Monday, November 3, 2008

Happy birthday to James!!

He's gonna be soo mad when he sees this ... !! :-D

James, do you remember my cunning plan that I texted you about when I was in Egypt? Or my nefarious scheme or whatever it was I called it? Here it is ... ! ;-) I'm sorry, I really am, but I just couldn't possibly resist once I got the idea. What is this blog good for if I can't use it to annoy and (hopefully) vaguely flatter my friends?? ;-)

OK! So, the rest of you: today is my friend James' birthday. You may have seen him around the blog posting various anti-Keanu comments. ;-) He's, umm ... 28? Thereabouts, anyway. (That sounds bad, but he didn't remember how old I was on the 14th, either, so now we're even. ;-) Congratulations!! We've been friends for a long time now - for about a dozen years, unless I'm much mistaken - and although we've been through some ups and downs in our friendship, it's lasted all these years. I am so grateful for that, I really appreciate our friendship so much. James, I hope you've had a good day today. :-) Your present's not in the mail quite yet, but it will be soon. :-)

Anyway ... so far this isn't too bad, right? Well, let's get down to business. ;-) I used to always pester James about getting a cell phone, and he swore up and down that he never would. But guess what, in the end he broke down and got one. (I'm sure I wasn't the only one bugging him about it, but I like to think that I played some small part in this small defection from his normally fiercely neo-Luddite stance. :-) Now I'm thinking that I want him to start a blog. He swears up and down that he never will. But, well, who knows what the future holds. ;-) Anyone who wants to do their bit in helping me bug him about it, post a comment and tell him to start up that blog!! :-D (He already registered on Blogger, so, well, make what you want of that. ;-)

He claims he doesn't know what he'd blog about. I know! A chronicle of his incredibly bad luck would probably be really entertaining to read and also helpful to him because it'd give him a great place to vent. (And I'd have the perfect place to keep up with everything he gets up to. ;-) But if that doesn't sound appealing, he should let himself be inspired by my v. regular reader Paz and use the blog as a place to share all the great photos he's taken ... and, I'm sure, will continue to take. James travels a lot in Japan, and he's taken soo many wonderful pictures there. Why not share it with the world?? Since he won't, I will!! :-D

Take a look at these ...

From Kumamoto:

From Kyoto:

From Fukuoka:

From Nara:

This one is from Nara too. It's my favorite, I think, of all the pictures he's sent me. I would have loved to have been there and seen this. :-)

And finally, here's a picture of the man himself. I took this when I was in England visiting him in November two years ago.

He doesn't like having his picture taken ... !! Can you tell?? :-D

I think these pictures are wonderful - and there are lots more of them, you can see a bunch more of them here - and he should absolutely have some kind of website where he could share them and his stories of his travels. James: I won't quit nagging you about it, you know I won't ... ;-)

Anyway! He may think this is horrible and awful but I'm posting this with only respect and affection. I did warn him that he'd get a birthday surprise. ;-) I think this is a nice surprise, so there. Thanks for reading and checking out the pictures. Now get nagging ... !!!

11 comments:

Fifty K said...

Funny post. Happy Birthday James!! Those are wonderful photos. Make your friend happy and start a blog James.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday James!
Don't start a blog unless you want to, but the pictures are beautiful, and I think they'd make a great blog.

Jenkis said...

James I don't know you and you don't know me (not even Leisha knows me) but in my own experience when you don't know what to write about you just post a song or video or a photo and that's it (which is exactly the same you'd post even if you do know what to post about). So open your own blog and profane the net with whatever you might like or also with whatever you don't like.

and happy birthday by the way ;)

Unknown said...

Bah, humbug.

Leisha Camden said...

Aw, you! I'd give you a big hug if you were here. ;-)

Thanks for commenting, guys! Truand, good comment - 'profane the net', lol! I see you are of the same school of thought as me, that a blog should just grow organically. ;-)

Lina said...

Ahhh what a sweet post! happy B-day James who ever you might be and I agree with your friend, those a brilliant pictures and a blog would be a lovely place to post them.

Anne Ida said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES! I remember K taking that pic of you - we had fun, didn't we? :o) (I think I have one of you from the same time, but without the lamp post in front *lol*)

Unknown said...

Hello Anne Ida. Been a while. I must admit I was pretty strung out on overdose of dead bee sting when you and wotsername came to Blighty back in 2006. But I'm sure we did have fun, despite the overly characteristic nature of the weather (grey skies and persistent drizzle in England ... what a surprise!).

Shame about your photo missing out on the lamp post, by the way. Probably the best bit of the photo shown here. Historical, and all that. What with Godalming being the first town in England to have electric street lighting and whatnot. (And home to Jack Phillips, who has recently once again been blamed for the Titanic disaster.)

Must admit that I'm surprised I was able to hide behind it so well, though...

Unknown said...

And to everyone else who's shown interest and left a post here; thankyouverymuch.

By the time you read this I will be ... offline and doing something in the REAL world instead. Blogging is something that happens to other people.

But thanks for all of your kind comments, anyway!

Paz said...

happy Birthday, I agree with your sentiments that there is a real world out there to live, but sharing your photo's is a great idea, your reading the blogs you might as well get your twopence in.

Leisha Camden said...

Belated thanks to everyone for commenting and congratulating! :-)