Friday the 14th of October saw the return of the annual Oktoberfest at RAF Odiham. 81 Red Balloons were asked to provide the decorations for the second year running, and we were invited along to the evening to join in the celebrations. We decorated the Oktoberfest last year, using giant Beer Glass Supershape balloons, which were so popular with the Sgts. mess that they asked us to do the same again, albeit we added a little twist and made some floor standing bunches as well, using the foil beer mugs and latex balloons, in Bavarian colours, of course.

The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 in honour of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Originally the festivities began on October 12th and ended on October 17th, with a horse race. The festival was repeated the following year and in later years it was prolonged and moved into September, which had better weather conditions. As the September nights were warmer the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and stroll over the fields for longer without feeling chilly.

RAF Odiham, as always, hosted a great party, the beer, wine, and Schnapps flowed freely all evening, and one or two of us indulged a little too much (oops!). As well as the ever-present disco, The Munich Bierkeller Men added to the authenticity and provided lots of table dancing, beer swigging entertainment and a great night was had by all.

We’d like to thank RAF Odiham for asking us to do the décor once again, and for the invites to the party, and we promise not to drink quite so much schnapps if we ever get invited again!

Coming soon, to a cinema near you! Only joking, but it's an idea though....

To see the finer (?) points of this masterpiece, take a look at the original on Alison's Flickr page, it's best to view the large size.

By the way if you like taking photographs check out Flickr it's great fun, but we have to warn you it's highly addictive :)

This movie poster is just one of the great flickr toys created by fd who we'd like to thank for letting us use it on our website.

During the recent building work, and redecoration of the newest addition to Odihams selection of restaurants - 'St John' one of the builders celebrated his birthday. His colleagues were kind enough to cling film him to a lamppost and cover him in shaving foam - he was so pleased! So in the spirit of the occasion we decided to give him an extra present, a happy birthday balloon. It added the perfect finishing touch to his afternoon. Although he didn't seem quite so happy when they all went back to work and left him there!

St John has been open for several months now and comes highly recommended, the Number 81 household attended their opening night en mass and the food, and wine was fantastic. The menu changes regularly and at the time of writing this bolg post they were offering mouth-watering dishes such as pan fried scallops with pea puree and chive beurre blanc for starters, and how about Rump of lamb with boulangere potatoe, confit garlic and a madeira jus for your main followed by a dessert to die for such as Mascarpone and vanilla Panna Cotta with red fruit or the decadent St John chocolate fondant and pistachio cream. Well worth a visit if you're in the Odiham area. Fine Dining at it's best :)

This is what Wikipedia has to say about our little village (thanks to Garrett for finding this)

Odiham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Odiham today only has a population of 4406 and is situated in Hart district council in the English county of Hampshire. Its population is only forecast to increase by 9 in 2008.
There is an RAF aerodrome to the south of the town, RAF Odiham.

I know it's small but I think the population might rise a little higher than 9 in the next 3 years!

Balloon Decorating by Cathy & Alison - 81 Red Balloons

RAF Odiham - Hampshire

Eighteen months ago I took over as the decorations member on the entertainments committee of a busy Sgt’s mess. Looking at previous function costs I realised that we spent a considerable amount on table and room decorations. In order to reduce costs I decided to try to source my own decorations and to arrange them myself, during a chance visit to their shop I noticed that Cathy and Alison were advertising balloons. On enquiring I discovered that not only could they easily produce the quantities required to fill the mess but that they could tailor their displays to any requirements that I wanted and that they could, in addition, do table decorations and favours and all for less than I could manage trying to source all the items myself.

A deal was struck which not only reduced my decorations budget but also allowed us to increase the amount of decorations used. On the afternoon before the event, which was our Summer Ball, the biggest event we have in the year, Cathy and Alison arrived and within a couple of hours had transformed our plain old dining room into a sea of colour. The tables were beautifully and tastefully presented with the minimum of fuss and intrusion.

On the evening and on the days following the ball I received many laudatory comments on the standard of the decorations.

Since then I have used their services for every other function that I have had. Their input to our functions has become so great that they are now included in our pre-function meetings where their suggestions and guidance are gratefully received.

Without doubt the service that Cathy and Alison provide is excellent in all respects, their professional yet cheerful and enthusiastic manner is noted by all who come into contact with them and allows me to feel confident that whatever I have asked for will be achieved without any problems.

I would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending their services to anyone regardless of the size or nature of the event and indeed have done so on many occasions.

Al Carle (Sgt)
Entertainments Committee
Sgt’s Mess
RAF Odiham