6th April - Good Friday Service and Birthday meal at Yum Yums

On reflection I think today's service went quite well. Attendance was lower than I expected. We followed the Good Friday events through the disciple Peter's eyes and props were placed on the stage as the story unfolded to represent the various events. Many remarked that the readings and reflections that Bob had chosen were thought provoking. The service was followed by the usual soup, bread and cheese lunch. Some members of the neighbouring church joined us for this.

I arrived at Lloyds bar tonight and was pleased to see that Steve arrived not long after. We spent quite a while chatting as we waited for the others - we were concerned that it took so long for others to appear. Eventually a few turned up including one of the birthday girls, Sue. She said 19 of us had booked for tonight.
When it got to 8pm I contacted Debbie (the other birthday girl) to see where she had got to and found that she had missed a bus. She arrived at the bar just in time and we all walked over to Yum Yum's. I sat at one end of the long table with Mike, Jane, Debbie, Steve and Sue's brother,Mike. There was a pretty good selection of dishes on the buffet. I was adventurous and tried some of the Pork in Sweet Chilli Sauce (had quite a kick to it).Debbie received lots of presents. One of her work colleagues happened to be in the restaurant - she came over to give her a birthday hug. We stayed there for two hours - I love the way they don't rush you in this place. At the end of the meal the waiter came over with a lovely surprise - slices of chocolate birthday cake surrounded by pineapple rings with grapes in them. I discovered it was Steve's birthday too as the Thorntons package that Dave gave him turned out to be a chocolate car from Thorntons rather than an Easter Egg!
Sue asked us all if we wanted to go to the new Birdcage nightclub and as not all of wanted to we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe first. There we met up with our friend Pete who we hadn't seen for ages. We also discovered that it would be £8 to get in the club after 11pm. I decided not to bother as a I had a busy day ahead of me. I rang a taxi and Alan (who had been up at 5am this morning for work!) waited with me until it arrived. It wasn't as efficient as usual but the cheap fare(under £5) made up for that! In all it was a good night and a great start to the weekend.