With my own 40th looming (gulp!), I got to thinking about the surprise trip to Rome I planned for Lee's 40th six years ago. We had visited Rome very briefly as part of our honeymoon, and I knew Lee wanted to go back and see it 'properly'. I arranged for family to look after the boys, and I found a lovely, reasonably priced B&B near the Vatican (Romantic Vatican B&B - although I should add they seem to have had a makeover since we went!) on the recommendation of a friend who'd been shortly beforehand.
Keeping it secret, however, wasn't easy, as we had a joint bank account and (at the time) a joint email address. I opened a new web-based email account with which to book everything, and I got my mum to pay for the hotel on her card, while I siphoned off small amounts of money from the account to pay her back in cash bit by bit. The flights were more difficult. Not only were we not exactly flush but there was no way I could extract that much money from the account without Lee noticing. Then I hit on a genius idea - Nectar points. We had loads saved from our weekly Sainsbury's shopping and no way was Lee observant enough to notice them missing. I booked the flights.
One evening a week or so later, Lee came into the lounge clutching a receipt and with a face like thunder. 'Sainsbury's have cocked up,' he said. 'We should have thousands of points but this says we only have 200!' Why the hell was he examining old receipts for Nectar points?! I tried to look unbothered. 'Oh, it's obviously a mistake,' I replied. 'I'll sort it out tomorrow.' I wasn't overly worried - Lee always left sorting out things like that to me (the 'advantages' of working from home!), so I had nearly 24 hours to think up an excuse. A few minutes later, Lee walked back in with the phone attached to his ear. 'I'm still on hold - this is ridiculous!' he muttered. It certainly was. 'Don't worry, hang up. I'll sort it tomorrow. Get on with your work.' I took the phone from him and ushered him back into the study, feeling more worried by this point. 'It's okay,' he shouted back, a few minutes later. 'I've opened up a chat with customer services.' There was nothing I could do. I marched into the study and told him to close it down. He protested, confused. 'Just close it down. Trust me.' I glared at him. He complied, with a grin, as realisation dawned about roughly where the Nectar points had gone to. Okay, so he didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, but the surprise value had somewhat diminished!
Still, he was suitably pleased and surprised (I hope) when he found out we were going to Rome (by way of the guide book I'd wrapped up for his present). We spent a pleasant night at the airport hotel before travelling (without the kids to keep us awake all night). We had a pleasant flight (without the kids driving us mad with bickering). We navigated our way through the public transport and found the hotel without any problems. That's when things got difficult. A very nice man greeted us but, after the initial pleasantries, told us that he had expected us the previous day. At first, I assumed he had made a mistake, but no - I had. Somehow, I had managed to book us in for three nights starting the day before. To this day I have no idea how I managed it - I am usually meticulous with planning and organising. I can only assume I got confused with the date of the airport hotel. Whatever the reason, it didn't change the situation - I had just paid for a night we didn't use and, far worse, we now had nowhere to sleep for our last night in Rome. I felt sick to my stomach. Luckily, the nice man explained that, although our room was already booked by someone else for our third night, he had one other room free. We could remain at the B&B - we'd just have to move rooms. The nice man even proved how nice he was by not charging us for the extra night. In fact, it actually worked out pretty well - the room we moved into for our last night was the four-poster room I had originally tried to book but which had been full for the dates I (thought I) wanted. It meant we got a bit of variety without the hassle of moving hotel - crisis averted!
Thankfully, to the best of my memory, there were no more major disasters. The only real issue was the time that Lee managed to break the key in the lock of the front door to the B&B. Trying to explain what happened in pidgin Italian to the caretaker, who didn't speak a word of English, was... interesting - although I think Lee was as much chuffed by the sheer strength required to break a solid metal key as he was mortified by the incident...
So, the morals to this story. Check, double-check and triple-check your dates when booking anything. Turn keys gently. And complete surprises are bloody difficult to pull off. (Especially when someone asks if anything's happening around the time of their birthday so that they know whether they're free to take on a job - eh, Lee?!)
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