08/05/08
From Vacant to Engaged -
Categories: ...aka Ageing, part 5 (at least - even my 'ageing' blogs are getting old - blimey). The radio silence in blogland is cos I proposed on the weekend, and she said yes, so I am now an engaged man...
So, the inevitable questions of how, where, why, etc. Well the short answer is Dartmoor, on top of a waterfall. The only slightly less short answer is that Zoe took me away for a mystery surprise weekend (only slightly given away when she said two days before we went, "Don't worry if you don't get time to buy wellies before we go - you can get some in Devon." Ah. But still, the rest was a surprise, and indeed it's Britain's best kept secret. The little farmland area between Dartmouth and Salcome - I recommend it to everyone. We stayed in one of a lovely row of cottages on a converted farm, which now houses a swimming-pool, sauna, jacuzzi, tennis court, full-size snooker table, games room with x-box, table-tennis, table-football, 200 DVDs, and each cottage with a full kitchen, log-fire, TV, Sky, DVD player, free wifi, yet all also beamed and old-fashioned and homely and beautiful. Plus it's wonderful scenery, the beach is 10min walk away, you can cycle a-plenty (and we did), and there are really really excellent restaurants and pubs in neighbouring villages. What more could you ask for from a holiday destination?
Oh yes, nice weather. Well we had that too, so ha. On Saturday we decided to make the most of the nice weather and visit Castle Drogo on Dartmoor, just cos it sounds so sinister and we wanted to see if there be dragons. We also thought we'd take in Canonteign Falls - England's tallest waterfall, so we reached there, paid our £5.80 each to climb the falls, and atop it, I proposed. For me of course though, I can't resist doing something a little different, so I did it via a magic trick. I forced two cards on her (that's magician talk - there was no physical forcing of anything, I'm delighted to say, as that is less than romantic), so she thought she'd picked two random cards: the 2 of Hearts and the Ace of Diamonds. I got her to shut her eyes and convert those cards into a number and a suit, ie. 2 hearts and 1 diamond. She opened her eyes, and there was the diamond, there were 2 hearts (living in just one mind), me on one knee and all around were tourists chucking up at what they'd just seen. Well tough, it's our moment.
Anyway, she said yes, so woohoo. We clambered down the waterfall (I'll put some piccies up on facebook of the view from there), and sadly forewent Castle Drogo, in favour of finding a pub for a stiff drink. We found this pub in the middle of Dartmoor, in Widecombe-on-the-Moor. Middle of nowhere, and in that pub, who should we see, but comedian Gareth Richards. "On my way to a gig in Plymouth", he said. I think he's stalking me. Last time I saw him he was sat behind me in Odeon Guildford, and he doesn't even live in Guildford. I'm getting suspicious. If he turns up at the wedding and yells out that he loves me when the vicar asks if anyone knows any reason, etc etc, then I won't be surprised.
Oh yeah. The wedding. I'd fotgotten that's what happens after proposals. Well by dinner on Saturday evening, at a lovely Thai restaurant in Dartmouth, we'd decided on everything from who's doing the readings to what sort of car takes her to church. But that's all to be rethought, altered and debated further over the next year (for twill be about a year till any knot-tying), cos otherwise what else are we going to talk about?
Facebook have already started their 'targetted advertising' (that's why you've been getting adverts about bands you like recently), and as soon as I changed from 'In A Relationship' to 'Engaged', I'm being bombarded with ads for wedding photographers or strippers for stag dos (alright, just the former). And speaking of Facebook, did anyone notice that my status all last week was 'Paul is vacant'. Twas meant to be clever, ie. that I could change it to 'Paul is engaged'. Vacant? Engaged? Geddit? Yeah, no one else did - it turns out no one checks my status. Pah. I feel unloved. Except the opposite.
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