Today John, my Dad and my Uncle David all celebrate their birthday - same day, different amount of years...
My Dad has reached the monumental milestone of 85 bless him and we were going down this morning so that he and John could open cards and presents together and then we were having a light lunch before playing pickleball. John and I were taking celebratory cakes. This evening Mum and Dad were having (in Dad's own words) a 'romantic candle-lit dinner for two' as John was being treated to a ticket to see the Droushia Dixie Seven play at the Droushia Heights Hotel - he missed it when they played back in February because he had gone to his mum's 70th. Anyway we didn't go for a pink confection - we chose a selection of tried and tested by way of the walnut cake and the carrot cake and then two more fancy pudding type cakes in bowls.
After visiting Elena to check how she was doing after her Chemo and collecting a present from Rob and Diana and extricating ourselves from Pam and George we arrived right on time and the two boys made light work of opening their cards and presents.
Between them they had a right old selection of greetings cards - not bad in this very electronic age where most people send their messages via the internet in one form or another. Still there is nothing quite like opening a physical card that someone has taken time to chose and time to right. There are two people who have always send us beautiful hand-picked cards and I could always guess which ones were theirs even without seeing the writing inside and that is my sister Kaye and our friend Jane Page - not that the other cards we receive are not lovely it is just that I can spot a Kaye card or a Jane card from a mile off.
It is getting harder and harder to find interesting presents for Dad and John - to be fair if either of them need something they generally go out and buy whatever it is that they need but Mum scored a winner with John as she found him a lovely 'bar' box and added a nice bottle of ale for him to sup and I guess he just might have it on Saturday night when we are having a night in - football season starts and we will be slobbing out on the sofa with something bubbling in the slow cooker that we can eat when we are ready. That is John's idea of bliss!!!
So I am just going to add a photograph of my lovely Dad on his 85th snuggling up with Fred their errant stray cat who causes them so much angst as he stays in all day then wanders off at night and comes home at some point looking like he had done 10 rounds with some cage fighter.
He is currently full of cuts and bruises but at least we now know why he had got such fat hard cheeks. These are called 'shields' and are normal in an un-neutered Tom cat as they serve to protect the more delicate neck area when they are involved in a fight - bloody good job Fred's are so large - it makes up for the fact that he doesn't have a single tooth in his head. Lord knows why he insists on going out when he has the best home ever with Mum and Dad and they absolutely love him to bits.
While I was at Mum and Dad's I looked at photographs of Dad at their Golden Wedding Anniversary which was 11 years ago and again at his 80th birthday five years ago and one of the hottest days' of the year I seem to recall and to me he hasn't changed a bit to look at!
Mum had got ciabatta rolls which we tucked into with relish - they were really nice and I particularly liked the egg and rocket ones and then tried the cake selection - I have to say that the red velvet pudding-y thing in the plastic dish was absolutely fantastic and I shall definitely definitely be having that again - in fact I would go so far as to say that the next time we go to Tala Monastery for a cuppa I will try a slice of the one they have there.
We had a right old laugh at pickleball today - it was really good although I came back absolutely dripping - I can't believe no-one else seems to sweat as much as I do. Mum and I ran a few errands before John returned from badders and we said our goodbyes and returned home to get ready for our night out with the Dixie 7.
Forewarned is forearmed so they say so we had the presence of mind to book a table right at the back in the same place we had sat in February because we know the band to be LOUD and I mean loud! It was a mix of good old foot stomping stuff and some New Orleans funeral dirges. The buffet was pretty good even if you only ate the salad. John won a prize in the raffle which amazed us as generally we buy 90% of the tickets and go home with 0% of the prizes but we are proud owners of a bottle of wine and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates (which wont last till Christmas)
The hotel made John a birthday cake and the band played happy birthday and the evening was declared a success. On our walk home we were called into the local coffee shop to drink a coffee and that was paid for by Philippos from Finikas.
A good day all round!
My Dad has reached the monumental milestone of 85 bless him and we were going down this morning so that he and John could open cards and presents together and then we were having a light lunch before playing pickleball. John and I were taking celebratory cakes. This evening Mum and Dad were having (in Dad's own words) a 'romantic candle-lit dinner for two' as John was being treated to a ticket to see the Droushia Dixie Seven play at the Droushia Heights Hotel - he missed it when they played back in February because he had gone to his mum's 70th. Anyway we didn't go for a pink confection - we chose a selection of tried and tested by way of the walnut cake and the carrot cake and then two more fancy pudding type cakes in bowls.
After visiting Elena to check how she was doing after her Chemo and collecting a present from Rob and Diana and extricating ourselves from Pam and George we arrived right on time and the two boys made light work of opening their cards and presents.
Between them they had a right old selection of greetings cards - not bad in this very electronic age where most people send their messages via the internet in one form or another. Still there is nothing quite like opening a physical card that someone has taken time to chose and time to right. There are two people who have always send us beautiful hand-picked cards and I could always guess which ones were theirs even without seeing the writing inside and that is my sister Kaye and our friend Jane Page - not that the other cards we receive are not lovely it is just that I can spot a Kaye card or a Jane card from a mile off.
So I am just going to add a photograph of my lovely Dad on his 85th snuggling up with Fred their errant stray cat who causes them so much angst as he stays in all day then wanders off at night and comes home at some point looking like he had done 10 rounds with some cage fighter. He is currently full of cuts and bruises but at least we now know why he had got such fat hard cheeks. These are called 'shields' and are normal in an un-neutered Tom cat as they serve to protect the more delicate neck area when they are involved in a fight - bloody good job Fred's are so large - it makes up for the fact that he doesn't have a single tooth in his head. Lord knows why he insists on going out when he has the best home ever with Mum and Dad and they absolutely love him to bits.
While I was at Mum and Dad's I looked at photographs of Dad at their Golden Wedding Anniversary which was 11 years ago and again at his 80th birthday five years ago and one of the hottest days' of the year I seem to recall and to me he hasn't changed a bit to look at!
Mum had got ciabatta rolls which we tucked into with relish - they were really nice and I particularly liked the egg and rocket ones and then tried the cake selection - I have to say that the red velvet pudding-y thing in the plastic dish was absolutely fantastic and I shall definitely definitely be having that again - in fact I would go so far as to say that the next time we go to Tala Monastery for a cuppa I will try a slice of the one they have there.
We had a right old laugh at pickleball today - it was really good although I came back absolutely dripping - I can't believe no-one else seems to sweat as much as I do. Mum and I ran a few errands before John returned from badders and we said our goodbyes and returned home to get ready for our night out with the Dixie 7.
Forewarned is forearmed so they say so we had the presence of mind to book a table right at the back in the same place we had sat in February because we know the band to be LOUD and I mean loud! It was a mix of good old foot stomping stuff and some New Orleans funeral dirges. The buffet was pretty good even if you only ate the salad. John won a prize in the raffle which amazed us as generally we buy 90% of the tickets and go home with 0% of the prizes but we are proud owners of a bottle of wine and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates (which wont last till Christmas)
The hotel made John a birthday cake and the band played happy birthday and the evening was declared a success. On our walk home we were called into the local coffee shop to drink a coffee and that was paid for by Philippos from Finikas.
A good day all round!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.