as i hinted previously, yesterday was my birthday and Gosia surpassed even her own exceptionally high standards of imagination and thoughfulness with the surprises she had for me.
after a full-english, delivered to bed, she handed me a blue* envelope with ‘where we are going’ written on it.
(*the envelope colour becomes significant…)
inside were several a4 pictures of a city that i didn’t recognise. one photo showed a completely bombed-out city, the next a sea-going ship in a harbour etc. it was obviously northern europe, but i didn’t know where.

the second envelope (white) said ‘how we get there’. inside were flight tickets from east midlands to a destination that had been scribbled out. my heart sank a little as i noticed that the dates were the same weekend as the tour de france starts. i was already thinking of having to find a bar in wherever we were going so i could watch it.

third envelope (red – i still hadn’t worked this out) said ‘where we’re staying’. inside were details (in english) of an unnamed, but obviously continental hotel.

fourth envelope was yellow (things had by now fallen into place…) and said ‘what we will do…’. inside were maps of the prologue time-trial route in rotterdam and the next day’s stage from rotterdam to brussels.

then, out from under the bed was produced a musette full of t-shirts, key rings, teddies and general TdF memorabilia…

an absolutely brilliant present.
dzienkuje bratku!