Z’s Birthday Celebration...
People choose to celebrate their birthdays in various ways… Some are secretive about their birth event guarding it like the holly grail… others advertise it to the world making a big fuss about it and yet others are quite relaxed not expecting it to even be a celebration.
My partner Z is none of the above. He treats his birthday more like a national holiday.
He quite unique in many walks of life and he has earned the right to live it up… after all unlike a lot of people that I know he is not just all talks and no action…
This year for his 32nd birthday he pretty much had a week long celebration… Celebrating the actual day of his birthday in Denmark at Hamlets castle with a local friend while he was in Sweden for work… And the weekend after his birthday he celebrated in style with friends at home in London…
I have obtained permission to re-publish the events as he listed them in his blog… So here is Z’s 32nd birthday celebration in London narrated by the birthday boy himself…
” Rounded up at our place for rum/wine/whisky, left in the minicab driven by Ali. Ali was fully briefed, so he asked no questions, told no lies. A simple chap with a simple goal, get this herd of people to the London Eye.
With his skillful dodging of traffic and intimate knowledge of the back roads he snaked his way through old and new streets, past famous and infamous places. Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Eye was near. Not only was it near but it was red. Curiouser and curiouser. The Eye is often lit at night but this time it was a distinct un-blue shade of light, quite reddish actually. It turned out the red was in celebration of the Red Nose Day! We screeched to a halt and tumbled elegantly out of the minivan, into the bar, a perfect transition. In there we met one more of the troop, a quick drink later we were off to the London Cog. Tickets in hand, led by our hostess who was clutching our champagne and glasses. I liked her from the moment we met, any girl who carries her own champagne and glasses around London on a Saturday night was alright by me. I knew we were in good hands. Aboard the Eye we had the capsule to ourselves and the drinks were poured and the ice was melted. Most of the people were new to each other so the capsule was a talk or sink situation. Barriers came down, conversations and experiences shared.
A quick stop at All Bar One and back into 2 cars this time, our friend Ali was back with a new driver. This time we swung past palaces, monuments, halls and gardens, London at its most magnificent. Tradition and traffic, all in one huge sushi roll. Next stop Tamarind, the only Michelin star Indian restaurant in the UK, postmodernism gone mad! Judging by the Bentley count on the curb, we were in the right part of town. This was going to be luxurious, with lashings of hedonistic decadence. Everyone shuffled into the restaurant, the headed to the bar. "Barman, we have arrived at your h'establishment merry and we mean to leave drunk, bring me your finest whiskey". Those weren’t the exact words but actions speak louder than words. One divine meal and lots of lovely glasses of wine later. "Cheque, please." Private moment: reconciling with yourself that it was alright to spend THAT much money on a meal. That moment passed, party on !!!!
At this stage we lost the out of towners, from here on in, it was going to be Londoners only. That only left 4 of us but what we lacked in number we didn’t let slip in attitude. Aura Restaurant and Bar was up next, would the guest list request pay off, would the bouncers jump on somebody’s outfit, would the table be ready as we'd hoped. Full marks to the team at Aura, we were made to feel welcome, special and comfortable. We had tables reserved only for us in the middle of the dance floor, noisy enough but without the speakers in our ears. Time for another treat, bring out the Crystal...and don’t spare the sparklers. I'd been arranging things with the floor manager there and he'd been a perfect host all night, he also had the DJ lower the music, the lights went low and my bottle of champagne came riding out, held aloft by a waitress-waif with sparklers spewing luminous effervescence from the side of the bottle. At that point my vanity-meter went off the scale. I was in London being spoilt in amidst the clubbing elite and I was sharing it with friends. Suddenly, all the time spent traveling and being away from my sweetheart melted away and I just saw lovely happy people all over the place. Michael Jackson, Billy Jean on the speakers. Can’t help myself, time to show the kids that papas got a brand new bag.
Boogying finished, escorting two beautiful ladies and one of my oldest friends out of the club, I felt like good things had happened. London isn’t just for the brash and the cutthroat, not only for the steely and impersonal...that night it was a place for one man amongst millions around him to pass through an era. To challenge Old Man time to come and join him on another adventure for the year to come and to say farewell to his journeys of the past with his friends. Good times.”
