Johnny's 20th Birthday
Birthday Weekend
3 July 2005
Thus the big day finally arrived and Johnny reached what would have been conscription age not so long ago. The French Army probably started to do away with National Service the moment that they realised that he had been born.
A few presents were handed over. He received a pack of blank CDs from Jean-Marie which means that I can now use mine for important things as opposed to copies of Slipknot or Belgian Techno.
Jean-Jacques gave him an Eric and Ramzy DVD which he had been looking for called: Les Daltons which from the cover I presume will be a Western. It will keep us amused I am certain.
Vanessa and the family gave him a bottle of Trimaran EDT (That's pretty close to Merchant Adventurer if you ask me), they must think he smells too much of copper piping and drains.
The evening was finished with a bottle of beer brewed by our friend Manu especially for Johnny's Birthday and a model of a Lancer Evolution VIII in red and black from me.
The weather continued to be kind and at 03:00 hours we were still sitting outside in T-shirts, but the evening was coming to a close. You can't start tomorrow if you haven't finished today !
There are days it all just gets too much for me
Morning has broken
I was up early again and rather to my surprise, so was JJ who gave me a hand cleaning up the interior of the house whilst I washed the dishes. At midday the bedroom door finally opened and Johnny, Vanessa and petit Johnny came down for breakfast.
Whilst I prepared food, they cleaned up the terrace and the garden. I did say to petit Johnny that I would charge him an Euro for every paper ball I found in the garden - poor lad would have been bankrupt.
In the afternoon we all headed off to Aquaclub at Quend. It is not far from the house and is a very good water park. They have a number of slides as well as an impressive wave system. Usually we remain in the pool for the waves but this time we used the corridor alongside the pool and discovered that in fact the force of the water there is enough to knock you down.
The only injury of the day was me when in attempting to pull JJ under the water by swimming underneath him, he managed to put a finger in my eye - so I have a bit of a black eye for the moment. Just after that Johnny and I collided in the waves. You work hard for the kids and they just attack you. I don't know, youngsters of today.
The day finished with Sandra and Peter coming over for a meal in the evening, followed by a thunderstorm which would leave the village awash with mud the following morning.
His final present had been a game for his X-Box from me. GTA San Andreas is something he has been wanting from the moment it came out on his system a few weeks ago. We may see him in August once he has finished it. I'll just push food under his door from time to time !
See also
Australian Bomber crew remembered