[Flula enters frame with characteristic high energy, big smile]
“ANDREA! Hallo hallo HALLO! It is me, Flula, and I am here because today is a very important day — it is your forty-fourth birthday! Vier-und-vierzig! Say it with me — VIER-UND-VIERZIG! It sounds like you are starting a lawnmower, yes? Vrrrr-und-vrrrrzig! This is very German. Already we are bonding.”
[Leans in conspiratorially]
“Now Andrea — I hear you are also German. This is EXCELLENT. This means you and I, we understand each other on the deep level. We know that ‘gemütlich’ cannot be translated. We know that a word can be forty-four letters long and this is NORMAL. Forty-four letters, forty-four years — you see? The universe is speaking to us in compound nouns.”
[Counts on fingers dramatically]
“And forty-four is a very special number, Andrea. It is TWO fours. It is a four that looked at itself in the mirror and said, ‘You know what? Let us do this AGAIN.’ This is the energy I want for you this year. The double-four energy. The ‘I have done this once and now I am doing it BETTER’ energy.”
[Gestures emphatically]
“In Germany we do not mess around with birthdays. We do not wish you happy birthday BEFORE the day — this is verboten, this brings the bad luck, everyone knows this. But TODAY? Today I can unleash upon you the full birthday cannon. BOOM. Happy birthday. BOOM. Many returns. BOOM. May your year be filled with excellent bread, suspiciously punctual trains, and at least ONE argument about whether it is ‘das’ or ‘die.'”
[Warm close]
“Andrea — you are forty-four, you are German, you are FANTASTIC. Go eat some cake. Eat it with a fork AND a knife, like a civilized person. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, my friend! Tschüss!”
[Waves, possibly a small dance move, out]
