yesterday I

Went to a surprise fiftieth birthday party in deepest Kent the venue was a one Pub (horse) town and I saw the horse too.

Some ten years ago I was involved in what can be best described as winding up a Marine engineering company and during the couple of years that it eventually took to do that, I forged some really strong friendships. One of them was the companies owner who`s surprise birthday party it was.

To save leaving early and going back the one hundred miles to home, I booked a hotel in Folkstone (should have known better) which turned out to be a version of Faulty towers (with £14 breakfast). I won`t mention the name of the hotel but it sounds very like "Worst Eastern". The lift which only took two people was small to say the least and if you weren`t quick to open the outer door to get out, it would immediately retun to the next floor calling it. Yes I went up and down three times on one occasion! Really.

I got a taxi to the one pub village and awaited my mates arrival, he thought that he was celebrating another couples anniversary. At the stroke of 20-00 he walked into the function room and having had to learn to lip read I saw exactly what he said ( from the other side of the hall where I was sitting) when he realised just what was happening. He was totally gobsmacked that so many people had turned out (around a hundred) I hadn`t seen many of the people there for quite a while and its amazing just who did turn up. One guy who`s lovely wife of fifty six years, was on her death bed and not expected to last the night even came to help him celebrate his fifty years, and left early (obviously) It was lovely to see so many people there who so obviously loved the guy. I left the party around 23-00 as the disco was getting too loud and I was going horse from talking, an returned to the hotel.

I slept in a single bed ( big mistake) and during the (no sleep night ) fell out of the bed twice. I have to say that it was like sleeping on the sail on the boom of a sailboat only less comfortable. The lino in the Bathroom, I had on the floor of my first house fourty years ago and the "counter pain" looked like it had been slept on and never washed for at least a decade. At three oclock in the morning the people/person in the next room arrived and to the pleading of the loud femail voice ( makes a change) of "Why don`t you stay? and the rebuff of the guy "no thanks I have had too much to drink. I turned over having shouted out "stop your bleeding pleading and go to sleep will you".

In the morning (sunday) I went into the town and ate breakfast in a "greasy spoon" and went off to visit some friends of mine who are "doing the french canals again (they have done them for seven years running) next year. I promised to repair all the little scratches and cracks on their fibreglass hulled home, before they go, although I did most of them last year before the went, there are quite a few remaining and in a cream colour too which I did manage to match perfectly last time :o((.