A MASSIVE THANK YOU!
Apr 29, 2012 9:12:23 GMT
Post by nicola on Apr 29, 2012 9:12:23 GMT
As some of you may know, Adam and I announced we were moving from our parents for the first time to set up a home for ourselves. We did this in February.
What Adam and I didn't know is that, in light of this news, many of our regular members clubbed together to give us a house warming present!
The said package arrived on Wednesday (25th April) - but both of us were at work. So we were baffled when we came home to find a note from the postman saying they had left a package with Mr and Mrs no. 45. We knocked to try and pick it up but nobody was at home. That day I was particularly tired, so I went to bed at 7.30pm. Adam stayed up.
The next thing I knew, my alarm was going off at 5am for me to get up for work (I travel over 45 miles to get to work, so I always have early mornings). But for the first time ever in my living memory, Adam was immediately perky and alert and jumped straight out of bed (he normally sleeps in and gets up much later).
"Nic! The package arrived last night while you were in bed... I was thinking of waking you up last night but I thought I shouldn't..."
I was hardly interested. I was on a mission. I have a very narrow window to get ready for work in. Like a mantra I was thinking over and over in my mind: "treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave-treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave-treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave"
"Good thing you didn't..." I mumbled distractedly, trying to find my exercise gear. Sleep is a very precious thing for me these days - Adam knows not to disturb it.
"It's from John," he stated and left a very long dramatic pause, clearly waiting for me to react.
Whilst brushing my hair into a pony tail I allowed a mild sense of surprise to flicker into my mind. John's a very good friend and have certainly known him to send me gifts on occasions such as birthdays and Christmas, but I couldn't think of what could have prompted him to send me something out of the blue.
My mind wandered into his recent tragedies and it only baffled me more - surely he has enough of his plate than to think of me?
Despite this, no reaction had formed on my face. Adam clearly didn't like this. Desperate for some kind of acknowledgement that we had a parcel downstairs he tried again:
"I opened it... and I was kinda shocked..."
Another dramatic pause to match the last one.
"Okay," was all I said, half because I really thought this matter could wait until I got home from work - I would have no time this morning, or indeed, the whole day, to contact John to thank him for whatever it was, nor to appreciate it. The other half of the reason was because it was so obvious he had been bursting to tell me this for over 10 hours and I knew my lack of reaction was playfully winding him up.
Still: "treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave"
I walked into the bathroom to put my contact lenses in. Predictably, he followed me in. He had waited for too long; he couldn't help himself; he said it all in a rush:
"It's not just from John! It's from a whole group of people on the forums - house warming gifts! It's not a small package either!"
All that registered was shock. I couldn't believe it. I don't remember what I said, but I think he finally got the reaction he wanted. My memory jumps to sitting on the couch downstairs, reading the letter that John had typed out, explaining what was in the package... (edited):
I simply couldn't believe it, I read the letter once, I read it twice, I read it over and over. I was so touched and felt so guilty that I had done so little on the website since we had moved.
"Nic, on top of all these presents, look at these!"
He presented some John Lewis vouchers to me; £60 worth. I looked between them, and the four wrapped up presents.
"They must have spent a fortune," Adam said, awed. "This is insane!"
"This is too much..." I breathed. Overwhelmed.
Adam unwrapped the first present. It was in a box, and he opened it. For the life of us, we couldn't tell what it was. It looked like a small figure of a man, flexing his biceps. It was completely black and had a smooth finish.
"Perhaps it's a paperweight?" I suggested. He handed it to me, and as soon as I felt it, I knew it wasn't. It was much too light. Adam started to search the plain brown box for some enlightenment. Eventually, he found it:
"It's a headphone holder!"
"Good, you can use it for your headphones!"
I placed it temporarily next to the TV as Adam opened the next present. He handed me the box as he removed its contents - it had the same smooth black finish the headphone holder had - clearly this was all part of a set. I read the box.
"It's a mobile phone holder." I stated, then laughed. "I don't think my brick will fit in that somehow - you can use it for the phone you use as an alarm clock upstairs."
Pleased that we had uses for the gifts so far, Adam proceeded to the next one. We had formed a pattern. He handed me the box as he pulled out the contents, and I read out what it was.
"This is a letter holder," I informed him. This was my favourite so far. I was sick of leaving all of our letters behind the score stand of my piano - we could place the letter holder next to the front door. He showed it to me and I saw it had a eighth note/quaver shape cut out at the front. That I liked!
I placed it next to the TV, along with the other two, as Adam opened the last present. It turned out to be a pair of "CD ends". "Book ends" in other words but the brown box insisted they were "CD ends". For all intents and purposes, they are pretty much the same thing. These were the most impressive of them all, although, ironically, we still haven't worked out a use for them. They were shaped like clefs, and one of them had a figure of a conductor standing at the bottom of the clef. I loved them. Unfortunately, I have over 700 CDs and three pieces of furniture that hold them all. The CD ends are on the piano at the moment as decoration. They do look pretty awesome!
