Full Story
So the full story goes a little something like this:
Through some strange miracle some time in the last 12 months (the more I think about it Kirst, the longer ago I think it was… so as per usual you were probably right! ANYWAYS!) I managed to drag Kirst into a jewellers to try and get a vague idea of what sort of ring she’d be into if we ever did decide to get engaged. At this stage I had been planning on asking her to marry me for like AAAAAGES… in fact it was actually one of the first things on my mind when I started earning a real income in June last year.
So anyways… a period of time somewhere between a few months and a year later… It’s my 30th Birthday, so Kirst says we should go out to dinner or something. This starts the cogs churning.
Monday: I look up the website of the jeweller, find the ring in the latest mailer and order it for pick up Friday. DONE. I’m thinking take her out to dinner at a restaurant/hotel, propose and then stay the night. (Sounds pretty cut and dry when you say it like that!)
Tuesday: I get hold of Mum (chief babysitter). Unfortunately she was going away for the weekend to Taupo. And lil’ blister Rucky? The ONE weekend she didn’t come home from Welly. ERRRRG.
Wednesday: Revise the plan. It’ll be dinner. Contact Tabitha to beg for her to babysit. She says yes. Kirsty revises the plan saying that if we don’t have a babysitter maybe we can do lunch instead. Nooooooooo! I figure we can do both. We’ll do lunch then I’ll surprise her at the last minute with dinner.
Thursday: I’m a traditional sort of guy, and whilst Kirst is big enough to make her own decisions, getting her family’s blessing is really important to me. Try all day to email or call Cherie (Kirsts Mum) in Oz. Get basically the whole family involved in helping me out. Her email bounced back to me, so I try to get hold of Jaimee (Kirst’s Sister in Law) via email and text. Sit back and wait for a reply from Jaimee. Stop by Neils office (that’s Kirsts Dad) on the way back home to ask for his blessing. Neil falls off chair. (Well… nearly!) Get home to find email from Jaimee who isn’t completely in the loop, so is busting her nut to find out what I want to contact Cherie so desperately for. I fwd my earlier email onto Cherie & partner Lance. Go to ATC. Explain to Tabitha WHY it means so much to me that she said she’d babysit by showing her a picture cut out of the brochure. She squeals. On the way home from ATC we get a phone call from Oz. They read the email and called to give me their blessing. I talk to them on the pretence that they had called for my birthday. All goes well til I say to Cherie “thanks for the Pressie”, to which she replies “what pressie?” As quietly as possible I have to say “the birthday pressie!” so Kirst won’t hear. She didn’t.
Friday: Kirsty makes an aside comment that she might be going to Amanda’s (her workmate) place to help her daughter with her hair for her school ball saturday night. EEEK! I call Amanda at work but Kirst answers. “Errrr… wrong number… sorry!” *click* I call back and ask… I mean… I TELL Amanda under NO circumstances is she to call Kirst on Saturday night. She want’s to know why. I avoid the question. Pick up the ring shortly afterwards. Suddenly occurs to me as I’m climbing into the migthy ‘Rolla that the ring is worth more than my car. Go to Homeworx for a few hours work. Share the news with Mad Aunty Sharon. Not squealing but still totally stoked. Drop by Taylahs school (it’s a Dad weekend) on the way home to ask her if it’s okay for me to ask her mum to marry me. With big wide eyes, all I get is a nod of the head as she’s too stunned for words. Suddenly realise I’m going to look like a dick if Kirst says no as EVERYONE else seems to know already. Friday night we can’t get a booking for lunch at the place we wanted to go to, so I admit that I’ve secretly booked dinner and that Tabitha is baby sitting.
Saturday: Nervous as hell and fighting an urge to just whip out the ring and propose as Kirst slouches around home in her trackies and holey school leavers shirt. Romantic ++. We have a discussion (following Nath & Anita being TOTALLY on to me earlier in the week) about what would happen if I did ask her to marry me. I told her I reckoned she’d something uber romantic like “Oh yeah… I suppose so”. Tabitha arrives, we’re nearly ready. Phone rings.
