Sixty Years Young

August to October are celebratory months at our place. We have 9 birthdays to celebrate within a six week period. Luckily it’s spring time and there’s lots of work required in the garden to burn up some of the calories we put on over this time.

This year was a particularly big one, with Andrew joining that illustrious group known as “seniors”. (This term applies to citizens over the age of 60.) Andrew actually has been looking forward to reaching this milestone, partly because he reckons he is now an “elder” of the tribe and his wisdom, advice and opinions should be sought after, but mainly because he can now take advantage of low cost public transport, free events for the elderly and discounts all over the place.

This year there was a little (not so little actually) surprise that came along with the annual celebration. Normally in our family the big joy of such events is the right to select one’s favourite selection of edible and quaffable goodies for a celebratory meal and enjoy these in the company of the family. On the actual day everything went as normal and a great time was had by all.

However on the following Saturday with great secrecy and stealth, Heather had arranged a much larger gathering of friends and extended family to gather. With all watches synchronised, this group waited down the drive, whilst Andrew was lured down to the dam on the pretext that a turtle had been spotted on the edge of the water. As he searched in vain for the little reptile, a long line of cars wound its way up the drive. His first reaction was that somehow he had posted a wrong date on the web for one of our tours. Then when they got close enough to recognise faces, he put one and one together and realised it was all part of some secret plot. By the time everyone made it up into the house, furniture had been re-arranged, tables had been covered with food and drink and instead of having a rather dull afternoon (it was a wet and cold Saturday) in front of the fire we had a thoroughly enjoyable time with great company and a wonderful feast.

When night fell we were entertained by some spectacular fire dancing by our woofer friends Shelly and Tim. It was certainly a birthday to remember. The big question is “What are we going to do about Heather’s 60th next year? Hmmmmmm!