P.S. Gillies family we missed you!

May 7th - Day 5 of the Callander 50th Birthday Celebration Tour

Our last day here in Nice and this is the only photo I manage to take...

Perhaps subconsciously inspired by the photo that Sophie took the previous evening and kindly saved as my desktop background.

I'm afraid that today's commentary was sadly interrupted by a bout of agonising illness (being a bit over dramatic here) and this blogger has been recuperating all day in bed at the hotel and much to my chagrin missing a lovely, sunny day in Nice.  

It's now 10.15pm and I'm fading (blogging is not as easy as it may seem) and so I'm signing off on this blog with many thanks to all of you who have made my husband's birthday so special with your kind gestures and birthday wishes.  I'm so grateful for all our friends and family.

Love, Nikki

May 6th - The day after

Day 4 of David's Birthday Celebration

By now I am barely waking up, am always bleary-eyed, I never make it to breakfast and no longer have the energy to put on my makeup in the morning to disguise the lack of sleep and the beating my body has taken over the last few days.  How then, have all the others managed to get up, eat their breakie and look so good?  Damn them!

On Sunday we said adieu to The Copes (who I hope to see on my retribution tour) and the Evans-Smith Clan but not before we had another chance to sit down for food and bevvies.  Ran into the other party goers in the Old Town and took another opportunity for a group photo...sorry party people but it was for the sake of documenting a momentous occasion and you won't have to put up with it much longer!

Yes, more food and drink.

Please note that this was only our first stop of the day and that the second stop took place about an hour later but was not recorded.

Sophie on our way to dinner

By now, no one wants to get in the group photos except for these kind people!

 Thank God they gave us an entire room to ourselves.  You would not believe what these people talk about!

A more interesting dinner

By the time we finished dinner, France had a new President and there were celebrations in the streets of Nice!

Viva la France!

(END OF DAY FOUR)

David's Big Day Part 2

Bon jour David Callander fans.  Apologies for the delay but as you read yesterday, the computer was side-swiped by Sophie last night.  I don't know that this posting will live to Sophie's hype in that it will be AMAZING but I shall try to fill in the last bits and pieces of our trip here in Nice.  I must add a side note here that I have been sick and in bed all day so please keep this in mind and cut me some slack if I'm not very amusing today.

I believe I left off after our trip to St Paul de Vence.  David, having made a miraculous recovery, stopped off at the rooftop bar at the Hotel Plaza while the rest of us tootled off to take naps and get ready.  Denis was kind enough to arrange a pre-party champagne kick off in the lobby where I managed to get some photos of our stunning guests.

 Our guests (minus the Macleans and the McCallums)

Having started their journey at 7.30am in the morning at Edinburgh airport, the Macleans and McCallums were struck by an unfortunate incident in which their plane was deemed as 'broken.'  Because of the amount of time it took for another plane to be brought in, Squeazy Jet had to commandeer a new crew and our unfortunate quartet of travellers did not arrive until 8.15pm.  

The arrival of the unfortunates

 The McCallums 

The Macleans 

Dinner was on the beach at The Lido Plage

Me, Sophie, David, Denis and Ichrak Frachon on our way back to the Havana Club for more dancing.  This blogger headed home quite early with sore feet and a sore tummy.  :(

Nikki is unable to do any blogging this evening as i 

(Sophie), have commandeered the laptop to watch Game of Thrones. I hereby promise that there will be an AMAZING post tomorrow to make up for it.  

May 5th - David's Birthday

Just a mention that I may have to carry on this post tomorrow as it's now about 1.40am and I am fading fast but I'll do what I can.

We were off to a rough start this morning.  David didn't think he was going to be able to handle the 45 minute bus ride to St Paul de Vence.  In hindsight, we probably should have left him behind but he was a trooper and stood in an over crowded bus for a 45 minute journey on winding roads to visit the hilltop village with his mates.  He literally turned green on the way there and nearly passed out but LMS isn't called LMS for nothing.

Our day...

After having finally found the correct bus stop we waited for 10 minutes before figuring out that we had nearly 40 minutes to wait.  Bummer.  So we went to, wait for it...

I thought it was quite funny but maybe I'm just not firing on all cylinders today.

The bus ride.
The driver was amazingly grumpy and drove the bus like a mad woman.  For those of us who had a bit too much to drink and little sleep it was not a nice experience.

David found a cool place to settle in to while we walked around.  His colour came back after a beer ('Hair of the dog' approach).

I may look happy but I'm disguising my inner anguish.  Too much wine and perhaps having eaten something bad, my body was rejecting any nourishment - i.e. I was never too far away from a toilet all day.  :(

Sophie with the always stunning Sue Cope

Nothing really to do with anything but this little long hair dachshund was way too cute.

Lunch with the Copes

How lovely are these two??!!

