at the end of Clacton Pier |
Wednesday was always going to be a day that ultimately ended in sadness, but we were determined to make it a good one. Mollie and I got done whilst listening to some Elliot Minor (a band I absolutely love to bits and have seen live 3 times, including having written a blog entry about them, which you'll find on this blog. Mollie also loves them), and then caught a bus into Clacton town centre. I bought myself a new video game in GAME, we grabbed a drink in McDonald's, and then headed off to Snappy Snaps where I got an amazing photo frame for the photo of Mollie and I from when we were going on the London Eye (the very first time we met, which was scary, but it was just such a perfect day: I could write a whole blog on it!); Mollie has since bought the exact same photo frame! We then headed down to the end of Clacton Pier - somewhere I had never gone before - and, even with the wind attacking us, we shared a moment we will never ever forget; it was just one of those moments where the person you're with, the place you're at, and what you're doing, just all comes together to create perfection!
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| Wind farm off of Clacton Pier, with a seagull photobombing! |
We met up with a few of Mollie's friends who I'd met at the party, who had kindly come out at short notice, for a meal and some drinks at "The Moon and Starfish" - a Wetherspoon's - before I had to say goodbye. I had some chicken strips and chips, with a Kopparberg strawberry and lime cider to drink, and Glyn got a couple of pitchers in containing "The Godfather"; which was made-up of Jack Daniel's whiskey, amaretto and Pepsi! It was a truly wonderful day and evening, but I had to say goodbye to Mollie's friends and head for Clacton train station. Jay kindly walked with Mollie and I to the station so that Mollie didn't have to walk back to the bar/restaurant by herself. He then gave Mollie and I a few minutes to ourselves, and knowing I'm leaving to a place that is over 3 hours away from where she is, is just a pain I can't even describe. I dried the tears from her eyes, gave her some kisses and cuddles, and shouted "I love you forever" before jumping on the 10:05pm to London Liverpool Street (followed by two more trains to get home). A huge thank you to Jay for supporting Mollie and helping her back to the comfort of all her friends. When I got home at around 1am, my older brother, Daniel Parfett, kindly came and picked me up from Reading Station in his new car.
I just wish to say an enormous thank you to all of Mollie's friends and family for being so lovely to me, Mollie's close family for putting up with me for 5 days and nights, and to Molls for being the most loving, sweet, amazing, fun, beautiful and thoughtful girl I have ever met in my life! <3 <3 <3 Without all of you, this trip wouldn't have been the unforgettable trip that it was! I'll be honest, I actually dove straight into writing some of this whilst on the trains home (yes, I really did start writing this that long ago!) because otherwise I'd have been in tears! I guess my initial point at the start of this blog can be broken down like this: short-term sadness, long-term happiness. Yes, Mollie and I are both a mess when we have to leave each other, but we'll see each other again, for many more perfect times! And, besides, what is it they say: "absence makes the heart grow fonder."
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