50 Spence!

Long time, no post.  Will try and catch up on everything in reverse order if that's ok?

Cheers for all birthday wishes.  Very nice of you all.  Believe it or not it was the first birthday I'd celebrated since I was 21 when the sum of my celebration was to go down the pub with a few mates and have a game of football over the field when we got back at 11PM.  We used to do that pretty much every Friday night so it wasn't that much of a special celebration. 

My unwillingness to make any fuss was/is partly to do with my modesty (far too humble to expect people to come and celebrate my birthday) and was/is partly to do with the lead I took from my parents.  We had lots of wonderful (close) family get togethers which turned into parties where our mam and dad were in their element but they hated the formality and fuss of arranged celebrations.
My attitude used to drive my ex-wife nuts, she just thought I was miserable and although Shamila seems to understand I think she'd prefer it if I conformed a bit more.  Hey ho!

Anyway, haven't got time to go into what changed this time around but you're only fifty once and then you're fifty one unless you pop your clogs in the mean time!  So maybe I should do it all again next year? 

Er, no!

Once I got my head round the fact I was going to celebrate my birthday I decided I wanted to do something different and thought I'd make the celebrations last over a few days the centre piece of which was going to be a walk up to Eston Nab where I hadn't been for about 40 years.  Ever the socialite I was going to up on my own I was going to go In the end I took Shamila with me. 

It was brilliant and although it wasn't quite what I planned it was the highlight of my celebrations.  It was a bit of a pilgrimage to be honest, it was something me, Ian and Russ used to do with our mam and dad and it was my way of involving them in my birthday.

Back in the day we used to get the bus to Eston Square and walk up from there which I intended to do until Gary Widd pointed out that they've built the Parkway since then! 

Oh yeah.... anyway after taking advice from various parties one of Barbara W's work pals suggested walking from Ormesby and although our ascent was much more difficult than it needed to be it was a wonderful walk of about 6 miles.  Views over Teesside and the surrounding countryside (in that order) may not be everybody's cup of tea but in my opinion they are stunning from the Nab.  In my opinion better than from Roseberry Topping.

As I said I celebrated over a number of days starting last Wednesday with a drink with Gary Widd, Mark and Gary's adopted Boro lad friend, Mark. 

After work on Thursday, Shamila and I drove over to the Cleveland Tontine where we had a great meal and stopped over which enabled me to have 2 pints of lager before and a bottle of red wine with my meal.  It was really nice.  Might even do it again some time if I'm ever feeling flush again, given these austere times!

Friday was the walk followed by a pizza take away and another bottle of wine/more beer and although our original plans were thwarted by the weather on Saturday (another walk planned followed by another meal out at The Crab and Lobster near Thirsk) we re-planned and did some shopping at Morrison's (another highlight) and then went for a late lunch to Fellini's in The Boro.  I assume all local followers have been there, it's really good.   My cousin's daughter owns it you know?  Can't ever remember meeting her but I'll have to make myself known one of these times for either family discount or portions.

So that was it.  Apart from... our Chris came round today with a card and a present and we spent the whole afternoon together, which was an unexpected bonus.  So counting today I make that  5 consecutive  days of celebrations for my 50th birthday.  That was the birthday that was.

So.... this week? 

Mike's home tomorrow so I'm going to see him for the first time since Christmas so there'll be some socialising there and more blog posts.

I reckon I owe you 3.

1 Madrid
2 Concerts
3 EDL March

I'll try and do them and and maybe more.

Cheers