The Surprise!

Nat's birthday was coming up and we knew we had to do something big. It'd been ages since we'd seen her or done something fun with her.

Golo & Stef had the idea of driving down to Nottingham Uni where she lives on campus to surprise her right at her doorstep. So on Saturday night (her birthday being Sunday), we made arrangements with her unimates to secretly arrive there and celebrate her birthday.

Poor Golo was annoyed because we took our own sweet time. So we did the usual pick-everyone-up and met at Stef's where we connived to make Phyl drive, haha.

Golo & Shu carrying the snacks.

Me, Stef & Golo outside Stef's house, about to leave.

Poor Phyl, sabo-ed to drive.

Phyl had previously obtained a map drawn by her friend. It was pretty straightforward but the drive took almost an hour. It felt like we were practically travelling to another state via highway. Apparently there are shorter cuts. I sat with the cake on my lap all the way.

Goloka - trusty map reader.

Front seat.

Back seat.

Poor me, cake all the way.

We met a huge hurdle when we got there. The lousy guards didn't want to let us in since it was 11.15pm. We shouldn't have slowed down at the guardhouse, but the car was so heavy it hit the speedbump pretty hard and we were stopped. They insisted we could only stay til 12am (after much bargaining) and made us wear visitor's passes and retained my driver's licence. Boo.

So Nat's friends' plan worked - we drove back out close to 12am, waving sadly like we were going home. Then parked at the nearby Forest Bar and drove right back in as fugitives in their cars. That was funny. It was probably the same moment Omar started getting the hots for our resident babe, the gorgeous Shu Qing. Poor Omar - rejected & dejected.

So we set up at the amphitheatre, getting to know Nat's pals. Balloon-blowing, balloon-throwing, balloon-smacking. To disguise ourselves we wore paper hats and paper spectacles.

Getting busy.

And busier.

And busier.

I think we acted like a bunch of 5 year olds next to Nat's more low-key buddies. I'm too impatient to wait for the super funny picture of us in our whole paper get up.

Finally, the birthday girl arrived, unsuccessfully tricked by Syafiq to go star-gazing. But little did she know that her old pals had traveled all the way to see her. So worth it to hear her shrieking with joy! She started running down from the roof of the amphi.

So we hung out, cut the cake, gossiped. Eventually we had a blast playing silly games in a circle. Nat's friends are a hilarious bunch. Losers wore hats. I think I'm a doofus at word games. I just couldn't spot the patterns. Now it's so glaringly obvious. Aw. Even sober we kept messing up, imagine if we'd played the games while drunk.

Nat - keeping the flame alive.

And finally, at around 3 am, we wrapped up. All the balloons which only served the purpose of lying on the floor were eventually sacrificed. It sounded like fireworks the way Nat's friends attacked the balloons - the viciousness of the popping.

Anti-balloon people. I think they have issues.

Since Phyl was too miffed at the guards to drive home, I volunteered. Despite a wrong turning or two, we made it home safe and sound. And I bumped into Dad leaving as I entered our house at 4.15 am. Oops.

Sunday, Happy Day! Happy (Belated) Birthday, Nat!