Let's eye high to Hard Rock

Up early this morning and it was opening birthday cards and presents before Del was greeted with 50th banners all around Derwent6. Bernie and Sarah, David and Hannah had stayed on board last night and had set up a surprise with Al on what was going to happen through the day. We then set off at 10.45am and got a taxi to the London Eye. There to greet us were more family and friends with the tickets to go up the big wheel. There were 16 of us and we managed to get a pod on our own. Just as we were getting on, it started to rain. Some of the crew were a bit nervous about heights and as we got to the top the rain became torrential. The wind also picked up but to be honest it still felt quite safe. We all sang Happy Birthday to the chimes of Big Ben at 12 o' clock for Del, probably to calm our nerves, but it was a moment to remember forever.As we came down the sun came out and we looked at the views across London, wonderful!

When we came off we went to a 4D cinema thing about the eye which turned out to be quite good. It was then into cars and cabs and we headed off to Piccadilly. We first went to a wine bar and yes you guessed it we met up with more family and friends. After a meet and greet, and a few drinks of course we made our way up to Hyde Park Corner and walked into The Hard Rock Cafe and met up with more friends.By this time there were about 32 of us and Hard Rock had given us a large area of the restaurant all to ourselves. For anyone who hasn't been to Hard Rock, it is a Music Museum with loads of memorabilia from the beginning of Rock music, together with good food.

We had a fantastic afternoon eating and drinking as Del opened his presents (he has some very good family and friends and is a very lucky boy) and a big thank you was in order. We apologise now to anyone who we couldn't ask as numbers were limited, and also to anyone we never took photos of, as we were a bit p****d at the time. This Day will be a memory forever and we thank everyone who was there for making the time and effort to make this day special for Del.

We didn't leave hard rock until 9.00pm and then made our way towards the West End. We found a cocktail bar and sat drinking then 'till late into the night using the last minutes of the day wisely. It was a black cab back to Derwent6 with us a bit worse for wear where Pat & Keith were waiting for us. The fire had been lit and the kettle on for us as we arrived. We sat going over the days events till 1.00am before we crashed into bed. Just a top, top, day and one of our best memory's.