This weekend we have mostly done things for Mummy W’s big birthday and it’s been fun. There was planning involved – quite a bit of it. The most surreal part was when Dad asked me a month or so ago to help him organise a surprise party for Mum. He wanted me to meet him at the place it would be held after work to plan the food; the problem was he rarely leaves his house in the evening, so we needed to come up with a reason that wouldn’t make Mum suspicious.

‘Call me with an emergency’ Dad said.

So on my way home that night I called. Mum answered. I tried to sound panicked:

‘Can I speak to Dad urgently?’ She passed me over

‘Dad, I’m having an emergency. Meet you in the car park in 30 minutes as we said?’

‘Oh. What’s the emergency?’

‘Dad, we planned this earlier. There isn’t really an emergency. You know that.’

‘You need to tell me what’s happened so I know what to advise’

‘Right. Ok. Um. My sink is leaking. Could you come and fix it please?’

‘I’d better come down then’

‘Dad, you need to tell me to hold a towel or something round the pipe until you get there’

‘Why?’

‘Because if Mum calls to see if I am ok when you leave I won’t be there to answer the phone. If she thinks I am busy holding a towel she won’t ring.

‘Oh, good idea. Hold a towel around the pipe until I get there!’

……….

We met, we organised with the venue owner, we went our separate ways. But not before needing to establish exactly what was wrong with the sink and how we had patched it up, so we both told Mum something similar. It was all worth it though. I didn’t get a photo of the surprise on Mum’s face as she walked in last night and saw a lot of her friends, but I did get one of her looking very happy about her birthday cake that the very clever Sister 2 made:

:o)