Brett's Bday Bash!

The day was finally here! Brett (metsbwd) had invited me to his Bday meet up, not thinking I'd actually be able to make it out here but I was able to surprise him by switching my flights around (was scheduled to arrive Dec 18th) and come a week earlier! :D I was very excited but very nervous now that the day was here.  Other than Brett, I knew none of the other TB's in person!  For months, I've chatted with my dear pain in the butt, Kitty Ket (Ketmeister) ha ha, Alex (Alex-b), and Jos (jos-nijenhuis).  And Patricia (pms70) had been my co-conspirator for surprises for Brett's Bday so we had been chatting quite a bit as of late! :D I couldn't believe I was finally meeting them along with all the other AWESOME TB's coming. 

Patricia had helped me scheme and we pulled together some great stuff for Brett's bday.

  In keeping with his them of "Eindhoven - City of Light and Fun" - Patricia went and bought large sparklers that we planned to light at some point during the evening in his honor.  In addition, I came up with the idea of trying to put together a scrapbook type card for him so everyone could share sentiments, stories, etc that he could take with him when he moves to Taiwan in February.  I also got him a beer stein engraved with his name and the meet up information as well.  And no birthday would be complete without a gag gift of sorts!  Well, for those who know the west coast TB meet up tradition with the pink shirt awarded to the furtherest traveled TB (which in this case would've been me...ha ha) I thought it was only fitting we present Brett with a shirt, signed by everyone of course!  Well, Mom worked with me since they have a business doing this and we came up with a magazine issue cover using some embarrassing photos of Brett, complete with some funny jabs.   It was going to be fun getting everyone to sign it without Brett getting too suspicious! LOL. 

Brett and I head out to meet up with Patricia, Jos, Bart-Jan (Biedjee), Maike (globevoyager) and Marthijn (mvdbrand) at their hotel.  Then it's off to the first bar...which didn't open for another 20-30 minutes!  We decided to check out a nearby pub (forgot the name now...lol) and have a drink there. Brett leads us to the area which is almost like a slow moving merry-go-round which made us all dizzy and once some of the guys noticed it said "ladies only" we quickly moved over to another table! HAHA.  Soon, Devi (Devika1985) and Stijn (unsure of TB name) arrive.  We send Brett off to the Trafalgar Pub where the meet up is scheduled to take place.

  That gives us the opportunity to have everyone present so far to sign his shirt...hee hee. 

We quickly make our way over to Trafalgar where I see them...OMG! Is it?!?!  YES..it is my Kitty Ket and Alex!!!! I can't believe it and I run up and practically attack them both! LOL.  I couldn't believe I was finally meeting my crazy TB buddies!!! Soon, everyone else started showing up and we were about 23 deep! Brett had several friends from work who are also on TB now - YEAH! (Now I know how he recently got his ambassador award..LOL).  Some cool surprises along the way like meeting Bennie (BMatital)!

Seems like time flew and it was almost 7pm already and time to head to dinner!  There was lots of great conversation, good beer, strange little appetizer foods I tried (bittenballen or something.

..?)  - but it was interesting!  There were some silly shenangians of course - Ket and Maike both behind the bar at various times of the night...caught you on camera! HAHA. 

We were then headed to WokParadijs which was like a Mongolian BBQ type place - lots and lots of food!  For 29 euros, you also had alcohol included...But good grief - those beers were big beers considering we had been drinking since a little before 4pm at that point!  LOL.  At dinner, we had two other TB's join (Inkie1010 and Doc_Zenith).  Unfortunately, I did not really get to talk to either of them but they seemed nice!  We got through dinner and it was time for Brett to open all his gifts and Patricia and I to present him with our stuff! LOL.

 

Brett got several gifts of beer (shocking, huh?) and some other great gifts to remind him of his time in Eindhoven which was incredibly sweet! And let's not forget Drempel, the stuffed dog! LOL.  Devi brought it as Brett once said if he ever had a dog he would name it Drempel (speed bump in Dutch).  HAHAHAHA  It was our turn and we decided to do the gag gift of the shirt first and then the nice stuff.  He looked as though he wanted to kill me but I know deep down he was thrilled we had gone to all this trouble.  He loved the scrapbook card (which even includes one of Ket's famous remakes of the Pink song, "So What").  We presented him also with the feather boa that Joost (Joost1976) had suggested although he unfortunately was not able to make it to witness the embarrassment! LOL.

