The Bday Surprises: Hakuna Matata

Today was all about Chien! (Or should I say exploiting Chien's trust!). Since he did so much for my birthday last Nov, I thought this time I will out do him. What's more, the week prior to his birthday, he received news of 3 tragic deaths of his loved ones.. So? even more of a reason to spoil him!

Since I love getting surprises, I thought rather than give him his birthday presents all in one go, I will make him wait and surprise him every step of the way and let the day unfold itself out.

So I went to pick him up at 8:45am. While I was driving, I thought I'd give him his first lot of present which I managed to convince him that it was all I could find due to my busy schedule! He believed me of course! It was 2 presents wrapped in magazine placed inside a very nice hugo boss gift bag. I told him I didn't have any wrapping paper. So he opened the first present. Which I wrote in permanent marker "thought you may need these to energise you for every time you feel like giving up". Finally after unwrapping 10 magazine pages, he finally got to the present! Guess what it was? a pack of AA Duracell batteries! HA! Second up was another bulk of magazine wrapping paper which I wrote 'Thought I'd help you to smile more often'. After 1min of unwrapping, whoalla! it was a mobile electric toothbrush! He told me he loved it! and there I was thinking.. wow that was easy to please! Even with crappy wrapping paper too!

So finally we arrived to our first stop at Camberwell Civic Centre (which was a detour of his birthday plans). You see, since I'm the head of social club committee at P&G Melbourne office, I am in charge of selling entertainment books (which are these book of coupons for all casual and fine dining restaurants in each State). Every book sold will raise $12 back into our social club. So, I dragged Chien along for the VIP launch held today so that I could collect the 20 books (+ my free complimentary book) which I will be selling next week at office (and I paid $960 in advance for them too out of my own Credit Card! I better damn well sell them through!).
I so regretted taking Chien to it cos he was so bored and got so moody in the car afterwards. So I thought, let's do phase II for the surprise. At a red traffic light, I ejected my seat belt to grab his 'real' present below my seat in an attempt to cheer him up again. This time, it was wrapped in very nice wrapping paper plus my very own-designed ribbon bow tie. Inside was a CD I made for him of all the places and events we have gone together as well, I created a powerpoint slide using some very nice shots I've taken of him alongside with some Vicky's very own 'words of wisdom' quotes. Gosh I spent all of last night putting it together! I must say I would cry if someone did that for me cos it was that good! (hahaha! I feel my head getting bigger now..)

Anyways, at 11am, after collecting the books and wasting our time waiting for the raffle door prize to be drawn (of which we didn't end up winning), we made our way to Bridge Rd, Richmond famous for clothes shopping as I needed to kill time since his surprise actually begin at midday! I bought absolutely nothing, but Chien mananged to find these pair of very nice pair of White Italian Leather shoes from Zu for only $50! Bargain! He was a very happy man in deed!

Our last stop was finally in the heart of CBD. We parked at QV Building and walked around the city. I cleverly covered my plans by walking in and out of clothes store pretending I wanted to shop (when in fact, I was trying to kill time!). While we were walking, I saw some cheap eateries and asked him if he was up for it when really I just wanted to confuse him. He kept on saying 'I don't mind, whatever.. ' Finally, the time was ready to make our way to Collin St. I pretended to Chien that I wanted to go to Tiffany's on Collins. Then I told him that I don't exactly know where it was, thus we should just go to Grand Hyatt Hotel to ask the concierge instead. He fell for it and replied 'good thinking!' I so wanted to laugh. So as he was approaching the reception, I was heading for Plane Tree Cafe restaurant and told him 'hey let's have lunch here instead!'. He was like 'er no.. it's too classy and expensive. Besides we need to find where Tiffany's is'. The poor guy had no idea! I proceeded to the restaurant mgr and told her I had a booking. That was when Chien's jaw dropped. He was dumbfounded. I on the other hand, was smiling away cos my plans had worked! He was surprised alright!

Having gone to so many P&G functions, I really didn't think that much of classy hotel buffets anymore. So when I saw just how happy Chien was, it reminded me to appreciate it even more.
Since both of us didn't have breakkie, we were both starving by that time. I must say the gnocchi there (freshly made for you by the chef on the spot) were so good! they just melted in your mouth! The atmosphere was fantastic thanks to the pianist who played his classical pieces very beautifully!

After Entree and Mains, we were stuffed! But, how can anyone say no to dessert right? so thanks to my greed and passion for sweets, I decided to take nearly everything on the dessert section with Chien's help so we could sample a little of each (after all we had paid for it! so why not?!). The white chocolate with blueberry sauce cheesecake was divine!

I looked at my watch and realised it was time to go to phase III of my surprise. I got out Chien's b'day card and told him I had forgotten to give it to him earlier (he fell for it again!). I cleverly hid the two tickets to The Lion King literally inside the card (not envelope). Of course, Mr Gullable didn't see any of it at all.

I decided to play it cool and finally told him, 'ok let's go to Tiffany's now. I remember it's just down the road'. Of course I had no idea where it was, but Ijust wanted to lead Chienay to Regent's Theatre. I told Chien to hold his own birthday card. So when we finally walked past Regent's Theatre with The Lion King poster everywhere, I pretended to be a spoiled brat and begged Chien 'Let's go watch it! Let's go!'. Of course we both knew tickets would've been sold out as you need to buy it at least 3 months in advance! But I still pulled him along inside the foyer and demanded for him to take me to go see it. To my horror, he told me 'he's seen it already!' Now this time my jaws dropped!

My final and most important phase of the surprise was ruined! All this time, HE'S ALREADY SEEN THE DAMN THEATRE PRODUCTION!! At that point, Chien still had no idea about my surprise and said to me 'when I went last Nov, I had crappy seats. It would've been so great if we could see it together hey?'. At that point I knew it was my opportunity to expose to secret to him. So I cleverly said to him 'You can take me! You're holding the tickets in your hand!' . He looked at the card and then inside the envelope. Still nothing! By that time, He was completely puzzled. Then my patience had ran out, so I took the card off him and pulled out the tickets located in btw the cardboard of the card. This time, he was absolutely stunned and speechless while I was laughing my head off!! I read his facial expression like a book. It was saying 'Tiffany's my arse! How could I fall for it time and time again!' Talk about betrayal of trust hey? *Evil Laugh*

*Thanks for a great day Chienay! You being so dumb and gullable absolutely made my day!
Hope I've made it a memorable one for ya*