I just spent the last 2 weeks organising a surprise birthday party for my boyfriend. The idea was to make it not just a surprise, but the best birthday he'd ever had; I think I've just about managed. It wasn't easy, though. For a start, he wanted to organise his birthday party himself, so I had to persuade him to let me organise everything. He likes being in control, so I had to do quite a bit of persuading. In the end, he said "ok, but this had better be good". Like I wasn't stressed enough.
First, I wanted to buy him the most awesome present ever, something he'd wanted ever since he was a child, but never dared ask for: a Darth Vader costume. Yes, he's that geeky. After a good bit of online research, I found an online shop called Jedi Robe (they also have a walk-in shop in London) that I highly recommend because they really do deliver in 2 to 3 working days to Europe. A quick search turned up two offers: a basic, adult-sized costume, that would cost a little less than 100€ including postage; and a tailored version made from the very same moulds as the real costume in the film, that cost nearly 1000€. I got the cheaper version, which was expensive enough for me anyway. Luckily I had managed to save up quite a bit this month (probably by not having time to spend money).
Speaking of which, the fact that I was working all the time didn't help one bit. The only times I was at home, Bob was also at home, and I spent lots of time hiding in our bedroom to make phone calls and deleting cookies on both our computers. This made it hard to keep the present a secret; if I had it sent to our address, he'd be the one to pick it up, and wonder what was in it, and I'd have to show him if I didn't want him to suspect something. Being in such a fusional couple makes secret-keeping difficult. I needed an accomplice.
The obvious choice was Phil, his best friend from nursery school, who moved to Grenoble with his girlfriend about a year ago. I told him my plan and asked his advice. He said I could send the package to his house and they'd contribute to a third of the price. I was eternally grateful. They also said laser game was a good idea, so I set about organising that.
Unfortunately, you have to ring up about two months in advance to reserve at laser game for a Saturday night. At least, you do in Grenoble. Phil could only come on the 3rd (the day of Bob's birthday) so that left me less than 2 weeks to organise something else. It also meant two of our friends who live far away couldn't come, but that turned out for the best because we had nowhere for them to sleep anyway. Still, I was quite annoyed about not being able to do a laser game tournament, and was wondering what he'd like half as much as that, when I remembered that the fun fair had come to Grenoble.
Bob loves fun fairs. And this wasn't just any fun fair: this was the Foire des Rameaux, the second biggest fun fair in France, and the biggest wandering fair. The only one better is the Foire du Trône, which is permanently based in Paris (Nico works in it in Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulin). The only problem was that there were ads for it all over Grenoble, and I was sure he'd guess where I was taking him. There was nothing I could do about that except not mention it and hope he wouldn't notice.
Then another friend of ours (let's call him E for quickness) rang up and advised me to tell him his party would be on the 10th, because it was too difficult to get people to come at such short notice (he wasn't wrong). Bob is so perceptive that it was necessary to create a fake party to take his mind off the possibility of the real one on his actual birthday. I let everyone know about the plan and told him to tell everyone to come on the 10th.
Then he decided he wanted a very specific type of cake. It had to be made out of strawberry mousse, with no real strawberries, nothing crunchy, just a sponge base and maybe a bit of marzipan. At the last minute I found a patisserie who would make that for me in only 2 days (Les Tokés du Gateau). It looked like a princess cake (all pink, and the sponge was coloured a sparkly bronze) but it was the best I could find.
But the hardest part wasn't organising the night out, or getting the present delivered on time, or getting people to come, or hiding the whole thing from him. It should have been predictable: the hardest part was getting my geeky boyfriend out of the house long enough to decorate the living room and have him back when everyone had arrived. At this, I didn't entirely succeed.
For a start, I needed an excuse to get him out of the house. Phil's girlfriend said she'd ring him while Phil was at work and beg him to come install the Sims on their computer, or find some file she'd lost.
But then he came up with his own excuse: having recently gotten a bonus of 100€ worth of gift tokens only useable at a certain shopping centre in Echirolles (to the south of Grenoble), he'd decided he wanted to buy a high-definition videoprojector. He's been talking about this for a while, and now he had the gift tokens, he wanted to get one asap. I had to find an excuse for him to wait till Saturday afternoon. Taking E with him to avoid getting tricked by the salesman wasn't good enough - Bob works in sales, he knows all the tricks by heart - so, caught on the spot, I invented a home spa afternoon with my friend Em. We would need the living room to put on ambient music and we didn't want the boys there while we were possibly topless.