Once I had them all next to each other on the TV, I noticed the pattern.
"They're all music related!"
"How so?" Adam asked, unbelieving.
"The headphone holder... well, you use headphones to listen to music, the letter holder has a a musical note on it, the cd ends are supposed to hold music, and the mobile phone holder is shaped like a quaver!"
"Is it?"
It's not immediately obvious, so I held up the holder to him sideways on.
"Oh, yeah!"
We were really pleased and greatly cheered. But unfortunately, I didn't have time to linger. I ploughed on with my "getting ready for work" routine wondering when I would have time to thank everyone, and how I would do it to really show how appreciated the gesture is. I promised myself I'd do it when I got home.
By some sheer bad luck, however, despite my obsessive need to leave for work on time, the M1 closed, and I was stuck in a queue to get off it for over three hours, and it ended up taking me five hours to get to work. This extremely stressful circumstance had a knock on effect on my exhaustion, not just for the rest of the day, but for the rest of the week. As soon as I got home, Adam put me to bed, but not before I sent a quick e-mail to John to let him know that the package had arrived, so he wouldn't worry.
I am so sorry it has taken me three days to thank you all, but I sincerely wanted the time and energy to write this post properly so you know we are grateful. And I think it's important, when giving a present, that you are there to see it, which is why this post is so detailed - I wanted you to open the package with us. Adam would have done it, but he's not great at expressing himself so it was agreed that, despite that it would take longer, I would be the one to write it.
It was honestly the biggest surprise of our lives. So thoughtful and so overwhelmed that a group of people would do something like this for us. I don't recall at any time in my life when so much effort is put into me by a group of people.
Thank you all so, so much, from the bottom of our hearts. We will never forget this kindness.
Much love to you all.
Nic and Adam. xx
What Adam and I didn't know is that, in light of this news, many of our regular members clubbed together to give us a house warming present!
The said package arrived on Wednesday (25th April) - but both of us were at work. So we were baffled when we came home to find a note from the postman saying they had left a package with Mr and Mrs no. 45. We knocked to try and pick it up but nobody was at home. That day I was particularly tired, so I went to bed at 7.30pm. Adam stayed up.
The next thing I knew, my alarm was going off at 5am for me to get up for work (I travel over 45 miles to get to work, so I always have early mornings). But for the first time ever in my living memory, Adam was immediately perky and alert and jumped straight out of bed (he normally sleeps in and gets up much later).
"Nic! The package arrived last night while you were in bed... I was thinking of waking you up last night but I thought I shouldn't..."
I was hardly interested. I was on a mission. I have a very narrow window to get ready for work in. Like a mantra I was thinking over and over in my mind: "treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave-treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave-treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave"
"Good thing you didn't..." I mumbled distractedly, trying to find my exercise gear. Sleep is a very precious thing for me these days - Adam knows not to disturb it.
"It's from John," he stated and left a very long dramatic pause, clearly waiting for me to react.
Whilst brushing my hair into a pony tail I allowed a mild sense of surprise to flicker into my mind. John's a very good friend and have certainly known him to send me gifts on occasions such as birthdays and Christmas, but I couldn't think of what could have prompted him to send me something out of the blue.
My mind wandered into his recent tragedies and it only baffled me more - surely he has enough of his plate than to think of me?
Despite this, no reaction had formed on my face. Adam clearly didn't like this. Desperate for some kind of acknowledgement that we had a parcel downstairs he tried again:
"I opened it... and I was kinda shocked..."
Another dramatic pause to match the last one.
"Okay," was all I said, half because I really thought this matter could wait until I got home from work - I would have no time this morning, or indeed, the whole day, to contact John to thank him for whatever it was, nor to appreciate it. The other half of the reason was because it was so obvious he had been bursting to tell me this for over 10 hours and I knew my lack of reaction was playfully winding him up.
Still: "treadmill-shower-breakfast-dry hair-clean teeth-get dressed-make-up-collect lunch-leave"
I walked into the bathroom to put my contact lenses in. Predictably, he followed me in. He had waited for too long; he couldn't help himself; he said it all in a rush:
"It's not just from John! It's from a whole group of people on the forums - house warming gifts! It's not a small package either!"
All that registered was shock. I couldn't believe it. I don't remember what I said, but I think he finally got the reaction he wanted. My memory jumps to sitting on the couch downstairs, reading the letter that John had typed out, explaining what was in the package... (edited):
"Dear Nic and Adam,
Back in January, Bonnie sent me a message on the CC forum, suggesting that forum members might club together to buy you a gift for your new home. I forwarded the message to the most active (at the time) members and received a positive response...
