10/08/02
This is by way of a thank-you note to all that should be thanked but have asked not to get thank-you letters and also to all those that I have not yet reached by phone,post, email, bodily contact or shouting over the fence.
 I think that hi-jacking the 4th annual Hoolie-do as a Birthday Party made it the best Birthday I've ever had, or been at.  It would not have happened without the huge effort in cooking, organising and preparing done by the Mothers, Aunts, Cousins and friends.  And it would have been no fun at all, without all the friends and relations who, with no regard of personal risk to life and liver, came and helped to celebrate 50 years of whatever I'm supposed to have been doing all this time.
It nearly makes me very humble.
 It's difficult to tell exactly when the party started but it might have been Friday night.  By Saturday Lunchtime it was in full swing with balloons, at 8.10pm a bunch of girls emerged straight out of the 50's with gifts and cakes, startling and invigorating many of the older participants.  Myself included. The party ran to about 4pm on Sunday, at which point I demonstrated the new garden sprinkling system.  My apologies, I hadn't expected the water pressure to be that high.
Despite issuing releases and let-out clauses I have been presented with many birthday gifts of different shapes, sizes and degrees of fluidity.  Quite apart from several very helpful bottles of jollification for the party there were gifts of wine, champagne, gold, crystal, corner-cupboard, and expensive folding type paper, a 4x4 the size of a toad, a toad the size of a camera, and a camera the size of your thumb.I was and still am somewhat stunned and very grateful.
 During the celebrations and general partying there were music, singing, appalling jokes and tall stories.  Several people were drawn into unconventional (some would say borderline) conversations of my own favourite philosophies and I think some listeners worried that there might be others like me in the woodwork.  (To those I say; don't fret, you only get that effect after too much drink and being unused to exposure to bright sunlight.) In fact it all went so well that we intend to do it again on Saturday 28th June 2003 (when I shall still be 50) and use that as an excuse for a 5th Hoolie do.  That should give anybody holidaying abroad a better chance of getting in on the action.  It will be a one-day event, from about midday to prevent excessive wear and tear to the elderly. (No names no pack-drill.)  To all those who could not make it this year,  (there were several because of holidays, birthdays and alien abductions .....still not sure about that one) etc.  We hope you get to the next one
Jim