Not quite the whole truth - take two

---

Well, we are finally home, and have hit the ground running. We have decided that rent is too expensive in Canberra so have settled in to live with Mum until we can find a house to buy. Please all keep your fingers crossed for us - we hope that we have found one and will be putting in an offer during the week 😊

Now, I need to apologise, as there were two quite special occasions on our traveling adventure that I ommitted to include in the travel blogs... Llandudno, Wales and Antwerp, Belgium.

It was just after we had left Ali and Jan in Stratford upon Avon that Joel and I continued on our road trip up to the beach town of Llandudno in north Wales. It was beautiful, the sun had decided to come out, the weather was warm and there was a long beach with a pier/boardwalk to walk down jutting well into the ocean. There were also cliffs wrapping around from the edge of town with a cable car taking sightseers up to the top for spectacular views.

After climbing half way up the edge of the cliff, wondering if it was worth the hike, we got to the base of the cable car. With just the two of us sitting in the windowless cable car, everything was very peaceful, although we were a little concerned about the strong winds and rocking... it was quite a drop down to the ground. But all ended well, we got to the top and the views were just as good as we were promised.

Being so pretty, we stayed at the top of the cliffs for as long as we could without risking missing the last cable car down. But eventually we had to climb back into the car, steeling ourselves for another blowy ride down. As always with cable cars, the view down was that little more spectacular but Joel didn’t seem too interested in watching the views. He reached out, steadied himself against the edge of the cable car and got down onto one knee and with a little shake in his voice - yours would be too you if you were not sitting properly in a rocking cable car - he asked me if I would be his wife. Now as I am writing this with such a delay, you would be forgiven for thinking I said I would think about it... but I didn’t, as I didn’t need to. I said yes.

So with a newly loved up feeling, we got to the bottom of the cable car and headed out for a lovely celebratory dinner on the water’s edge.

And now we come to the second exciting daytrip that was not included in the travelblog, our trip to Antwerp in Belgium. The city of Antwerp has grown around its history as the diamond capital of the world, with over 70 per cent of the world's diamonds being traded through Antwerp at some stage of its life. We were like kids in a candy store. Having done some research we had decided on going to Diamondland (fitting name) as they had a special accommodation package and can design and make any ring your heart desires 😊

So... we arrived in Antwerp in the evening, had a celebratory dinner watching the sunset, and got ourselves well rested and ready for a shopping spree. This was also where we had a little bit of a heart stopping moment, when I was wearing a ring with an unset diamond sitting in the top, just to get a feel for what the setting could look like. We got talking about the different settings, the different stone cuts and the pre-set rings they had available... and then our coffees were delivered to keep us perky. So of course, I pick up the milk sachet and stir it into the coffee... and that is when I remember the unset stone... which of course is no longer in the ring. OMG!!!!!! Where did it go?!?!? Is it in the coffee... is it on the bench... is it on the floor... did it fall into the bag by my feet... OMG!!!!!!

To her credit, the lady who was helping us, didn’t miss a beat. She just came around, and we were all on our hands a knees before Joel found it tucked into the carpet edge. She sighed and said "thank goodness, I was worried I'd have to keep you hostage!!".

So after that little drama, we kept coming back to the first ring that I tried on, and decided that was the perfect one. And then we moved on to the wedding bands that could fit in snuggly with my new ring. Which was when Joel's attention was diverted by a few of the rings with bling too... now if I was going to be getting a pretty ring, it only seemed fair that he got one too... so he did 😊

Now to everyone we have visited on our trip after that and everyone we have caught up with since coming home, please don’t get cross, we so wanted to share our happy news, but thought it best to wait til the rings were delivered (as we got them to hold them in the safe as our travel insurance wouldn’t come close to covering them!!) and were able to show them off 😊 We have also had to keep our secret for a little longer as well, as the rings were only delivered this week...

So we had another celebratory night out last night (Saturday) a good excuse for yummy cocktails and sushi 😊 Well. That was what we thought we would do. The rings were delivered to my office on Thursday afternoon, luckily in quite a large box so no one was any the wiser as to what might be inside. We decided that having waited this long, we could wait a few more days, and organised to go out on a "date" on saturday night, to our favourite cocktail bar where we would open the boxes and then celebrate with dinner at our favourite restaurant.

All was going to plan. We opened the FedEx box, and found a securely sealed plastic security bag, containing another box. So we tore into that, and found the second box was wrapped in 3m of industrial sticky tape, so we broke into that as well. Only to find another industrial strength sealed plastic bag that needed opening. Finally we got to the goodies. Two lovely ring boxes and a thoughtful bag of Belgian chocolates. We carefully put the chocolates aside, snuck the boxes into my hand bag, tidied up and went to find Mum who (remember we're living with 😊 had offered to give us a lift on our date.

Smooth. We were out at the cocktail bar, having just ordered our favourites (black forest martinis in case you are interested) and we pulled out the boxes. One big one for me (I got 2 rings) and a slightly smaller one for Joel (he's a boy, he only got one). So I picked up his box, took a peek that it was the right way up, told him I loved him and opened it with grand style... the empty box. OMG!!!!!! After a moment of shock, Joel told me to grab the other box that is supposed to have two rings... empty!!!! OMG!!!!! What has happened to our rings?!?!?!?! The lady in Antwerp had been emailing us and confirming everything was sent and even asked that I contact her when they arrive so that we all know things are safe through the international post. OMG!!!! We can’t have been scammed!!!! Surely!!! OMG!!!!!!

So we just sat there in the cocktail bar in a little bit of shock. Very nicely Joel leaned over and hugged me and said "its ok, we still have each other"... hmmm... all the while we were both thinking that it was not ok, we wanted our rings! We decided that the only thing we could do was to get into a cab and go home and search through the box and just believe that we had just missed them somewhere... but where else would they be other than in the ring boxes?!?!!?!?

In the cab on the way home, barely half an hour after Mum had dropped us out, we tried to come up with a reason why we were home so soon... I had left my wallet at home... hmmm, anyone that knows me knows I check my wallet 5 times before I leave, but it was the best we had. Luckily she was on the phone when we ran in the door, and tried to maintain her conversation while we ran like a mad pair into the bedroom and searched through the box... and decided to look inside the bag of lovely Belgian chocolates. Which, in fact, weren't chocolates at all, but three beautiful rings in deep blue velvet bags, ready for us to put into the ring boxes.

So with a relieved, still in shock, laugh we tried them on, to make sure they were as beautiful as we remembered (they were) and went out to share our exciting news, and funny story with Mum. Who of course, once we celebrated shuffled us out the door for the second time that night and drove us into the city to re-start our romantic date.

So that is our little story. We have included some photos here, but I hope we will catch up with everyone very soon (even those overseas... although it could be a few years til our next trip!) to show the sparkle and ask for forgiveness in us keeping our secret.

Steph and Joel xxoo


PS sorry, this is the second time I've tried to send the blog... something went wrong the first time... please try to scroll through the the "previous blog" to see the photos...
<hr class="divider_hr clear" />

---