True Confessions

My blog the last three days has been very cagey. I wrote kind of innocuous stuff because I was having to keep a secret exactly where I was. Russ and I flew to London Tuesday night because we were coming to Scotland for a surprise birthday party for our friend Boris.

For a year we have been keeping this birthday party a secret. Boris’ wife Michelle has had a giant What’s App group where we have been talking about this trip for months. The planning and care that have gone into the making of this party are extraordinary. It would have been terrible if by chance Boris saw my blog that we were in London when they were also in the UK. So in the utmost of confidence I did not let on where we were. So to the people who asked me what restaurant I was writing about two days ago, it was in London, sorry. The Santa’s outside our car, were in London.

It was a good plan to come to London two days ahead of the party because now we are primed and ready for the birthday party of the century. We met up with a huge group of our fellow revelers at Heathrow. We flew to Aberdeen and were met by a lovely coach which drove us through the dark at 4:30 in the afternoon to the Fife Arms in Braemar, Scotland.

Using our What’s App connection we alerted them that we were just minutes from pulling up to the Inn. There were already a good group of friends who had arrived earlier surprising Boris, but he had no idea more people were coming. He was just inside the lobby with a fabulous surprised look on his face as each friend came in.

We quickly went to our rooms to freshen up and regather for cocktails and stories. Friends from Primary school, university, young working times to old working times and friends gathered along life’s journey along with the family he has made with Michelle and Elena and Benjamin are all here. People came from Seattle, Houston, North Carolina, Atlanta, Africa, France and all over the UK for the best surprise.

We had a big fondue dinner giving us a chance to sit and get to know each other even better. Then the drinking continued in another room. Michelle had rented out the whole inn so everyone here is a friend and is part of the party.

We retired about 11:00 to our fabulous little suite. We need to rest up for tomorrow when the celebration is going on all day and night. I can’t reveal the secrets, but suffice it to say it is the birthday party of the century.