50

Today we went to Takely, near Bishop’s Stortford, for my cousin's 50th birthday party. The party was a surprise organised by her daughter and it was a complete surprise. It was Mexican themed and sombreros were handed out on arrival: which was a great ice breaker for people who had not seen each other for quite a while. 

This morning it was a bit touch-and-go if we would make it. We had pre-booked seats on the train to Stansted Airport, which is the nearest main station, but Storm Eunice brought some power lines down and service was still suspended when we woke (although they predicted early afternoon restart). As we needed to be there before 2pm I hastily bought some National Express coach tickets for today’s journey, applied for refund on the train, and set out for Victoria Coach Station.  The entire journey turned out to be very easy and the coach was more than half empty on departure.  It did fill so that every seat was taken by the time we departed the last stop, Golders Green. We arrived to a very cold Stansted on time, sourced an Uber that was initially to take us to the hotel but, in the end, picked-up Mum, Dad and Jez at the Travelodge and took to us all to the venue.

The party itself was a lot of fun and it was lovely to be able to see a lot of people PY and I have not seen for two years. There was catering with delicious, but diet-busting tacos and nachos and, I think, everybody had a good time. The weather did not seem to have prevented too many people from getting there.