Totally Surprised

It is not often that we can pull a swifty over Steve, so it was with great delight to all of us that we managed to totally surprise Steve on the weekend. When Steve was younger, he was a huge "Cat Stevens" fan. This really amused our kids when they were growing up. They could not beleive that their father would have liked a musician who sang a song like "I'm being followed by a Moonshadow". There were lots of jokes an bantering about in during their teenage years. Well as they have grown their appreication for good music has also grown, so earlier this year when Pete found out that "Cat Stevens" alias Yusuf was going to Brissie for a concert, he just knew that he wanted to take his Dad to the concert, so thus began the planning. We really are blessed with a wonderful son who paid for tickets to the concert and also shouted his dad the flights to and from Brissie as well.

Steve knew that something special was on, on the weekend, as I have been at him for weeks to make sure all his work is done for the course he is teaching at CQU this next week, was done and completed before the weekend. We told him that we had visitors coming for the weekend, and we wouldn't tell him who. He just naturally thought the kids were flying home. I packed him an overnight case, and checked him onto his flight Friday afternoon whilst he was out, and Chloe hid his overnight bag in the boot of her car on Friday night, and then she took off early Saturday morning telling her dad she was heading off to the shops, whilst she was really heading out to the airport to be sitting there waiting for us. Meanwhile, Steve and I went off to the airport to meet whoever was coming for the weekend. He was absolutely gobsmacked when Chloe handed him his bag, and I gave him his boarding pass to head off on this.
He had left home without his pens and notebook, and other bits and pieces that he always carries everywhere with him. So totally unexpected - I have never seen him so surprise - he never had any idea that we were sending him away.

The surprised continued when he got to Brissie. Both Pete and Sarah picked him up and took him Shopping. Sarah bought him a new shirt to wear out that night, they checked out Pete's new place and chilled out with a movie, and then they took Steve out to dinner to his favourite restaurant. After dinner they headed here.
They decided to drive, rather than take the train, ( they didn't want anyone of the train ruining their surprise by talking about where they were going). Steve rang me when they arrived and he still had no idea what was going on or who they were going to see.
Even in his wildest dreams he would never have imagined or beleived that they would be taking him to this. When he got inside and found out he was going to see Cat Stevens, he was speechless - he rang me to let me know, and he was totally overwhelmed, could barely tell me. It was an awesome concert and he sang lots of his old songs. The kids really LOVED it too. Sarah bought him one of these



to remember the night by. The surprises provided countless entertainment and excitement to the rest of us.

Steve flew home yesterday morning, and all he could talk about was his amazing weekend. He put this on to show me and wore it all afternoon.

As much as he loved the concert, he was more blown away than anything by the LOVE of his kids, by Pete's GENEROUSITY, by the fact that they planned such a special weekend for him and went out of their way to make him feel so SPECIAL and the fact that he got to share something this amazing with them. Couldn't stop telling me about it all day. I don't think he realized how exciting it was for the rest of us also to be part of making him feel so SPECIAL.

Meanwhile on Saturday night whilst Steve was at the concert, I got to be a bit creative with a friend of mine and we had a card making evening. I made these cards for the SofF girls.
The plans for the big holiday are on track. We picked up a real bargain last week. Steve has had his eye on one of these for over 12 monhs now.
He has been pricing them every couple of months, and then last week saw them on special in a catalogue. Did a bit of ringing around and then got a further $50 off plus three years of free maps, so decided it was time to get it now - figures it would give us a couple of months to play with it and learn how to use it.
Friday night we went for a little drive around town to test it out. Looking forward now to using it on the road.

Finally it is nice being on holidays, enjoying a few days on the Sunshine Coast catching up with my parents, looking forward to catching up with Sal and meeting Mary. Then I plan to catch up with one of my closest friends before heading back to Brissie to have the weekend with the kids. Also plan to catch up with a coulple of close friends in Brissie next Monday before heading home. Oh I so LOVE school holidays.