Michael planned to get him out of the way for a day

Tag : arabian slippers
MY partner Michael celebrated his 40th birthday last week, and hethought reaching this milestone would be a nice low key affair asI’d treated him to a luxury pamper day at Titanic Spa inLinthwaite.
What he hadn’t realised was that his treat was planned to gethim out of the way for a day while I set the wheels in motion forhis surprise party.
I’d invited 200 family and friends to our house for anArabian Nights themed bash, and managed to keep it all hush hush.
On the front lawn I’d arranged for a large Moroccan tentdecked out with rugs, cushions, lanterns and draped with loads ofplush fabrics and even a dancefloor in one corner.
We’ve also recently bought our own inflatable marquee to usefor other events but when it arrived in a bag resembling a pile oflaundry I wasn’t sure if we’d done the right thing. Sowe decided to have a go and put that up on the back lawn.
I’d definitely under estimated quite how gigantic it was andas soon as it started to inflate it became clear that the back lawnwas in no way big enough so I enlisted the help of 8 guys to helpmove it. Once it was up it resembled an enormous square ice cubeand looked fabulously funky so we set up the bars in there.
On the other side of the lawn I’d hired a Moroccan band and abucking camel – just like a bucking bronco but a camel tokeep with the Arabian theme.
All the guests looked amazing in their Arabian costumes andI’d brought over loads of kaftans, slippers and fezzes fromMorocco so everyone was dressed for the occasion.
When Michael drove up the drive we all hid in the Moroccan tent andthe band played Happy Birthday Moroccan style. He couldn’tbelieve his eyes as when he’d set off from home that morningI was still in bed and he hadn’t even had a sniff ofsuspicion.
I quickly dragged him onto the lawn for a belly dancing lesson withSophie Mei who reached the semi-finals of Britain’s gottalent and the party was in full swing.
Of all the parties we’ve thrown this has to be one of thebest – everyone was having a fantastic time and it was thehottest day of the year. Michael was thrilled.
But he always wants revenge when I pull a surprise on him so whenwe were all tucking into Moroccan lamb at the barbecue area heasked me to pose for a photo with him next to the pond. The nextthing I knew I was pushed in backwards and went completely under– re-surfacing with my white kaftan covered in mud and reeds!
After getting showered and changed, I got even with him again whenhe was made to sit on a throne outside the Moroccan tent with a12-ft python round his neck – he has a phobia of snakes tooso you can imagine that went down well.
We danced the rest of the night away in the Moroccan tent asMichael’s favourite DJ, Karl Lucas entertained us all –he can always get everyone up on the dancefloor whatever the mood.He’s the best party DJ I’ve ever seen and has given hisservices for free at our charity bonfire parties over the last fewyears.
We’ll never forget Michael’s 40th party –particularly as we took 2,000 photos for the family album. Aftersuch an exhausting weekend we needed some recovery time so wedonned our kaftans again and flew off to Morocco for some authenticArabian culture.