Last Thursday, and the few days after, were quite intense. A series of events made me feel really loved by a lot of people, which is always a good reminder of what kind of friends you are surrounded by.

I could talk about Pep's gift at work, Visenteta, a goldfish which now lives in an aquarium at home, which in turn was donated by Cristina and Brande. While I still have mixed feelings about keeping animals in cages, my choices were give it a better place than the small bowl where it initially lived, give it away to someone who could properly take care of Visenteta, or sacrifice it. I unsuccessfully tried #2, can't do #3 myself, so I accepted Brande's offer to have a decently-sized aquarium at home. Visenteta seems happy today, and I've learned all about aquarium maintenance the hard way.

During the day my mobile phone didn't rest for too long intervals; everyone was calling it to congratulate me and so on. But the bigger emotions came after leaving work, when I went to l'Alqueria to hang around with my friends and see if they would go have an orxata with Maria and me. Strangely, they refused, being in the middle of an apparently very important plant transplantation operation. When suggested going for dinner instead, the reaction was pretty cold too, but this was understandable as we'd meet on Friday at my place for a tiny celebration. In the end we headed off to Alboraia alone and had a delicious orxata in Toni's shop.

Maria said she had a surprise reservation in a Indo-Pakistani restaurant near my house, so after a while we cycled back to València. As it was getting dark and cold, we went into my house to get some clothes, and when I opened the living room door, I was scared by a bunch of shadows suddenly shouting at me and was buried in confetti. I couldn't react for the next 10 seconds, while my brain quickly built relations of many details that had happened during the week, all part of the preparations for a secret party at my own place.

Wow, the feeling is incredible. I've participated in similar surprise parties, but had never been the target. I hope everyone reading this gets one at least once in their lives, I really loved it!

But still, when the party ended, I slowly started to find little gifts all over the place: a book under my pillow, a bicycle bell on my handlebar, a cactus for my computer space...

My friends had been planning all of this for the last two weeks, and I never suspected anything. Incredible! It really makes me feel surrounded by people who care about and love me, and went through the hassle of coordinating 10 or 12 persons with me not noticing at all. Thank you, everyone!

The book, by the way, is Si no plou, plourà, by TV3's Mònica López, a fun compendium of popular weather proverbs which we discovered in a gas station in Tarragona, during our Easter trip to la Terra Alta.