Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

Photo Theme: PARTY

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Queen Elizabeth was the surprise guest at my 50th birthday party! She arrived and brought personal birthday greetings for me. She then agreed to remain and have photos taken with donations going to my favourite charity. The women surrounding him are my sister (in the middle) and some of her fellow co-workers who by happy coincidence were in Vancouver for a conference the weekend of my birthday party.

Click on the photo for a larger view
and to read the caption.

This week’s theme is PARTY. My 50th birthday party was a blast. And yes, the Queen herself arrived to my surprise to bring personal well wishes to me!

Her Majesty had been “fed” a few personal tidbits about me which to my horror, delighted the 100 or so of my friends who attended. Among the many royal secrets she shared was the answer to the age-old question of what she carries in her purse.

The answer: very simple. Her Majesty carries a Canadian $20 bill — just in case she’s asked for ID.

About the Party
My best friend Easter planned and executed the entire event flawlessly.

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Yes, it's me thanking the wonderful Mr. Bill Munroe for donating his time to attend my birthday. Mr. Munroe has been featured in television ads and appears at charity events and other events in the persona of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 2. He has received many awards and citations for his on-going comitment to raise funds for charitable causes. Even though he celebrated his 70th birthday a few years ago, Mr. Munroe continues to step into the shoes of his well-loved characters to this day.

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Her Majesty delivering the royal birthday greetings to those assembled to celebrate my 50th birthday.

The party was at the Westin Bayshore (the hotel where Howard Hughes spent the last few years of his life).

Click on the photo for a larger view.

My party wasn’t held in one of the hotel ballrooms. We partied in the luxurious $3,000 per night International Suite.

In order to waive the room charge, we couldn’t use any of the three bedrooms. The rest of the suite includes a huge living room with two fireplaces, grand piano and a deck that overlooks the harbour. There is a separate oak paneled room that serves as a bar and/or quiet lounge area.

The reason I wanted to use this suite was because during my public relations career this suite was the venue for many VIP’s for which I did the media relations for their visit.

I think the lunch with Prince Philip was the most memorable simply because despite all of our pre-planning, his wife decided at the last minute to change their itinerary that day. Needless to say, my media relations plan went out the window although I sweated buckets the entire day trying to anticipate potential problems with the media everything went smoothly.

Many people don’t like to celebrate the big five-0 but for me it was personally a time for me to bring all my family and friends together to share in my journey. In fact, I think I surprised my guests as each one of them received a gift from me when they arrived.

Instead of receiving gifts, I used my American Express points to obtain a colour television, leather briefcase, and a CD-player. Throughout the evening, my sister’s work colleagues who happened to be in Vancouver for a conference, discretely sold arms-length worth of raffle tickets to those who chose to participate.

When I tallied the amount at the end of the evening, more than $1,600 had been donated! I was so pleased to then hand over half of the amount to two of my favourite charities: A Loving Spoonful (of which I was one of the founding directors) and the Oaktree Clinic at the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre.

You may have read somewhere before in my blog that my personal mantra is: The Universe Is Abundant And So Am I.

That entire party was the epitome of abundance. The suite was complimentary. A luxurious buffet was set out and not only did the catering department upgrade the menu from what we had chosen but it seemed they also tripled the quantities of food.

I had decided to have an open bar but did have a small panic attack as I saw my friends walking away with cocktails in both fists. All I could see were dollar signs floating by.

When the invoice came, somehow the quantities charged were about a third of what had been consumed. As well, to manage costs, we had decided to have only one bartender and no serving staff. Imagine my gulp when I noticed there were two bartenders all evening and three staff working the room all night. Again, no charge on the bill.

But perhaps the true abundance came from just having my family and friends gather with me to mark my 50th birthday. It was one party people talked about for months after.

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My family who attended my party included (from l to r) nephew Ryan and his then-girlfriend Jamie, my sister-friend Brenda, Brian, now husband to my niece Melanie now living and working in Hong Kong, me, big bro' Bob and his wife Jo and my bestest brother Mike holding up the right side of the photo.

And on one final abundant note, here’s a photo of my family who came from across the country to be with me at my birthday.
Click on the photo for a larger view and to read the caption which tells you who is who in my family!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 4:19:31 AM and is filed under JOURNAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.