Whirlwind trip back to Blighty

After too many weeks in Santiago I flew back to the UK for Millie's 21st and Rosie's 18th Birthdays. Had to fly via Sao Paolo with a 5 hour stop over but otherwise the flights were good and comfortable. Also had the pleasure of sitting next to a pretty Brazilian girl who was returning to her studies at LSE - a Masters thesis on the "Asian Effect as it relates to the Brazilian Economy", as you can imagine we had lots to discuss!  Return flight may not be quite so good as I have booked economy!!! What on earth was I thinking of?

It was a pretty hectic week. Arrived Sunday afternoon and Tom kindly picked me up from Heathrow.
Monday, Golf at Goodwood thanks to the kind invitation by Julian aka Atco. The weather was miserable and we were all  wetter than an Otters pocket by the end of it! I am sure it raised a lot of money for the Arundel Cricket Foundation (for children who don't get a lot in life). My golf was dreadful (topped most shots for the first few holes) - I knew I should have kept those shoes! It was nice to catch up with a few old soaks from the market.

Tuesday, we drove to Falmouth and a pre Birthday dinner with Millie and a few of her friends. whilst sorting luggage I managed to drop the cake Rosie had so lovingly baked for her big sister! The pre-birthday bash started at the Chain Locker (a pub right on the harbour wall) where Millie works occasionally to subsidise her meagre allowance. We then had dinner at a Jamaican restaurant finishing at about 2:00am with a few sore heads in the morning. Some idiot kept ordering wine and then some silly small drinks called Honey Rums. It would have been Lemon cello but they didn't have any. We had the nicest waitress in the world - Emily, and I seem to remember one of the girls wandering down the high street wearing the advertising blackboard from the restaurant. If only we knew what would happen the next night!

Wednesday started a little slowly but we managed to have lunch with Mother & Phil over at Praa Sands and very little alcohol. Tasha made it over with Finn too. Poor Rosie had to repair the damaged cake before her siesta.

Millie's 21st Birthday Party started as a quiet affair at a Beach Restaurant in Falmouth (Ghyll something or other). We were late to the restaurant to find 16 students sitting at the table drinking water! I think they were too scared to start a tab! Wine was soon ordered and then the food. Things started to gather pace when most of the starving students did not order starters (what is wrong with the youth of today). A fine of a Tequila was ordered for the culprits.

Millie had invited a second group of students to join us after dinner for drinks. They arrived just in time for a Birthday Cake competition - Millie's friends had made cakes too (Rosie's was still the best despite my input!). The competition was nothing more than a "cheerometer", which I am not sure the other diners appreciated. I was a little disappointed we didn't have time to play "musical puddings".

The horde of thirsty students found their way to the bar and things gathered momentum........... we now hold the record for most shots in an evening at this bar!

They only had 40 shot glasses (which was not enough), which is just as well otherwise things could have got out of hand! Tequila shots, tequila slammers, Squashed Frogs, Baby Guinness, Sambuca, Black Sambuca and lots of chocolate cake in the face!

The latter only because the girls won the first two "boat races". Thomas had worked out why the men kept losing the boat races - the girls didn't know the rules and just drank their shot, not waiting for their team mate to display their empty, upturned glass on theirs head. The boys felt it was prudent to resort to cheating and given the quantity of uneaten cake - stuffing handfuls into the oppositions faces seemed the logical answer! I am not sure who's idea that was....................

There was an element of retaliation, about the same time as I was helping behind the bar (at the bar staffs insistence!) I got a faceful of Chocolate cake entirely deserved I have to say..
At this point I apologised to the bar staff. far from being upset Ross and his team joined the general melee and came with us to the next venue! What a great place to have a party!

Then on to the Mango Tango Karaoke bar. Someone had the presence of mind to bring some cake to bribe the bouncers to let us in - and it worked! More shots and drinks plus some pretty awful singing. No Matt Monroe, which was a bit disappointing but I do remember the Monkees - Day Dream Believer being very popular..

At about 3:00am we started to drift off back to our lodgings. it was a shame there was a truck full of garden waste and a wheel barrow on the way home. The culprits were some distance up the road when the irate owner appeared with a bucket of water. that will teach  Mary-Ann & Rosie (who were someway behind the advance party) to keep up!

Shame that someone left their identity card in the truck! Anyway the Police and the University have been very understanding about it all as it was only high jinks and no damage done!

An even slower start the next day and a drive back to Surrey in awful weather. Shame we got away late as I had hoped to see Ian at Castle Coombe testing his race car.

Their was little respite before Rosie's 18th which was at home and then on to Brighton. 16 18 year old girls at home was interesting and Wilks had volunteered to take Photos of the girls in all their finery (he did the same at Millie's 18th). which was no mean effort considering he was not long back from South America himself. After finishing a Methuselah of Champagne we put the girls in a Party Bus to Brighton. Thankfully there was no room for us fossils. The next we heard of them was about 3.30am when the bus delivered them back again.
It seems an uneven post on their respective parties and whilst Rosie's was a great event I was not witness to most of it! What I can say is that both Millie's & Rosie's friends were great company, good fun and very nice people! I just hope they enjoyed their parties as much as I did. You loving, embarrassing father X

Before heading back to Santiago I needed to get my Race Medical ECG done for Le Mans. Luckily Mark Green fitted me in before I headed to London. I had to deal with a few technical things with banks etc and it also gave me a chance to have a few drinks with some old friends and colleagues. As much as I enjoyed seeing everyone I have to say I do not miss working in London, actually I just don't miss working!

So here I sit back in Sunny Santiago (it was a shame to see such awful weather for the week I was in the UK) with the good news of being able to collect my bike - hopefully today! Then I will be able to head north to the desert regions of Chile and then move on to Bolivia and Peru.

with a bit of luck the Blog may get a bit more interesting than it has been of late.

Oh there were lots of pictures but none on my camera so none on here (which is just as well)!