I guess that yesterday's paranoia was justified. I was already having suspicions that girlfriend might be up to something, with her acting suspicious all day. Even so suspicious that I made sure to lock my front door before falling asleep again, when she left my place in the afternoon to make sure nobody could barge in while I did my beauty-sleep.
No, I didn't need that one because I'm old I needed that one because Friday night I went to a "battle of the bands"-competition with McR and there may have been beer involved, as well us harassing Michelle by phone at 3am. I may have been somewhat hungover on Saturday morning.
Eventually I woke up again and got a phone call from Annemarie that girlfriend was having a panic attack at her place and that she really needed me because Annemarie couldn't quiet her down. Being the nice boyfriend I am, I thought:"Something smells fishy here", before jumping on my bike and barging in to mentally stabilize girlfriend.
The fishy part being that girlfriend was going to have dinner at Annemarie's place, and because I could think of no way end up at girlfriend's place when starting off at Annemarie's place. Found girlfriend's housemate (who I hadn't met up till now) somewhat shocked while I stormed in torn between:"Don't panic! Everything will be alright" and "they're up to something, don't be surprised by anything", ready to switch from one to the other-mood at the drop of a hat.
Fortunately for me there was no mental breakdown to be spotted but on girlfriend's bed there was a yellow t-shirt with a picture of a large "30" chiseled out in rock and the text:"Selmer pubcrawl 1977-2007". Besides it was a customised VRiSBI bierloop (the annual pubcrawl we participate in) beer-mug with on the back the text:"A McRonald's production". There was a stamp-card with place for 7 stamps of not-mentioned bars, there was an envelope lying on the bed, next to a note welcoming me to my own personal pub crawl and telling me to put on the shirt and open the envelope which I'd need to determine where to go.
Knowing the reply to the question:"How did you use to wake up in the morning" (Your mum wakes you up with the vacuum-cleaner) sent me towards "Het Bolwerk", where I found Remco, Ronald, Nicktor and Lorraine drinking beer and apparently having fun already. Everybody welcomed me, the bartender filled my beer-mug and Lorraine stepped forward as the quiz-master for the night, explaining that there'd be mathematical questions to earn my birthday presents and that there'd be questions on the past 29 years to determine which pub to go to next.
Still being in shock made it hard to straight away know the square-root of 841 (29), which earned me a backpack to carry my presents. The question which was supposed to bring me to the next bar was a hard one. Deciding what my favourite cuddly toy was could bring me in big trouble seeing as the options were 1. A sheep. 2. Baba (my favourite toy for many years) or 3. Girlfriend. Because the girlfriend-answer would get me to the other side of town, I decided that Baba would be the safest answer to go for.
This got me to Pardoen, where girlfriend and Annemarie were waiting for us. Lorraine, who kept trying to freak me out more and more asked me to convert 63,80 guilders to euros (29, I'm spotting a theme here which I failed to pick up last night) and I earned shot-glasses. (Eeek!) Obviously they made me drink a pint of beer.
A question on my girlfriend when I was 10 years old got me to Cambrinus where Martijn, Michelle, Arjan and Roos were waiting for me. Strangely enough there was more beer, I earned myself a beer-game by knowing that the day of my birthday + 96 hours was 29 (How did I miss this theme?) And my name even made the beer special-board, as "Selmer's pulletje" (Selmer's beer-mug)
Knowing that Nicky wouldn't call his dad in the middle of the night got me to the kebab-place, where Shiwa, Cindy and McR were waiting for me. Lots of food and pint of milk further, I was posed with the question which superhero'd climb a wall fastest. (Obviously superman), which got us to Villa Kakelbont.
Here Sabrina and Kevin were waiting for me, strangely enough I drank more beer *hic* and determining Nicktor's age minus one got me an apron with a pretty girl on it. Then knowing how not to lock a moped got me to Grand Cafe de Paris, where threats were issued of making me do karaoke but fortunately these never materialised. Another maths-question (to which the answer must have been 29 but which went missing got me my next present).
This present was a tiny skippyball, which was also my means of transportation to the next pub. There I was posed with the question what the first conversation was about that I heard in the morning of 2003, to this the answer was:"Shoes" and this got me to:"De Dijk". Or actually, it took a bit of effort to get there because I kept falling off the skippyball. (I blame the size, not the beer) In "de Dijk", I drank yet more beer and people started going home.
Ronald, Remco, Marjoleine and Adriaan (even though Marjoleine and Adriaan weren't even present) presented gave me a nice bottle of whisky and the question:"What's the average of all the maths-questions + 1" earned me a pair of old men's indoor shoes. You don't want to know how long it too me to determine the reply to that question, I blame the beer. Wearing the slippers and the skippyball I ended up in "Broodje Snor" with McR and girlfriend.
At this stage (3.5 liters of beer later) I may have been not entirely sober but at least I managed not to spill my spicy chicken baguette all over me. Then I did the 200 meter stumble back home, where I somehow failed to get my key out of the cellar door (this took me at least 5 minutes). Walked back upstairs and passed out in bed.
All I can say is:"Very impressive, guys! Thanks a lot!" I fear that photos will start showing up in the next couple of days.
Oh, one more thing, my friends claim to know nothing about the theft of Ernie. Eeek!