Having failed miserably this morning with our timing we managed to all get back to the bus stop on-time and without a long wait for the ride back...unfortunately, the bus was already crowded and most of us didn't manage to get seats.  Having been a bit ill all day (seriously wonky tummy), I was kindly given seating priority.

It's now 2.17am and I'm afraid that I am quietly dying inside and really need to get some rest.  Bon nuit everyone and thank you for making my husband so happy on his birthday with all the lovely birthday wishes.

May 5th - Part 2 to come tomorrow!

The Day Before THE BIG DAY

Apologies to those of you who are ardently following our every move.  My goal has been to post the happenings of our holiday here in Nice but it's quite difficult to stick to a rigorous posting schedule when you are the wife of the Last Man Standing.  Yes, my husband seems to always be the Last Man Standing and  in my efforts to be the wife of the Last Man Standing and to not appear to be the actual boring, non-drinker that I am, came in after 3am in the morning after having drank way to much.  That wasn't such a great idea but my husband still came in later than me.  We were up this morning at 9am to try and get our friends off to see lovely St Paul de Vence, hence any time that I've had to spare today has gone towards trying to catch up on sleep so blogging has fallen to the wayside...my sincerest apologies.  It's nearly 1am in the morning and I'm one of the few that has come home a bit early tonight and I'm determined to get a few bits of intel off to you all.

So here's yesterday's story....

I last left off as we were heading out to the Havana Club where we had a lovely meal with dancing to follow.  

What a lovely group we are!

For those of you who know David, it often takes a bit of encouragement to get him on the dance floor but after a few drinks. he quite happily gets into the groove.  He won't know I've posted this one for a while so view this before he makes me take it off!

Proof that my husband is a groover!

Apologies for sideways video...and many thanks to Elaine Allison for inspiring my husband to dance!

At our table

The night was a blur...literally!

Denis out for a drink and a dance with David and Sophie

Had to throw myself in there as well!

Sophie drew a lot of attention from the local men and this mama bear was not amused.  They might have actually been really lovely people (or maybe not) but I found my maternal instincts roaring when they tried to grab Soph for a dance.  Many a hand was slapped (sorry guys) and, if I recall correctly, my exact phrasing was 'Oh, hell no!  She's my daughter!'  And they kept on trying and I kept on beating them down!

 Sophie with Hels in the background and one of the creepy guys!

David giving Becks a hug.

The Evans' were amazing...being the parents of 8 month old lovely Carys and having arrived at the hotel at nearly 12.30am still rallied and came out to the bar!  CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Becks, Hels, David and Pete

The story doesn't quite end here.  As Sophie and I were tucking ourselves away in our beds that night around 2.45am, Last Man Standing came back to the room and said we were invited for a wee night cap in the Evans' room.  Remember, that I'm trying to uphold a certain reputation being the wife of the the Last Man Standing and so my obligation to my husband came before my need for sleep and we trundled along the hotel corridors in our pyjamas for another nip before bedtime.  I won't comment on the conversation (don't ask) but eventually Sophie and I tuckered out and went to bed with Last Man Standing eventually getting back to the room.

After a few hours of sleep and after having imbibed way too much (WAY WAY too much for LMS), we were up and getting ready in order to get downstairs and meet with our friends but not until after I was able to get this shot of the aftermath...David on the morning of his 50th Birthday!

Even though he wasn't in tip top shape, LMS pulled himself together and made it (barely) to St Paul de Vence.  More to come on our group excursion!

Leaving for Dinner

David has been downstairs for an hour now catching up with the elusive Graham Stanley and has left me behind to ready for tonight's supper and groove fest.

Here's me!

Best self portrait ever!

The full picture!

The Second Day so far

Bummer that I've just realised that the name of the address of the bolt is misspelled!!!  That's what I get for trying to post items at midnight after a night of drinking!

It's nearly 6pm and we've just gotten back to the hotel room to have a wee snooze before a spicy supper at the Havana Club tonight.  It's been a gorgeous day in Nice, nice and sunny but not too hot.  Started the day by going to the French version of Costco with Denis Frachon (our host who runs the hotel) to get some champagne for tomorrow's pre-party kick-off then had a nice wander around and went to check out the Havana Club where we're going for dinner tonight.

Lunch today was our favourite...saussicon, cornichon, cheese and gorgeous baguette.  Should have taken a picture of us gorging ourselves on the scrumptious meal but you don't really need to see that.

Susan and David Cope arrived this afternoon and we've just spent the loveliest afternoon with them while the rest of the group is off exploring Monaco.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and there will be more to come after our excursion tonight...I hear there will be some dancing going on so the pictures ought to be brilliant!

David and I getting a drink at the Havana Club.

a bit bright in the day time but it'll be fun at night

 Having drinks with the Copes

David with Susan and David Cope 

 Another!

Went to get flowers

 What they had for lunch

 Mr Cope modelling some shades!

More people arriving shortly so got to go!  Am running between mine and David's phones fielding texts!