It came to pass

So we're a bunch of schoolmates who have managed to stay in  touch over the years - approaching that difficult milestone, the big 5 -oh! Oh indeed - oh Christ this is a big one. How do you mark it? Nobody's ever got this old before, we need a plan.

JK - the oldest by a good few months (which makes all the difference I can assure you) takes us to the Oxo Tower to celebrate/ commiserate reaching his Half Century. Lunch was great, but it is agreed that we should do something more memorable to mark such an historic achievement.

"Let's go Skiing again - there's this place which is like Ibiza - but with snow" suggests Punky - the Smartest Guy in the Room (he runs something large in the City his PA juggles the diary months in advance to make room for small doses of hedonism, we've got him for the whole afternoon, it's a rare treat).

"Urgh!" thinks the Ageing Hipster - the charm of Ibiza having worn a little thin. It was great age 20, and again at 30, I even managed to large-it-up aged 40 - but 50? Undignified - and I stopped taking drugs so what's the point.

No - the Ibiza Winter Wanabee can wait until we're 51 - this year has got to be memorable - not slightly embarrassing.

Bobby Backspin and Johnny G continue to choose great wines, and regale us with tales of hungover trips to Bordeaux vineyards.

JK gives us his rest-of-my-life plan.  He's selling his business and looking to create a legacy for his youngest - a working Farm for people with Down's syndrome. He's setting up A Charidee to buy some land and get the project up and running.  This is A Good Thing. The proposed name - "Down on the Farm" - isn't.  Someone has to break it to him gently - but more of that later.

The Big Idea grew during the course of the afternoon - as the weary 5 went from Oxo splendour to Shakespere's Globe - Bobby Backspin got very excited at spotting Gok Wan in the bar and phoned his missus. I pointed out his name was an anagram of Go Wank - nobody was impressed. We continued to the bar of Viniopolis and then to a pub in Bermondsey run by Bobby Backspin's ex-PA's mum (believe it or not).

The boys were increasingly edging back toward the ski-trip idea. This will not do. Then I remember Punky has always wanted to climb Kilimanjaro - he really is The Smartest Guy in the Room (something to do with high finance - highly focused, earns a bomb, incapable of doing things by half).

I'd love to give that a go - and the penny finally dropped.

The Charidee will need a dose of cash to get it started, and we semi-generians will step up, climb Kilimanjaro and raise some money. Hooray - it's not a self indulgence - it's for the kiddies. I'm in - Punky's in, but what about the others?

After much slurred debate,  a vote it taken - Kilimanjaro v St Anton. Kili wins by 3 to 2 (thankfully Bobby Backspin hates skiing because he's not the best at it - I guess he reckons he's got a good chance of winning at Kili- climbing - bet he tries to reach the top first. Whatever the motives, it's the clincher)

Johnny G is not so keen - his knee went in a ski accident but he'd still prefer apres-ski sick to altitude sick. Luckily he's a man of strong democratic principle. There's talk of hiring a sedan chair with bearers (my suggestion of a donkey not so popular, but might work in the end).

And JK's in no position to argue - he's too pissed, and it's for his bloody Charidee anyway. And so it came to pass - my only difficulty was whether they'd agree to it in the cold light of day.

Next stop - get them to agree to it while sober!