The rat appeared but somebody did not smell it!

The dust still has not settled on the surprise party that I organised for my dear. Since she is turning half a century old, though she looks easily looks a decade younger, she likes to be in the limelight, is a party animal (buts rises early the next morning for temple type) and she likes pleasant surprises, I thought, "Why not have a surprise party for her?"

Now, how do you organise a party for a person who unashamedly says, "If you plan to have a surprise party for me, wait till my sister from Canada returns home for a holiday at the end of June, okay?"  It's going to be such a surprise that she'll go, "Oh.......you shouldn't have!!!!! Oh" with a fake "Oh..."
This fake surprise is no surprise at all!

First, to create a decoy, I agreed that that would be the ideal time for the surprise. I would be the one surprised when everybody screams surprise to the birthday girl, and she is thrilled! When pressed to be more aggressive in getting things organised for a function 3 months away, I just reassured the birthday girl, it is all under control. Thank you very much; I will get things going, no worries.

Behind the scenes, under the cloak of secrecy, I had already planned a bash on the weekend following the big day. The guest list comprised three categories: family members and relatives, close family friends, and, to add a nostalgic feel, her old school friends.

The venue was decided upon, at a private room in a new restaurant. The next difficult thing was to get her old friend's contact number and getting everybody mum about it. Still, I had to inform and pre-warn everyone about it - if not, nobody would turn up at the party! And the surprise would fall flat!

I decided to leave my youngest boy out of the equation, as it would be too much stress for him to handle. My other children managed to sneak out the phone numbers. Thanks to modern media, I was able to do a lot of hanky panky without breaking cover.

Throughout the whole time, nobody showed any emotion, and life went on as usual. Her real birthday came, and after the usual cursory and cutting the cake, that was it.

A day before the function, out-of-town relatives arrived and were housed in my cousin's place. By that time, my youngest son had to be informed. He almost spilt the beans when we visited the out-of-towners. Whilst discussing our unrelated subject, he mentioned to his mother that we had visited Kepong (the place they were placed), but luckily, she did not pick up the hint! Phew! The rat almost came out, but luckily she did not smell it - a sanitised vermin indeed!

On D-Day, my daughter managed to brainwash my wife for a girls' night out. She liked the idea. So off they went. By that time, everybody was nicely stationed in their posts, including my other son, who was supposedly to be at home studying very hard for his examinations. My daughters took a long detour and finally brought her to the rendezvous.

When the doors swung open at the Olive Tree Restaurant, everybody screamed at the top of their lungs, "Surprise!!!" and off went the music to the most frequently sung song in the world, Happy Birthday!

After an initial full 3 minutes of petrifaction and tongue-tiedness, my wife came down to Earth. After the series of welling of tears, "Oh my gawd!"s and huggings, the party began like it was 1999 to one that most people in our circle have not enjoyed for a mighty long time. I knew it was worth it when my wife whispered in my ear, "My best birthday, thanks!"

P/S: Just like at the end of some movies where they highlight the blunders and boo-boos during production, it is worth mentioning my moments of dumbness. After much difficulty securing all the ever-important telephone numbers of people very dear to my wife, I had it all set up on my iPhone. On the pretext of charging the phone while working on the computer, instead of charging the phone the usual way via a wall socket and 3-pin plug, smarty pants (me) decided to charge it from the computer via a USB port. And poof went all the contacts as the phone decided to synchronise the settings without my knowledge or ignorance! #2 On the actual day, there was much confusion on whether the entourage had actually arrived. The plan was for my wife to cut her cake as she arrived. After many false alarms, when one signal, which appeared as genuine, arrived, all 50 candles were lit. Even after all the candles had melted and burned off, the guest of honour never arrived!