So I made it to 50

My birthday was an absolute blast.

The Damned were playing in Osaka. Their 35th anniversary tour, what better way for an ageing punk to celebrate? So we set off for an evening of reliving my youth, and I wasn't disappointed. The band were awesome, the audience entertaining, and the music better than I remembered.

It was massively entertaining, afterwards we decided to hunt for 'Club Rock Rock', a club Captain Sensible had announced that he would be frequenting after the show. It took some finding, but find it we did, and sure enough a couple of hours later in came the man himself.

You know, for one of the English Cultural Icons of my generation he was a 'damned' easy man to chat too, and very obliging with photo calls.

The party continued well into the night.

Where we made some new friends.

...and stayed way too late, only just catching the last train home, or in Bob's case - almost home. For some unknown reason he got off the train a stop early, failed to get back on in time, and got stuck a few miles from home. In the end he ended up hitching a ride from some strangers.

The next day Nara was kind enough to lay on a firework display and huge pyrotechnic display as they lit up the hill behind the temples. All for me!