John's first birthday party
An excellent day's work, and relieved to be able to get back on with the book, and picking up fairly rapidly where I left off. Didn't leave the house until the evening. Spoke to mum and Mas returned from a trip across the channel which seemed mostly to involve high speed driving through the countryside with Tanya and Robert. Lorraine and I out on a school night to The Basketmakers to meet John and Matt to celebrate John's birthday. John, who is sixty today, completely transformed since we last saw him a few weeks ago. He looks ten years younger, sporting a cool shirt, having lost weight, grown a beard, had a cataract operation. John's official party is Friday, and we are going to that too, but tonight a quick drink in The Basketmakers Arms, where we sat with Irish Tom before pushing off to a little local Italian place called Si Signore. This was a bring your own, and I popped by to a local off licence. Here became embroiled in a conversation with the owner and a cheer...