It's midnight on Saturday. We're being properly thrown out of the hotel where our charity ball has been hosted earlier than at least some of us want to be.
Alison has already driven home with the kids; I'm still there.
I get to the front of the hotel, where the bar is in the foyer, and my friend David Nelson is there with two double whiskeys (I never drink whiskey).
I managed to convince the lady behind the bar who was closing up to pour one more pint for Tom. The three of us were there in the foyer, and it was just beautiful. We were laughing, carrying on, and being idiotic like young kids. It was such a wonderful and unforgettable moment.
The night has been amazing.
I've met some extraordinary people, re-met some extraordinary people, and had wonderful conversations that are much more relaxed because all the crazy stuff for the week is over, and I've drank just a little bit too much.
Someone has set a drink on fire in my mouth (I never do that either).
Some of my team brought a shot to my table for me to drink with them. That was a beautiful moment.
I've invented two new drinks for Mike and I've made him drink them. He never does that, and I'm dressed up as a nutcracker.
We've been doing that for a while, that ball thing at the start; I think maybe it was to try to be famous or get exposure or do whatever; it's not about any of that now, it's just fantastic people getting together and having fun.
I haven't fallen out with anyone (at least as far as I can tell), I haven't even fallen out with Alison, and sometimes, when I'm drinking and she isn't, it doesn't go so well.
Often in these times, I think about that line from Baz Luhrmann, which is "the real things to worry about never crossed your troubled mind".
But then I was sent something else from Stuart, something that said, "Some of the best times in your life haven't happened yet".
On Friday, we hadn't had the ball yet; it was hardly even on my radar. My costume only arrived at lunchtime on Friday from Amazon for 18 quid (Really poor effort). There were too many other things going on, I was going through the motions.
On Saturday afternoon, as I was going through a CT scan with Dom Shaw at the practice after the failure conference, trying to find it as we looked at something, I was exhausted and broken. I got home and just wanted to lie on my sofa and not get back up again, but we did, and we went.
And then there was the moment at 12 o'clock with David and Tom: unforgettable, beautiful.
Thanks, Stuart; thanks for reminding me that the best things, or at least some of the best things, can still be ahead, and they're not all behind.
Blog Post Number - 4002
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