Big40
Stuart’s Party
Hedonism! Well sort of, you’ve gotta slow down a bit at 40… Thus Stuart and several of his delightful friends had a rather grown up party, and invited Angela & Phil along too. Apparantly we brought the camera, I don’t really remember much in detail!
The lovely lady on the sofa to the left is Charlotte, who was eventually persuaded to bring her parents along so she had someone to sit on. Being of the fairer sex, and slightly underage for most of the drinking games, Lottie retied to bed around 10:30, having stolen the show until that point.
On the right Stuart waxes lyrical about the issue of indigestion in modern society, and provides some fine examples of his subject :)
If I remember correctly (although things were getting a tad hazy at this point), this is Phil, Marie and Stuart trying to work out “what IS that thing on the table?” It must have been good, Marie is taking a photo (hmmn - must ask her for that one!) I strongly suspect we ate it shortly afterwards…
Eeek! It’s a madman with a bunch of forks! Runaway! Actually I suspect it’s just Stuart offering cake to all and sundry - after all it soaks up Jack Daniels nicely - hic
Posh Nosh
Having sobered up from the earlier adventures, Phil & Stuart thought it was about time to treat the family to dinner at a nice restaurant. Thus we all headed over to St Albans and the Sopwell House Hotel for dinner in their delightful abode.
We’ll start at the end then shall we? This is the birthday boys themselves, either side of a coffee-revived Tom, for some reason Angela suggested we take our specs off for this one.
Yes it’s Stuart talking again! I rekon he was telling a joke at this point, since Dad is laughing and Mum has that slighty quizzical look that says “is this a clean joke?” Hehe. You can tell from the mince pies and plentiful empty glasses that we are still at the end of the meal.
It’s Anne, all sparkly and surrounded by those very large glasses again (can’t think why). Martin is modelling the latest in ‘can I borrow a tie’ fashion, and the expression of a seasoned rock star when approached by yet more paparazzi - More photos? Oh all right then…
It’s the cheeky boy himself! Doing his best not to look like a school physics teacher (yes he really was one of those), Jim is wearing a vintage pinstripe shirt, and that special tie that says “Mr Higgins - I’ve lost me pencil Sir!”
Ohhhh! Is that a camer-flash! Yup. Bob has decided that shaving is for wimps, so the tash is likely to get longer… when it reaches the same density as his eyebrows he might notice! Joe is demonstrating the supreme calm that can be achieved by drinking the finest champagne and stealing Grandad’s mince pies.
So errr when do we get fed exactly then Mum? Poor Helen has been waiting all day for decent meal, and we made her sit in the car for 3 hours before she could eat. It’s a hard life sometimes. I promise she was much happier when the food arrived!