Thanks For Your Suggestions!

So Friday was Wifey’s 25th birthday.

For my 30th in August, she surprised me by secretly arranging with my supervisor for me to have the day off work (it was also a Friday, as it happens, so a long weekend is never a bad birthday present!). Although Wifey doesn’t work on Fridays and there’s no way I could return the favour, I decided that I could secretly arrange with my supervisor for me to have her birthday Friday off work as well, therefore making us even in some weird and uneven kind of way.

On my birthday, she let me get up and get ready for work, only stopping me as I headed for the door by saying, ‘Oh, I just remembered – you’re not going to work today.’

And so it was that last Friday morning dawned and I got up as usual and prepared for work. I wished her happy birthday and kissed her goodbye as she lay there sleeping, and headed for the front door. I even opened it and closed it as if I was leaving the house (although I stayed inside and stood still for a moment before returning to the bedroom). When she rolled over and looked up at me questioningly, I said, ‘Oh, I just remembered – I’m not going to work today. Thanks for letting me give you this birthday present of me!’

As selfish and amusing as it may sound, it was actually great for her too because she was hoping to be able to spend her birthday with me (or at least for us to have some ‘quality time’ together over the weekend, if possible), so this little surprise made her very happy. (Me too!)

I told her to get out of bed and I’d make her a glass of orange juice before we got stuck into the day. We walked into the kitchen, and as I went to the fridge, I asked her (all casual-like) if she could please fetch me a glass from the cupboard. When she opened the cupboard, there facing her was an envelope with the words ‘FOR YOU!’ emblazoned across it.

It was her birthday card, and it also contained a note with cryptic instructions on where to find her present. And so began an hour-long treasure hunt throughout the house.

(I’d stayed up until 3:30am wrapping 34 presents, sorting out hiding places for each one, writing clues as to each present’s location, then turning those clues into rhymes so she had to decipher the rhyme first, then organising it so they were in the right order and one clue led to the right next present, then hiding them all over the place. I’m good value.)

Amongst other things, she was lucky enough to receive a couple of books she wanted, a handful of CDs she was desperate to own, a stack of DVDs she and I both wanted (I win again!), a poncho and singlet top she’d actually picked out herself but then given to me so they could be part of her birthday presents, and a Muppet collectable figurine (hey – she loves Robin!).

By then it was around 8:45am, and I told her she had half an hour to get ready for the day, as we wouldn’t be back until after dinner. (This turned out to be not-so-accurate, but it was a good thing to tell her anyway.)

She’d specifically asked me three weeks earlier to take her to dinner on her birthday at her favourite local Mexican place, and I told her I’d booked us a table for two there for that evening. Which was partly correct. She’d been a little upset a few weeks before when she looked at the calendar to book a party for all her friends so they could help her celebrate her 25th, and realised that there was no night (apart from the ‘date night’ on her actual birthday that she’d already arranged with me) that was available on the calendar.

Anyway, shortly after 9am we headed out for the day, and I drove her up to the Dandenongs; a very pretty mountain region in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. We stopped at her favourite café-of-the-moment, Ripe, and had their amazing bagels and hot chocolates for breakfast (the latter of which is made from shaving real Lindt chocolate off a block of the stuff – and it’s truly incredible and delicious!).

Then we spent the next three or four hours strolling the streets of Olinda and Sassafras, doing various girly things involving pink scarves and frilly doilies, etc. Hey, I wore a plastic smile and got points for it!

At around 1pm, I saw that we were both completely exhausted, so suggested we return home for a rest before our dinner date. She was happy to do that, having spent the entire morning on a ‘date’ with me, and she’d had a great time. On the way down from the Dandenongs, I ‘accidentally’ took the long way home and found myself arriving at Knox cinemas, where I told her we should pull in and see what was playing.

Standing at the counter, I went to ask the guy what was on (or so she thought), but instead said, ‘I was wondering ... if you had a booking for BEVIS for 2pm in Gold Class?’

She batted my arm in glee and asked what movie it was for. I told her it was either The Dukes of Hazzard or Cinderella Man (neither of which she wanted to see), and the guy at the counter was clued-in (or stupid) enough not to say anything.

When we got up to the elitist Gold Class section, we ordered our food and drink, went and sat down in the near-empty cinema (only one other couple were there and they stayed well away from us – possibly because I removed my pants before sitting down*), and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which she’d been dying to see for quite a while. We sat in the centre back row, on these seats, so it was pretty lush.

I expected, after the amount of sleep I’d had and how tired we both were walking around looking at hats and dresses and shoes and tablecloths, that we’d be battling to stay awake during the movie (especially seeing as we were lying down on some of the most comfy seats in the world), but the excitement of the movie gave us our second wind (or maybe that was the popcorn), and we stayed awake throughout.

When the movie was over, we had about three and a half hours before our dinner reservation, so we really did go home and rest this time.

At 7pm we got up, got ready, and headed out to the Mexican restaurant Wifey loves so much. As we entered, I opened the door for her and told her the booking for a table for 2 under the name ‘BEVIS’, and as she asked the waitress for the table, I turned to my right and said quietly, ‘Oh, look.’

When she turned and saw 30 of her nearest and dearest friends waiting for her, she was delighted!

So the rest of the night was spent eating and drinking and talking and laughing and burping and having a great time. Many thanks to this woman for helping me book the restaurant (the rest of the day I did myself!). Thanks also to our waiter for being so confusing.

In the end, it didn’t matter that we didn’t have our ‘date night’ as planned, because we had a whole ‘date day’ instead, which she never expected.

So I was an ace husband for the following reasons:

- I gave myself the day off work
- I bought her a Muppet figurine
- I went to the movies
- Someone else arranged the majority of the surprise dinner

What a guy I am!

And just before I go, here's another photo of The Captain & Tennille's adorable little newborn daughter, this time immitating 80s rock god Billy Idol:




"Rock the baby's cradle of love!"



* OK, not really.