Quite a few surprises in store for Bob today as we are beginning the approach to his big birthday next Saturday. Unbelievably, he will be 70 although there is a lot of truth in the saying that 70 is the new 50!

First surprise was the arrival of dear, old friends Alistair and Maureen to swell our number.  They arrived about 3am this morning and then came down the beach to us around 1130.  I’d managed to get Bob sitting with his back to the Salida entrance and they snuck up behind him!  Talk about a double take with dropped jaw!!!!!!  He was so pleased.

A quiet day on the beach – very hot today – and some cribbage and reading in the hut.  Daisy moved from her singleton beach hut into the large one she will share with Lucy who arrives, tonight with her gang of friends.  Its a much nicer hut and has a/c which will be welcome.

Then, also in the air, were dear, old friends Sheena and Dave!!!  They landed in Goa at 1420 this afternoon and so I had to get Bob back to Eve’s Resort in time for their arrival at about 4ish.  My ruse was that I wanted tea and cake!!!!!  This should have been enough to tip him off, because I never eat cake but…….  They arrived bang on time – Bob was again so pleased – and now wondering who else would rollup!!!!  He wouldn’t believe me when I said we were now complete. 🙂

It’s such a relief to get everyone here.  The arrangements have been complex, keeping it all secret, even more so……  just Lucy and her friends to arrive now and the birthday week can really begin.  Lucy’s flight took off from Gatwick about 15 minutes late but otherwise all ok.  They will get to Salida at about 230 am I should think.

A little bit of illness in our gang today.  Penny and Chris were both victims of Delhi Belly in the night.  Chris more than Penny and he spent the day in the room, drinking lots of water and rehydration salts.  Penny came to Salida but stayed in the cool.  Not sure what was the cause.

Tonight we all ate at Namaste, one of our previously favourite beach restaurants.  The setting on the beach, under the stars is just so fabulous…. but tonight, Namaste was not fabulous.  They had a live musician playing, which we didn’t realise before we sat down.  It was a German bloke, who was a very good guitarist and singer.  We really liked him and his choice of music.  However, the sound system was actually painfully loud.  I say this as someone who has been to many live concerts including such screamworthy events as Britany Spears and Justin Timberlake, Bruce the Boss, Nickelback…..  you name it.  I have never had my ears hurt before.  We protested to the waiting staff to no avail.  In the end they moved our table back almost to the waters edge.  It was still too loud.  Not too loud if you were in Wembley Stadium but much too loud if you are sitting on Patnem Beach trying to eat your dinner, listen to some music and talk to your tablemates.  Frankly, he wasn’t just playing to the people at Namaste, he was playing to the entire beach.  Not only was it too loud but the service was bad, it took over 90 minutes to get our food and mine was lukewarm.  And the final kicker was they wouldn’t give us a happy hour because this bloke was playing live.  Frankly, its going to be a long while before I return to Namaste.  Mainly because I could sit at any shack on Patnem beach, eat dinner with fast service, drink half price cocktails and still hear whoever they have playing live there, except at a decent decibel level.