 

Next came the struggle of getting Brett to sit tight while the gang headed downstairs in preparation of the sparklers!  Well, we shuffled a lot of people out however the line for the coats was insane and I had to keep Brett back at the table.  I decided to ask Ket to be the signal person for Patricia when we were coming down.  Alex asked me if I was sure I trusted Ket and I should've listened to Alex! LOL.  Ket's instructions were to go down and tell Patricia we'd be there in 5 minutes.  He didn't....he just went down and said we were on our way so she lit all the sparklers and they were starting to burn out!!!  Devi came running back upstairs and said everyone was waiting for us and Brett was already getting antsy, probably wondering why I was holding him hostage upstairs.

  Well, as soon as we headed down the stairs, I could smell the sparklers and Brett chimes in from behind me, "Geez, something is burning!"  HAHA.  Well as we got to the bottom of the stairs - OMG...everyone was outside with them lit and it was breathtaking!  Brett's face was priceless as he realized it was everyone in our group holding them.  They started singing Happy Birthday and I ran around and took pics.  Jos got a GREAT video of the whole thing which I hope will make it on TB soon! :D Everything turned out so awesome, I was the one who almost cried!  I could've never pulled any of this off without Patricia and her ideas about the sparklers and decorating were PERFECT! 

Now it was time to head off bar hopping.

  Oh my!  There is a street known for its bars, Stratumseind). The first stop - the Tipsy Duck. Well it was kinda dead when we got there but we know how to get a party started!  Maike spotted the pool table covered in wood and figured out this was a great place for us to dance!! LOL.  We got a round of drinks and promised Brett and Ket we would wait to dance while they ran back to Brett's apartment to drop off all the gifts.  As soon as they arrived, Maike got us on the table dancing!  Soon, we even got Ket and Alex up there.  Brett joined ever so briefly until he got a little scared as the wood buckled under us (wuss!) HAHA.  Next thing I know, more TB guys are on the stage/table and random strangers are coming by taking photos! LOL.   Brett had my camera and succeeded in getting a bunch of shots of us on stage.  Next, I had to take a break and run to the potty. I had my camera with me for some strange reason and OMG, glad I did!  The stall I went into had a chalkboard and on it, it said "TB was here 13/12/08" I knew this had to be Maike since she had just gone to the restroom before me.  I took some photos and added TravBuddies atop it and headed back out to share with the gang. 

Soon, we were ready to continue the bar hopping and landed at a bar with very alternative almost heavy metal music.  Not really music to dance too.  Apparently the dutch hate that bar due to the music.  Soon we moved across the street to the Boston Pub which was playing quite a bit of dance / deep house type music.

  We danced, danced, and danced some more until my feet were ready to fall off sometime after 2am.  We had an incredible time - Alex played his usual photographer, even sitting under a bar table at one point taking pics of us. And beware of him around beer coasters...he's a little scary in that he likes to fling them across the room and you just might find yourself getting hit in the face by a flying one! LOL. 

Brett and I bailed sometime after 2am and left a good number of folks still partying.  We were both exhausted and had hoped to get up early to meet back up with the gang. 

What an AWESOME AWESOME night.  And although I am not allowed to get "mushy" on here...I will just say that being able to be here for Brett's Bday was an incredible experience and I am so happy I could share this special day with him.

  He is my world and I was so proud to be by his side today!  Annnnndddddd......The NL TravBuddies are some of the nicest and most amazing people you will ever meet!  I am looking very forward to seeing most of them again on NYE in Amsterdam, a few in Dusseldorf on 12/27,  and hope to cross paths with the others again soon!  If you ever have the opportunity to meet any of the TB's from here, I highly recommend you do it - they are a really great group!!!!! I feel very blessed meeting such an amazing group of people who welcomed me into their country and Brett's meet up!