John Elkington

Geoff, Sarah, Sophia Fran and Shelly

As I pack for Sweden, several wonderful days of celebration come to an end, both of my first 60 years and of the first year of Volans, a milestone we passed on 1 April. A number of photos taken during the Bloomsbury Place party last night appear below, taken by several people – including Sam – with my camera.

Romy, Godfrey, Elaine Mark and Julia Jennifer and David Hania

Dorothy and Julia

Tom Sarah and Nigerian flames Talking with Molly Geoffrey and Elaine Candles

Patrin of the Cup Cakes

Sam and Patrin came armed with legions of extraordinary cup-cakes to the party this evening, some more extraordinary than others.

 

XXX

All I want is the paper and the ribbons Ditto

Gaia and Hania came across today, bearing gifts – including a box of two wonderful red wines: Bohorquez 2005 from Spain, and Pleiades XVI, made by Sean Thackeray in Bolinas, California. As one wine retailer says of the latter, “Named for the Pleiades star cluster (also called the Seven Sisters) this wine is a blend of syrah, sangiovese, mourvèdre, barbera, carignane, petite sirah and viognier, among others. Thackrey blends by taste and doesn’t keep track of the fruit that ends up in each blend so it’s different from year to year. Juicy fruit, earth and Thackrey’s signature eucalyptus note.”  Haven’t go to that yet, but a glorious day – am inclining to having my 60th birthday every year.

Chicory Salmon Gaia’s shoes Violet molasses cake

Like the late Peter Townsend, but less directly, Ralf Dahrendorf was a prominent feature in the landscape when I was doing my BA and M.Phil. But I have had a lot more pleasure from Huey Long, whose obituary appears in The Times today, who has just died at the age of 105 – and who played for eight months in 1945 with one of my favourite musical groups, the Inkspots. Lovely face. Played all the tracks on my IPod this morning in celebration of his passing.  Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, which also features Ella Fitzgerald, is one of the tracks on the compilation of music I had already recorded to play on Monday evening.

The Value Web poster (sorry about the quality of this version of the image)

Now displayed both on the walls of 2 Bloomsbury Place and on the Value Web website, this grainy version of the poster mentioned in the previous post is the most extraordinary birthday missive I think I have ever had. And certainly the biggest. Will aim to post a better image next week when the masterwork has been formally launched.