It all started out 2 years ago when John called to let us know that we forgot to call Birthe, Johns wife, and wish her a happy birthday.
Shit, we forgot. But it was especially embarrassing when we forgot it again this year as well. So after the fact, and while I was at work, I ended up talking with Birthe on the phone and told her how sorry we were that we forgot it again.
We were so occupied with our own travel plans and Jens's health situation and my crazy work schedule and bla bla bla - all of it true but the more truth I told, the more it sounded like I was making excuses.
That was the later half of October - Birthe's birthday is the 11th of October so how could I have forgotten her birthday - it's only 3 days before mine.
So anyway..... we are talking on the phone - she called to wish me a happy birthday - and she wants to invite me and Jens to John's 60th birthday on Sunday. "I have to work that day but luckily we could come to the party that evening after I get off from work", I told her. "Oh, no evening party", she said, "it's a brunch at 11:30." I told Birthe I would do what I could, to get the morning off so that we could come and celebrate with John.
It turns out that there was only 1 guy at work that I could switch shifts with and he wouldn't because it was just a week before that, that he wanted to switch shifts with me and I said no. I'm sorry but I am just too old and lazy to come home from work at 11:30 at night, do a pee walk with the dog, go to bed and then get up the next morning at 5:30. I just can't do that anymore without paying the consequences.
The brunch was at the end of November so I had almost a month to find someone else to switch shifts with but I just decided to ask the office to give me a vacation day instead to make it easier. To my surprise they said ok. We're pretty busy on Saturdays so I was kind of shocked they agreed to it.
So I called Birthe and told her that I got the day off and that we would for sure be there and we were looking forward to it.
Now the question is - what do you get for someone who is turning 60? It has to be a nice gift because it is a special celebration - right?
We decided on a gift certificate to be redeemed for a holiday flight on Norwegian Air. It's a Norwegian airline - hence the name - and you have to buy Norwegian points paying with Danish crowns and the web site said you could use the points on almost all of the flights. Well that phrase "on almost all flights" rang my alarm and I was wondering just how many crowns does it take to buy a norwegian point and then change the points back into crowns when it was time to pay for the flight. I mean I don't think there is an official exchange rate on the market showing the rate of crowns to points.
But then I thought, why should we have to limit the gift to just Norwegian Air when there are so many cheap options out there to travel from here. So that was when I go the idea to make my own gift certificate.
Days later, Birthe calls and asks if we wouldn't mind to pick up the birthday cake o the way over. The bakery is actually "just around the corner" from us so it was no problem at all. She said she would send the paid receipt in the mail so that we can show the baker that we were to pick up the cake for her. Along with the receipt she sent a little note saying: thanks for the help. see you on Sunday. That was when I shouted: SUNDAY? SUNDAY!!!???. SHE SAID SATURDAY!!!! I ASKED FOR SATURDAY OFF!!!!
I called Birthe immediately and questioned her to hear if she didn't mean "see you on Saturday?" Well I couldn't insist she said Saturday. I mean after all, she does know when her husbands birthday is. But now I was in deep chit because the brunch was next weekend and there was no way I could change Saturday with Sunday. Sunday is probably one of the most busy days at our company. But all I could do was explain the story to the vacation planer in the office and cross my fingers. Well...... what a surprise when she told me it was not a problem. I was shocked and so happy that it all worked out. I called Birthe late that afternoon and told her that we can pick up the cake and we can come to the brunch on Saturday at 11:30
If Birthe didn't ask us to pick up the cake, we would have showed up a whole day too soon.
This cake weighed about 10 pounds !
With less than a week to go, I had to get my butt in gear and get that damn certificate started. Instead of a little credit card size gift certificate that could easily fit in John's wallet, I made a huge poster size certificate.
Jens is still a bit under the weather and 3 hours of anything is rather
tiring for Jens so we had to pack it up and head for home after the few
hours we were there. But her are a few pix from the party. It was
really a nice arrangement and the food was delicious and plenty of it.
It was a very pretty table.
The Birthday Boy.
There was plenty to eat and drink and all of it was very tasty.
Skål !
Some of the gifts.
All kinds of yummy brunch goodies.
Birthe and the Birthday Boy
What a cute cake and tasty too.
This is the certificate poster I made. It says 60 and at the bottom it shows the birth year and this year. It has lots of pictures of travel destinations on it. The poster has a clever built-in stand so that it can stand freely on a table on its own but here it is in the window. Hanging in the middle of the zero is an airplane. It's made of cardboard from a roll of toilet paper. Inside of the plane is some travel cash with a birthday greeting. One of the guest asked me, "Didn't it take a long time to make"?
After the party, once Jens and I got home, I told Jens what someone had asked me. Jens said, " Though it may be true that it took you a long time to make it, no one knows how much I had to shit to get to the middle of the toilet paper roll."
