Thursday, December 20, 2012

My 60th B'day bash

The day began with a treasure hunt set up by my wife to make me hunt for my B'day gifts and in true cruciverbalist fashion the pointers to the locations were in the form of clues which she set up with help from the Chief of the Research &Analysis Wing of THCC namely Kishore

 Pondering over the 'PUZZLE' clue which was
"Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)"
The PUZZLE being the Jigsaw CW given to me by Gita Iyer at the first S&B meet. 

 Retrieving one of the gifts from the 'GRINDER' which was clued as 
"Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)"

Another present, a SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS phone from my wife that was hidden in the BAR
"Lawyers prevent going to the liquor cabinet (3)"

The final gift a 'SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE' from my Sons and daughter-in-law hidden in my FIAT MILLICENTO
"A thousand one hundred ride on four wheels (10)"




At the location of the surprise B'day bash (Kochhar Institute)



The chief organiser, my wife Gita, welcoming the gathering




With Kishore

 Mrs Devanathan, Shuchi and Devanathan (Arden)

 The two B'day boys, my younger son Gaurav who turned 30 (he surprised all of us including my wife by landing up in the morning) and self

 Some of the guests waiting for the cake to be cut

 The Birthday cake
 That looks too delicious to be cut

 Self explanatory



A hug from my mother, seen in the background are my m-i-l and f-i-l, the three of them are at 87, 86 and 92 respectively

Egged on by the guests the B'day boys downed a bottle of Champagne each



A hug from my better half



And a kiss as well. I must congratulate my wife for all the effort she put in to organise the function especially the effort that she went through to keep it secret from me, in which she succeded



Singing my favourite song 'Surangani'
Watch it 


Tired after all the Vodka, Champagne and opening of the gifts at the end of the day


These were the clues of the treasure hunt in the sequence in which they were set out, I have given the answers first so that they can be appreciated, as some of them relate to items around my house and you'll may not have any idea as to what the item is.

DOG COLLAR - Priestly accessory worn by Cocoa (3,6)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA - Wikipedia's predecessors in black and white usually went before Britannica (13)
EGG-TRAY - Place where chickens' ancestors and descendants reside, a cluth of nothings (3-4)
PAPA'S-PHOTO - Italian pope's picture shows the first Colonel in the family (4'1-5)
AVNI's PHOTO - Grand-daughter countenance that looks back from this drinking utensil (4'1,5)
KINGFISHER BEER - Drink got by Buzzer right after the royal angler leads (10,4)

GRINDER - Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)
ORANGE JUICE - Citrus extract has zero range, but has electricity (6,5)
PUZZLE - Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)
INVERTOR - Electrical gadget that puts things right or upside down? (8)
NUTS - Contents of Pandora's box are not balanced kept in the fridge (4)
ANDAMAN CHAIR - Island seat found when a guy was covered with a squashed arachnid (7,5)
TOOL BOX - Where you may find a Gimlet, a screwdriver and, maybe, even a Rusty Nail without having to make them (4,3)
HELMET - Protection for the chief: wear it or face a fine (6)
 and finally 'BAR' and 'MILLICENTO' clues for which are already shown above.

Thanks to Kishore for helping my wife to set that up.

And last but not the least a big big thanks to my wife for the treasure hunt and the surprise party that followed.

And above all she set up a online site to allow all my friends and relatives to wish me online at WEEBLY. I would like to thank all those who wished me there.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The millionth pageview of THCC

The moment before the millionth view

and the next page at the millionth view