Princess's RedRibbon Day Surprise

Last Friday I gave Princess another surprise. 

One thing I learned about planning surprises is that it's so hard to keep things from your girlfriend. I told Princess near the beginning of the week that I had a surprise planned for her on Friday after work but I refused to tell her what. All week she tried guessing and guessing and I had to go through a lot of resistance to making sure I didn't tell her what it was. 

Friday finally came and I picked her up from work full of excitement. I could barely contain my smile in the car. Whenever I anticipated how happy she would be when she found out what the surprise was, a smile broke.

Finally we reached the destination: Bangsar.

I parked my car in Bangsar Village then pulled Princess along with me down the streets of Bangsar. We walked street by street until I found the right street, Telawi 3. Then I spotted the place we were supposed to be at. 

The two ladies who had helped me plan the surprise were waiting for us. I went up to them and greeted them "Hello! Sorry we're a bit late. Princess got off work a little late".

Princess gave me a very very confused look and I could tell what she was thinking at the back of her mind after I introduced the two nice ladies' to her. She was thinking

"Who the hell.....???"

It was then that we revealed the surprise.

The two nice ladies' were Sherin and Nik from RedRibbon Days, a really fun company that sells "experiences" instead of "gifts". So if you want to give someone something nice, rather than just giving her a bag or something you give her an experience that she will love and a memory she will always keep for the rest of her life. That is what both Sherin and Nik call a RedRibbon Day Experience. 

That works for me because I would really rather spend money on giving Princess an experience she will never forget as opposed to buying her an handbag that she would love but will sooner or later replace some day.

There were many experiences to pick from on their site, so much that I had been browsing the site for the past few months and yet found it hard to pick the right one. I mean there were all sorts of things from Model for a Day to even a helicopter ride above Kuala Lumpur city.

Then one day, Nik talked to me and after giving me a few suggestions I finally heard one that I knew Princess would absolutely love: The VIP Shoe Shopping Experience.

Every girl loves either bags or shoes or both. Princess... loved shoes.

So what we did for Princess was Nik and Sherin suggested a boutique in Bangsar that sold really nice shoes. They arranged for the boutique to close for 1-2 hours just for me to bring Princess in to shop so she would have the whole empty boutique for herself and all the attention on her.

Then there were the tiny details.

When Princess walked in, the first thing she saw was this basket with a bottle of champagne and flowers.

And on it was a card that said 

Because Princess loved Hello Kitty, inside each champagne glass was a cute little Hello Kitty figurine. 

As Princess walked in and absorbed everything I waited to see her reaction but it never came. Yes... she had just about NO reaction. She just went ... "Oh... I... don't know what to say..."

I then turned to Sherin and Nik to ask

"Is this the kind of reaction you see when you help plan surprises for other people?"

They replied

"No.. normally if it's something the guy did for the girl, the girl would scream in excitement and give the guy a hug. Sometimes the girl would even cry."

I nodded and sighed in defeat

"Sigh... yeah I know... my girlfriend is not very loving".

Then she quickly ran to me to give me a hug to make me feel better. Hmph! How "forced"... but it worked :)

Princess later told me that her reaction (or lack of it) was actually due to the fact that she was totally shocked in disbelief. And I guess it was true, when everything began to sink in and the shopping started, I could see the happiness in her eyes.

She tried on countless shoes and she was allowed to take home whichever three pairs she liked. I thought the shoes at the boutique (called Shoes Shoes Shoes) were really really nice. I mean for a guy, if there's one thing I appreciate in a woman, it's not her bag so much but it's her shoes. 

But my taste and Princess' taste can differ though. So I asked her if she liked the shoes here and if she had been to this boutique before. She said she had been there before and thought the shoes were beautiful but the minute she saw the price tag of the shoes she knew it wasn't something she could regularly afford so she made a dash for the door. 

How cute! At least I knew she loved the shoes there.

It also helped that the actual designer of those shoes was there to personally help pick the right shoes that suit Princess.

She told us that she designed all the shoes there and that only two of every size for each shoe were ever made.

While waiting for Princess to try on her shoes, I popped the champagne and served her a glass.

I said 

"Now you can tell your friends that you've once in your life had champagne while shopping for shoes".

After about an hour of trying many many pairs of shoes, 

Princess had finally picked the 3 pairs of shoes that she wanted. Everything was packed into a bag for her and she left the boutique a happy Princess.

We held hands and walked down Telawi at least for a while until I decided to whip out my camera again and take this Sex and the City like shot of her.

Next... Nik and Sherin had made reservations for us for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant called Vincenzo.

It was there that Princess' made me spill the beans. How long I had planned this for, how I did it and what it took.

The truth was that I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of Sherin and Nik so to the both of you... thank you so much for giving Princess this wonderful experience.

During dinner Princess said

"Wow... I never imagined a company like that existed..."

I told her that I thought it was a great idea and she said something that even I agree with.

"What fun it must be to work at a company like that. It's like your job is to make people happy."

She's probably right.

What did I get out of the night?

At the end of the night in Vincenzo she reached out both her hands to hold mine and she said 

"Thank you... for everything..."

Then she proceeded to ask me a very silly question

"What did I do to deserve you?"

I looked at her and gave away a smile

"You made me fall in love with you..."