Thursday 12 May 2016

A modest dream come true


Yes, it really was my birthday yesterday, and due to a clerical error on behalf of my step-daughter, the date is the same as her wedding anniversary. When she got back from the matrimonial booking-office, I complimented her for eclipsing my one day of undivided attention, and she said, "I thought that date was familiar."

This year we decided to share the glory, so the four of us went to a restaurant on the outskirts of town to have a moderate celebration with a moderate amount of alcohol - we all had to work today. 2 pints must be a record for me.

The waitress at this joint is one of my young friends from the pub, and also a good friend of step-daughter's daughter, so the whole thing was very informal. The card above was given to me by Step-Daughter, and you will see from it that our close relationship is founded upon a highly informal framework of mutual respect.

During the meal, I received a text greeting from step-grand daughter (Green-Eyes), and it read, "Happy birthday you old prick." Our affectionate family traditions are handed down from generation to generation.

The waitress came over with three, large, silver, helium-filled balloons and tied them to the backs of our chairs. One of them broke loose (she is lousy at knots) and bobbed against the low ceiling in an attempt to break free into the big, wide world. Then I remembered my childhood of 60+ years ago.

Helium-filled balloons were quite expensive in those days (or so my father told me) so when I saw some for sale and said that all I wanted to do was let go of it and watch it float away, my father refused to buy one. This, to him, would have been a shocking waste of money.

These days, the balloons are pennies in cost or - in my case last night - free, but come with a different sort of parental, restrictive advice on how they should be wasted or not wasted. Balloons, they tell us, will get tangled in the guts of animals which are foolish enough to eat them when they deflate and land as skins in a field. Bollocks. Goats eat anything, and I know one Collie dog which eats like a goat with no apparent ill effects. On my 65th birthday, I was going to fulfil a childhood ambition.

I cut the cord from the balloon and took it outside into the street, where I let it go.

It bobbed and reeled in the breeze, gaining height rapidly and travelling in a Southerly direction, right over Bath. I watched it until it turned into a dark speck, and when it had disappeared completely, I stood there a little longer and looked at the clouds it had joined, wishing it well on its journey. That night, my last thought before going to sleep was to wonder how far it had got, unobserved, in the dark.

If it does have to deflate and land in a field, I hope it is a foreign one. I had high ambitions for it when I let it go.


33 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday, Tom!

    I think I saw a silvery speck floating high among the clouds just this morning.

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  2. Belated birthday greetings. I definitely saw a balloon fly past the bathroom window at 3.30 this morning.

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  3. Oh that was what that damp flaccid thing was that landed on my bed in the night. I thought P was sleep walking.

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  4. Belated birthday greetings you fart from Hades x

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  5. I saw one at 3.32. Two minutes from Sue's to here sounds about right.

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  6. Happy birthday to you, dear Tom!!!

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  7. If the balloon is travelling south/east then I might be just as lucky to spot it too!
    I remember reading in the papers a story of two children who'd released a balloon in the sky of England in memory of their father; the balloon was later found in Italy.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. I once found a balloon launched by kids, 1/2 a mile from where it landed. I went on holiday to Italy and posted the tag back to them.

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  8. Belated Happy Birthday greetings to you, Tom.

    Having your childhood dream come true sounds pretty wonderful to me. (It seems right to use the word wonderful.)

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  9. It must cross China and the Pacific and much of the continental United States before I see it. Unless it catches a ride with ISS. How cool would that be!

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    1. Very cool indeed. I notice that (I heard it tonight) that the word 'sick' as a term of amazement has been replaced.

      Someone showed a nice item to a young, hip bloke in the pub, and he said, "That's ill, man".

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    2. Thats why the prof keeps telling me i'm sick then

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    3. No, that will probably be for some other reason.

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  10. I hope the balloon enjoyed its journey and didn't get too cold. Better a released balloon than those birthday balloons tied to gateposts that sooner or later deflate and look pathetic.

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    1. The colder it is, the higher they go. Well, it works that way with hot-air balloons anyway.

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  11. Happy Birthday, Tom! So it was YOUR balloon that dangled among the flowers of the balcony today? I'll go and fetch a beautiful empty honeypot (mmh, how come that quoting world-literature from Winny-the-Pooh sounds so -- interesting -- that I will not finish the sentence). I just say: best wishes to you!

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    1. Thanks Britta. All the way to Berlin in 15 hours? I suppose it's possible, were it not for the wrong wind direction...

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  12. The thought of you standing there on the pavement releasing your balloon and watching it sail into the sky does make me smile...I'm glad it was a special moment for you.

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  13. I have found two balloons in my fifty acre wood. One was from a school for the blind about 250 miles away. I think it must have lain in the field for quite a time, because I never could reach them to tell them where it had landed.

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    1. 'Fifty Acre Wood' sounds a little (big) like Winnie the Pooh. Well, if they were blind, you could lie about where it landed... or is that wrong?

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  14. Was it a 500lb old thing that they found had flown over from the continent?

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    1. It somehow buried itself under the playground of a girl's school without anyone noticing, and stayed there for 70 years. The rest of them went off (maybe) which is how this one went unnoticed in the mayhem.

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  15. Congratulations on making it this far. xx

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    1. Thank you. I used to think that I would live to a great age, but now I am not so sure. Strange - most young people think they will die young.

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