I Love Surprises

A lot of people don’t like surprises, but I love them!  At my 50^th birthday this past August my friends got together and gave the present of a lifetime…a trip home to Canada.  Boy I am lucky to have very nice friends!  It was the best surprise I have had in a very long time.  But with everything going on in my life I wondered how I was ever going to get there.  This was just before my trip to Denmark and then with London calling next year training was foremost in my mind.  So once I was back from Denmark I realized that the only time I could really take to visit family was right now.  I figured that this would give me a good few weeks to get my head together, have a break and be ready to put everything I had into my training for next year.

But as I said, I love surprises so thought “why not surprise my family”?  I am known to show up out of the blue but I seem to recall the last time I did that I was strictly told not to do it again.  It got the hearts racing a bit too much.  But this was too good to waste! (No I never did listen to what I was told!)

So I am now able to write about “The Surprises”.  And no doubt this blog will surprise the rest of my family and friends in Canada I have yet to tell!

I arrived in Canada last Wednesday and was greeted by a friend, Carolyn, whose home I stayed in for the night.  The next morning she called my mom and invited herself for a cup of tea.  About 10 minutes from my parents place I called and mom realizing that it would be the middle of night asked why I was calling and not sleeping.  Explaining that I couldn’t sleep and thought I would call she told me about Carolyn coming for a cup of tea, but she wasn’t sure why.  I then told her I was thinking of coming for a visit.  As it is close to Thanksgiving, she asked me if I was coming for that and my reply was “No I was thinking in about 10 minutes with Carolyn!”  Bugger me if she didn’t believe me!  I actually had to put Carolyn’s mobile on speaker phone so she could prove that I was really in her car.  Needless to say there was a lot of “Oh my god’s” and “I can’t believe it”.  When I arrived at the condo we both, mother and daughter had the same thought….take a picture.  As I walked towards the side door with my phone out ready to take a picture, she was holding her camera taking a picture.  Great minds think alike!

Since then I have spent a few days surprising other family, my sister – at a dinner she was having with friends, me just walking in.  My niece at her father’s, her mouth open and staring at me saying “Wha, wha, what are you doing here” and today my aunt at lunch.  I have even had a visit from my Australian niece Jamie, who married a Canadian, so is living in Montreal.  There have been tears, laughs, smiles and hugs and it has been so worthwhile!  It is hard living 16,000 km’s from my family and even though it is easy to call, Skype and email it is certainly not the same thing as a hug.

So as I said earlier, I have very nice friends, in fact the best friends that anyone could have and I have realized that sometimes life is too short.  If you get the chance to spend time with family, especially if they are so far away, you make the time.  You have to fill your life with richness and focus on what truly matters!  So thank you all my wonderful friends who have made this the BEST surprise that has been not only for me but has extended to the rest of my Canadian family and friends!