The secret is finally out

Lies and deception can be so much fun if you’re working towards a nice surprise!

Firstly, YAY to Rachel for graduating from Wintec with a Bachelor of Nursing!

Now to continue my deception story…..

Cameron and I organised all the events that were to take place on Friday 24th March (graduation day). We’d been talking with her parents about secret plans since 3rd March!!! How little Rach knew!!

So this is how the day went down:

Actually it started when I went out to “dinner with old workmates” on Thursday night. Really I was at Kim and Quentin’s house baking a cake!! I may have taken a class in decorating cakes, but baking them is still a big challenge!!

Friday morning we got up and organised for the graduation ceremony at 10am. Rach’s parents and sister Vanessa came over from Tauranga and the 5 of us were Rach’s guests. Why do they always have boring people speaking at those kinds of things?! Luckily I was beside Vanessa, so between the both of us, we had a bit of fun making smart comments through the speeches. When it was Rach’s turn to walk across the stage, Vanessa and I went down to the bottom to take photos. We had to be super quick cause it seemed like Rach ran across the stage!! She did say she did some serious power walking across the stage! And in new heals!! Well done!!!

After the ceremony we did the normal photo thing outside by the bushes. Think most people have photos in front of those trees. I know my graduation photos are probably in front of the exact same ones!!!

From there we all went to Grillers for lunch. It was a nice lunch, just chatting about how the morning went, etc. Poor Cameron had to be back at work at 2pm, so he got up to pay for his lunch just before then as he had to walk a few blocks to work. Alan (Rach’s dad) said he’d take care of the bill, so him and Cam argued for a couple of minutes about it. It ended when Cam said “FINE! We’ll discuss this tonight!”. Alan was quick off the mark and covered the botch up by saying he doubted it as he was going out for tea in Tauranga and unless Cam was heading over there, then they wouldn’t discuss anything! So off Cam went to work, red faced. He text “me” along the way to say that he couldn’t believe he just said that!! BUT……of course there is a but…….he text it to Rach’s phone instead of mine!! We quickly fixed that by me asking Rach if I could check her phone – which she willingly gave me!!!! (We later found out Rach never heard anything Cam said after lunch!!!)

Rach & family and I headed back to our place to relax (and me to change out of my nice shoes and skirt). Yes I know, I WORE A SKIRT!! I was definitely playing grown up!!

At 4pm I’d arranged to meet Quentin at his house to get the cake and decorate it (as it had to cool overnight). Getting out of the house was the next challenge. Rach knows that if I took a day off for her graduation, I wouldn’t just go out and meet other friends (one of the excuse suggestions I was given) so as 4pm drew near, I was really struggling to think of a decent excuse. In the end, I got my bag and shoes and said I was going out for a little bit to leave them to have some family time. Apparently Rach was a bit gutted I just left (SORRY RACH, but it was all for you honey!!).

I decorated the cake at another friend’s house after getting it from Quentin (as he had to go out again). Many dramas later, we had an iced cake and I had 20 mins to get across town to pick up Jo, get changed and get to the restaurant.

Not my best work! First time doing cursive writing with icing!

Here is where the major deceit came in to play. Cam had asked Rach earlier in the week if he could have her alone for a couple of hours on the Friday night to take her out for a romantic celebratory dinner. He said he’d arranged for them to meet with some friends at 9pm for a few drinks to celebrate. That was all she knew.

What she didn’t know was that her family left our house at about 6pm, saying they had to be back at the camp (where they work) by 8pm (which is a normal Friday for them). Instead, they headed to Barzurk restaurant in town. This is where Jo and I met, along with Kim & Quentin, Craig & Laurine and Tobi (who came straight from work in Auckland and made it JUST in time!). We met at 6.30pm and Cam was meant to come with Rach at 6.50pm for their “7pm” booking. Unfortunately there was a slight delay. Rach was quite tired from the day’s events and didn’t really feel like going out for dinner! After some gentle persuasion, Cam convinced her to go out. When they made it to the restaurant, they had to push through a crowd of people to get to our table. As they came through the crowd, we all stood up and started clapping and cheering! The look on her face was confusion at first then total shock! Gotta love it when the surprise is actually a surprise!!

We all enjoyed a nice meal together, but because they were slow in getting the food out to us, Rach’s family had to leave early. They actually did have to be back at the camp to work, but not till 10.30pm – but this does mean leaving about 9.30pm. Everyone ordered coffees and decided they couldn’t fit in dessert. Luckily no one ordered dessert, as the waitress then brought out the cake I’d made!! Even though it wasn’t a birthday cake, I put candles on it. Candles look more effective when you are bringing a cake across a restaurant!!

So a fantastic day/evening had by all – especially Rachel I think!!