I had not been posting for quite a while, but since my dear had been encouraging me to provide the male perspective of this important event, I shall not disappoint her.
I guess as a guy, universally recognised as the rationalised one =P, the entire event can be divided into the several categories listed below.
The Chosen Day:
A lot of dates were considered prior to this, including her birthday and Valentine’s Day, of which the latter was the day which I sort of confessed my feelings for my dear two years earlier. However, due to the lack of 天时地利人和 , mostly due to having arguments with her in the vicinity of these few dates, those dates did not survive to be an option. I guess I was also not prepared then.
The chosen day was actually a modification from the original intent of having it on our 2nd year anniversary, mainly due to it falling on a convenient day of a weekend. Guess being a teacher, especially a dedicated one like my dear, means that we do not really have the luxury of choosing dates, for Sunday is often utilised for lesson preparation and school stuffs. Anyway, another reason for the modification was that since my dear suggested going to the park where she fell prey to my charms, it made more sense to follow through that plan in order to keep the proposal as a surprise.
Message Board:
The idea for the message board was actually conceived in September last year. Its inspiration came from what I believed were the most unlikely candidates: students. Not my students though, but rather the form class students of my colleague sitting next to me, in the form of a teacher’s day gift. I knew that that was it from the very moment I saw it, love at first sight in its simplest form. Its “touching” effect was also very effective as evident from my colleague’s reaction.
The conventional English phrase of “Will you marry me?” is just too conventional and I guess the rebel in me became mischievous and decided to translate it han yu pin yin. It was more meaningful since my dear always corrected my han yu pin yin due to my apparent talent in pronouncing characters ending with –in and –ing or –hi and –i in exactly the same way. I guess that the effect came out quite well, as she could not guess it immediately, despite her uncanny sense of observation and deduction. Perhaps that works out to a small victory for me =)
To remain undetected and appear unsuspicious, I had to take the photos for each letter in the toilet and using some excuses which I obviously cannot remember now, since I was always accompanying her, whether in person or in the virtual world, virtually every other second.
The Flowers:
Well, girls just like flowers, no matter how much they say they do not want them. Enough said =)
Anyway, it was her favourite baby’s breath. I guess till now she is still quite amazed at the fact that baby’s breath can be made the main lead in a bouquet. Not much planning involved, just that the poor living thing had to suffer in silence in the darkness of my bag to escape detection. Till now I am still quite amazed that it did not suffer from autism. Though I suppose it would have suffered from dehydration by now.
The Ring:
I never pride myself as an online shopper, but this time I am quite proud to declare that I actually bought the ring online. I also never expect it that way, but my shyness in asking people to accompany me to the jewellers sort of steer the situation in that direction. Many days were in fact spent in understanding the 4Cs of a diamond prior to the purchase and I truly felt knowledgeable, though in the end, the specifications somehow did not matter that much. The wait for its arrival, however, was exhilarating, for the fear of the website being a con job was always on my mind. After all, it was my first time. My dear commented that it was quite bold of me to order it online. I took that as a compliment =) Anyway, it arrived safely through Fedex, my virgin experience with a courier company. Most importantly, she loves it and that was enough for me.
The Day Itself:
Well, much of it had been covered by my dear herself and I am quite glad that I managed to pull it off despite the hectic schedule and excruciating demands of school work.
Anyway, I guess that should be all. Thank you for accepting me, dear. I love you!
