28 April 40th b'day ash cloud

Aww, poor A. It's his 40th in a nice restaurant in town with a bunch of friends but his partner is slowly making her way up from South Africa no less. They've charted a small plane which has had to refuel en route but as of b'day dinner they're still somewhere over Spain. Stil, another best friend has spent €500 on a cab from Milan to Geneva to get a train to get another train and so on. Effort has been made and the balloons are up. And we have a cousin of the would be new PM in our midst. Swell evening.