HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A SPECIAL MAN....

....Alan!

He and his wife became our neighbours some 42 years back. Many great memories of course as their two girls grew up with our two children, and of course they are all now adults them selves and have their own families growing up (Gees I must be getting old!! ... lol ). 

Today we had the privilege of being invited to Alan"s 80th Birthday party held with 120 odd guests at Daltone House a VERY up market reception venue on Sydney Harbour. 

So you say - good on Alan for choosing such a venue, excepting the party for him was provided by his employer Hume Doors. And the reason for their kind generosity?

 Alan is still hard at it, working full time selling the doors to builders and distributors. AND, loving it!

The other amazing part of this company is it is still privately owned and has outlets around Australia, and now also in New Zealand. And of the many people employed, 46 of them have worked for the Company for 6 years or more!

So nothing special you say, well of those 46,  25 have worked 20 years or more, and 14 of those have worked for 30 years or more! Not a bad record.

Alan hits the 45th year working for them, so a pretty special company with very special and committed people employed. 

To cut a very long story short, Alan first met the founding owner of Hume Doors on the P&O Oriana as they cruised the oceans, and Alan worked as a steward and looked after them with their cabin needs. At the end of the cruise they were so impressed with Alan's thoroughness and service they offered a job if he ever came to Australia. (of course he was based out of England at that stage). And you guessed it, he met Joan his lovely wife, on the same vessel, and on marrying her they came to Australia to settle. 

Yep, that's right looking for a job, he remembered that comment and called Hume Doors, and here we are now 45 years on the story is told of a wonderful night to celebrate his 80th birthday.

The pic is of the front part of the cake, a really expert job of replicating the Oriana and of course Alan's favourite footy club Portsmouth.

Enjoy, and have a look in LARGE to see the work in making the cake front.

... now an apology ... yes thanks for reading this so far, BUT for being AWOL for nearly a week! Your messages of concern makes you realise just how special this site is, thank you.

 I found "life things" got very hectic over the last few days, but we are now seeing the light of day a bit better so hope to catch up with back Blips.
AND, sincere thanks to a "SPECIAL" Blipper for gifting me a Blip Life Membership! You really are a special lot.......