70 Gong Salute

Here's Dad trying out a bizarre birthday present we found for him in France. It's an Ear Gong (don't laugh). You hang the strings over your ears, with the gong hanging down. A friend bangs the gong with "a variety of objects, such as a spoon, a pen or a banana" and you hear it really loudly. I chose it because the celtic symbol on the front reminded me of the pub sign that used to be outside my parents' house when it was a pub.

Of course everyone scoffed mightily at this daft present - until they tried it when they were amazed by the zen feeling you get when you use it. Honest.

Just to increase the mythology around my dad, he not only has an astonishing collection of old and rare malt whiskies, but he also has a small pub in his garden. This is taken in the pub, which is appropriately dark and smoky (and given that I don't like the flash, that's why it's blurry - nothing to do with the keg of lovely local summer ale Dad had got in....)

We very nearly didn't make it here at all: we had to get our place in France ready for paying guests coming in on Saturday and, somehow, didn't leave enough time. So our comfortable(ish) 2 hours to do a 50-60 minute drive and arrive 50-60 minutes before the flight left, was cut down to a crazed 45 minute journey and arriving 15 minutes before departure.

Alternative blip for today is here. We stopped off at Tescos to pick up some chilled fizz to take to the party. They had none (shock horror) so Mr B had to improvise with the largest mixing bowl he could find and a couple of bags of ice. I'm happy to report it was pretty chilled by the time we got there!

Happy 70th Dad, you don't look a day over 69.