It was a crap excuse, but surprisingly, he bought it. I think he was distracted from the crapness of it by the idea of us walking round the house half-naked, rubbing oils on each other. It seemed obvious to me that this would never happen, but he didn't seem to see that. Men are sometimes quite blind to the obvious.
At four, I went and picked up the cake and hid it at my nice neighbour's house. There was a slight problem getting it in the fridge - I'd asked for a cake for six people; somehow the baker had heard ten - but we managed it, and it didn't break.
E and Em were coming round that weekend, not to celebrate his birthday (as far as he knew), but just to spend the weekend geeking out. Unfortunately, at the last minute, E couldn't come: his car broke down and he couldn't get to the train station without a lift. Nobody was there to give him a lift, so he was stuck.
So Bob left for Echirolles on his own, taking the gift tokens with him. Unfortunately, he refused to take my mobile with him (and I didn't insist because I was afraid someone would ring and give the game away). I told him to be home for half six, and he said he'd try to leave us some time on our own. I insisted on half six. He insisted he'd be back around seven. Then he left.
Em and I did some shopping. Quite a lot. Too much, really. Three bottles of sweet, strong alcohol, fruit juice to mix it with, way too many sweets, too many crisps and aperitif biccies, and I'd also made a brownie for those who didn't like strawberry mousse. Plastic plates and cups, two bags of balloons.
Around six, people started arriving. I asked the two guys from Bob's office to get us some soft fizzy drinks (we'd forgotten them) and when they got back, Jen (Phil's gf) had got here. We put stuff in bowls and started blowing balloons. Some of them had weird shapes.
Around half six, when Bob was supposed to get back, I started jumping every time I heard the door. I'd jump up from the sofa and run to the door and look through the spy hole. Then I'd open the living room door really slowly so they didn't yell "surprise!" and say it was a false alarm.
Around seven, my neighbour stopped by. She stayed five minutes, then left for another party. We started drinking and I put the pizzas in the oven.
By half seven, we were getting worried. I noticed Bob had forgotten the GPS and rightly guessed that he'd got lost. Around twenty to eight, Phil arrived from work, surprised to find he wasn't late after all.
Ten minutes later, Bob arrived. I opened the door, took the bottle of Oasis he offered me, led him through to the living room, and switched on the light.
"SURPRISE!!!" yelled everyone.
"WAT?!!" yelled Bob. Then he yelled "WAT?!!" twice more, throwing the two Cola bottles he was holding on the third one.
I was so chuffed. It was a complete surprise.
Since Phil was there, I could give Bob his present straight away. That was the second surprise. He said "NO!!!" and then "YESSS!!!" and then he went to our room to change. I'd given Em the camera so she could take photos. I'm not sure I'm allowed to put them online yet, though.
Someone put the Imperial March on for when he came back in. Then he took the mask off (because he couldn't see much with it on) and once the pizza was done, I brought in the cake, and that was the third surprise because I'd told him he'd be getting a home-made brownie and be happy with it. I had made a brownie as well, but he really like the cake, princess sparkles and all. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't a girl in another life.
Last surprise: when everyone had finished eating, we went out. He was still in his costume, and had no idea where we were going. Somehow, he didn't see the fun fair ad on the way to the fun fair. Somehow, right up till the last minute, he didn't see the lights. And when he did, he did the "NO!!!", "YESSS!!!" thing again. And then he said "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!".
Boys are weaklings. None of his friends wanted to come with him on the huge arm thingy that went way up high and spun you round like a rag doll. So I went with him. Luckily I hadn't drunk too much, because it really did fling you round. I'm also lucky enough not to be afraid of heights, though I admit I did scare myself quite badly imagining what might happen if the barrier broke. It also stopped being fun when I had to concentrate on keeping my head from being banged against the back of the seat. I'm careful on rides since coming off Space Mountain with the biggest migraine I've ever had, and I managed not to get hurt, but it was a relief when the thing stopped.
That was the last ride I went on, but I did film them all making fools of themselves in the Fun House and I played an FPS with Em. People kept giving Bob weird looks, some recognized him from when he worked in Mc Donald's (which was over a year ago) and said hi, but they let him on the rides he wanted, and that was the important thing. It was raining all evening, but not hard, and all in all it was great night.
After a while we went home, and started a Street Fighter tournament. I'm getting quite good at Street Fighter (for a noob anyway), but I was tired, and kept falling asleep in my chair. I finally went to bed around 2 a.m.
