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same_differenceSo I'm sure almost everyone should know as of Sunday the 15th Rachael and I are engaged.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while. Definitely not a snap decision. Partly this was about making sure for myself how I felt, and partly this was due to experience in the last long term relationship I had. What that was like at the time, and how that ended made me much more cautious generally. Which is certainly not a bad thing. I've been together with Rachael for a little over four and a half years now, I've lived with her for more than half of that and she was with me, supporting me and assisting me through the whole house renovation process and everything that's followed. So yeah by early this year I was definitely certain about her.
The original plan was to take Rachael on a steam train journey (as she likes trains) and then ask at an appropriate moment; though I don't know exactly when I decided that. At one point I was hoping to get one sorted around my birthday, and mentioned to Rachael around the time, that a steam train journey on my birthday would be good. She had other plans (taking me to see Dara O'Brien Live), but the idea had been planted which gave me reason to organise a steam train ride without her getting too suspicious. Time passed, job hunting becomes a distraction, then becomes successful, and then Rachael finds an advert for a steam train ride in the Chronicle. Excellent.
So I investigate the Torbay Express, find it has the option of a first class table for two ticket (that comes with free tea, coffee and a cream tea), and book it for the 15th July. So having sorted the date, next up is the ring. I'd given Rachael the choice of either us going to buy the ring together, or my surprising her, a couple of months before. She went for the later, and so as she hadn't worn rings up that point I asked her to get me a few ideas of roughly the sort of thing she liked. I knew I wanted to get her a mix of amethyst and sapphire (the former purple, the latter her birth stone), and that she didn't like yellow gold. Online searching led me to http://www.21diamonds.co.uk/, a bit of searching and decision making later, and I ordered a ring. Except the ring was due to be delivered 3 weeks later on the 16th. I stuck a note on the order asking for it to be delivered by the 14th, and began a bit of anxious waiting.
First week passes and no update. Most of the way through week 2, and I finally get an email, "We've chosen the pearl, and will begin setting it soon". Huh?!, thinks I. There are no pearls on the ring I've ordered, so off goes an email asking for clarification and about the delivery date. Email comes back apologies for the error, and promises to get back to me once they've spoken to the jeweler. Days pass, and no reply. So it comes to the Monday before the critical Sunday, and I email again. Response comes back: sorry for not replying and for our earlier mistake, here's a discount code as an apology; I'll speak to the jeweler about delivery. Later that day I get an email saying the ring should be sent out Tuesday. Come Tuesday another email arrives and I get told it'll ship Wednesday or Thursday, but they'll send it separately from the box in order to have it arrive as soon as possible. Late Wednesday evening I get confirmation, the ring has shipped! Excellent, except Rachael will be here when the box arrives. So I tell her the night before that I've ordered something on behalf of my parents off e-bay that will be delivered tomorrow. It's a little white lie that passes relatively without comment.
So the ring arrives, in a thankfully unremarkable package, containing the ring carefully placed in two little plastic bags. I drop Rachael off for a book signing and go to deliver the package to my parents. Ring is examined and I'm happy with it, which is the first hurdle passed. With the packaging left at my parents the ring comes back with me, and is hidden in a glasses case. So no presentation box, but the important bit is acquired at least. Friday Rachael is out, I'm out, and the presentation box is delivered signed for to my house in a very blatantly branded package. Thankfully my Dad's hired someone without warning me to come and clear some building rubble and a large pallet from our garden (all a result of having our back area done). He then signs for the parcel, and drops it off at my parents. In hindsight this is the first of the fortunate unplanned events.
The day arrives and the weather promises to be good. I'm actually not that nervous. Possibly because in the morning we're just focused on getting to Temple Meads for 8:45 and the train arrives shortly after we arrive, but probably because of the way Rachael smiled the first time the whistle blew. The train takes us from Temple Meads down through to Dartmouth, following the coastal track through some very pretty countryside. Rachael spots rabbits (which make her smile), we pass many horses (which also makes her smile) and we end up practicing the royal wave (which amuses). There are four friendly, but chatty people on the table adjacent to us, and I decide that asking on the train would be too public a scene. Then the train staff hand us out a tourist guide to Dartmouth. Rachael skims through it and mentions Dartmouth has a castle and I know where I'm going to ask. Fortunate unplanned event number two.
