Better late then never Ric
thanks to you and to everyone for your kind wishes, I truly appreciate every word each of you has written - and all the emoticons!
In answer to your question Jeanette: Joy organised a boat trip, she hired a pontoon boat for half a day and, along with my son (staying for the weekend), some friends and some family we toured up, down and all around the Pumicestone passage along Golden Beach, enjoying a warm and cloudless day. (It was fairly breezy at first but the wind dropped off and it was a fabulous leisurely boat cruise in every respect.)
We then came back here afterwards where I had a (few more) drinks and more nibblies, my favourite dinner (Pizza Hut pizza!) and a night of DVD's. In fact it's near 3am now and I've stretched the "Birthday Boy" day to the max, but it's been a great day.
I specifically told my friends and family not to wory about presents as I'd rather have their company (my nephew for instance has to drive over 2 hours each way just to visit) but I was fortunate enough to receive a 12 month subscription to Australian Sky and Tel mag. In terms of other Astro goodies just over a week ago I received my birthday pressie to myself - a "new" (2nd hand) Coronado PST purchased via IceTrade here. It arrived just in time for me to view last weeks sunspot group and a couple of prominences, apparently some of the first solar activity in over a year I read somewhere.
One more thing I would like to say to those who wished me well, and to every one else here: I've been a member here for over 3 years, and although I find it hard to be as active here as I used to be, there is one thing that always has, and still does hold true. This forum has always enjoyed an abundance of warm and friendly members, a trait that I think we have all noticed and one that keeps us coming back here, and this thread is proof.
I'd consider myself fortunate and grateful if the only warm wishes came from people whom I consider to be good friends: Jeanette, Ron and Paul, I'm even more fortunate and grateful that Matt, whom I've only met once face to face, likewise wished me well. But when you consider that 2/3 of the birthday greetings herein came from people that I have never actually met, and in many cases have never really conversed with directly at all even here on the forum, you really begin to understand how friendly a place this is - and it's the people that make it so.
So to all of you - whether we have spoken in the past or not - congratulations to you all for being part of this group, and I look forward to talking to you or seeing you face to face sometime soon, whether it be for the first time, or the hundredth.
Cheers to you all!
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