So what was my evil plan? Well for those of you not in the know you might want to sit down for this one. On Thursday (30/9/2004) at about 1:30pm I decided to propose to annaish. Now that all sounds nice and easy but annaish happened to be in Sydney and frankly I’ve never been one for waiting around. Now given I’m not the kind of guy to do things by halves, an over the phone proposal was out of the question so there was only one thing for it…pay her a visit.
Of course this wasn’t without its own complications, after all annaish was only going to be in Sydney until the following Monday (4/10/2004) and here I am expecting to get air tickets on Thursday for the very next morning. So I check out the house of travel website and after a few clicks bingo I had tickets to Sydney (departing at 6:15am the next day) and back for a nice price that wasn’t going to cost me my kidneys.
By now its 2:30pm and I need a ring or this proposal just isn’t gonna fly. At this point I’m thinking I might be in trouble, I have two and a half hours until the stores close and I need to find a ring that fits (or can be sized in that time) that annaish will love and cherish for the rest of her life. So I run into a store that has had a very good run out of me and frankly owes me a few favours, and screamed help!. Within ten minutes I spotted the ring I knew annaish would love and sure enough with a little pressure the store had it resized to annaishes tiny little fingers by 5pm. So with air tickets and ring in hand I rush home and pack for my trip, eagerly anticipating my departure.
The next morning I get up at 4am (ouch) to head off to the airport after not sleeping a wink due to excess excitement. After the usually airport security checks and what not I was on my plane and charging off to Australia with a sleepy grin on my face. The flight was a long one (5 hours when it’s normally only 3) due to a head wind and crappy weather in Sydney but not surprisingly I didn’t really care I was so excited. Anyway because I was only there for the weekend it meant that I could pack very light, I only had one backpack which I carried on the plane so I didn’t have to wait around for baggage.
So now in Sydney, I headed to the train station and purchased a ticket to the station by annaishes families home. Once on the train I started my text messaging to annaish to lay what I called “the proposal trap” the plan was simple, text her to find out where she was and get her to text me when she was home so I could “call her”. So by now I know where she is and I’m getting off the train by her parents home. Just across the street from her parents apartment is a huge mall so I decide to take refuge from the weather there while she was on her way back to the house.
After a quick bite to eat I got a text saying she was home and I could call now. So I replied to say “I’ll call in 10 minutes” and headed off to get the job done. As I’m approaching the entrance of apartment building I realised that I needed a key card to get into the building (I was beginning to think I was in some kind of roll playing game). Luckily for me an older lady that lives in the building (you know who you are) was on her way home and after a quick explanation of what I was going to do, she was more than happy to let me in (so FYI if you ever want to break in anywhere just say your getting engaged and people will open the door for you). So up to the top floor I go and there I am standing in front of the door. At this point I felt like ten million dollars and a bag a sugar. So I knock on the door and after a brief delay annaishes head pops out from behind the door with a slightly frightened and shocked looking face. She looked up at me as if to say, wait a minute you look like glen but you can’t be glen, glens in New Zealand. After the initial shock for her died down I asked the big question to which she replied to an even greater degree of shock, crying, kisses, and hugs followed by (once she regained the ability to speak) a yes.
So all and all the plan went off very well (couldn’t have gone better really) and we are looking at getting married some time next year (on a date yet to be announced) most likely in Sydney. Anyway its now after 2 am and while I still have more to tell of this I also require copious amounts of sleep after a very busy 4 days away.