The Proposal

I proposed. I did the thing you don't dream of doing when you’re a little girl. When you imagine that some guy (by some guy, I mean THE guy of your dreams) rides in on a horse, jumps off with ease on to one knee, pulls out a very large diamond and utters those 4 words you can't wait to hear, "Will you marry me?". You explode from the inside out, YES!

On the day of the Leap Year 2012 I was enjoying a coffee whilst watching 'This Morning' - as you do - and something came over me, so much so I had to text a friend just to check I had not lost the plot. I had a sudden urge to propose to my boyfriend of nearly 2 years. Everyone was obviously talking about the women proposing on this day, but i never thought that I would have been one of them! We live together and have a cracking baby boy so it seemed like a done deal. With complete excitement and joy,  you know like the feeling you get when you can finally fit back into those favourite pair of jeans, after losing that 5lb you have been fighting to get rid of for months, I scooped my son into the buggy and scurried into town after shouting up the stairs "Just popping into town babe, won’t be long. He (the guy this was all about) was working from home today. Anyway, out the door we flew. Right, I had a plan! The walk gave me time to figure out how the hell I was going to pop the question. Both of us being songwriters, this had to be a factor SO I found some luggage tags. £1.00 - spot on, thank you Wilkinsons. I then bought a fancy fountain pen. I had not used one of those since school but thought I best make the effort if I want him to say yes. We hiked up the hill home, sweating with this nervous feeling building in the pit of my belly. We got back and we sat, my little man just looking at me wandering why I was acting so skittish. "Right mate, here we go" I said. I wrote a 5 part poem on to 5 luggage tags which included 5 clues of where to find the next. I crept around the house, as fast as possible. He could come down at any minute to make a coffee and then the whole thing could have been blown. I decided it was only right for our little cracker to be involved in some way so he was going to have the last tag and we were going wait in his bedroom for Daddy to find us.

It was done, my mission was complete and upstairs working away he had no idea what was to happen. By this time I felt sick, sick as a dog. I had performed on stage countless times, I had been in some nerve racking situations - but this, this was up there, top of the list. I slowly walked to the top of the stairs and stopped. "WHAT the hell am I doing?" I thought to myself, I was shaking. "Jesus - if this is how they feel having to propose, I feel for them, I really do, never again"... well that being the plan anyway… obviously. I knocked on the door, "Babe?" I said in an overly pleasant tone. "Yeah?" he said. Walking into his office I am convinced I looked red faced, I felt clammy as hell "Um... what you doing?" Obviously I knew what he was doing, working! What did I say that for?! "Babe, I am working" he replies like ‘what you think I am doing’. "oh ok...I am bored" - I mean god,  I sounded like a child, brilliant he was bound to say yes. How the hell was I going to get him to go down stairs? Suddenly, out of my mouth poured, "Look, I have done something...it's something downstairs like a game, go...go and see it". What a stumbling idiot I had become. I literally couldn't believe what I was doing and for that moment I wanted to run out of the room and rip to shreds every single tag in an instant because he was going to think I was proper stupid. Never so desperately had I wanted to stop something from happening like i did this. He looked at me, "Ok, that's weird but, oh ok". OH NO! He was not happy; he knew exactly what was going on. I could see it on his face, he was horrified! That's what I was thinking anyway. What could I do? What could I do?! My little one was looking at me like I had gone mad and for that moment I probably had a bit. I dived into our little ones’ room with him in my arms. I could hear him downstairs, finding each and every clue thinking holy crap! My heart was literally pounding and I thought I was going to be sick, right there on the bedroom floor. Monkey had the last tag - brilliant it was in his mouth! Slightly chewed up, ink running down his chin. Then at that moment he entered the room. "HELP" I screamed from inside, although what I said is, in a sheepish voice "surprise" (imagine jazz hands at this point, it was cringe). He read the last tag which said something like... Daddy, will you marry Mummy? Damn it, I said surprise too early, I thought but anyhow... "Yes" - Sorry what did he just say? "Yes, I will marry you". Really? Bloody hell, he just said yes and he looks like he genuinely means it, I think i looked stunned. - Jesus, I am engaged, we are engaged I thought to myself. I was shaking in my socks by this point. Wow, thinking about it now that was probably the most horrendous experience of my life, BUT the most brilliant outcome of course.

He seemed really chuffed, to the point where he opened a bottle of champagne we had been saving for something that would probably never happen. He called his family and they seemed equally as happy. Yay, I did it! I think one of the things I was most worried about was that he was going to feel like less of a 'bloke' because I, the female had proposed, but actually, he didn't. I think he was happy I had saved him the job and yeah, now I know why! 

This was the beginning of my adventure, how did it start out for you?