So we have had many birthdays lately and everybody is kind of tired of cakes, but that is not the hazardous part. I have found out that it is simply madness what our brains can produce here. It started with Eeva’s birthday on 26th of February, well, a couple of days ahead with 4 mad people creating the program for the day. Starting point: 6 am, meeting place: Eeva’s window, idea: embarrassment and discomfort to the Birthday child, repertoire: all kinds of weird songs that had not much connection to birthday. She woke up. No wonder! I think most of the campus was wide awake wishing we would disappear from the earth, at least from Denmark. We kept on singing and suddenly there was one more voice coming from around the corner. She was singing along, wearing something extremely short and wellingtons on her feet. So we were just standing there in the snow at 6.15 am, laughing and eating chocolate that she brought with her. My ration went to the birthday kid.
The next episode was prepared by this crazy gang a few days before, bit by bit so that we wouldn’t disappear all together. We made four boxes with a special filling in each. First one was put right behind her door on the table and SHE MISSED IT, so we had to give very straightforward hints later the day. It consisted of a gift token made by HMTGJ (Hullumaja Tegelik Geniaalne Juhtkond) that freed her from the kitchen duty for the whole day (It was her kitchen duty week) stating veeeery clearly it can only be used on that day. The next box was in the house kitchen, which she of course also missed at first. There was her food for the day. All sorts of candies and stuff like that. The third I placed in the common living room and having learned from previous experiences, I tied a red balloon to the box that was hanging from a book shelf so it could lead her to the box. It must be ordinary for her to see balloons appearing from time to time, so I still had to drag her to the box myself. That box had my short stories printed out for her as she is my kick in the butt her when it comes to writing. The fourth box was decorated by us and that led her to a painting that Mirjam had made; a portrait of her that was absolutely gorgeous. She was crying from time to time during the day, trying to convince us that she is actually not that weepy at all. We didn’t believe.
After the treasure hunt, we went with Hannes to bake two cakes. We were just tired of the ordinary stuff, so we decided to make something different. He made a very yummy apple cake-pie and I made my peach pie and when Mirjam and Moona (Anna-Liisa) came later, we also made two layered cakes with different fruit filling. It was all veeery good and we were almost satisfied with the result, but just two days after Eeva it was Moona’s birthday and we had to start planning that one very fast. We agreed that it has to be something very different and believe me, so it was.
The good thing with Moona is that she sleeps long during the weekends and her birthday was on Monday, so we had time to plan on Saturday and act on Sunday without major disturbances. Saturday brunch was the idea creating time and finally we agreed to try to sneak to her room in the middle of the night and pretend a party that was going on and she just fell asleep after few glasses of wine. As an addition, we wanted to give her a small bottle of her beloved rum and why have it easy… let’s hide it. In the snow! And later the day we should try to embarrass her a bit in front of the whole school singing stupid stuff that Hannes had come up with a few weeks ago. It also has to be said that Moona and I live in the same house, nr 7; others live in houses nr 1 and 2.
So, Sunday came and Eeva and I agreed to meet at 9am to make the cake for the early morning party and some also ready for the evening so we would have less trouble on Monday. As she loves chocolate, we made Sacher cake that is extremely full of dark chocolate. It was quite some work I’m telling you. Next we made two big honey cakes and later also cheese biscuits. It was a full kitchen duty, but very nice. At the same time others prepared a card, a cd and another gift token for her.
Time for the “big event” was coming closer and the details had to be run through once more not to make any stupid mistakes that would wake her up. We asked for a master key from the headmistress, explaining why we need it. She laughed and gave the key. In the evening, when others were entertaining Moona, I went to try the key and check all the noises the floor or the door could make and practiced opening the lock and two doors as quietly as possible. I found a little hump on her floor that made the door get stuck, but luckily it helped if I lifted the door a bit. My fear was that she would wake up while messing with this lifting as the door is right next to her bed, next to her head. At the same time, Hannes was piling up the snow behind her window, having the bottle of rum under all of the wet, sticky stuff. Later others made the sign “dig here” and a beautiful cardboard button that was painted red. She just loves buttons!
