A group of diners who decided to set up an afternoon tea in a layby on the Portway in Bristol on Friday (April 22) have revealed that it was in fact a birthday surprise for a friend.
The group were spotted dining with a table, chairs, candles, picnic hamper and even a lamp, on the side of the road at about 2:41pm, leaving many wondering what on earth was going on. Motorists driving past honked their horns as the unusual spectacle.
And now one of the group has revealed the reason behind their 'spontaneous' side-of-the-road picnic, dubbing it a 'flashmob afternoon tea' and a birthday surprise for a friend.
Read more: Confusion as diners set up table on the side of Portway
One of the group, Owain Davies, told Bristol Live: "We were surprising our friend Justin who likes the finer things in life and, as a group, we always like to do ridiculous things to celebrate a birthday. Justin was actually 50 during lockdown and then, the year after we were in lockdown again, so this was the first birthday of his we could celebrate out of lockdown.
"We were going to Bristol for the weekend and had some activities planned for Saturday and Sunday but we thought we'd have a picnic on the side of the road while travelling on Friday. We found the perfect spot under the suspension bridge and we turned round and said 'we feel a bit peckish, let's have a picnic'."
Hidden in the group's van was a range of furniture, including a lamp and a fanciful Harrod's hamper, full of afternoon tea supplies. They'd travelled over to the city from Wales and Justin had absolutely no idea what was about to happen.
Owain added: "Life is far too serious these days and that's only more apparent when you look at some of the comments under Bristol Live's story about our 'flashmob afternoon tea'. We're all professionals - I run my own business, we have a builder in the group and Justin is a horse dentist, but life is all about having fun and if we could at least put a smile on some people's faces then that's all that matters."
The rest of their celebrations across the weekend included the group, who are all in their 50s, hiring scooters and riding around Bristol, dressing the birthday boy up in 'safari gear' and taking him clay pigeon shooting and even donning fancy dress to explore the SS Great Britain.
The sun was out for it all and the only complaint of the weekend, Owain joked, was that the group had to keep re-lighting their candles every time a lorry or bus drove past. Speaking about his birthday surprise, Justin said: "We'd been driving for a couple of hours and I was starting to get hungry and I was thinking well, where are we going to stop for food? Nobody stopped which I thought was weird.
"Then one of my friends jumped out to 'relieve himself' he said and then the driver jumped out and they'd been a few minutes so I decided to get out too and when I got out there was a tea party - the ladies were doing the sandwiches, there was furniture on the side of the road, a candelabra. It was such a surprise.
"We had this big van and when we'd set off my friend had just grabbed my bag off me and put it in the back of the van - so I couldn't see inside. I think I'd have had a clue if I'd have put my own bag in the van as they had a whole garden furniture set in there! But I had no idea what was going on!"
Justin said he thought the group would only be there for a few minutes, but they were actually there for nearly two and a half hours, visited by a local climbing society who took photos of them for their own magazine, as well as a string of lorries who Justin believes must have been telling each other about the unusual sight, over their radios.
Justin added: "We had such a good response from the cars and lorries passing by - nearly every one honked their horn and smiled and lots of them took photos. We had a really good weekend, too - we stayed in the Marriott and my friends dressed me up for clay pigeon shooting in proper British Colonial hunting gear - I had a pipe and a monacle and everything.
"When we turned up to the place, it was quite proper and I thought I'd get sent packing but they were really nice and I even got to have a photo with the stag's head on the wall! I've never been to Bristol before and it's a really fantastic place, it's got a great vibe to it and we're already planning on coming back in a month or two."
Justin and his friends have been surprising each other like this for years, having known each other since they were born and even living next to each other at home in Wales, but Justin says this surprise is "the best so far".
Vowing to try and outdo this one for his friends' next birthdays, Justin told Bristol Live about the disappointment of his real 50th birthday during the pandemic, saying: "I had a disappointing 50th - my wife had made all these plans but obviously we couldn't do any of them, so all my friends could do was sing happy birthday to me from the top of the garden - and my 51st was the same.
"It's like Owain says - life's all about memories - and this is definitely a memory I'll treasure forever."
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