We arrive in Dartmouth a little after midday and as we depart the train they inform us that the Royal Castle Hotel Restaurant offers a 10% discount if we show our ticket. We discuss it and decide that while we made ourselves a packed lunch, it could equally well make a packed dinner and a proper Sunday lunch sounds like an excellent idea. So we decide to check out the hotel. The menu outside seems interesting, so we head in to find they do a three course carvery on a Sunday. Choice of starters, carvery for the main and then a desert buffet to finish up. We pick a cream of tomato and smoked bacon soup to start, and it proves to be fantastic. The carvery follows and while the veg isn't entirely to our taste, the meat is gorgeous melt in the mouth perfectly tender, and portion sizes are all generous. We finish off with a divine vanilla cheesecake, and some decent strawberries. I have never had cheesecake this good before, it's light and fluffy, with proper vanilla seeds and an ideal thickness of biscuit base. We like the food so much I ask for the contact email of the chef in the hope I can try and get the recipes for the soup and the cheesecake off of him. The meal then make the third fortunate unplanned event.
Nicely full, and with a couple of hours left before we are due to depart, we take a leisurely twenty five minute walk to the castle. The castle was last rebuilt in the 19th century as a defensive measure and so the bulk of the inside is plastered walls, and a series of cannons and guns from the period. While it is largely empty, I'm very much hunting for somewhere suitable to ask, leaving Rachael wondering why I'm a bit distracted and in a bit of a rush. We make out way to the gun tower, and I brave some very narrow and steep spiral staircases* to get out to the top.
Standing together on the battlements, with Rachael staring at and photographing the view, I pull the ring out of my pocket. I'd spent a lot of the day thinking about how to ask, and so I tell her I have an ulterior motive for wanting to do this day trip as I get down on one knee. I ask the question, and everyone knows her answer now.
*which trigger my fear of heights.
It doesn't need saying but I am of course both very happy and very lucky. The day couldn't have gone better if I'd planned each detail.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while. Definitely not a snap decision. Partly this was about making sure for myself how I felt, and partly this was due to experience in the last long term relationship I had. What that was like at the time, and how that ended made me much more cautious generally. Which is certainly not a bad thing. I've been together with Rachael for a little over four and a half years now, I've lived with her for more than half of that and she was with me, supporting me and assisting me through the whole house renovation process and everything that's followed. So yeah by early this year I was definitely certain about her.
The original plan was to take Rachael on a steam train journey (as she likes trains) and then ask at an appropriate moment; though I don't know exactly when I decided that. At one point I was hoping to get one sorted around my birthday, and mentioned to Rachael around the time, that a steam train journey on my birthday would be good. She had other plans (taking me to see Dara O'Brien Live), but the idea had been planted which gave me reason to organise a steam train ride without her getting too suspicious. Time passed, job hunting becomes a distraction, then becomes successful, and then Rachael finds an advert for a steam train ride in the Chronicle. Excellent.
So I investigate the Torbay Express, find it has the option of a first class table for two ticket (that comes with free tea, coffee and a cream tea), and book it for the 15th July. So having sorted the date, next up is the ring. I'd given Rachael the choice of either us going to buy the ring together, or my surprising her, a couple of months before. She went for the later, and so as she hadn't worn rings up that point I asked her to get me a few ideas of roughly the sort of thing she liked. I knew I wanted to get her a mix of amethyst and sapphire (the former purple, the latter her birth stone), and that she didn't like yellow gold. Online searching led me to http://www.21diamonds.co.uk/, a bit of searching and decision making later, and I ordered a ring. Except the ring was due to be delivered 3 weeks later on the 16th. I stuck a note on the order asking for it to be delivered by the 14th, and began a bit of anxious waiting.
