A star lit story

Posted on Mon 16 March 2009 by alex in general

Fliss is a tricky person to deceive. Much as she loves surprises the knowledge that something is going on she’s not aware of drives her crazy. A few months ago I obliquely mentioned a “top secret project” taking up a few hours of my visit into town. The result was a torrent of requests asking what it was and more than the occasional sulk at my intransigence in sticking to the dictionary definition of secret. Had I know I would have kept my mouth shut or lied about something else taking longer than it actually had. That leads me to the second dilemma that I’m not a very good liar and after these three-ish years of being together she is pretty good at reading my responses.

The top secret project I’d alluded to was the sourcing of an engagement ring with which to propose marriage. A number of people have probably heard me witter at them about the angst of choice and the pros and cons of going with a ring that had tacit prior approval or making it a genuine surprise. In the end I went for an original design and hoped my tastes and sensibilities when it came to selecting rings are not related to my fashion sense.

Getting the ring to Australia proved a whole extra level of hoops including getting the ring through customs where I had declared I was bringing “things” over the value of 900 dollars into the country. Fortunately taking the customs man to one side and whispering my intentions in his ear didn’t arose any suspicions as both our minds were fairly befuddled from 24 hours of travel. However as our luggage was going to be mixed for the trip to Lindman Island I handed over ring bearer duties to Fliss’ Dad’s wife Lucia. I was able to sneak it to the hotel reception and get it stored in the hotel safe. This was fortunate as Fliss had reported her disappointment to Lucia that there wasn’t anything special in the safe in our room!

The final stages were wonderfully managed by the hotel. Last night having implied we had booked into the restaurant for a change from the usual uber-buffet downstairs I led Fliss up the hill under a starry starry night. She had just started to wonder why the lights to the restaurant were off when our Chef* Matty appeared and led us to the table for two set up on the veranda. After the first two starters had passed by with Fliss complimenting me on my romantic streak the “3rd course” arrived and I took the traditional position and asked Fliss if she would become my wife. I am both fortunate and very privileged that she agreed to my request. We enjoyed the rest of 5 courses washed down with a little Moet while listening to the local wildlife and watching the stars.

* When I say our chef the emphasis is on the exclusivity. Basically Matty had his chef’s table set up a few feet away and quietly prepared food just for us the whole evening. The food was fantastic by the way ;-)