Celebration!

Make new friends but keep the old
One is silver; the other gold.

I cannot think of the last time I had such a blast on my birthday! I thoroughly enjoyed last evening. When trying to think of how to put this, I decided that I couldn’t really say that there was no place that I’d have rather been. I probably could come up with something, but it would certainly be difficult to top last night! I know that I have said this before, and I will say it again. I have some really good friends here in the United Kingdom!

Mom's girl scout troop used to sing the song above about new and old friends. I wish some of my old friends could have been here and could meet my new friends.

My evening started about 17:00 when I left the office. The plan was that we would all meet-up at the King’s Arms to have a pint-or-two before heading into Esher to have a curry. In preparation for going out, I left the bike at home yesterday after my lunchtime ride. I headed out of the office and set out along Summer Road toward Hampton Court. I was not twenty feet from the front door of the office when Kevin pulled over and gave me a lift to the pub. (It was my first ride in a London Police Car. I suggested that had he been a couple minutes earlier he could have certainly caused a stir at the office by calling in at the reception desk and asking for me.)

Well, this was a good start! I took a quick walk into The Wilderness, with a few unexpected minutes to kill before the pub opened, I decided to check and see if the bulbs were yet in bloom. They are trying but they just aren’t ready to pop up yet. I returned to the pub about 17:25 just as the barman was opening the doors. Paulo hadn’t quite finished all the set-up before opening, but he had seen me walk past and didn’t want me to wait out in the cold so he opened early. He wished me a happy birthday and then ran down to the cellar to do something.

Everyone started showing up around 18:00 and it was wonderful. Terry and Angie gave me some very nice looking beers and a framed print of an old map of the area. (I’ll be scanning it and putting it on the blog at some point.) It is a really cool map! It shows the area almost as if I had pulled it from Google Earth and selected the part of London I am most familiar with. The area covered by the map is from The Portsmouth Road on the south, Teddington on the north, King’s Hill on the east and East Molesey on the west.

A few toasts and present opening behind, Paulo and Carl (the owner of the pub) came down with a lit cake. I blew-out the candles and thanked Terry, Angie and Kevin. They then informed me that the cake was Carl’s idea… they’d had nothing to do with it! How cool is that? (When is the last time that the owner of a business you patronize spontaneously bought you a birthday cake? - And people wonder why I love it here!)

The car came and collected us soon thereafter and we were off to Esher for Curry. The restaurant was a cool little place on the main street. The atmosphere was wonderful and the food was excellent. We all ordered starters and offered each other taste. Mine was a kind-of stuffed dumpling (like a pot sticker) and was served with a yellow chili sauce. It was yummy! I also tried their grilled prawns (also excellent) and their sauteed chicken livers (also yummy!). All the curries were great! The conversation was good, the company was excellent. The evening seemed to fly by!

We returned to the King’s Arms for another round before calling it a night and ran into Paul and Bev who had brought the dogs (as always) so I got to play with the dogs for a bit. The evening ended with a very pleasant surprise. On my way to the loo, I saw the barman and his friend chatting in the third bar. Paulo introduced me to his friend who also wished me a happy birthday and seemed completely sincere when he told me that I looked nothing like I was in my mid-forties.

He asked me to join him and chat a bit; Paulo had to get back to tending the bar, so I grabbed my beer and we chatted for a while.

As I said, a wonderful way to spend one’s birthday!

I hope that wherever you are, you had an excellent day yesterday and have a better one today!

Don Bergquist - 17-February-2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, United Kingdom