What a week!

I know I’ve been back from holiday for a few days, but I have had neither the time nor the internet to get an appropriate blog out for you all to read! Some of my most loyal readers (heh hem…Mallory) have made it clear a blog is long past due. So, I am writing this one at work while I am supposed to be doing reports, but it can’t wait any longer!

I’ll tell you the happenings as of late in reverse chronological order since I want to save the best for last. Last night despite being exhausted, cranky, not unpacked from the move, AND there being a tube strike, Barret took me to see Mamma Mia on stage for my birthday. I loved it! My favourite stage presentation has to be Les Miserables, but Mamma Mia is a very close second, nearly tied for first! I even think Barret enjoyed himself because he didn’t fall asleep and I felt his toes tapping the whole way through. Thank you for taking me B (oh, and don’t worry as soon as we have our internet up and running I will be downloading ALL the ABBA songs so you can sing along!).

The reason Barret got tickets for last night rather than Tuesday, my actual birthday, was because of the move from the ghetto to our new flat. I had to work Tuesday afternoon, Blair had to work the whole day, and we didn’t get our keys until 10am, so guess who did most of the work, carrying bags on the tube…Barret. We moved as much as we could together and while I was at work he moved even more AND cleaned our old flat! Vacuumed, dusted, cleaned the kitchen, just went all out! I am so impressed by him and thankful for his hard work and I want him to know how sweet he is. Thank you Barret. The new flat is nowhere near unpacked still – all of us have been working or singing ABBA songs that we haven’t gotten to it yet. Tonight we are going to play dodgeball with some people from our softball team, so again, nothing is going to get done! This weekend is dedicated to unpacking!

Sunday night we made it back from our AMAZING trip to the Canary Islands. Barely, however, as our flight into Madrid from Tenerife was delayed and our connecting flight was due to take off 15 minutes after we landed and we still had to go through passport control… but shockingly, Iberia Airlines figured out a system to get all the Brits back to London by having the planes next to each other at the gates and setting up passport control right there! We were so thankful for that…otherwise we would have likely spent the night in Madrid and with the hectic week we’ve already had that was the last thing we needed. Anyway, our trip was fantastic! It was incredibly relaxing. The scenery was stunning, the weather was beautiful, and the company was ideal. I have never had a vacation that was so posh! We didn’t do too much, other than getting a massage at the spa, swimming, reading in the sun, playing Frisbee, going for walks, bike riding, or just enjoying our posh hotel! I really didn’t know what Tenerife looked like and to be honest I was expecting something quite like the Caribbean. Most definitely not – Tenerife is based on a dormant volcano so it’s quite rocky and very mountainous. The sand on the beaches blows in across the sea from the Sahara desert and mixes with the volcanic sand. That dormant volcano is located in Teide National Park and I really wanted to go up! We had missed out on tours; however, we decided that renting a car was a good option. Well – I know Barret is a good driver, but I trusted my life in his hands while we were driving up those steep, narrow, windy roads with cliff edges dropping off the side! It was quite scary to be honest – but somehow we made it to the top without an accident or without me barfing! (which I thought was imminent!). When we got as far as we could by car we took a cable car up to the top of the volcano and got to get out and walk around. I have never seen anything like that on earth in my entire life! I felt like I was either on Mars or in Mordor (from the Lord of the Rings). It was so crazy! Also, the temperature at our resort on the water was 27 degrees, however, up 3700 meters the temperature had dropped considerably to 5 degrees! I wouldn’t have been surprised to see snow. I froze my self nearly to death and a nice French lady let me borrow her scarf. I felt like the most unseasoned tourist known to man… live and learn I guess.

I guess that covers just about everything over the last week or so! Oh wait… one more thing I nearly forgot to tell you all.

BARRET PROPOSED!

The answer was YES! I could write an entire blog about this but I know I don’t have the time…so I will just do my best to give you the romantic details! Firstly, Barret booked the whole trip himself through an agent so that everything went smoothly (which it did!) and had been planning it for two months! Even the girl from the travel agency knew… Anyway, I’d sort of recognized that his head was in the clouds all day on ithe second day of our trip. He seemed very distracted but I thought he was just tired of laying around reading and relaxing (which is very possible since I think he has ADD sometimes). He wanted to go for a walk around sunset, maybe find somewhere nice to eat. As the sun was setting we went out onto a rocky pier and he told me how much I meant to him and he got down on one knee and opened a beautiful box with a STUNNING diamond ring inside! I don’t think I answered properly at all; I was too excited and shaky! He didn’t put the ring on my finger because we were both shaking too much it likely would have fallen to the sea through the rocks and we’d spend the rest of our vacation snorkeling…! However, we got off the pier and I slipped on the perfectly fitting 1.22 karat diamond ring and off we went – newly engaged! WELL – that little sneak – he has had that ring since we left Canada! We had sort of been looking in NB and he took me to a shop that custom makes rings and saw all kinds of beautiful, unique rings. I saw one immediately that I loved, but could picture it with a few adjustments. We left the shop never to return, but I had a glimmer of hope he might have been listening to me and would go back to get it. WELL – again, that little sneak – once we had left NB and were in Halifax about to fly back to London he said something about me never finding a ring I liked and how I’d be impossible to please – I looked at him and said “whaaaaaaat? But, that ring…that we saw…at that shop…you know the one…” and he said “what shop? Really? You liked that one? Oh Amy, I’m sorry…I didn’t know you liked it that much”. On the outside I had played it cool – on the inside I though “you IDIOT! Was I supposed to write it on your forehead!?” Look who the idiot is now! Anyway, well played Barret. Another sneaky move was the way he got it back to London without me having the SLIGHTEST clue. His great Aunt and Uncle had picked up the ring for him on the day before we left. They had WRAPPED it in a box in Christmas paper saying we couldn’t open it until Christmas day! I was so excited for a Christmas present… I had NO CLUE. Completely and utterly clueless. Again, well played Barret.

We are hoping we can have this wedding next August – but obviously that is so dependent on the venue. THAT is the problem. Barret being from New Brunswick and me being from Ontario doesn’t really help for picking a place that’s convenient for everyone and since we don’t really have a lot of history in Canada we don’t have any places that are special…SO - any ideas are welcome!!

Well, since I’ve spent my report writing time on blogging I’d better get going! Thanks to all of you who already know for the congrats and good wishes – we appreciate it so much!

My love to you all

Amy (future surname: Williams)