I couldn't bring myself to spend the whole amount on collected trivia, so I am sending the rest as vouchers...
Below is a list of all the poeple who contributed...
Alicia
Vhazza
Bob M
Bonnie
Nigel
Gary
Bogí
Charles
John"
Back in January, Bonnie sent me a message on the CC forum, suggesting that forum members might club together to buy you a gift for your new home. I forwarded the message to the most active (at the time) members and received a positive response...
I couldn't bring myself to spend the whole amount on collected trivia, so I am sending the rest as vouchers...
Below is a list of all the poeple who contributed...
Alicia
Vhazza
Bob M
Bonnie
Nigel
Gary
Bogí
Charles
John"
I simply couldn't believe it, I read the letter once, I read it twice, I read it over and over. I was so touched and felt so guilty that I had done so little on the website since we had moved.
"Nic, on top of all these presents, look at these!"
He presented some John Lewis vouchers to me; £60 worth. I looked between them, and the four wrapped up presents.
"They must have spent a fortune," Adam said, awed. "This is insane!"
"This is too much..." I breathed. Overwhelmed.
Adam unwrapped the first present. It was in a box, and he opened it. For the life of us, we couldn't tell what it was. It looked like a small figure of a man, flexing his biceps. It was completely black and had a smooth finish.
"Perhaps it's a paperweight?" I suggested. He handed it to me, and as soon as I felt it, I knew it wasn't. It was much too light. Adam started to search the plain brown box for some enlightenment. Eventually, he found it:
"It's a headphone holder!"
"Good, you can use it for your headphones!"
I placed it temporarily next to the TV as Adam opened the next present. He handed me the box as he removed its contents - it had the same smooth black finish the headphone holder had - clearly this was all part of a set. I read the box.
"It's a mobile phone holder." I stated, then laughed. "I don't think my brick will fit in that somehow - you can use it for the phone you use as an alarm clock upstairs."
Pleased that we had uses for the gifts so far, Adam proceeded to the next one. We had formed a pattern. He handed me the box as he pulled out the contents, and I read out what it was.
"This is a letter holder," I informed him. This was my favourite so far. I was sick of leaving all of our letters behind the score stand of my piano - we could place the letter holder next to the front door. He showed it to me and I saw it had a eighth note/quaver shape cut out at the front. That I liked!
I placed it next to the TV, along with the other two, as Adam opened the last present. It turned out to be a pair of "CD ends". "Book ends" in other words but the brown box insisted they were "CD ends". For all intents and purposes, they are pretty much the same thing. These were the most impressive of them all, although, ironically, we still haven't worked out a use for them. They were shaped like clefs, and one of them had a figure of a conductor standing at the bottom of the clef. I loved them. Unfortunately, I have over 700 CDs and three pieces of furniture that hold them all. The CD ends are on the piano at the moment as decoration. They do look pretty awesome!
Once I had them all next to each other on the TV, I noticed the pattern.
"They're all music related!"
"How so?" Adam asked, unbelieving.
"The headphone holder... well, you use headphones to listen to music, the letter holder has a a musical note on it, the cd ends are supposed to hold music, and the mobile phone holder is shaped like a quaver!"
"Is it?"
It's not immediately obvious, so I held up the holder to him sideways on.
"Oh, yeah!"
We were really pleased and greatly cheered. But unfortunately, I didn't have time to linger. I ploughed on with my "getting ready for work" routine wondering when I would have time to thank everyone, and how I would do it to really show how appreciated the gesture is. I promised myself I'd do it when I got home.
By some sheer bad luck, however, despite my obsessive need to leave for work on time, the M1 closed, and I was stuck in a queue to get off it for over three hours, and it ended up taking me five hours to get to work. This extremely stressful circumstance had a knock on effect on my exhaustion, not just for the rest of the day, but for the rest of the week. As soon as I got home, Adam put me to bed, but not before I sent a quick e-mail to John to let him know that the package had arrived, so he wouldn't worry.
I am so sorry it has taken me three days to thank you all, but I sincerely wanted the time and energy to write this post properly so you know we are grateful. And I think it's important, when giving a present, that you are there to see it, which is why this post is so detailed - I wanted you to open the package with us. Adam would have done it, but he's not great at expressing himself so it was agreed that, despite that it would take longer, I would be the one to write it.
It was honestly the biggest surprise of our lives. So thoughtful and so overwhelmed that a group of people would do something like this for us. I don't recall at any time in my life when so much effort is put into me by a group of people.
Thank you all so, so much, from the bottom of our hearts. We will never forget this kindness.
Much love to you all.
Nic and Adam. xx