A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Theatre...

From left to right in the above picture there is Grace, me, Celia and Catharina. I've known these Terry girls for more than six years now, since they were all pre-teens. They have grown up quite a bit during that time and now they're all teenagers. I got to know them when I was a member of FCCC, the church that Leonard Terry used to pastor. My entire family was scattered across the globe during this time and they always invited me into their home. I was there quite a bit during that period.

I have grown to love the entire Terry clan. I was around when Seth was born, I remember Rhea as a toddler, I have gone on trips with them to Colorado, I've been friends with all of the older kids...I have a lot of memories. Too many to detail here, actually. I love this family very much. And I have been honoured to watch these three girls as they have matured and grown into young ladies, and I treasure the fact that I have been able to be a part of their lives.

To celebrate my friendship with them, I decided to take them on a formal date. By coincidence, this happened to fall right in the period of Valentines Day so that was a nice touch. We all dressed up very nicely and I picked them on Sunday afternoon on Feburary 11, 2007.

As you can see in the above picture, I bought each of them three roses. The red rose indicates love because I love them so much. White indicates purity, and in combination with the red rose this indicates pure love. The peach-cloured rose indicates that I am proud of them and I cherish them. (I was also looking for a yellow rose to signify friendship but I couldn't find those, unfortunately.)


From there, we drove into town for dinner at The Keg. We arrived in London a bit early so we went through a car wash, just to shine the van up and have the thrill of quickie amusement park ride. Once we got into The Keg, we parked the van out back and went in, which was a new experience for the girls because none of them had been there before.

During dinner, we had a selection of appetizers. All three of them wanted to stick with garlic cheese bread but I insisted on ordering a few other options. I managed to get them to try the calamari ("mini octopi" as they kept calling it), which Celia and Catharina enjoyed but Grace refused. I could not get any of them to eat the escargot but they did taste the muchrooms that came with it. The escargot there is excellent, by the way, the best that I have ever had.

Three of us had succulent steaks whilst Celia sawed away at a full rack of ribs. Over dinner, I related a few bits of trivia about Valentines (as I mentioned here) and I told them about the meaning of the colours of the roses. We reminisced about our many years as friends and I expressed how much I love each of them and how they have all grown up.



After we left the Keg, we intended to take the van to go see a movie. I got into the van first to turn it on and warm it up and then Grace came around to the front passenger side door. She spoke to me about the mess, which was odd since she had not opened the door yet but I could still hear her plainly. I turned...and it was then that I saw the smashed glass all over the passenger seat.


That's right. Someone smashed through that window and broke into my van. The thief had rifled through the glove box and around various things in the front. Afterwards, we realized that Catharine had left her purse on that seat, which was a tempting target. I had left my jacket draped over the middle between the seats on top of my CDs, just be happenstance. Apparently it looked an awful lot like a jacket hiding a laptop bag.

Obviously the thief was in a rush since later I spoke to a couple that had arrived shortly after we had gotten there and it had already been smashed by that time. The thief ignored the expensive FM Tuner and battery converter that were lying right there and only took Catharina's purse. Fortunately for Catharina, she had no money in it and had only a few identification cards that will have to be replaced.

There wans't much of a point in going to the cops since there's little that they would be able to do. More importantly, I eventually needed to return the girls home so I wasn't going to waste time at the police reporting station. No need to blow our evening because of this situation. Instead, we drove 15 minutes to get back to my house. We parked the van, took a couple of pictures and switched to my dad's car.

After that, we drove to Rainbow cinemas and got there in plenty of time for the movie. I had not realized that Dreamgirls was basically a musical but the story was excellent and the songs fit right in with the movie and with that era. Starring Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and others, it paid homage to old Motown stars of the 60's and 70's. During dinner, I had given the girls a brief history lesson on Motown, Dina Ross and The Supremes, James Brown, and the transition from Motown to Disco. The movie touched on those same characters and stories, while simulatenously being completely fictional. Great movie, even if some of the songs dragged on a bit too long. And if anyone is not aware of that lineage of music, I highly recommend edumacating yourself.

All in all, it was a fabulous night. Lovely and beautiful girls, laughter and memories, fine dining, fun movies and one really memorable event. As a final note on that "memorable event," I should mention my initial reaction once I saw the broken glass in my van. I could not help but laugh heartily as soon as I realized what had happened. The girls were shocked at the break-in and then they were doubly shocked at my reaction. C'mon now, though. It was hilarious! What a wonderfully bad moment in what would have been perfect evening. I loved it all.