A Weekend of Celebrations!!! (Part 2)

We’d like to say a big “thank you” to everyone who has posted comments on the blog, and for the emails and texts, with messages of congratulations and good wishes. We are quite overwhelmed at the response.

As requested, here are a few more shots of our day in Brighton on Friday:-

Doug, our daughters Vicki and Frances, and James taking a stroll in “The Lanes”.

Frances, Doug, Vicki and James outside the Royal Pavilion.

One of the seafront stall holders was an Olympic torch bearer recently and he very kindly allowed us to hold this most prized possession.

We drove back from Brighton in the late afternoon on Friday, just in time for Doug and the girls to put some finishing touches to the Selsey Golf Clubhouse, which was to be our party venue.  One of the main attractions being a display of embarrassing photographs of James in his earlier life! (Not for publication here!)

When the time came nearly 60 of our friends and family arrived, thinking it was just a  birthday party, but were delighted to find it was a bit more than that.  Here’s a selection of ‘action’ shots taken during the evening:

James with  friends, Pete and Mags from Devon

We had  Matt Parro (close-up magician) to entertain us for the early part of the evening – this is  Matt with some of the guests.  He was absolutely astonishing and his performance left all of us totally speechless.

Doug, James, Patrick and Eve.

We also had a stand up comedian (or so he thought!)  Actually he was giving a warm welcome and offering our thanks to everyone – including a special thanks to Vicki and Frances for their wonderful support during the day…………….

……..and Doug presented them both with a small gift of appreciation.

A kiss from Frances.

Rose, Birgit (who flew in from Germany especially for the party) and Fran.

A double cake for a double celebration – the bottom one had a picture of ‘Chance’, which made us feel a bit homesick.

A tense moment cutting the cake!

Caption suggestions please! Yes that is a knife!

He’s about as good at dancing as he is at being a comedian!

Frances, James and Vicki.

Brothers in arms:  Martin and James

We had a disco in the latter part of the evening, as the night wore on this was how some people were viewing the proceedings! - everyone seemed to have a great time and it’ll certainly be one to remember!