I just found some dusty old video footage (from three months ago) that made me smile. I’d like to post it here for posterity. But before I do, allow me to set the scene.

Jan celebrated her 40th birthday this past April. I wanted to make it special so I invited a few friends. Here’s an excerpt from the super-secret email invitation.

Hello friends,

I’m throwing a little surprise lunch tapas party this coming weekend to celebrate Jan’s 40th birthday and I know she would love to see you there. Yes, a surprise party. So don’t say anything to anyone!

Her actual birthday is this Friday the 17th. I am planning to take her out to dinner to celebrate Friday night so I hope she doesn’t expect anything for the following afternoon. As I said, the surprise party will be a lunchtime tapas event.

The plan is for everyone to arrive at the restaurant at about 13:30-13:45, and then I will arrive with an unsuspecting Jan by 14:00. There will be a lovely and varied tapas and wine menu for all (at 28 euros + IVA per adult head) and we’re even planning on organizing a little table for the kiddies with a child minder so you’ll be free to drink heavily even if you bring a little rug rat. Please try and wear a white shirt/top to the restaurant and I will try to get Jan to wear red or some other color that will really allow her to stand out in the crowd.

Here’s the video. It’s about eight minutes long and rather boring in parts so I wouldn’t be offended if you chose to give it a miss. It just brings back nice memories for me so, dammit, I’m posting it.

Points of interest:

• 0:00 – Jan and I arrive with Ed and Basia (who are in on the surprise). The story was that we were treating them to lunch to pay them back for babysitting for us the night before.
• 0:30 – Jan thinks to herself, “Why the hell do we have to carry these heavy-ass pushchairs up the stairs if the downstairs dining room is empty?”
• 1:50 – Blitzkrieg!
• 2:00 – My hand starts shaking due to the release of all my pent-up adrenaline. The shaking gets steadily worse and continues for three whole minutes.
• 2:08 – It finally hits Jan what has just happened.
• 2:33 – A little kiss tells everyone they can now form an orderly line to wish Jan a happy happy.
• 2:45 – Notice everyone in white. Well, almost everyone.
• 3:53 – I stupidly put my finger over the camera’s stupid microphone which is stupidly located on top of the stupid camera. 40 seconds.
• 4:07 – Jan starts to piece together clues that she had previously missed, like the text message from Val telling me how much a kid’s menu would cost.
• 4:44 – Sophie and I reminisce about how we saw each other just minutes earlier on the way to the restaurant but I cleverly averted Jan’s attention.
• 4:59 – Julian is the first of many to ask where Sebastian is. He was only two months old and many people had not yet met him at this point.
• 6:12 – Anna Spanner tries to avoid the camera and then apologizes for not going out to dinner with us the night before. Another camera duck at 6:52.
• 7:08 – Checking up on the birthday girl.
• 7:30 – Jan starts to tell everyone the story of what was going through her mind as we arrived.
• 7:50 – Happy birthday.

And we actually managed to get a half-decent group photo.