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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Happy Birthday John!


Badger and John in Tuscany.
I don’t do Birthday Blogs very often but I have a very special friend named John who I rarely see and who I miss a lot. 
I met him many moons ago and was best man at his wedding - to the lovely Christine.
For one reason or another we have never really been in the same place together for the last 20 years or so. 
But when we see each other it’s just like pulling on an old jumper. We are immediately comfortable and relaxed and he tells me the same jokes he has been telling me since 1968 – and I still laugh. 
Last year at about this time we all went to Tuscany together and had a wonderful time in a tiny little village called Bagni di Lucca. 
We ate wonderful Italian food and drank wonderful Italian wine and toured the countryside. John and Cate spoiled things by cheating at Trivial Pursuit but Christine and I let this pass in the spirit of not spoiling a good holiday.
They are not coming to Europe this but John is going on a four month tour of Australia in a campervan with one of his mates. i.e. without Christine.
Well – at no stage did I say he was entirely normal. Christine is apparently happy for him to do this on the basis that it will the first real peace she has had since they were married. 
I don’t have to see John for him to be my best Mate. I know he will always be there for me (unless he is playing Golf) and he knows I will always be there for him. 
I won’t see him when I am in Australia in August because he will be in a Campervan somewhere near Darwin – and there are limits.
Anyway - it's his Birthday - and he is nearly as old as I am. Shriek!
Happy Birthday Cobber!

9 comments:

  1. I love meeting up with old friends, when you don't have to catch up on what's happened in the last x years since you last met. You start pick up and get on with being good mates now. And, because they really know you, you don't have to be anyone but yourself.

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  2. Friends one knows forever are the treasures of one's life, aren't they?
    Happy birthday to your friend John and a reunion somewhere soon!

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  3. P..S.:
    Love your blog's new lean look!

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  4. Happy Birthday to John from me too.
    I wonder if our paths will cross in the outback. His (and mine) movements may be a little curtailed as I understand there are many, many roads closed.

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  5. That is the best kind of friendship.

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  6. Glen: TVM

    Annie: Exactly

    Merisi: They are indeed - and TVM

    Maalie: I think you will be venturing further inland than John.

    SK Waller. It is indeed.

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  7. TVM? Tennessee Valley Muzzleloading?

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