Sunday 16 July 2017

Act Well and Keep It Secret


It was our friend Steve's birthday on Friday. Ash and Steve came over to hang out and celebrate after everything was done that day. It was just the four of us on Friday and they both stayed the night, so we had Saturday too! Though in the evening we had a little surprise for Steve...


After I had everything done at home and also cleaned the apartment, since the AC repair men left it dirty though they made a small attempt to clean up afterwards. Our friends came over around six, John arrived an hour later from work. We settled down on the sofa and the ready-made mattress for a sleepover. Ash had bought Virgils Flying Cauldron's Butterscotch Beer and if you recognise the name, yes that is the Butterbeer from the Harry Potter universe. I have tried the official one at the Warner Bros studio in London, but I did not like that one. This version was much better, still a bit odd since it is an acquired taste. Though named as beer it is really a cream soda, aka non-alcoholic. That does not stop the consumer from adding alcohol to it, as we did!

We ordered dinner. Well, the men ordered dinner. John and Steve had pizza. Ash had bought food near where she picked up the cake and I do not eat pizza anymore so I had pasta from the day before. Before dinner arrived though Steve opened his presents from Ash. She had made a funny joke about it and bought three Amiibos for a game which he did not even have (she did not realise this until he opened them). Then he opened a present with a Switch game inside, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to which she very convincingly proclaimed could be played on his 3Ds. The look on his face was priceless, like he was worrying about his girlfriend's intelligence, but of course, in the last and biggest present he found the console. He looked very happy! John and I gave him another game for the Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

After finishing up all our different meals Ash brought the cake out of the freezer (fridge too stuffed), put some candles on it and we all sang for Steve. The cheesecake was really good, but since everyone had had a big dinner we barely got through half on it. Afterwards Ash and I was too full to work properly. Both of us were slowly falling asleep while the men enjoyed the Switch and raced against each other in Mario Kart. I went to bed around eleven, Ash half asleep on the mattress already. I have no idea what John and Steve were doing during the night, but they went to bed late. That much I know.

On Saturday I woke up early, but was still sleepy. I stayed in bed and fell in and out of sleep for a couple of hours, vaguely hearing Ash moving around outside the closed door. When it was eleven o'clock we finally made it out of bed. Ash was gone already, telling her boyfriend she was going to be with her mom whilst she was actually preparing for the evening surprise. John and I spent the day entertaining Steve, gaming a lot on both Switch and the computers. We ordered McDonald's for lunch and had some of the leftover cake.

Around six o'clock we were ready to leave. The cover-up lie was that Steve and Ash were going to a family dinner and John and I were welcome to join. We dressed up in matching colours; white shirts, red shorts and blue shoes. Can you guess the theme for the evening? We took a cab and during the ride John asked Steve who would be there. A lot of Indian names were mentioned, but it was all great because that meant he really had no clue what was about to happen.

We arrived at the condo, moving towards the barbecue pit. An American flag hung from one of the parasols and Steve muttered "oh no, the American flag" but in a surprised way and smiled. Gathered around the pit was friends from the Telegram chat, people who knew Steve and new people who came as plus ones. Food had been brought and food was on the grill. We ate, we talked, we took photos and we told jokes. Well, other people told jokes. I do not know any, and even if I did, I am terrible at telling them.

Unfortunately I was not feeling so well and so we left around nine. We had done our duty, delivering the birthday boy to the birthday barbecue, and we had spent two days with those two amazing people. It felt alright to leave early, though I really wished we could have stayed longer.

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