Today is known as one of the landmark days of the 12 week course ... the Pop Up ... people have been looking forward to it since week 3 or so ... anyway before that happened there was lots to be done ... I started my day by watching Ireland win the series against Australia ...😝

After that I headed down to the school to help out with the efforts ...😱

The Pop up ... basically what happens is the Students take over Ballymaloe Cookery School for an evening and arrange a whole evening ... from the welcome, entertainment, canapés, to the theme, food and decoration ... it is planned for many weeks outside of the normal school day and it is not compulsory ... meaning everyone who takes part has to volunteer to a particular area ... I didn't fancy being in the kitchen on the night itself as I wanted to experience it overall ... so I volunteered to look after the entertainment ... the music and the script for the evening.😇

When I arrived down to the school around 1:30 I dipped in and out of different areas ... "balled" ice-cream, made pastry cases, made cookies to feed the chefs for the day, picked and washed salad ... helped with moving tables ... holding ladders (this I excelled at!!!) I have to say it was great to be around that atmosphere all day and great to see everyone working together! 😊

As I was heading back to the cottages to get ready for the evening, around 5:50 p.m. ... the first of the Wards arrived ... so I gave them some grape juice while I grabbed a quick shower ... 🤗

The evening itself was a great success, the dining room for the evening was the "cafe" area ... and team completely transformed it with style! it looked like a "proper" banquet restaurant ... the food team lived up to their part of the bargain and served food of an extremely high quality ... And then the parts I was really concerned with ... the Music ... Jan (Dutch) learned some traditional Irish airs and played them excellently and Steph (Canadian) not only looked a little like Joyce but delivered the script with style and panache! Chapeau Guys ! So proud 😊👍😊

Darina delivered a closing speech and it was obvious she was delighted with the evening ... Well done everyone ! 😃

After dinner it was off to the Blackbird in Ballycotton and thankfully pretty much everyone ended up there for a great end to the evening ... well not taking into consideration the cottages until around 4 a.m.😝

Thanks to the Ward Ladies for coming down ... I hope you got a taste of the magic of Ballymaloe! 😋😗😘