The secret's out at last.

Worst Half celebrates his birthday in style this weekend. Last night we had Birthday cake, a few presents and told him of his impending suprise. First off was the presentation of a 'Magic Key' fashioned by middle grandson out of tin foil and cardboard, about 10 inches long it obviously opened a very big lock. All the grandkids were shouting 'It's the key of the door, Grandad' but even they didn't know which door and where it was.

Next up he was given an 'itinerary', travel agent style with flight and accomodation details and then the biggest surprise of all, he gets to go on holiday with his 10 closest family. He read it out loud, the kids and Great Nan, who was there to watch, were totally bemused, 'What is it, what is it?' they were all asking.

So elder daughter explained that in the spring we are all off on holiday for a week, the whole family, on an airoplane, and Grandad is over the moon. The key is for the door of the villa we are going to stay in. WH always wanted to do something like this but never had the time or the opportunity. He's been beaming ever since.

As for me it's a huge relief after keeping a secret like this for the best part of 14 months. The logistics of organising 3 families coming from two directions has been almost a nightmare at times. Especially when they all fall out. I must admit they were all threatened that if WH did find out beforehand it would all be 'off'. He would have never agreed if it had not been all signed, sealed and paid for in full, ever mindful of the cost.

So the secret was kept brilliantly until about a month ago then somebody totally unrelated happened to mention to WH that one of us was having trouble getting their passport photo signed. WH repeated the tale to me. Fortunately the News was on TV and I managed to act quickly for once and gestured to him to shut up as I thought I'd just heard that the mortgage rate had gone up. Well that certainly concentrated his mind and the crisis averted. Several days later he returned to the theme again and I was asked what the passport was for, 'EuroDisney with their Mum in September,' I countered, 'Not that it will probably happen, they're too disorganised' and again changed the subject. Then I left the folder containing all details, payments etc, open on the side in the office, he never even noticed. The same week youngest daughter was quizzing him about driving abroad 'In case I go to Switzerland or anything' she added quickly. The grandkids, too, were asking why they needed a passport photograph 'In case you ever go on holiday,' was the swift answer along with a telling off for some minor misdmeanor to avoid any more questions.

Anyway, we can all breathe easy now; the secret's out and has been the main topic of conversation for the last 24 hours. He never suspected a thing, not once, although he thought I'd been spending a lot of time on the phone, and not just business calls either!

At the end of May we are all off to NE Corfu, I just hope Corfu knows what it is in for.