Elizabeth August 26th, 2009

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.

Earlier this month, that gorgeous boy of mine turned thirty. It was a landmark occasion that he struggled to come to terms with, and the grieving process seemed to begin about 3 months in advance.

(At least he’s not the one dating a 30-year-old!)

I wanted it to be an extra-special occasion, in part because all of “his” people are on the other side of the world. So, starting in June I put together The Festival of Tim’s Birthday.

It was the best!

On the Thursday before his birthday we went out for breakfast, and I gave him a card. It announced the commencement of The Festival, and included some instructions for meeting me for dinner after work. I gave him a map and tram directions, and instructions to be on time.

When he arrived at our meeting point, he told me that he had it all figured out. He had correctly guessed that we were having dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant…

… but hadn’t guessed the part about my parents and brother coming to visit for 10 days!

The tram restaurant was heaps of fun, and exceeded my expectations. I really didn’t have high hopes for the standard of the food, but was very pleasantly surprised. We all chose the steak, which came with a delicious mushroom sauce, followed by sticky date pudding or passionfruit mousse for dessert.

Our glasses were full all night, and we spent our time switching seats so that everybody had a chance to talk with the birthday boy. At times I completely forgot that we were on a tram, and due to the darkness outside we sometimes had to consult the GPS on our iphones to see where we were!

Towards the end of the night I handed Tim a pretty gift box with a big silver ribbon. An early present. Inside was a luggage tag, already printed with his name and address.

“You’re going to need this tomorrow”, I said.

To be continued…

• 101 in 1001 , Family , Life , Melbourne
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