My partner Z is none of the above. He treats his birthday more like a national holiday.
He quite unique in many walks of life and he has earned the right to live it up… after all unlike a lot of people that I know he is not just all talks and no action…
This year for his 32nd birthday he pretty much had a week long celebration… Celebrating the actual day of his birthday in Denmark at Hamlets castle with a local friend while he was in Sweden for work… And the weekend after his birthday he celebrated in style with friends at home in London…
I have obtained permission to re-publish the events as he listed them in his blog… So here is Z’s 32nd birthday celebration in London narrated by the birthday boy himself…
” Rounded up at our place for rum/wine/whisky, left in the minicab driven by Ali. Ali was fully briefed, so he asked no questions, told no lies. A simple chap with a simple goal, get this herd of people to the London Eye.
With his skillful dodging of traffic and intimate knowledge of the back roads he snaked his way through old and new streets, past famous and infamous places. Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Eye was near. Not only was it near but it was red. Curiouser and curiouser. The Eye is often lit at night but this time it was a distinct un-blue shade of light, quite reddish actually. It turned out the red was in celebration of the Red Nose Day! We screeched to a halt and tumbled elegantly out of the minivan, into the bar, a perfect transition. In there we met one more of the troop, a quick drink later we were off to the London Cog. Tickets in hand, led by our hostess who was clutching our champagne and glasses. I liked her from the moment we met, any girl who carries her own champagne and glasses around London on a Saturday night was alright by me. I knew we were in good hands. Aboard the Eye we had the capsule to ourselves and the drinks were poured and the ice was melted. Most of the people were new to each other so the capsule was a talk or sink situation. Barriers came down, conversations and experiences shared.
A quick stop at All Bar One and back into 2 cars this time, our friend Ali was back with a new driver. This time we swung past palaces, monuments, halls and gardens, London at its most magnificent. Tradition and traffic, all in one huge sushi roll. Next stop Tamarind, the only Michelin star Indian restaurant in the UK, postmodernism gone mad! Judging by the Bentley count on the curb, we were in the right part of town. This was going to be luxurious, with lashings of hedonistic decadence. Everyone shuffled into the restaurant, the headed to the bar. "Barman, we have arrived at your h'establishment merry and we mean to leave drunk, bring me your finest whiskey". Those weren’t the exact words but actions speak louder than words. One divine meal and lots of lovely glasses of wine later. "Cheque, please." Private moment: reconciling with yourself that it was alright to spend THAT much money on a meal. That moment passed, party on !!!!
At this stage we lost the out of towners, from here on in, it was going to be Londoners only. That only left 4 of us but what we lacked in number we didn’t let slip in attitude. Aura Restaurant and Bar was up next, would the guest list request pay off, would the bouncers jump on somebody’s outfit, would the table be ready as we'd hoped. Full marks to the team at Aura, we were made to feel welcome, special and comfortable. We had tables reserved only for us in the middle of the dance floor, noisy enough but without the speakers in our ears. Time for another treat, bring out the Crystal...and don’t spare the sparklers. I'd been arranging things with the floor manager there and he'd been a perfect host all night, he also had the DJ lower the music, the lights went low and my bottle of champagne came riding out, held aloft by a waitress-waif with sparklers spewing luminous effervescence from the side of the bottle. At that point my vanity-meter went off the scale. I was in London being spoilt in amidst the clubbing elite and I was sharing it with friends. Suddenly, all the time spent traveling and being away from my sweetheart melted away and I just saw lovely happy people all over the place. Michael Jackson, Billy Jean on the speakers. Can’t help myself, time to show the kids that papas got a brand new bag.
Boogying finished, escorting two beautiful ladies and one of my oldest friends out of the club, I felt like good things had happened. London isn’t just for the brash and the cutthroat, not only for the steely and impersonal...that night it was a place for one man amongst millions around him to pass through an era. To challenge Old Man time to come and join him on another adventure for the year to come and to say farewell to his journeys of the past with his friends. Good times.”
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