“It’s Lance. How’d it go?”
“Give me another three hours!”
“Oh. We thought you we’re asking at lunch. Talk to you tomorrow” *click*
Kirst: “Who was that?”
“Um… my… uh…. Dad. Talking about catching up tomorrow. Telling me it’s okay to drag Dan in for dinner at his.”
“Oh okay”. *sweat bricks*
So back into realtime instead of rushed summary: Somehow we manage to get out the door with only a few questions regarding where we were going. As we headed out the other end of Havelock she figured it was a winery. Yes. It was. Only the best Winery around – or so I was told! So we pull up at Craggy Range and head in for dinner.
I have to pause here and say that whilst I spent probably 3x more than what I have ever spent on a meal for two, it was worth EVERY penny. If you can spare the cash, I FULLY recommend it. You will not regret it. I certainly don’t! Fantastic meal, service over and above and all in all a very A grade environment.
Anyhoo… with our $9.50 bottle of sparkling water we began the evening. The waitress replaced our ordinary glasses with glasses made for bubbly water – didn’t know there was a difference but apparently there is! She asked what wine we’d like and then when asked for her suggestion, matched them to what mains we were thinking of having. Kirst had a $20 glass of Merlot, I a $15 glass of Syrah (Sa-rye-ah). Once again… worth every penny.
Without taking out a tacky notepad the waitress also asked if we wanted entrees, to which we agreed to share an entree of scallops. I was concerned about eating too much and not having room for the yummy looking desserts! They broke the entree up onto two plates to stop us fighting over them (how well did this woman know us??? heheh) but in hindsight we shoulda had an entree each! They were delicious!!
Kirst had a rack of lamb and I a big fat juicy steak… which while being a little tough to cut was waaaaaay tasty and cooked to perfection. Probably the first time I’ve had a medium-rare actually served medium-rare. We ordered White chocolate & banana pies with hot choc fudge sauce for dessert and were talked into sipping a $9 a glass dessert wine – not that either of us are really into stickys, just that the waitress could sell ice to the eskimos (‘scuse the cliche). TOTALLY in keeping with the rest of the meal. DELICIOUS! I’ve only highlighted the prices of the wine to point out that it was obvious that THIS was where they made their money – on a reputation well earned for top quality wines.
So about now I started realising that I was running out of time. Somehow I got the box out of my pocket and put it on my knee. As I held her hand across the table (Wow… Kirst does PDA… weird!), she asked why I was shaking so much and started eyeing me suspiciously. I mumbled something about caffeine withdrawal – which she didn’t believe for a second. I looked around at the number of people there – and moreso the two people she knew through work sitting behind her – and thought it would be inappropriate to ask her there. So on our way outside, we detoured to the cellar door and under cover of the entrance way we had a conversation something like:
Me: “Well that was a perfect night”
“Yeah”
“There’s only thing that would make it more perfect” (pulling her in for a big hug). “You know I love you more than anything in the world right?” (She starts looking at me with a nervous grin on her face as if to say “where the hell is this going?”). “So I’d like to know …” (Getting out the ring and getting down on bended knee) “…if you’d do me the honour of being my wife”
“You wanker”
Giggles of nervous laughter from me
“You wanker!”
At this point I got up and said “So?” to which she replies, with a twinkle in her eye “Oh yeah… I suppose so”.
I slipped the ring on her finger and that was that.
Now I’m the luckiest AND the happiest guy in the world! TIme to start the planning!!
24
Jul
aawww bren u big romantic thing you *blubs away*
kirsty is a lucky lady!!
Gosh Bren you forgot to mention that you rang a good friend of Kirsty’s and threatened her! Kirsty had offered to help this unimportant persons daughter get ready for her 7th form ball on the Saturday night!!!!!!
Check the edit
Thanks I feel vindicated!
Congratumalations Mr Moon……you have refreshed my faith in the male of the species!! You old romantic, you ;o)