i have been having fun and no time to blog…

jen and i wanted to do something special/memorable for joel’s eighteenth. so on his birthday at 7am the theme tune for mission impossible blasted out and harry burst into joel’s room and delivered an envelope with number one written on it. inside were the instructions to pack your bag for overnight and meet us at munsons for breakfast. a bewildered joel showed up and discovered he was off on a mystery tour during which he would receive eighteen envelopes or text messages with instructions on what to do next. they included…

video messages to find on youtube from family
meeting people
a first class ticket to liverpool (where i had travelled separately)
filling in a journal en route
staying at parr street recording studios
dining out at alma de cuba (stunning old church kitted out as a bar/restaurant with 300 candles lighting it)
buying me his first legal pint
listening to a track by harry we had smuggled onto his ipod (which was amazing)
visiting the turner prize (loved the wallinger bear suit video and the comments at the end were amusing)
watching a video from friends on his ipod
going to visit anthony gormley’s wonderful another place (absolutely brilliant btw) at crosby beach
returning to a friend’s house, being blindfolded and taken to a mystery destination (our house!) for
a surprise party with family and friends

joel loved it!

we included some stuff along the lines of a rite of passage to mark joel’s transition from child to man and us letting go of our child and welcoming joel back as a man which is why we wanted it to be a journey…

(thanks to my friends in croatia whose own crazy antics when i was over there with videos and all sorts of stuff inspired us to go over the top in our own way)

phew…