The Schoots: Menchie's birthday

Friday, October 12, 2007

Menchie's birthday

Last Wednesday was Menchie's birthday. At lunchtime we went out to our favourite Arab pizza place on Allenby and we treated ourselves to some simple yet delicious food. For the evening, Arnold, Canan, Kurt and Vanysha had organized a dinner for her at Kurt's place, and it was my job to make sure she got there on time and that she would to some extent be surprised (as most birthday parties here are surprises and Menchie has attended her fair share of them, I was sure she would see right through me if I tried to lure her to Kurt's place...).

An attempt after lunch to let Menchie's ID card mysteriously disappear so that Kurt could later "find" it and call her to come and get it from his home failed miserably, and so I had almost resigned to the fact that this year there would be no real surprise. We went to the Shrine after work to say some prayers, and on the way to "dinner in a restaurant of Menchie's choosing" I suddenly turned the car on to Hillel street and stopped in front of Kurt's place. As I was thinking of just telling her we weren't going to go to a restaurant but instead have dinner with some close friends, Martijn walked by and saved the day! He said that dinner for four was ready at his place, and Menchie bought into it! On the way to May and Martijn's apartment I swung open the door to Kurt's house (Kurt lives in the same building as May and Martijn) and the look on Menchie's face was just great! We had a wonderful evening with our friends, with delicious food and a yummy cake! Thanks everyone for coming and sharing this special evening with us!

Here are some pictures of the day...