The Wilbur Smith Discussion Forums

My mum is 60 this February and as a typical son I haven't yet worked out what we should do to celebrate.

As you guys came up trumps with Mats Secret Santa I thought you might be able to help me here.

Cheers

Remind her age = beauty

What have you done for her in the past? A holiday somewhere warm might be nice - a Caribbean cruise?

What have you done for her in the past? A holiday somewhere warm might be nice - a Caribbean cruise?

I can see that this forum is where the money is!

Throw her a surprise party. Invite friends, relatives, and so forth. Send out invitations (e-vite if you want to do it by e-mail). And ask them to bring each a dish of food (unless you want to cook/bake/buy). It's always the best!

She did the cruise thing last year. Didn't invite me Hmmph.

I had a chat to brother and between us we couldn't come up with more than 2 friends. Eeek.

We'll have to see what we can do I suppose.

Maybe you could do a 'this is your life' type thing and make a movie of your childhood & present lives & how she's been so great Those are always touching and mothers love it!

Nefer wrote:Maybe you could do a 'this is your life' type thing and make a movie of your childhood & present lives & how she's been so great Those are always touching and mothers love it!

Hey i think that is a really good idea, would take some orchestrating though.

So have you decided on what to do, Yakumo?

Sadly the brother has decided that he will hold an event at his property in the suburbs of Leeds, well Wakefield to be exact.

His small two up two down, "don't forget the freezing cold conservatory on the back and only one WC, oh yes and the hot tub in the back garden that undoubtedly will attract brothers wifes family to splash and swill", will be filled with the delights of the rest of the family and the two previously mentioned friends.

His idea is to showcase his brand new 50 inch plasma with images of Mom in various guises yet to be found. His 32 inch plasma being relegated to his 9 year olds bedroom!

Undoubtedly his missus will be preparing her favourite guest meal of Chilli Con Carne made with the green and red peppers my wife is hideously allergic to. By allergic we mean even the smell brings her out in bright red blotches and consumption of any minor part will cause an anaphylactic shock requiring emergency room treatment.

Oddly my thoughts ran round the following idea that was lambasted by my brother for being too expensive!

We were to arrange an event at a quality hotel with private function room. This would have been a silver service meal with champagne and all the trimmings. Everyone would pay for themselves to attend and me and bro could have shared the cost for mum. The hotel would have given those of us that have to travel the 60 miles to celebrate the event, close to Mums house, the chance to enjoy the champagne and perhaps stop over. My thoughts ran around the fact that it's not every week you turn sixty and we ought to celebrate it at least in some sort of style. Expensive meant 18 gbp per head so 45 gbp for brother and me with respective wifes. Oh yes, the reason he couldn't afford it, aforesaid 50 inch plasma purchase.

Of course the brother appears to have done nothing about it since last communication some week or so ago. He was incapable of finding the friends telephone number which was available directly on BT.com but such is how the brother knows his mum! He is signed into MSN now but doesn't recognise my user id in his list or is as ignorant as ever and ignoring me!

All in all I will be doing the utmost to make the event as enjoyable as possible for the mum and then carry out my plan at a later date excluding people like the brother and brothers wifes family.

Oh bugger... Families are always good for aggravation!

I really like your idea - sounds very very snazzy I may "borrow" it for the 'rents wedding anniversary!

You can choose your friends but not your family.

Anyway I experienced a very similar celebration which is where the idea came from. This was someones silver wedding anniversay at a wonderful hotel set in acres of beautiful parkland.

The meal was extravagant and the bubbly flowed liberally. The meeting at 7:30 for Pims and chatter was followed by an excellent meal served very timely. After speeches and more bubbly a short journey up the stairs to the bedroom with four poster. For the morning a full english breakfast after another champagne start.

It was such a good few days though slightly more expensive than my budget version described above.

An update on the 60th Birthday. After a bit of a chat to the brother he recognised the chance of a special birthday treat would be more appropriate than the buy one get one free naff pub!

We picked Mum up from her house with a few of the family in a white Limo with a pink interior. courtesy of http://www.skylimos.co.uk. This was Grans idea and included a DVD of the whole evening and a few pictures. Champagne started to flow in the limo along with chocolate and some heavy rock music. Bit of Bon jovi etc.

The limo took us to pick up my brother and my Gran and more champagne flowed.

We arrived at the venue, a rather nice hotel, near to my brothers house. Meeting up with a couple more guests who had taken the time to decorate the table with balloons and other party bits.

We passed around a small photo album that included a few embarrasing pictures of mum and a few of the guests. This was received well with much laughter and pointing.

We enjoyed a beautiful 3 course meal and the staff presented the cake with a good rendition of happy birthday. The cake having being lovingly prepared by my wife.

I had prepared a speech for the toast, of some more sparkling French Champagne, this went swimmingly with the ultimate appraise of tears from Mum.

All in all Mum has been and is still raving about the party and has been showing her album to all and sundry. In the end it was an absolutely fantastic evening enjoyed by both family and friends and almost fit with my original plan.

Sounds like a wonderful party! Glad your mum enjoyed herself!

That sounds so great! And any party that includes Bon Jovi music is definitely going to be awesome!!

I totally missed this post :O

Sounds like the party was a great hit - good thing you didn't have Korn as your heavy metal selection Thanks for the update!