Chris de Burgh Special Feature.

Chris de Burgh's 60th Birthday on 15/10/2008

On October 15th 2008 Chris de Burgh was 60 years old. I had a brilliant idea to give him a wonderful and special gift from some of his 'internet forum' fans and friends. So  in about April 2008 I started to put my plan into action. This is how it all came about. In August 2007 Chris de Burgh was being interviewed by a German TV station just before one of his summer concerts. At the same time as he was talking a hot air balloon was passing by in the sky and he made a comment that he had never been in a hot air balloon before but would love to at some point.........................so this is the idea I came up with!!

I collected names of people who would like to participate and started making enquires to find a good reputable company in Ireland. After several hours of searching around, I had the company and the price. I knew this was going to be expensive but with about 60 people interested I knew we could cover the cost with just a 5 Euro donation each. Any money left over would go towards me compiling and putting together a special 60th birthday message book.

So the fun and the work began in early summer as I collected all the money in and started also making plans for the message book. I chose a brown leather look large photo album and I asked for all messages to be sent to me, so I could print them all out and display them in the message book. I also very carefully stuck some gold letters on the front, saying Happy 60th Birthday Wishes Chris.

                                                    

This project was the biggest CdeB thing I have ever done, but I have to say I loved every minute of its preparation, although at times it was pretty stressful. I finally finished the whole project about 3 weeks before Chris's birthday. Then finally it was time to package it all up and post it off to him, so that it would arrive to him on his very birthday day. This I did and the very next day I had a personal phone call from Chris to thank me soo much for both the messgae book and the hot air ballon ride. He was sooo pleased with both, but especially the message book. Unfortunately I was at wrok when he called me, but at least I heard the message on my voicemail :-)  and also I have lasting version of it that I can listen to again whenever I want!!

                                                           

                                                         

Chris has one year to take the trip in, and as I write this we hope that he will send some photos of him in it and hopefully even a small bit of video.