Happy Day!

Dear All, Life has been very busy for me since Saturday, as my darling daughter turned up to help celebrate my birthday, (which is actually not until tomorrow, March 29th,) having driven all the way from West Wales to see me, together with Thomas and Kate. It was so lovely to see Cathy again, as she is a very busy girl and is only able to see me at weekends. She is the cook to a sort of residential Betty Ford Clinic for about 30 Drugees and Alchos, just to the north of Aberystwyth, and about 25 miles from her home. She obviously takes after her mother and cooks very good meals for her charges.
She had even brought with her a ready cooked chicken curry, as they did not want to stop for lunch on the way so, later in the evening we all tucked into the curry. Even I enjoyed it despite the fact that I had eaten in the lunchtime. We soon sorted out the sleeping arrangements as Cathy made up a bed in the dining room and the children kipped down on my lounge carpet, in their sleeping bags.
I had warned Cathy that I would be going to the 9 am Mass, which we have in the beautiful village Church of St. Peter and Paul, but in spite of the fact that she does not get to church very often, she came with me. As luck would have it, the Parish Priest, who has to come 20 miles from his own Parish church in Daventry to say Mass for us, was late and we thought he had forgotten to alter his clocks. But, he turned up late and dispensed with the entry procession of Palms to get on with Mass. We did not finish until 10 am and the normal Anglican worshippers had to wait outside the church until the church was empty for their morning service.

Did you all know that I had arranged for a garden woodworker (Will) to supply and build me an area of decking up in the top corner of my garden?, Well he arrived at 9 am on Saturday, and by lunch time he had built the foundations and was about to start laying the decking boards. He is only a young man and he has started his own business. I think I may have been his first customer.

After breakfast a voice from my computer, told me that Nic and family were on the screen from Singapore and we all had a good chat with lots of merriment.
Then Cathy, knowing that I was not happy with the furniture as it was in the dining room, persuaded her children to help her to re-organise it for me. It now pleases me as there is now room for my large extending dining table, which holds 8 when fully extended, to be in the dining room for us all to sit round it, and for my large sideboard to come in from the garage. Thanks, Cath plus Thomas and Kate
I need not have worried about lunch as Cathy went up to our little Co-op shop and bought enough for us to have a lovely lunch, with a bottle of wine which I had saved for the occasion. By now Will had almost finished the decking and we prepared to sit out in the sunshine when Pete and Janet, with Jessica Bethany and little 7 year old Amy Joanne arrived. Later on Ruth rang up on Skype and more laughter as we all joined in conversing with Julian and Ruth.
So I saw two of my boys in the flesh and two on Skype from abroad AND my lovely Cathy, with a total of five of my grandchildren. What a birthday!! The snag is, it is not until tomorrow and I am to attend the funeral of a friend of mine from Chinnor, Ivor Mumford, whose wife Lynne was in the Operatic Society at the same time as me so there will be many of my old friends from Chinnor there, which could be a bit of a strain on me as we were all so close and they all knew Margaret as well. I will have to be very brave and face what could be an emotional meeting.
Then, before Cathy had to return to Wales, and Steve had left in his lorry we all admired the new decking which, by now was all complete and waiting for us to have a BBQ. We trust that the promise of nice weather in the summertime will come to fruition, so that we can enjoy sitting out on my new decking.
Thank you all for making it a memorable day. Love from a very happy Dad.