So I generally have a love/hate relationship with surprises. I love the idea of them but being a naturally curious ( ok, nosy) person I hate waiting to find out what they are.
But two weeks ago when my son found a cut-price flight to Cyprus and decided to use his post as-level week off to visit his grandma, my lovely, lovely dh suggested I go with him.
Right there I decided that I would not tell my mum.
I figured I knew she would be there- after all she would be expecting ds. And if she had planned lots of things to do the worst that could happen would be I would have to hang around in her garden and sunbathe. Tragedy!
Then came the hard bit. Not telling her. A few friends knew but none of them were likely to be chatting to my mum. The hardest was not telling my gran but I figured the less people that knew the safer the secret would be.
I kept dropping hints. I told her I was sending a present with ds and hoped it wouldn't incur excess baggage. I suggested I was practising contortionism in an attempt to climb into ds's rucksack.
In the end I largely avoided her on facetime and posted very few Facebook posts for fear I give myself away.
Arriving at Paphos airport last night we decided that ds would go through the arrivals door first and then if she tried to hurry him out to the car he would stall her,
And that is exactly what happened but luckily ds is a quick thinker and told his grandma he needed the toilet.
Call it mothers instinct or pure luck but even though my mum was not looking for anyone else to come through the doors, the second I walked through something made her turn towards them. She told me this morning that she saw me out of the corner of her eye and recognised first my walk, then my hair, then my dress. By the time I spotted her, she was open mouthed with shock!!
It was very lovely and luckily appeared to be a nice surprise for her!
So here I am ( sorry) back in sunny Cyprus while DH takes over the school run. Just one thing girls-don't let him eat too much cake!