Our annual pilgrimage to Woolacombe in North Devon gave me an opportunity to tick off a number of things from the list. The weather broke in the UK to deliver a lovely week of sun just prior to the Olympics launch, and I decided to leave for the coast a week early.
The first part of the holiday would be myself and my daughter form the Davis' and we were joined by Gemma and her family. Jude and Mike joined us for the second week, and we had appearances from our family as well as Tom, Ellie, Jimmy Butler, Kirsty and Duncan :-)
The following activities have now been ticked off.
Power Kite Flying
Surfing
Camping
BodyBoarding
Please see a film below caught on GoPro cameras that covers our little jaunt, as well as a few pictures.
Life has been pretty hectic, so apologies for the delay in posting, but I'm back, and I have some updates and news for you :-)
I never wanted a birthday party. I don't really know why; I suppose that most of my friends live so far away that I didn't want to bother them; stupid really. Well one of my best friends Gemma Poole convinced me that it would be a good idea, and I'm so glad that she did.
The fun started for me on Friday night. My wife Judith was being very cagey about something, and I knew that there was something up. My daughter Christina was also avoiding many of my questions, and disappearing off to neighbours on a regular basis to "discuss our skiing holiday".
Jude then left with Christina to "fetch something" and returned to my surprise with my old friend Brian Keegan. Brian is one of my closest friends, and I had not seen him for over a year. He's the type of guy that I might not speak to or hear from in 6 months, but he'd know I'd drop everything in a second if he needed something and the same is true in reverse. So it was a great night with Brian on his way home to Ireland. We had curry, and talked about old times. It was ace.
The following morning Simon Jones arrived from Switzerland! It was so good to see him, and he had made the journey especially which was just awesome. No sooner were we discussing how he was, that Richie Norton arrived from Australia! WOW. Gemma and the kids were with him, and the day was off to a roaring start. More people followed throughout the day.
I want to thank everyone for coming to see us. I had the best of times. Thank you for all of the wonderful presents. Thanks Tom, Christina and Ellie for my amazing Chocolate cake! Thank you Mum and Dad for being awesome. Also - a special thank you to Chris "Michelin" Davidson for the amazing food and for being part of my life for nearly 30 years. Good lad :-)
You see on any other weekend, just any one of these people coming to see me would have made my month. For them all to have made the effort to see me on this day was very special; very special indeed. My informal gathering turned into a proper party. It was awesome, and I'll never forget it. Especially as I recorded some of the memories on my new GoPro's. Life post 40 had started. Here is the montage from the day....
