About surprises :)
We had a very busy weekend last week. On friday Jeroen's dad had his birthday, and we had prepared a few surprises for him.
We waited at the station at around 8.30 in the morning. And once we saw him cycling by, we ambushed him singing the Dutch happy birthday and group-hugging him like whoa. He was so startled and while he appreciated the gesture he kept glancing at his watch, afraid that he might miss the train, as he still needed to drop his bike at the parking area, buy a ticket, etc. Turns out that his boss was in the complot too so they knew at his workplace that he would not be going to work on friday. :D
Once he heard that he calmed down a little bit, but it was quite the scene! Especially since he had no idea what we had in stock for him.
We had planned a trip to Nijmegen, the town where he was born and spent his youth in. There were a few bags of food and stuff so he assumed we'd picnic somewhere, but also we were bringing ONE bike along. He was kinda puzzled about that heheheh. The idea is once there, we would rent tandems to cycle around the town, and since we were with 11 people, instead of renting a single bike and 5 tandems, Jeroen brought his own bike along (also not knowing how easy it would be to find a bike his size, it was better if he could bring his along)
So once there, we hopped on the tandems, following the route that Jeroen had planned for us, with the aid of his aunts/uncles, who assisted us with addresses, housenumbers, etc.
The first stop was the house where his dad was born. When we got there he was looking all puzzled and going "What a coincidence...this is the place I was born in!" And we were all lol'ing and telling him it was no coincidence at all *grin* So he proceeded to tell us a bit about the house, the street, the shops nearby, etc. It was nice to hear him talk about the places we visited!
We also popped by his old school which is no longer there, also by the house where my Jeroen was born, the house where he met his stepbrothers and sister for the first time... all in all a very emotional cycling tour, and his dad loved every moment of it. :)
At some point people got hungry so we stopped at a nearby field to sit down and have a picnic that one of Jeroen's brothers and his GF arranged for all of us, that was very sweet! There were breads, ham, jam, drinks... all was very yummy. While we sat there and relaxed in the sunshine, we gave Jeroen's dad his gift. It was a very nice watch, as we had heard that he had been looking for a new one for a while already, and luckily he liked it so he was very happy with his gift. :)
We cycled a little bit more, but since it was too warm we stopped at a V&D and sat on the roof terrace to enjoy the sunshine with a cold drink and icecream. We had to return to Apeldoorn soon after that because we had planned another surprise for his dad: Dinner at his favorite chinese restaurant. We had reserved a buffet for 11 people, which, if you know chinese restaurants, it was more like for 25 people LOL, SO MUCH FOOD! Of course we ate like pigs and there was still lots left over, couldn't help that much. :) The meal was excellent and then we returned to his parent's house with a full tummy.
Jeroen's dad wasn't feeling all too great though, he had lots of backpain and by the time we got home he could barely move, I am amazed he could cycle on the tandem with the pain :( The bad thing was that he could not lie down cause we had yet ANOTHER surprise in stock for him! Turns out that in his younger years, Jeroen's dad used to play the guitar in a band, and he hadn't seen the band members in forever. So the family managed to get them all together to come in the evening and surprise him. It was hilarious, at first he didn't recognize them at all! So much had everyone changed! But then it clicked as he saw his old band mates carrying their old guitars and bass and all, and he had no choice but to ignore the pain and catch up with his buddies! :) I heard they were still there past 1 in the night. I came home earlier because I was feeling pretty pooped and I didn't feel I could stay awake much longer heheheh. It was a long day all right!
Jeroen's dad was planning a BBQ later on in the year to celebrate his b-day with the family, and just to throw him off a little bit more, we moved the BBQ to the 11th of may LOL. He didn't know a thing, as he got a "fake" invitation that Jeroen designed, stating that the BBQ would be on June, but the rest of the family got the real invitations asking them to come in may instead. So Jeroen's mom made sure that there was no one home that day so that we could start with the preparations for the party. Around 11 we all gathered there and started putting up garden decorations, a party tent, chairs and tables, unpacking glassware, dishware and silverware, inflating balloons -no, not me mind you!- setting the music installation... you get the idea. We were busy buzzy bees!
Finally everything was all set and we got to sing the happy birthday once more when Jeroen's mom and dad returned from wherever they were LOL. He didn't notice the decorations at first until he saw a HUGE number "60" hanging from the garage door. He was saying "oh oh... you are not going to fool me again are you?" and indeeeeeeeeeeeeed :D Surpriiiiiise! :D After that, the rest of the family members started dropping in. I was pleasantly surprised myself when I saw Jeroen's grandparents had come too! I think it's the first time I ever see them coming to a party like this so that was pretty nice. :D
The BBQ was fired up around 4, everyone pigged in nicely including myself heheh (I think I put up 10 kilo just that weekend), I had lots of conversations with people in Dutch and they all complimented me on how good it was getting, wheeeeeeeee! So yeah, I was having a good time. However something weird happened... I had the feeling that people just ate and left! (that's a bit rude in Mexico, dunno here in Holland...) but by 20.00 there was no one left... the beer barrel was still more than halfway full, there were TONS of meat left, and well, normally people stay for the "coffee & cookie" after the meal, but there were only a handful left who actually took some. That was just plain weird. I don't think Jeroen's dad minded much because his back was still killing him so, I can imagine he was glad it was over so early LOL, but yeah. I tried helping up with the cleaning afterwards, removing all the decorations we had put up only hours ago, and went home with mixed feelings... I was counting on the BBQ lasting till VERY late due to the nice weather and the fact that EVERYONE was free the next day due to a public holiday. I wonder why they were all such party poopers....
