WAGS Celebrate Mike getting even Older 18.07.2020
Mike Pease @ 90.
A fairly recent pic of the nonagenarian or nonagenàrio or even mgani (taken during the last 70 years!!)
As this was a significant birthday for Mike, both Heather (from UK) and Cynthia (from USA) managed to fly in covertly despite the anti-Covid 19 precautions so rigorously enforced by UK and Portuguese Immigration, to celebrate their Father's Glorious 90th.! They had a private family celebration on the actual day (17th July) but Myriam in collaboration with Jyll, Heather and Cynthia, organised a tribute from a few WAGS, on the following evening.
Just over 10 years ago, Mike entered his fourth childhood, and to commemorate the occasion, since we were both still active geocachers, I designed a puzzle cache in his honour.
A puzzle geocache is one in which the setter poses a problem that if solved leads eventually to the coordinates of a geocache.
This puzzle read ;-
This cache is to celebrate a significant birthday of a good friend and fellow geocacher, Espargosas or Mike as we know him, and perhaps to give him the chance of a FTF!
‘Twas a Very Good Year!
Uruguay beat Argentina 4 – 2 in the World Cup.
Juan Antonio Samaranch was exactly ten years old but someone else had arrived on this planet at midday.
Pope Gregory preferred the current form of the date, and he named this month after a man who might possibly have considered it differently, perhaps as ‘abcdefg’
Mike’s Cache, for which you may have discovered the connection is at:
N37º(a-c)(a+d).((d+e)-f)(f)(2b)’ and W 008º (c+e)(a+e+g).(d-c)(b+g)(a)
Now I am not expecting any of the current readers to solve the puzzle and rush off to claim the cache as found, but to date this cache has been found and logged by 137 Geocachers, the most recent being 23rd of May this year. Thanks to strong hints to local Geocachers about laying off, Mike was the First to Find the cache . This was his log, his Geocaching ID being Espargosas, and ours is Team Caracache.:-
Before I go on, we had better examine events and other birthdays on July 17th to determine Mike's place in history.
Member
Found it14/07/2010
Before I go on, we had better examine events and other birthdays on July 17th to determine Mike's place in history.
1785 - France limited the importation of goods from Britain.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to the British at Rochefort, France.
1917 - The British royal family adopted the Windsor name.
1998 - Biologists reported that they had deciphered the genome (genetic map) of the syphilis bacterium.
Mike also shares his birthday with Angela Merkel (1954) and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,(1947) though perhaps that is balanced by James Cagney, (1899) , David Hasselhoff (1952) and the Xianfeng Emperor of China (1831).
To return to the 18th July this year, the day after Mike had entered his 10th decade.
The whole operation had been kept Top Secret and was scheduled for those attending to appear below the rear balcony to Mike's flat at 6pm at which time, Mike would be lured onto the balcony by Jyll and his daughters to greet the assembled well-wishers, much like the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet. Indeed, John had even prepared some excerpts from Shakespeare to be read.
Our Hero acknowledges the adoring masses.
Some of the extras in the Scene
Cynthia was a bit of a specialist in the art of the group selfie!
Mike decided to descend from his eyrie and join the fan club.
At one point, Myriam, who John had decided would play out the balcony scene, was passed her script which she immediately forced upon Michael Summerfield to read out, as he was unable to run away fast enough! He read it with gravitas and emotion, but the effect was rather spoilt as Our Hero had descended from the balcony by this time.
For those that were not there here is an unedited reproduction of the text.
But, soft ! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the
east, and Juliet is the sun ! -
Arise,
fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is
already sick and pale with grief,
that thou
her maid art far more fair than she.
See, how
she leans her cheek upon her hand !
O, that I
were a glove upon that hand,
That I
might touch that cheek !
O Romeo,
Romeo ! Wherefore art thou Romeo ?
Deny thy
father, and refuse thy name;
Or, if
thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I´ll
no longer be a Capulet.
`Tis but
thy name that is my enemy; -
O, be
some other name !
What´s in
a name ! That which we call a rose
By any
other name would smell as sweet.
Good
night, good night ! Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I
shall say good night till it be morrow.
I found the following lines from a poem by Yeats which seemed to fit the theme though it is called a Faery Tale, and nothing has been proved - yet!
WE who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.
A couple of family portraits
Cynthia and Heather
By now we were getting hungry so we repaired individually to our venue of choice - Happy Sumo, which not only had a spacious outdoor dining area, suitable for social distancing but an excellent fixed price All You Can Eat Sushi/Sashimi/Tempura etc etc menu - something for every one.
The Top Table
A small sample of the dishes on offer.
Other diners
The Birthday cake arrives!
Some more of the diners.........
Courtesy of a waiter - thanks!
And a very pleasant and memorable evening was had by all. Of course many thanks to Jyll for keeping him under control for over 60 years, and forcibly curbing his excesses! Lastly a selfie of the future Mike and looking forward to the next one!
And from The Life of Brian : - Mikethusalah!!!
(with acknowledgement to Anthony Frew Productions!)
Very pleased the event went so well. CONGRATULATIONS, Mike, on beating us all the next milestone On, on!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, hope we all get to 90!
ReplyDeleteAlso shared birthday with António Costa 1961 PM of Portugal.
Ah the esotericism of geocaheing. More arcane than Eleuisis itself
ReplyDeleteAnd there was me thinking that Sue & I celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on July 18th also were getting on a bit....congratulations Mike. Hope to catch-up with some AWW tales one day.
ReplyDelete