Anyway, when she finally went to bed and we could get things ready for 3am, it became seriously funny. Two trays, one with cake and plates, the other with wine, glasses and candles had to get to our house. Once that was successful, we agreed to meet quarter to three in pajamas at our house’s door. I guess others had had their laughs earlier on the way down to our house, but when I saw this crowd, especially Hannes I just couldn’t hold myself from laughing. Others were chewing their scarves and trying to look serious. I was angry at myself, we were so close to the major happenings and I was giggling like a 10 year old. I calmed down and we moves slowly to the living room, where I had the trays ready, candles lit and now it was time to start opening the door. Quietly, as I had tried earlier that evening. The tension was filling the air and the act was just ridiculous way beyond imagination. I started to put the key in the keyhole and a burst of laugh came out again. What was I doing? In the darkness of the night unlocking the door of a friend to go in and pretend a party…. I ran quietly to the toilet. Few more laughs, few minutes to calm down, I decided I won’t look at anybody and to be sure I couldn’t laugh, I stuffed the hood of my jumper to my mouth, making it feel uncomfortable and went back to the living room. Quietly, very slowly and almost professionally I got the key into the keyhole. Turning slowly, while pushing the key, so it wouldn’t make any sounds- and the lock was opened. That door was luckily easy to open. Bit by bit, until the door was wide open. Others were ready in case she wakes up that we “have the party” in the living room and I just went to wake her up to cut the cake. Yeah, we had a plan B as well. But she was still asleep. I stepped in and was facing the other door- the one that worried me much more. I started pushing the door slowly. She was turning in bed. I stood still, keeping in mind that I shouldn’t look at her. People tend to feel if someone is staring at them even in sleep. I was waiting for nearly a minute and continued my crazy act. The door touched the floor and it was time to lift it. I tried to do it quietly, but something disturbed Moona again and she moved in bed. I was not breathing, watching the dark ceiling, waiting, probably blue in face while holding the door up in the air a few millimeters . Quiet again. I got the door over the hump and opened it fully. Then slowly, I went back to the others who were almost sure she had woken up as I was gone for so long time, but they put the glasses back to the tray, I took the cake tray, Hannes took the wine tray and we started going into her room, sat down, Mirjam put half a glass of wine to her night table and some cheese biscuits next to her pillow and we started chatting. I couldn’t believe we were actually in there. She woke up and turned her face into the biscuits and when she saw us, she turned back, probably being sure that it’s a dream… and then she asked.. How did you get in here… no way… how did you get in here… it was so funny, we told her that we actually found it a bit rude to fall asleep like that, after all we were her guests that she had invited and now she doesn’t even remember the beginning of the party. Poor thing, we also told her that it is so not nice to kick us to the floor just because she wants to sleep and we advised her not to drink so much wine in future.
To make her feel fresh and ready for the cake, Hannes took a look outside and pointed at the pile of snow that had a sign on “dig here”. Hmmm… and there was a nice tool as well, a scoop. So considerate of us! With a pile of snow that reaches the window, it is the best tool ever, but with no mercy we sent her out to dig out her present. It was funny to look at, but in the madhouse like ours, even the person who was passing by (at 3.30am!) didn’t look at her strangely. If people want to dig early in the morning, they should dig. After strong 10 minutes of fight, she found the bottle and our cake party could start.
Then during the day we didn’t do much anything regarding the birthday, but in the evening we were baking a bit more and after dinner had the official party with the whole school where we gave the other presents and sang the shark song with her name and lifted her 20 times with a chair. It was great again and or 78 years old lady from the states said that she really wants to go to Estonia to see if all people are so nicely crazy there!
Lesson to learn- be afraid of your birthday, you never know how your friends want to celebrate it! They might like hazardous sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment