Toasting

LA celebrated 40 years on Earth with 20-30 of us at the Cauliflower Hotel in Waterloo. I always enjoy his dos as his pals are a diverse group with a common trait: an integrity I feel I lack. Drinking on an empty beer gut, I was soon rambling excitedly, which the others tolerated with good grace. (Forgawdsake, when did I get so passionate about the UK/US punk debate?) Amazingly, I was too busy holding forth even to join the card game in the corner. Tempus fugited :-) A ring of the publican's bell and we were back at LA and AA's place, green bottles in hand, monitoring the scores in the league and union Tests. The conversation had lost none of its fascination when a sudden case of the hiccups triggered a tiny warning light and faint alarm in my brain. By divine providence, a nice guy named KH chose that instant to announce he was catching a taxi to my suburb, so I tagged along (when we reached my joint first, he refused to let me contribute to the fare). I'm glad I escaped unscathed, but I sure didn't wanna leave. As parties go, it was about as relaxed and unaffected as you can get. Very appropriate for the birthday bloke.