So apart from making the guests wait two hours for the birthday boy to get home, it was more or less a success. I've gotta say, I'm really proud of myself. Bob's usually the one who organises extravagant soiree's and gives expensive presents. I suppose I felt I had to make it up to him. It was great to see him so happy.
First, I wanted to buy him the most awesome present ever, something he'd wanted ever since he was a child, but never dared ask for: a Darth Vader costume. Yes, he's that geeky. After a good bit of online research, I found an online shop called Jedi Robe (they also have a walk-in shop in London) that I highly recommend because they really do deliver in 2 to 3 working days to Europe. A quick search turned up two offers: a basic, adult-sized costume, that would cost a little less than 100€ including postage; and a tailored version made from the very same moulds as the real costume in the film, that cost nearly 1000€. I got the cheaper version, which was expensive enough for me anyway. Luckily I had managed to save up quite a bit this month (probably by not having time to spend money).
Speaking of which, the fact that I was working all the time didn't help one bit. The only times I was at home, Bob was also at home, and I spent lots of time hiding in our bedroom to make phone calls and deleting cookies on both our computers. This made it hard to keep the present a secret; if I had it sent to our address, he'd be the one to pick it up, and wonder what was in it, and I'd have to show him if I didn't want him to suspect something. Being in such a fusional couple makes secret-keeping difficult. I needed an accomplice.
The obvious choice was Phil, his best friend from nursery school, who moved to Grenoble with his girlfriend about a year ago. I told him my plan and asked his advice. He said I could send the package to his house and they'd contribute to a third of the price. I was eternally grateful. They also said laser game was a good idea, so I set about organising that.
Unfortunately, you have to ring up about two months in advance to reserve at laser game for a Saturday night. At least, you do in Grenoble. Phil could only come on the 3rd (the day of Bob's birthday) so that left me less than 2 weeks to organise something else. It also meant two of our friends who live far away couldn't come, but that turned out for the best because we had nowhere for them to sleep anyway. Still, I was quite annoyed about not being able to do a laser game tournament, and was wondering what he'd like half as much as that, when I remembered that the fun fair had come to Grenoble.
Bob loves fun fairs. And this wasn't just any fun fair: this was the Foire des Rameaux, the second biggest fun fair in France, and the biggest wandering fair. The only one better is the Foire du Trône, which is permanently based in Paris (Nico works in it in Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulin). The only problem was that there were ads for it all over Grenoble, and I was sure he'd guess where I was taking him. There was nothing I could do about that except not mention it and hope he wouldn't notice.
Then another friend of ours (let's call him E for quickness) rang up and advised me to tell him his party would be on the 10th, because it was too difficult to get people to come at such short notice (he wasn't wrong). Bob is so perceptive that it was necessary to create a fake party to take his mind off the possibility of the real one on his actual birthday. I let everyone know about the plan and told him to tell everyone to come on the 10th.
Then he decided he wanted a very specific type of cake. It had to be made out of strawberry mousse, with no real strawberries, nothing crunchy, just a sponge base and maybe a bit of marzipan. At the last minute I found a patisserie who would make that for me in only 2 days (Les Tokés du Gateau). It looked like a princess cake (all pink, and the sponge was coloured a sparkly bronze) but it was the best I could find.
But the hardest part wasn't organising the night out, or getting the present delivered on time, or getting people to come, or hiding the whole thing from him. It should have been predictable: the hardest part was getting my geeky boyfriend out of the house long enough to decorate the living room and have him back when everyone had arrived. At this, I didn't entirely succeed.
For a start, I needed an excuse to get him out of the house. Phil's girlfriend said she'd ring him while Phil was at work and beg him to come install the Sims on their computer, or find some file she'd lost.
But then he came up with his own excuse: having recently gotten a bonus of 100€ worth of gift tokens only useable at a certain shopping centre in Echirolles (to the south of Grenoble), he'd decided he wanted to buy a high-definition videoprojector. He's been talking about this for a while, and now he had the gift tokens, he wanted to get one asap. I had to find an excuse for him to wait till Saturday afternoon. Taking E with him to avoid getting tricked by the salesman wasn't good enough - Bob works in sales, he knows all the tricks by heart - so, caught on the spot, I invented a home spa afternoon with my friend Em. We would need the living room to put on ambient music and we didn't want the boys there while we were possibly topless.
It was a crap excuse, but surprisingly, he bought it. I think he was distracted from the crapness of it by the idea of us walking round the house half-naked, rubbing oils on each other. It seemed obvious to me that this would never happen, but he didn't seem to see that. Men are sometimes quite blind to the obvious.