So that's what I was up to last week! :) I still want to write another entry about my visit to london and something nice I found in youtube, but I'll do that some other time. I gave you enough to read up there to last you a month. ;D
*wavessss*
Nietjuh
We waited at the station at around 8.30 in the morning. And once we saw him cycling by, we ambushed him singing the Dutch happy birthday and group-hugging him like whoa. He was so startled and while he appreciated the gesture he kept glancing at his watch, afraid that he might miss the train, as he still needed to drop his bike at the parking area, buy a ticket, etc. Turns out that his boss was in the complot too so they knew at his workplace that he would not be going to work on friday. :D
Once he heard that he calmed down a little bit, but it was quite the scene! Especially since he had no idea what we had in stock for him.
We had planned a trip to Nijmegen, the town where he was born and spent his youth in. There were a few bags of food and stuff so he assumed we'd picnic somewhere, but also we were bringing ONE bike along. He was kinda puzzled about that heheheh. The idea is once there, we would rent tandems to cycle around the town, and since we were with 11 people, instead of renting a single bike and 5 tandems, Jeroen brought his own bike along (also not knowing how easy it would be to find a bike his size, it was better if he could bring his along)
So once there, we hopped on the tandems, following the route that Jeroen had planned for us, with the aid of his aunts/uncles, who assisted us with addresses, housenumbers, etc.
The first stop was the house where his dad was born. When we got there he was looking all puzzled and going "What a coincidence...this is the place I was born in!" And we were all lol'ing and telling him it was no coincidence at all *grin* So he proceeded to tell us a bit about the house, the street, the shops nearby, etc. It was nice to hear him talk about the places we visited!
We also popped by his old school which is no longer there, also by the house where my Jeroen was born, the house where he met his stepbrothers and sister for the first time... all in all a very emotional cycling tour, and his dad loved every moment of it. :)
At some point people got hungry so we stopped at a nearby field to sit down and have a picnic that one of Jeroen's brothers and his GF arranged for all of us, that was very sweet! There were breads, ham, jam, drinks... all was very yummy. While we sat there and relaxed in the sunshine, we gave Jeroen's dad his gift. It was a very nice watch, as we had heard that he had been looking for a new one for a while already, and luckily he liked it so he was very happy with his gift. :)
We cycled a little bit more, but since it was too warm we stopped at a V&D and sat on the roof terrace to enjoy the sunshine with a cold drink and icecream. We had to return to Apeldoorn soon after that because we had planned another surprise for his dad: Dinner at his favorite chinese restaurant. We had reserved a buffet for 11 people, which, if you know chinese restaurants, it was more like for 25 people LOL, SO MUCH FOOD! Of course we ate like pigs and there was still lots left over, couldn't help that much. :) The meal was excellent and then we returned to his parent's house with a full tummy.
Jeroen's dad wasn't feeling all too great though, he had lots of backpain and by the time we got home he could barely move, I am amazed he could cycle on the tandem with the pain :( The bad thing was that he could not lie down cause we had yet ANOTHER surprise in stock for him! Turns out that in his younger years, Jeroen's dad used to play the guitar in a band, and he hadn't seen the band members in forever. So the family managed to get them all together to come in the evening and surprise him. It was hilarious, at first he didn't recognize them at all! So much had everyone changed! But then it clicked as he saw his old band mates carrying their old guitars and bass and all, and he had no choice but to ignore the pain and catch up with his buddies! :) I heard they were still there past 1 in the night. I came home earlier because I was feeling pretty pooped and I didn't feel I could stay awake much longer heheheh. It was a long day all right!
Jeroen's dad was planning a BBQ later on in the year to celebrate his b-day with the family, and just to throw him off a little bit more, we moved the BBQ to the 11th of may LOL. He didn't know a thing, as he got a "fake" invitation that Jeroen designed, stating that the BBQ would be on June, but the rest of the family got the real invitations asking them to come in may instead. So Jeroen's mom made sure that there was no one home that day so that we could start with the preparations for the party. Around 11 we all gathered there and started putting up garden decorations, a party tent, chairs and tables, unpacking glassware, dishware and silverware, inflating balloons -no, not me mind you!- setting the music installation... you get the idea. We were busy buzzy bees!
Finally everything was all set and we got to sing the happy birthday once more when Jeroen's mom and dad returned from wherever they were LOL. He didn't notice the decorations at first until he saw a HUGE number "60" hanging from the garage door. He was saying "oh oh... you are not going to fool me again are you?" and indeeeeeeeeeeeeed :D Surpriiiiiise! :D After that, the rest of the family members started dropping in. I was pleasantly surprised myself when I saw Jeroen's grandparents had come too! I think it's the first time I ever see them coming to a party like this so that was pretty nice. :D
The BBQ was fired up around 4, everyone pigged in nicely including myself heheh (I think I put up 10 kilo just that weekend), I had lots of conversations with people in Dutch and they all complimented me on how good it was getting, wheeeeeeeee! So yeah, I was having a good time. However something weird happened... I had the feeling that people just ate and left! (that's a bit rude in Mexico, dunno here in Holland...) but by 20.00 there was no one left... the beer barrel was still more than halfway full, there were TONS of meat left, and well, normally people stay for the "coffee & cookie" after the meal, but there were only a handful left who actually took some. That was just plain weird. I don't think Jeroen's dad minded much because his back was still killing him so, I can imagine he was glad it was over so early LOL, but yeah. I tried helping up with the cleaning afterwards, removing all the decorations we had put up only hours ago, and went home with mixed feelings... I was counting on the BBQ lasting till VERY late due to the nice weather and the fact that EVERYONE was free the next day due to a public holiday. I wonder why they were all such party poopers....
So that's what I was up to last week! :) I still want to write another entry about my visit to london and something nice I found in youtube, but I'll do that some other time. I gave you enough to read up there to last you a month. ;D
*wavessss*
Nietjuh