Public display of private intent?

The Game... you just lost it!

Call me a loner, a sociophobic, Grinch or Scrooge. I do not particularly fancy having a big bash for something considered private. So what if you turn 50. Anyone with a bit of luck and divine non-intervention or intervention can achieve that. Even stray dogs can celebrate theirs (birthday, i. e.) if they survive the pound catchers or being a road kill. If they still want to felicitate themselves for this, it is still something personal - not appropriate for them to brag about it to their dogs and bitches but to reflect on their personal achievements and shortcomings to shortcomings to be able to survive another anniversary. 

Celebrating any personal achievement must be (er...) personal, enjoying it with the people who make it happened and the ones who were in the receiving end in the endeavor in your journey. Not that the bread man and newspaper man did not assist in your goals, this is personal. They got their dues. 

Perhaps superstition, perhaps fear of jealous roving ill intended eyes, significant event should be small and meaningful, not a public display of affordability and pomp. 

We do not need a surprise 48th or that matter 50th birthday like the one in 1997 movie 'The Game' where the Sean Penn character organizes an elaborate game to commemorate his rich and show-off brother's (Michael Douglas) 48th birthday. A recreational company, in cahoots with his bother, lawyer and staff brought Douglas to knees by siphoning off his money, implicating him in murder, getting him to be on his heels from the cops, drive him to paranoia and finally drive him to jump off a multistory office building to land on a giant glass dome which led him to a conference hall with a giant bed to dampen his fall and with all friends and relatives waiting to propose a toast there!

You do not need public display of private intent unless you are a politician or a business where  you need the public to support (or to be hoodwinked) for your private intentions!

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!

Don't you trust nobody, old chap!

A couple of weeks ago, I was an accomplice in someone's crime. A crime of a trivial nature meaning to do no one no harm but only a pleasant surprise. The intended victims are relatively young; hence their heart should be able to take the shock of the deceit!
The modus operandi was planned with the daughter of my friend (RM) calling to get contact numbers of my friend way back 6 months prior to the event. What event? My friend and wife's 50th birthday and 20th wedding anniversary. That was it. RM never called back.
She single handedly right under her parents' noses managed to arrange the venue, the caterers, contact all the relatives and friends secretly, sneak out some of the family photos for the slide presentation, organize the invitation cards, get the caterers, arrange the itinerary of the day and at the same time juggling with her work in college. She managed to cough off some of pocket money and squeeze out contributions from conniving relatives.
On D-day, her uncle, was to take the parents out a night out. In the pretext of wanting to check out the surprise party venue for his own social function, he managed to hoodwink my friend and his wife to the party and ....SURPRISE!!!!
My friend and his wife were flabbergasted, shell shocked but pleasantly surprised! They could not believe that their little girl had managed to contact all their old friends and relatives and arrange the whole event under the noses living under the same roof without the knowledge of her 16 year old sibling. My friend could not believe that his almost 80 year old who was ushering in the entire guest, whom my friend checks regularly for his well-being, decided to stay mum. And his mum too! All was forgiven in the name of meaning well.
RM handled the whole extremely well to earn complements from all attendees. My friend, who was undecided about sending RM to study overseas - being a young girl whose street-smartness was suspect, decided there and then she was up to it!
Talking of surprise birthday parties, I remember how my other half single-handedly (with the cooperation of friends and relatives, without the knowledge of my four then young blabber mouth kids) arranged my surprise 40th birthday party without  inkling to any of the occupants of my home!
Lesson in life to learn - Like the cowboys in the Wild West would say, "Don't you trust nobody!'