At four, I went and picked up the cake and hid it at my nice neighbour's house. There was a slight problem getting it in the fridge - I'd asked for a cake for six people; somehow the baker had heard ten - but we managed it, and it didn't break.
E and Em were coming round that weekend, not to celebrate his birthday (as far as he knew), but just to spend the weekend geeking out. Unfortunately, at the last minute, E couldn't come: his car broke down and he couldn't get to the train station without a lift. Nobody was there to give him a lift, so he was stuck.
So Bob left for Echirolles on his own, taking the gift tokens with him. Unfortunately, he refused to take my mobile with him (and I didn't insist because I was afraid someone would ring and give the game away). I told him to be home for half six, and he said he'd try to leave us some time on our own. I insisted on half six. He insisted he'd be back around seven. Then he left.
Em and I did some shopping. Quite a lot. Too much, really. Three bottles of sweet, strong alcohol, fruit juice to mix it with, way too many sweets, too many crisps and aperitif biccies, and I'd also made a brownie for those who didn't like strawberry mousse. Plastic plates and cups, two bags of balloons.
Around six, people started arriving. I asked the two guys from Bob's office to get us some soft fizzy drinks (we'd forgotten them) and when they got back, Jen (Phil's gf) had got here. We put stuff in bowls and started blowing balloons. Some of them had weird shapes.
Around half six, when Bob was supposed to get back, I started jumping every time I heard the door. I'd jump up from the sofa and run to the door and look through the spy hole. Then I'd open the living room door really slowly so they didn't yell "surprise!" and say it was a false alarm.
Around seven, my neighbour stopped by. She stayed five minutes, then left for another party. We started drinking and I put the pizzas in the oven.
By half seven, we were getting worried. I noticed Bob had forgotten the GPS and rightly guessed that he'd got lost. Around twenty to eight, Phil arrived from work, surprised to find he wasn't late after all.
Ten minutes later, Bob arrived. I opened the door, took the bottle of Oasis he offered me, led him through to the living room, and switched on the light.
"SURPRISE!!!" yelled everyone.
"WAT?!!" yelled Bob. Then he yelled "WAT?!!" twice more, throwing the two Cola bottles he was holding on the third one.
I was so chuffed. It was a complete surprise.
Since Phil was there, I could give Bob his present straight away. That was the second surprise. He said "NO!!!" and then "YESSS!!!" and then he went to our room to change. I'd given Em the camera so she could take photos. I'm not sure I'm allowed to put them online yet, though.
Someone put the Imperial March on for when he came back in. Then he took the mask off (because he couldn't see much with it on) and once the pizza was done, I brought in the cake, and that was the third surprise because I'd told him he'd be getting a home-made brownie and be happy with it. I had made a brownie as well, but he really like the cake, princess sparkles and all. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't a girl in another life.
Last surprise: when everyone had finished eating, we went out. He was still in his costume, and had no idea where we were going. Somehow, he didn't see the fun fair ad on the way to the fun fair. Somehow, right up till the last minute, he didn't see the lights. And when he did, he did the "NO!!!", "YESSS!!!" thing again. And then he said "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!".
Boys are weaklings. None of his friends wanted to come with him on the huge arm thingy that went way up high and spun you round like a rag doll. So I went with him. Luckily I hadn't drunk too much, because it really did fling you round. I'm also lucky enough not to be afraid of heights, though I admit I did scare myself quite badly imagining what might happen if the barrier broke. It also stopped being fun when I had to concentrate on keeping my head from being banged against the back of the seat. I'm careful on rides since coming off Space Mountain with the biggest migraine I've ever had, and I managed not to get hurt, but it was a relief when the thing stopped.
That was the last ride I went on, but I did film them all making fools of themselves in the Fun House and I played an FPS with Em. People kept giving Bob weird looks, some recognized him from when he worked in Mc Donald's (which was over a year ago) and said hi, but they let him on the rides he wanted, and that was the important thing. It was raining all evening, but not hard, and all in all it was great night.
After a while we went home, and started a Street Fighter tournament. I'm getting quite good at Street Fighter (for a noob anyway), but I was tired, and kept falling asleep in my chair. I finally went to bed around 2 a.m.
So apart from making the guests wait two hours for the birthday boy to get home, it was more or less a success. I've gotta say, I'm really proud of myself. Bob's usually the one who organises extravagant soiree's and gives expensive presents. I suppose I felt I had to make it up to him. It was great to see him so happy.
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