Archive for March 2007

Wednesday, 14th March 2007

Mission Impossible!

The event – Father in law’s 60th versus best friend’s 40th

The venue – Cooper’s Hotel, Clacton on Sea versus The Beeches Hotel, Norwich

The issue – The SAME day

The consequence – Lose the in-law’s favour or let down the friend

What would you do? This blog entry will self destruct in 5 seconds.

Yes readers, Saturday 10th March proved to be a day that tested my loyalties to the extreme. My great friend Mark turned 40 on the very day that my father in law David celebrated his 60th birthday with all of his family in Clacton on Sea. How could I possibly miss my best friends party? How dare I miss my father in law’s party? Fortunately, Heidi made the choice pretty straight forward for me, “miss my dad’s party and you’ll never hear the end of it” – or words to that effect. So with great sadness I accepted my fate and without any further ado gleefully chose to head on down to Essex.

As it happened we (and I should add I never doubted for a minute that we would) had a terrific day celebrating with David. Approximately 25 people made their way across the country to be with him at Paul and Denise’s luxurious home in Costa Del Clacton. We enjoyed some lovely food, played some great games and had many laughs together. David’s biggest surprise came after he’d opened all of his presents and blown out ALL 60 candles on his birthday cake, when we presented him with a certificate for completing 60 years of life, the reward for which was a trip in my brother in law’s Microlight (to be arranged).

Thanks to Paul and Denise for hosting the party (rather them than me). I just know you’re dying to see some pictures of the party, so click on to flickr and look for the group of pictures entitled ‘David’s 60th birthday party’.

The father in law

BUT, wait a minute, just hold on a moment – would you believe it, to my astonishment, following tea the party slowly began to wain and folk started to make their way home. Likewise, by 7.30 we too were ready to leave and so by 9 o’clock I was making a toast to my good friend Mark at The Beeches Hotel in Norwich. Mission Impossible?, huh, not for me, I laugh in the face of adversity. We had a great evening with Mark’s family and friend (no that isn’t a typing error)  Actually, it turned out that he had quite a few friends after all). Like the true scavenger that I am, I quickly finished off the lamb that my sister had left on her plate before playing some great musical games organised by Steve. Unfortunately I had to perform a couple of songs on behalf of my, rather reluctant, uninspired team mates. For more pictures of Mark’s party, click on flickr again and go to the group entitled ‘Mark’s 40th birthday party’.

Mark and his friend (and Peter - his acquaintance)

 

 

Posted by Daddy @ 7:51 PM  

Friday, 9th March 2007

New Life

I took this picture showing the first flowers of spring last week. I thought it made an interesting contrast amongst the grave stones. New life amidst the symbolism of death.

Spring Flowers

Posted by Daddy @ 11:50 PM