First week passes and no update. Most of the way through week 2, and I finally get an email, "We've chosen the pearl, and will begin setting it soon". Huh?!, thinks I. There are no pearls on the ring I've ordered, so off goes an email asking for clarification and about the delivery date. Email comes back apologies for the error, and promises to get back to me once they've spoken to the jeweler. Days pass, and no reply. So it comes to the Monday before the critical Sunday, and I email again. Response comes back: sorry for not replying and for our earlier mistake, here's a discount code as an apology; I'll speak to the jeweler about delivery. Later that day I get an email saying the ring should be sent out Tuesday. Come Tuesday another email arrives and I get told it'll ship Wednesday or Thursday, but they'll send it separately from the box in order to have it arrive as soon as possible. Late Wednesday evening I get confirmation, the ring has shipped! Excellent, except Rachael will be here when the box arrives. So I tell her the night before that I've ordered something on behalf of my parents off e-bay that will be delivered tomorrow. It's a little white lie that passes relatively without comment.
So the ring arrives, in a thankfully unremarkable package, containing the ring carefully placed in two little plastic bags. I drop Rachael off for a book signing and go to deliver the package to my parents. Ring is examined and I'm happy with it, which is the first hurdle passed. With the packaging left at my parents the ring comes back with me, and is hidden in a glasses case. So no presentation box, but the important bit is acquired at least. Friday Rachael is out, I'm out, and the presentation box is delivered signed for to my house in a very blatantly branded package. Thankfully my Dad's hired someone without warning me to come and clear some building rubble and a large pallet from our garden (all a result of having our back area done). He then signs for the parcel, and drops it off at my parents. In hindsight this is the first of the fortunate unplanned events.
The day arrives and the weather promises to be good. I'm actually not that nervous. Possibly because in the morning we're just focused on getting to Temple Meads for 8:45 and the train arrives shortly after we arrive, but probably because of the way Rachael smiled the first time the whistle blew. The train takes us from Temple Meads down through to Dartmouth, following the coastal track through some very pretty countryside. Rachael spots rabbits (which make her smile), we pass many horses (which also makes her smile) and we end up practicing the royal wave (which amuses). There are four friendly, but chatty people on the table adjacent to us, and I decide that asking on the train would be too public a scene. Then the train staff hand us out a tourist guide to Dartmouth. Rachael skims through it and mentions Dartmouth has a castle and I know where I'm going to ask. Fortunate unplanned event number two.
We arrive in Dartmouth a little after midday and as we depart the train they inform us that the Royal Castle Hotel Restaurant offers a 10% discount if we show our ticket. We discuss it and decide that while we made ourselves a packed lunch, it could equally well make a packed dinner and a proper Sunday lunch sounds like an excellent idea. So we decide to check out the hotel. The menu outside seems interesting, so we head in to find they do a three course carvery on a Sunday. Choice of starters, carvery for the main and then a desert buffet to finish up. We pick a cream of tomato and smoked bacon soup to start, and it proves to be fantastic. The carvery follows and while the veg isn't entirely to our taste, the meat is gorgeous melt in the mouth perfectly tender, and portion sizes are all generous. We finish off with a divine vanilla cheesecake, and some decent strawberries. I have never had cheesecake this good before, it's light and fluffy, with proper vanilla seeds and an ideal thickness of biscuit base. We like the food so much I ask for the contact email of the chef in the hope I can try and get the recipes for the soup and the cheesecake off of him. The meal then make the third fortunate unplanned event.
Nicely full, and with a couple of hours left before we are due to depart, we take a leisurely twenty five minute walk to the castle. The castle was last rebuilt in the 19th century as a defensive measure and so the bulk of the inside is plastered walls, and a series of cannons and guns from the period. While it is largely empty, I'm very much hunting for somewhere suitable to ask, leaving Rachael wondering why I'm a bit distracted and in a bit of a rush. We make out way to the gun tower, and I brave some very narrow and steep spiral staircases* to get out to the top.
Standing together on the battlements, with Rachael staring at and photographing the view, I pull the ring out of my pocket. I'd spent a lot of the day thinking about how to ask, and so I tell her I have an ulterior motive for wanting to do this day trip as I get down on one knee. I ask the question, and everyone knows her answer now.
*which trigger my fear of heights.
It doesn't need saying but I am of course both very happy and very lucky. The day couldn't have gone better if I'd planned each detail.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 02:37 pm (UTC)ALSO: congratulations.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:12 pm (UTC)And thank you!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 11:25 pm (UTC)I've been to Dartmouth Castle (an ex boyfriend used to live there) and it's lovely.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-29 06:07 pm (UTC)