Greg’s Birthday
Last Friday was Greg’s nineteenth Birthday and a day of Birthday celebrations were planned. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we were planning on surprising him with a surprise Zakynthos ‘Intrepid Explorers’ group walk (the fun name that we use to call a small group of us that walk midweek) and a barbecue back at the house.
As Greg’s has Aspergers Syndrome, we wouldn’t think of throwing a totally surprise party for him, but as he’d mentioned that he’d like to do a walk with the group, we thought we would go ahead and arrange something without his knowledge.
Well, it turned out that he had other ideas and was up for organizing it himself, which was something we encouraged, but meant that we had to spoil the surprise.
He Planned And Mapped Out A Walk
Together with his Dad, Greg’s spent an evening on Google maps mapping out a walk in the mini mountains near to our house. It was to be an 8km walk, with stunning views across Zakynthos (you can actually see the sea on both sides of the island from up there) with a Birthday barbecue back at our house afterwards.
But Sods Law Happened
All winter the weather has been beautiful and we’ve not had to cancel one single walk due to bad weather. Well, that was until Greg’s Birthday.
The day of his Birthday, the weather was a tease. It was blowing a gale, then the black clouds rolled across the mini mountains and it rained. Then it cleared. Then the black clouds came back and it hailed, hard. And more than once.
The ‘Intrepid Explorers’ sheltering from the hail storm. I love this picture because it shows how relaxed and happy Greg’s is with the group.
To everyone’s credit, they all turned up ready to walk regardless of the weather. And we met up at the allotted time, waited out the hail storm, then sort of started off before common sense kicked in and we decided that we would just end up cold, wet and miserable if we went ahead with the walk, so back to our house we headed for a barbecue.
Our house isn’t the biggest of houses, but there was room for everyone. Luckily, there were a few that braved the weather to support my husband whilst he juggled three barbecues (being a South African, he was born to barbecue or braai as they say over there) and cooked more than enough meat for fourteen of us, which helped.
The brave ones!
The wind helped the wood turn to charcoal in record time, but it still took a couple of hours to cook all the meat and at one point it hammered down, but they stayed out and gave their support regardless!
A few of the guests.
Every year, without fail, Greg’s requests a coconut Birthday cake
The compulsory Birthday photo with the Grandparents.
A Good Time Was Had By All
In true British fashion, we never let the weather ruin the day. Greg’s still had a fantastic Birthday regardless and I for one, am proud of the friends we have got to know through joining the Zakynthos Walking Group.
© 2016, Debbie. All rights reserved.
Tagged In...
Aspergers Syndrome • autistic spectrum disorder • Greg's and Us • holidays and celebrations • my photographs • That's life
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