Birthday Boys

It's 24 years since our middle offspring Andrew entered this world and on my birthday of all days, what a present!

In recent years we've often played golf together on our birthday, somewhere different, a special course, sometimes joined by our eldest, Matt, and occasionally going away for a couple of days. This year was a little different as me, Andy and Matt had planned to play golf at the Manor House Golf Club yesterday but the elements conspired against us so we got a few holes in on our home course, though still got soaking wet. 

The reason for the golf being yesterday was that today me and Andy went to London to see our team, West Ham, play a pre-season friendly at Charlton Athletic's ground The Valley. 

We travelled up on the coach from Bristol, leaving at 09:15 and arriving at Victoria nearly 3 hours later (traffic). Having got our train tickets we had lunch at a local hostelry then headed to Charlton via the Jubillee and Circle lines then the main line which all took about 45 minutes; in time for a pint at the Antigallican, which was set aside for the away fans and our first rendition for the day of West Ham's signature song  'I'm Forever Blowin Bubbles…' the atmosphere was fantastic.

The ground was just a 5 minute walk and the singing continued throughout the match - from the West Ham fans anyway(!). Despite the dour 0-0 scoreline it was very enjoyable. We then retraced our route back to Victoria and had a meal and a beverage before getting the coach for the return journey arriving back in Bristol at 22:15.

We were greeted home with this cake, the photograph having been taken by Mrs K on her mobile phone this morning before we left for the coach.

What a great birthday.