The Cocktail Party: London

“I suppose I was naïve to think in that first rush of feeling I had for you that it could all come right
simply because I wanted it so much.”
-Ian McEwan
‘Enduring Love’

I was fortunate on my post-50th Birthday as dear friends (Lord John Eatwell and Lady Susan Digby-Eatwell) sponsored and arranged for a cocktail party on my behalf in their Chelsea, London flat on June 3, 2009. I took portraits photos of the guests and ‘dear friends’ that were in attendance.

The guest list:
Alan Freiman, Marina Del Rey, CA
Lord John Eatwell & Lady Suzi Digby-Eatwell, Cambridge, England
Chris Davis, New Castle, England
Nigel & Pompi Parry, Salisbury, England
Tim and Janet Lance-Hughes, Hay-On-Wye, England
Bret Lopez and Mimi deBlasio, Napa Valley, CA
John & Marion Leghorn, Birmingham, England
Ed Digby & Jess, London, England
Ali Digby, Manchester, England
Marie-Paule Michel, Geneva, Switzerland
Herb Braha, Playa Del Rey, CA
Dov & Zoe Hoenig, London, England
Marcia Firesten, Los Angeles, CA

Suzi Digby arranged for her pastry chef to make me a Birthday cake in the form of a suitcase with places like ‘New York’, ‘Paris’, ‘London’, 'L.A.' and ‘Napa Valley’ used as frosting decor. And I thought this was the only cake I was going to have:
http://007gentleman.blogspot.com/2009/06/50th-birthday-dinner-in-barcelona-spain.html

I was overwhelmed. It was too lovely. I kept sipping Champagne, thinking my Birthday was over days ago. Fun things just kept happening non-stop. It was the sweetest party. We were all able to mingle easily amongst each other. Chris Davis, a fellow photographer friend, took these great photos during the venue:








You may view more of Chris Davis' dynamic photography at this site:http://www.redbubble.com/people/specular

Twenty-five years ago today:
July 13, 1984
Friday

Well, it was six months ago today that I met Chris Cordellos and we are ‘sort of’ still good buddies. That’s great.

I woke up this morning and have been very good about doing 50 pushups and 100 half-sit ups each morning. Now I’m off to eat pancakes at mom’s house. Then I plan to go bike the rest of the day (until 3PM when I go to The Alameda Courthouse to see good ole Charlie Brown again.

I ended up spending more time with mom than I expected. I tagged along with her to see Grandma (in my car with the convertible top down). The weather has been so fine during this summer breeze month.

I started to go biking but I ended up with a flat tire, so I took it into the Alameda Bike Shop on Park Street. Mom and Dad dropped me off at the Alameda Courthouse at 3PM. I met with Charlie Brown at about 3:30PM and he set it up so that I could go to Traffic School. I still had to pay a $10.00 Court fee and then $15.00 for the class. I chose to take the Traffic School class tomorrow (July 14th) just so I can get it all over with!

Mom and Dad rented two movies (CUJO and TOOTSIE), so I watched it with them until it was suddenly midnight. I headed home and fell fast asleep in hopes that no rabid ‘Cujo’ dogs would enter my dreams.