Another extraordinarily busy weekend centered around the plans for a surprise birthday party for Tawn, scheduled for Sunday evening.  You know how these types of events become all-consuming, making them even more difficult to keep hidden from the guest of honor.

Last weekend we had dinner with a group of Tawn’s friends at Basillico on Sukhumvit Soi 33, and Tawn mentioned his upcoming birthday.  Since one of that group of friends is having her wedding in Phuket the weekend of Tawn’s birthday, it seemed that we would not have an opportunity to celebrate until the week afterwards.

While Tawn went outside to help Pim’s husband with a mechanical issue on his car (moral support, not technical), I proposed to Tawn’s friends that we have a surprise party for him this Sunday evening.  Everyone agreed, and Dao offered to help me with the logistics.  Since she works the next building over from our apartment, we met on Monday afternoon at Starbucks to hammer out the details.

As all the arrangements came together – invitations, reservations, cake – the one piece that was missing was the reason to get Tawn to the restaurant on Sunday evening.  This was compounded by a number of factors:

• Tawn had visited his parents the day before and felt like he was coming down with the cold that they both had;
• We had a farewell lunch Sunday afternoon at The Deck for Detlev, Markus’ cousin who had been visiting for three weeks; and
• We’ve been eating out a lot recently, so another trip to a nice restaurant would seem excessive.

Trying to figure out what was the least likely way to raise suspiciouns while getting Tawn to Pan Pan restaurant, I text messaged Tod and asked him to call Tawn Sunday morning and suggest dinner.  It was still on the edge since Tawn was feeling under the weather, but when he asked if I thought we should go, I insisted it would be fun.

We returned home about 3:30 Sunday afternoon after a long, liesurely lunch at The Deck, overlooking Wat Arun on the banks of the Chao Praya River.  Tawn took a nap and then, at my suggestion, did a half hour of yoga to help stimulate his immune system and help him get over his cold.

At about 6:50 Tawn called out from the shower and asked me to call Tod to confirm which location of the restaurant we were meeting at.  The timing was good because everyone was told to be at the restaurant by 7:00 and I asked Tod to suggest 7:30 as a dinner time so we’d arrive after everyone was there.  So I placed a faux call to Tod, pretending to have a conversation with him.

“Yes, oh you’re already nearby?  Yeah, I think we could get there earlier…. hang on… Tawn, Tod’s already near the restaurant, do you think we could make it there a bit earlier?  Yes?  Okay…”

So we arrived at the restaurant at about 7:15 and Tawn walked upstairs to the second floor and saw Markus and Tam and then saw they were sitting at a large table with most of his other friends.  Shock.  Surprise.  Then, “I didn’t dress appropriately for this occassion!”

Pictures from the event:

From left to right: Dao, Sa, Job, Pim, Arm, Pune, Tawn, Tod, Tam, Markus, David, Jack, Ble, Eddy, and Ja (barely in the picture)

From left to right: David, Jack, Chris, and Tawn as Tawn blows out his candles.  Tawn, Ble, and Eddy with a nice candle holder.  Tawn, Sa and Job – they are getting married in December.  Jack and Tawn laugh at what Tawn first thought was an oven mit, but turns out to be a body scrub glove. 

Chris, Tawn, Markus, Pune and Tam with their birthday gift to Tawn, a handmade vase from one of their friend’s shops at Jatujak Market.

When we arrived home, the first birthday card of the year was waiting, one from my parents.

Happy birthday Tawn!